The Veridan Seer

An ongoing indepth review series, focusing on a single game over an extended period.

Author: Vesavius

Ok, most here will know that I am a self confessed fanboy for this game. I have no issues with that. It's not a stick you can hurt me with, so it's not even worth trying. Saying that, I feel I can be objective and critical.

The fact is I am on my 2nd character right now (only L21) after deciding my L26 WG wasnt for me, and this means that I have spent a fair amount of time in game and certain things have become clear to me.

To Paraphrase; Something isnt right in the state of the Enclave.

I have paid for 3 months of game time right now, and though I hugely enjoy the core game and think the community is great, there are issues I need to see fixed and need to hear some feedback on if I am going to re-sub after that point. This isnt a QQ or a whinge or even a threat, it's just a fact.

Things that I personally need to see or hear within 3 months to gain my re-sub;

House Faction based play

I need to have official clear communication that House factions will continue to be the under pinning motivation behind the game play of SB.

Houses, to me, are core to this game and the continuing muddying of the water to allow mongrol multi-house guilds (further accentuated by the recent comments on the last webinar that in Shard PvP they would like to have multi-house guilds 'possible' in Shard PvP) will destroy another essential element as to what promises to make SB special.

If multi-house guilds are going to be supported, even though there is going to be a House change quest put in apparently that would allow each guild become single House at a later date, then why are we even bothering with House icons on our characters? Or a House channel? or even being tied to one House?

If what High House we choose dosent have any impact on anything, then why am I even locked out of the extra content that the other House quests give?

On one hand, we are being told that our House is our 'super guild' that we should be investing in, and one the other we are being told that House alignment won't matter in the future as the Devs would like to see the same House fighting against it's self. Fighting just for their guild rather then the High House itself.

Which one is it?

High Houses are feeling increasingly marginalised and pointless. I saw the same thing happen in the 'competitive PvE' in EQ2 between Qeynos and Freeport, and I saw how that betrayel of the original game concept in a effort to appease the 'masses' was the first step it took towards becoming another failed vanilla WoW wannabe. If SiL buckle here in the same way i don't want to stay and watch this game fall into a bland pointless chasm.

This is becoming about 'Guild Wars', not the 'House Wars' as I saw when I originally subbed. The vision of what a House means, and will continue to mean with regards to PvP etc in the future, on the part of the Devs is unclear and messy and needs a open and clear statement of direction and vision from SiL.

Content

This is a themepark mmorpg. In a themepark mmorpg, content is king.

Right now, I am loving SB and what it offers, but easily within 3 months I, and many many others, will be L50.

With things standing as they are now I never want to level another alt through HM, AV etc. Twice is enough because there is only 1 path of content to play and I found even the second time to be crushingly dull. I have now done that story. This in effect means that once I reach L50 and have seen everything in the game, I will be done with no reason to carry on playing.

I am not the kind of guy that can do the arena for a year with no word in the hope they get more content in.

What am i asking for then?

One of my suggestions to get more value out of the existing zones would be to drop in at least one whole new quest chain (with new stories, nameds, items) designed to take me from L1 (allowing me to skip the tutorial) to L50. This will allow me to start levelling an alt and carry on enjoying the game in that way while I wait for shard conquest and more L50 PvE with my main. Do this every 3 motnhs and we are golden.

This would even go a LONG way to solving the bland and repetitive quest problem in Hawksmouth, making the game's 'shop window' much more attractive to the trial people. Right now, it's a pretty poor display and I am getting tired of explaining to people 'carry on playing! they get better!'.

I want to carry on playing, but SiL have to give me the reason to. This isnt a sandbox game, and it will need constant updating and implementing of new rides. If these can't be done now, which I accept given the nature of SiL as an indie Dev, then I want clear timetables, projections, and communications of when they will be. They know their game and resources enough now to make this possible.

'We are working on it' will not be enough to make me re-sub.

Bugs

This is a short one.

Fix them.

Vault 2, Becoming Clear, Exarch, whatever.

If we are still in the same place by the time my 3 months are up, then I am not going to re-sub.

Itemisation

Ok, like I say, loving the game, but man SiL need to get some depth into the itemisation.

The shops need to be stocked. The quests need to be giving non buyable rewards more then they are. Nameds need to be given better loot tables.

This game needs a money sink, and vanity items are that, so use them. At L10+ people want to be seeing more and more options to change how they look. I see already gear being worn by NPCs that I seemingly can't get, and facial hair, tats, and hairstyles I am not being offered... Why not?

I am also getting tired of seeing everyone wearing the same items, variations on a theme, in a game that touts customisation as a feature. The basic character customisation system is brilliant, I love it and think it's the best one I have ever personally seen in a mmorpg, but giving me the same items as Q rewards that I can buy in the shops is... confusing.

I was hoping that when the Auction House opened I would see a flood of new personally undiscovered visible gear flood into my world. I didn't.

Let us buy entire collections of visible gear that we can swop out and mix and match. Give us a 'Wardrobe' tab on our BP that attuned visible gear can be stored seperatly.

I understand that all this takes time to get in, but I need to hear firm commitments and realistic schedules for it all.

I love the core game. I want to re-sub. I want to give you my money. Give me reason to.
 

Following my falling out of love with my Wrathguard at around 26 (Dont hate me! it's a Personal thang!) I have started a new character (Rune Mage) who is getting all my attention right now.

He is only level 20 right now though and I don't want to write a partial review, so I will hold off until I get there with Gorgon so I can give a complete picture.

I will probably throw out a few random thoughts and hopes over the next few days to bridge the gap :)

This game remains the single best mmorpg experience that I have had since classic Everquest (99-02).

Still playing and still having fun.  Heres part 2;

GRAPHICS

Well, the art direction continues to impress me.

Since L10 I have moved into other zones, namely Hoggsridge, Quarterstone, and Ringfell, (plus various quest instances etc) and they have all maintained (at least) the high quality of environment and NPC design that impressed me from the start.

As I get higher there just seems more and more that just makes me stop and look.

From the Deadspell, to the Oracle, to the jungles of Hearth, this game is full of inspired visual hooks. It's character and 'soul' just capture you and pull you in.

If they gfx are not to someone's taste I get that, and thats fine, but how anyone can say they are 'bad' is beyond me. The new landmarks, shardships, and zones that I have now seen I think deserve an extra point added to this sections score.

9/10

QUESTS

In my last review, I said;

"To me, so far, this is the weakest part of SB."

And this is still true, to a point. It must be said though at this point that SB's weakest element is stronger, or at least equal, to most other mmorpgs out there right now imo.

Have the quests changed as I have levelled? Absolutely.

The House quest lines are excellent. I have followed House Rune and so far have had to deal with missions ranging from fresher pranks on House Maul, to lost legendary shardships, to the countering of the malicious plans of a renegade member, to teleporting midget critters. They have all been very well written, with a backstory that ranges from 'ok' to 'excellent'. They have really helped me form a bond with my faction, and i would be lying to say that I wasnt now more loyal to Rune then when I started.

They arnt all mindblowing- the runaround Qs from Quarterstone can get a little labourious as they force you to visit the same NPC 5 times for updates for instance, but with ambushing mobs, the odd novely fun side trek, and often humourous dialogue they are definitely bearable, and often very enjoyable. they are also over pretty quickly ;)

Overall, the quests are getting better the deeper into the game I get. As I have levelled they have gotten more involving and more lore based, making me want to complete them to find out what happens next rather then how much Fame they give.

On a slight down side, I think this game needs more group based content through these levels.

While Hearth pretty much demands a group, which is a great thing, a L12-16ish group dungeon or similar would be great to help build teamwork and bond guilds. It would offer the group player an alternative to the solo runarounds of QS. So far, I feel it would be great if there was more 'epic' feeling guild content around this level. I'm not asking for raids, God forbid, but I do want to spend time with my guildies.

7/10

SCORE

The music is still beautiful. atmospheric, understated, but epic. Ambient scoring at it's best.

Hearth is particulary impressive. Love the layered synths and haunting vocal harmoics. Excellent.

9/10

CHARACTER CREATION/ DEVELOPMENT

While I was very much impressed with the intitial character customisation options, I would have like to see more clothing and weapon choices to have opened up to me by now. The NPC vendors dont sell a massive range though, and the gear drops/ rewards arnt common enough to allow much choice in your appearence.

I have a feeling that this is just down to there being no player trading going on right now, due to us on Acclaim's servers STILL having no patch and therefore no auction House, and therefor no economy.

With this in mind, I will hold the score at the same until I see the effects of the new AH on available clothing/ armour/ weapons/ shields as players start to trade recipies/ mats.

For the future, I would also like to see a tattooist and barbar NPC ingame to allow us to purchase new brightly coloured tats, and change hair/ facial hair. I won't ask for cloaks and robes, because I know they are already on the Dev radar.

8/10

COMMUNITY

The P2P community is still overall excellent. the more people I meet the more I am impressed. While the server has it's vocal whingers (you know who your are!), the vast bulk of people are what I would call 'cynical optimists'.

The less you have to visit Hawksmouth, the more of a culture shock it becomes when you return though lol.

What this game does need though, imo, are Shard wide chat channels. Drop the zone wide one please and let us talk to each other wherever we are on a shard? (be sure, if you do this, though to plz restrict the freemium players to their own trial channel that we can turn off if we want ;) ).

The game also needs more robust community management tools, from deeper guild options and monitors to a LFG mechanic with appropiate filters. Integrated chat would also be excellent. It is early days yet though, so i am willing to wait for this kind of thing.

8/10

BUGS, STABILITY AND PERFORMANCE

We still havent had our patch or the 2 hotfixes, so performance is still as it was, which is really dissapointing tbh.

I am getting very fed up with the crashes, and I want a new loot window now.

They are called HOTFIXES for a frikin reason Acclaim. They are needed, and now. Pull your thumb out and get a move on.

5/10

LORE

If anything, the lore of this game is getting more and compelling and immersive as I find out about it through quests.

I purposefully don't read spoilers online, and the world being unveiled to me as I play is excellent.

I fully recomend others to play this way as well. SB is very much about the journey and not the destination. Unlike other games, which seem to treat levels 1-49 as just time fillers before the real game starts at L50 (*cough* AoC *cough*), Spellborn is fun all the way through, and it's the way the lore has been handled that achieves this.

10/10

GAMEPLAY

The gameplay remains outstanding, with new skills being gained at a decent rate and the learning curve kept steady.

Grouping feels natural in this game, though definitely sometimes on the chaotic out of control side. SB is thinking man's action game, but it isnt, past setting up your skill bar, an overly tactical one. At least not in the same sense EQ2 or whatever is.

Overall, I am having more fun with my character the higher he goes and am continously tweaking and refining my playstyle with him. Now and again I will hear a piece of advice that will revolutionise what I was doing, and thats great.

At L20 it seems SB still has things to teach me.

9/10

CRAFTING

This remains the same as before- accessable, meaningful, non-grind.

I marked it high not because it was an amazingly in depth simulation of basket weaving that requires hours of levelling and reams of knowledge to make the best player gear in the game, but precisly because it wasnt.

I agree the SB's has more of a 'collection' system then Vanguards full on crafting, for example.

I have played games like EQ2, and I have been a crafter in those games, and I have enjoyed them for it. Right now though I am in very a dynamic adventure state of mind and I want a system that rewards my play time with a fast, lore based, meaningful mechanic that allows me to make useful gear that my character can use without me having to stare at a forge for weeks on end.

You throw in sigils on top of that (which basically allow you to make your own magic items tailored to your needs, looking like you choose), and I feel a high mark for versitilty and personal satisfaction is warranted.

I have recently stopped playing Darkfall, and I have to say any game that forces me to macro for hours and hours and hours to harvest any meaningful amount of mats to allow me to level my craft skill to the 'good stuff' in it turns me off at this time. I have enough of that.

8/10

DIFFICULTY

Well, the difficulty level in QS was about the same as Hawksmouth had been, with the odd tricky objective in and no PeP being given.

And then we hit Hearth.

One word; brutal.

Don't get emotionally attached to all the PeP you have squirreled away :)

SB remains pleasingly challenging.

10/10

OVERALL

SB continues to please me.

It is proving to be an engaging and involving game that I am still enthusiastic over playing. It has it's problems (mob balancing, bugs, and broken quests and character abilities all need looking at sooner rather then later), but I find myself finding this game worthy enough to ride out the rough early days and looking towards finer weather.

The game though, which is what this review is about after all, maintains it's orignal score. I would give it higher, because the game HAS gotten more and more fun, but I have a feeling it still more to give so i wanna leave some room ;)

9/10

Ok, so L10 isnt that high, but it has given me a few hours in game, taken me to a few zones and taken my first steps into the deeper House story lines.

First I want to say that I unashamedly love this game. I am a fanboy. That, in this case, dosent make me unobjective or uncritical. I don't feel threatened by other people not liking it, and I don't feel the need to convert those that have played it and don't 'get it'.

This is being written for those that are 'should I, shouldnt I?'.

To be clear, I didnt start off loving SB. In fact, prelaunch I was jaded and somewhat upset by how Acclaim handled things and I thought the game would be a solo ez mode shell of a game. I was wrong. There. I'm a big boy, I can say it... I was wrong.

This game is the single best mmorpg experience that I have had since classic Everquest (99-02).

What Spellborn is;

A co-op soclal play themepark mmo that is suprisingly 'hardcore' in it's features for the modern genre, but one that can be played casually. Note that I personally do not agree with the common view that 'casual' has to mean 'easy'. .

My views;

GRAPHICS

Spellborn graphics are going to be a problem for some people.

I mean, the game runs very well on lower end PCs, without losing the immersion or awe of the gameworld, but the art style is new to most and will jarr their sense of 'WTF am I lookin at?'

The game looks 'Fablesque', as has been said before by me and others, and is somewhat cartoony, but in a good way. Fable II being so popular will have prepaprea lot of people for the art direction in this game, and thats great, but there will be a lot of manga and WoW fans that expect a ame to look like something else. All I ask of these guys is to open your minds a little and look around.

Anything stylised and with it's own character will divide opinion. Not everyone will like it, and thats fine, but personally I love it.

To me, the game world is stunning, the mobs are scary, characters look cool, and the hoppys are cute.

There are so many things in this world graphically that make me stop and say 'brilliant'.

8/10

QUESTS

To me, so far, this is the weakest part of SB.

It's not that they are 'hard' or I want a quest objective pointer, I don't, but they are somewhat generic for thw most part. A few to many 'Kill 10 X' and 'FedX' quests for my taste tbh. The only thing that keeps me going through these is the game lore and the well written NPCs who somehowm manage to make you care enough to go out and kill their 10 bears. Again.

Saying that, there are also a lot of fun, humorous and engaging questing out there, but more would always be good. Quest content is king in a 'themepark' mmo like this one. The rides have to be as good as the funpark is pretty.

6/10

SCORE

The music is beautiful. atmospheric, understated, but epic. Ambient scoring at it's best.

9/10

CHARACTER CREATION/ DEVELOPMENT

Just excellent.

Yes, you can look 'cool' from the very start. The variety of characters I have created using the set of tools provided is amazing.

The fact that you choose how your character looks at all times is great, and the character generation screens would be comparable to the rightly famous CoH if it had more options. It even beats that game for character design for me though because the look you set isnt static (as was CoH originally) and can be changed via gameplay.

I guess they want to leave some stuff in game for you to find

Oh, and too many ninja hoods!

8/10

COMMUNITY

Simply, once you are out of the 'freemium' zones, the best community so far in any game that I have played.

Friendly, helpful, funny. There are a lot of old school gamers around it seems, and the P2P membership seems pretty mature and together.

I guess it's because SB isnt even on a lot of the ubr guilds radar that it isnt getting the bad attittudes of most new mmo that they come into to abuse and dominate, and isnt the hip shiny new thing to attract the IP led kiddies, that SB has attracted the type of playerbase you would usually see in a game like Saga of Ryzom or similar.

This may change as the masses wake up to the game but lets hope the culture has now been set.

8/10

BUGS, STABILITY AND PERFORMANCE

These are a real, but fixable, set of problems right now.

A few of the quests are buggy and a few seem to be broken, and people are crashing a lot. Nothing gamebreaking, but it all needs fixing

I am hoping that they address the majority of issues in the patch coming today. It looks big enough to

I have faith in SiL to be aware and working to make things better, but for now it's all somewhat frustrating.

5/10

LORE

Original, engaging, wel written.

It is obvious that SiL are all about the story and every quest NPC takes it into consideration.

I would happily read books and play a PnP RPG set in thsi world, and thats something I have never said about an original IP MMORPG before.

10/10

GAMEPLAY

This is a strong group game, somewhat similar in feel to launch CoH in terms of combat. The system design choices seem to make sense and come very naturally once you have learned to let go what you thought you knew and retrained yourself to a better way.

No, you don't need a set roster of classes, so you can pick your friends based on who you like and not if they have Rezz , but every class brings unique and interesting abilities to a group. No 'holy trinity' can make grouping somehwhat chaotic and messy at times, but it also does mean that 'tanks' can swop roles constantly to keep the action flowing. Overall, the combat is interesting, fun, and challenging.

8/10

CRAFTING

Crafting is a system of collecting recipies and ingredients and combining at a forge to create. There arnt any craft skills, anyone can have anything made by the smith if they have the components.

I personally love it. No x3656578 hours collecting mats, no grinding x1000 arrows to level, no byzantine rules set.

For full time crafters though, this prolly isnt the game for you, but for everyone else it's great.

They DO need to give us banks and shared guild banks though. The new Market Place will also be a massive help and allow us to all start trading mats to get what we need. I normally hate AHs tbh, but SB is definitly, with it's 100s of resources and waste items, a game that requires it.

The game also needs item linking.

8/10

DIFFICULTY

Spellborn is a wolf in sheep's clothing. It really isnt what it pretends to be on first glance.

For a game that is all dressed up on the surface as casual ez mode solo lite, it really has some what most of the current gen of WoWified mmorpg gamers would consider 'hardcore' elements, and I love it for that!

Death penalty? Check! Losing PeP hurts as a death penalty way more then any system in any game I have played since EQ (99-02). It is the best reason to not die I have seen in a long long time, especially considering how slowly it builds. It brings perfect levels of fear and tension to the game. Brilliant.

Slow-medium levelling? Check! The levelling rate is perfect and spits in the face of the current trends of instant gratification. It dosent throw me up through the zones at a retarded speed before my quests have been done and it allows me to see the environment and 'bond' with a zone and it's NPCs before I move on.

Skill based combat? Check! Sure, you can spam, but the holy grail of 'easy to learn, hard to master' has been found here. Learning to play is just gonna get more and more imprtant as you level. No letting the character do the fighting for you here.

PvP zones that have unique rewards, if you can survive to get 'em? Check! If you want the best, you have to fight for the best. Shard conquest? Can't wait.

Grouping and co-op play required? Check! Though it looks like a solo quest grinder, SB isnt. It requires co-operation and social interaction to get the best out of. Thank God.

No arrows pointing to quest objectives? Check! Though the concession has been made to mark quests and updates on the map, which I woudlnt have done myself, there are no arrows or glowing trails here. You have to actually look around, reads the quest text, and look at npc names. In short, learn the zone. It's a perfect mix of GPS map support and player driven exploration. You think that quest text is vague? Ask the community if they know! This is how communities are built, by cooperation, communication, and mutual aid. Well done.

High aggro range tough mobs? Check! This game makes you consider the environment all the time before you start to fight that mob. It demands thought, add control, and awareness of roamers. You thought you could fight in the middle of that spawn ground? Death. Single mobs are properly difficult, multiples are deadly. See 'grouping' above.

Trains? Check!! Think you just have to handle your own situation? Think again. make sure you are also aware of who is fighting around you and how they are doing. Situational awareness is essential. A train can ruin your day. EQ would be proud of some of the trains I have seen.

Underneath it's friendly exterior, this is a skillful and challanging game, yet remains accessible to those willing to learn to play.

One day, I will give you my views on why SB is more hardcore then Darkfall

10/10

OVERALL

Spellborn is a triumph and the love put into making it seeps out of every pore.

It is a game made by gamers for gamers.

'Nuff said.

9/10

If you get this far, well done btw, and decide to pay to play, give me a shout in game and ask any questions. I play as Iceberg, Gorgon, and Vesavius with the guild Radiance on the Acclaim PvE server.