Elusiv
Member
Haven't posted in a while but figured I would post my opinion on this...
Character Creation – 7/10 – Much was as expected here. The scaler for character size didn’t seem to have much effect. Various body typing was also not very noticeable. Faces are limited to 10-14 different types but the variety in facial features is decent. There was a decent amount of flexibility for facial adjustment, coloring of skin and hair. I did feel the faces were overly round. 95% of the faces have an abnormally “beautiful” appearance with some of them crossing over into Anime quality. The story aspect of character creation is interesting and adds to the initial ownership of the toon.
Gear Look & Variety – 9/10 - Top scores for initial dying of clothing AND the ability to change the dye on any clothing at any point thereafter. You can also purchase dyes via the store for GEMS at any point (I believe they can also be made but I am not 100%). Dye colors span from common to rare, I heard there are a total of 200 total that can be had. Visually it was quite easy to distinguish myself from other players even though I might be wearing the same gear as another player.
Story/Questing – 6/10 – The arc alone looks like more of a 8/10 but I take points away for the cut scenes as I personally found them boring. This lead me to having to go back and read the quest objectives. I did not mind this…but it felt like a broken mechanic. On the flip side, I never felt like I was “grinding” content for levels.
Leveling – 10/10 – The game automatically adjusts the “effective” level of my toon to match the general area I was questing. For example, as a level 8 toon in a lower area the game made my toon an “effective” level 6. It was nice to not actually be able to steamroll everything by out scaling the level system. For the first several levels I realized I had not really even looked at the XP bar and when I did…it was only to see if the piece of gear I found was ready to be worn. The “rush” to max level was not present.
Dynamic Events – 10/10 – Whenever you are running around a message might pop up on your screen that says, “New Even Nearby”. I instantly would look at my map and run towards the Orange circle to join in the fun. Dynamic events pop up where people in the same zone try to conquer a larger objective together. No need to group or form a raid. You get xp, loot and rewards based on your contribution. Very fun. If Arenanet is able to not have entire zones clear out (do to everyone leveling en mass), they will have a real winner on their hands. The level scaling should help as your guild or friends can come to your aid and most importantly have fun! They won’t come back as an 80 1-shotting everything. The game will scale them back which makes participation in lower zone dynamic events less boring for higher levels. Not sure though if the loot tables will drop level appropriate gear though. If not, that might make it less attractive.
Skills – 8/10 – Depending on what weapons you caring, the skills available change out. I like the concept in theory but need to see it more long term. I have a feeling that there will be a tendency to swap weapons down the road with high frequency to increase DPS. If this becomes a necessity, it will get old. In the end it becomes one more button I have to smash. As long as it is not a necessary action to be competitive I think the system will work. You get 3 for main hand weapon, 2 for offhand or 5 for 2-handed weapon. There are also 5 more on the right-side…1 is your heal and then 4 more that are filled purchased by skill challenge points. Can’t comment on the skill challenge point stuff yet other then to say you complete a skill challenge and you get a Chevron. Chevrons are used to buy skills which can be added to the 4 skill slot on the right side of the screen. Additional slots are unlocked via leveling.
Traits - ?/10 – Can’t really say. I reset and messed around with them for a bit on two toons when I went to pvp (when you pvp your toon jumps to level 80 and you can play with the trait system a bit). Seems ok and what ends up happening is that you augment you skills. Think “Points here makes the healing turret more effective, lowers a cooldown or adds damage/conditions”. Reminded me of Dragon Age II skill system a little.
Profession Uniques - ?/10 – Some toons get a unique “transformation”. When they go into this form, new skills unlock momentarily. Other toons just have a unique skill (thieves get “steal” I believe which allows them to rob a mob skill and use it).
Crafting – 9/10 – Intuitive. Appears to have a broad range of craftable items. This score might change having not seen the end game crafting items. I also like how you don’t have to waste endless amounts of time forging materials. The game actually speeds up the crafting process the more units you try to make. Taking 100 leather scraps and making leather squares gets faster as you go from 1 to 100.
Commerce(Auction House) – 9/10 – It is a little clunky in beta and was buggy as all get out. But I definitely liked what I saw. Several categories letting you know what was in top demand, selling for higher prices, etc. I was able to make about 2 gold…quickly. I tried to spend about 2 hours just messing with Commerce. Watch your pockets boys and girls…I will definitely be farming the Commerce Center.
Longevity - ?/10 – We shall see. High potential in both developing and playing 1 toon AND rolling alts. At this point I feel like a re-roll would have enough of a unique experience that I would be willing to do that. This is not always the case with these games. A recent release, which shall remain nameless, feels boring as heck as I rolled my third toon to climb the level bracket.
PvP – 7/10 – Don’t bash me yet. This is only one part. The quick matches felt unbalanced and some toons felt WAY more powerful than others. I imagine this will change over time. Generally the combat had a snappy feel
WvWvW – 8/10 – Great idea that has a ton of potential. Three servers try to smash faces and rule the map. With coordination, I expect this to be loads of fun. Without coordination…your server will give up. Waypoint access was annoying and if you died far away….the walk was annoyingly long.
World/Environment – 8/10 - Love the artistic feel to everything. I paid attention to things happening in the background as I was exploring which was very interesting (towers watering the fields, combat over the hillside, etc.). The view distance is great and gives a broad expansive feel to most places. The terrain was varied and I spent time underwater as well. In general, places seemed “alive”. There were only a few times I felt like I was on an Island in a single player game. This was not simply due to the absence/presence of players; there were plenty of critters and npcs that helped bridge the gap.
Character Creation – 7/10 – Much was as expected here. The scaler for character size didn’t seem to have much effect. Various body typing was also not very noticeable. Faces are limited to 10-14 different types but the variety in facial features is decent. There was a decent amount of flexibility for facial adjustment, coloring of skin and hair. I did feel the faces were overly round. 95% of the faces have an abnormally “beautiful” appearance with some of them crossing over into Anime quality. The story aspect of character creation is interesting and adds to the initial ownership of the toon.
Gear Look & Variety – 9/10 - Top scores for initial dying of clothing AND the ability to change the dye on any clothing at any point thereafter. You can also purchase dyes via the store for GEMS at any point (I believe they can also be made but I am not 100%). Dye colors span from common to rare, I heard there are a total of 200 total that can be had. Visually it was quite easy to distinguish myself from other players even though I might be wearing the same gear as another player.
Story/Questing – 6/10 – The arc alone looks like more of a 8/10 but I take points away for the cut scenes as I personally found them boring. This lead me to having to go back and read the quest objectives. I did not mind this…but it felt like a broken mechanic. On the flip side, I never felt like I was “grinding” content for levels.
Leveling – 10/10 – The game automatically adjusts the “effective” level of my toon to match the general area I was questing. For example, as a level 8 toon in a lower area the game made my toon an “effective” level 6. It was nice to not actually be able to steamroll everything by out scaling the level system. For the first several levels I realized I had not really even looked at the XP bar and when I did…it was only to see if the piece of gear I found was ready to be worn. The “rush” to max level was not present.
Dynamic Events – 10/10 – Whenever you are running around a message might pop up on your screen that says, “New Even Nearby”. I instantly would look at my map and run towards the Orange circle to join in the fun. Dynamic events pop up where people in the same zone try to conquer a larger objective together. No need to group or form a raid. You get xp, loot and rewards based on your contribution. Very fun. If Arenanet is able to not have entire zones clear out (do to everyone leveling en mass), they will have a real winner on their hands. The level scaling should help as your guild or friends can come to your aid and most importantly have fun! They won’t come back as an 80 1-shotting everything. The game will scale them back which makes participation in lower zone dynamic events less boring for higher levels. Not sure though if the loot tables will drop level appropriate gear though. If not, that might make it less attractive.
Skills – 8/10 – Depending on what weapons you caring, the skills available change out. I like the concept in theory but need to see it more long term. I have a feeling that there will be a tendency to swap weapons down the road with high frequency to increase DPS. If this becomes a necessity, it will get old. In the end it becomes one more button I have to smash. As long as it is not a necessary action to be competitive I think the system will work. You get 3 for main hand weapon, 2 for offhand or 5 for 2-handed weapon. There are also 5 more on the right-side…1 is your heal and then 4 more that are filled purchased by skill challenge points. Can’t comment on the skill challenge point stuff yet other then to say you complete a skill challenge and you get a Chevron. Chevrons are used to buy skills which can be added to the 4 skill slot on the right side of the screen. Additional slots are unlocked via leveling.
Traits - ?/10 – Can’t really say. I reset and messed around with them for a bit on two toons when I went to pvp (when you pvp your toon jumps to level 80 and you can play with the trait system a bit). Seems ok and what ends up happening is that you augment you skills. Think “Points here makes the healing turret more effective, lowers a cooldown or adds damage/conditions”. Reminded me of Dragon Age II skill system a little.
Profession Uniques - ?/10 – Some toons get a unique “transformation”. When they go into this form, new skills unlock momentarily. Other toons just have a unique skill (thieves get “steal” I believe which allows them to rob a mob skill and use it).
Crafting – 9/10 – Intuitive. Appears to have a broad range of craftable items. This score might change having not seen the end game crafting items. I also like how you don’t have to waste endless amounts of time forging materials. The game actually speeds up the crafting process the more units you try to make. Taking 100 leather scraps and making leather squares gets faster as you go from 1 to 100.
Commerce(Auction House) – 9/10 – It is a little clunky in beta and was buggy as all get out. But I definitely liked what I saw. Several categories letting you know what was in top demand, selling for higher prices, etc. I was able to make about 2 gold…quickly. I tried to spend about 2 hours just messing with Commerce. Watch your pockets boys and girls…I will definitely be farming the Commerce Center.
Longevity - ?/10 – We shall see. High potential in both developing and playing 1 toon AND rolling alts. At this point I feel like a re-roll would have enough of a unique experience that I would be willing to do that. This is not always the case with these games. A recent release, which shall remain nameless, feels boring as heck as I rolled my third toon to climb the level bracket.
PvP – 7/10 – Don’t bash me yet. This is only one part. The quick matches felt unbalanced and some toons felt WAY more powerful than others. I imagine this will change over time. Generally the combat had a snappy feel
WvWvW – 8/10 – Great idea that has a ton of potential. Three servers try to smash faces and rule the map. With coordination, I expect this to be loads of fun. Without coordination…your server will give up. Waypoint access was annoying and if you died far away….the walk was annoyingly long.
World/Environment – 8/10 - Love the artistic feel to everything. I paid attention to things happening in the background as I was exploring which was very interesting (towers watering the fields, combat over the hillside, etc.). The view distance is great and gives a broad expansive feel to most places. The terrain was varied and I spent time underwater as well. In general, places seemed “alive”. There were only a few times I felt like I was on an Island in a single player game. This was not simply due to the absence/presence of players; there were plenty of critters and npcs that helped bridge the gap.
