I’m glad that I was able to participate in the first international closed beta test and as such, I would like to give my honest feedback based on the impressions I gained during the last days of the test.
Classes:
I like the endless possibility of choices you have when building your character. It makes the game more interesting, forces you to look into them more deeply and understand its mechanics and roles in gameplay (since this is a roleplaying game).
I became a Priest and enjoyed it. However… Clerics/Priests can’t kill flying mobs with their spells (Heal, Cure, Asperion…). I was literallly struggling to make my way through the maps, fearing that the huge amount of flying creatures chasing me would hitlock me and bring me down.
This needs to be changed. All flying mobs need to be affected by the spells of the Cleric-Class.
Graphics:
I was truly touched by the love of detail I experienced when first entering the game. The textures are feature-rich, the resolution is blade-sharp, the animations are flawless and overall make the game feel alive.
There’s one thing though. We need more consistency regarding the GUI. I’m talking about font-styles and graphical layouts. They need to look all the same to make the game more complete.
Game Content:
Quests! I love them. They sweeten up the whole game and remove the mindless grind that we know from other MMORPGs. Grinding is not bad and can be fun sometimes, but with the current EXP rates of the monsters, I had a hard time figuring out at what rate my EXP bar is growing after each kill. Quests on the other hand provided good amounts of EXP bundled with lots of fun. This should be kept as it is.
I also like the way boss fights occur. It happens when you least expect it and that’s what I truly appreciate. The best part about them is that, at least until my level which was 27, you could easily solo every boss that showed up. Thumbs up for this.
But… what I truly dislike is the usage of iCoins after death. You literally respawn at the spot with the boss-monster staying at its current state (same HP values). You can just continue damaging it until it eventually dies. If you die, just use an iCoin an there you go.
This needs to be removed from the game immediately. It’s such an unfair advantage against those that can’t afford to buy iCoins. Keep the iCoins ingame, but don’t allow them to revive you after death. It’s a game-breaker, believe me.
Connection/Server Performance:
Playing from europe I had lags occasionally but I guess that’s normal as the servers are located in the US. I was sometimes losing connection without a reason and had to relog. Ofcourse my party members disappeared after seeing that I’m offline. This needs to be fixed with high priority.
Game Client:
It looks like you can’t start the game without updating your DirectX-Version.
I guess you should include the files with the client once it goes to official release.
Otherwise you’ll have thousands of newcomers flooding your support system saying “I get an error, it says “XINPUT1_3.dll” not found. The game won’t start.”
Conclusion:
Great game with a huge potential. There’s a lot of work to be done but you guys will make it or break it eventually. If there is one hint I can give you then it is this:
Listen to your players. In the end, they are the ones who will play it.
The long-livety of a product, in this case, a MMORPG, relies on the sastisfaction of your customers.
Cheers,
Rezken