Observations after playing a week (lvl 13 now):

Character creation:

Predefined stuff, but A LOT of it. And customizable with color pickers, aging, skin color, size, tatoos, paint, piercings, facial hair, etc. Not the best (as in: no full slider control for shape of your face) but pretty good. You won't find many copies of yourself out there. Also: ingame, rightclick your head to change your hairstyle (not sure if this works with every hair length but awesome nonetheless).

World & mounts:

The world is open, persistent, immersive and HUGE and with that comes a big need for mounts; even though you can have your first one in just a few levels, you can keep improving your ride further into the game, they are persistent in the world, have their own stats, can get killed (and revived / repaired), need feeding now and then and have their own (safe) extra inventory for you to use. (Horses don't crap, however, which is a good thing. You would slip and break your neck in mission hubs in no time).

Also you can fight from your mount and there is a ton of progression to be made 'mount wise', from ATV's to biodiesel motorbikes, Dune Buggies to cars with guns and from simple horses to stallions and race horses, etc, etc. There are also mounts with especially large inventories.

The world is very realistic in the sense that in most mmorpg's, landscapes often vary considerably when turning around the next corner. FE is modeled to resemble the real world, with very gradual transitions. In addition to the post-apocalyptic sauce, a distinct Western movie feeling is most prevalent and personally I think the setting is a breath of fresh air (with contaminated dust, ofcourse).

Textures leave something to be desired now and then, (or at least the way they switch abruptly from lo-res to high res when getting closer).

Leveling system:

The AP system reminds me of pen & paper rpg's and requires actual planning. You will get these Advancement Points spread out evenly while leveling and are totally free how to spend them. Point investment is permanent as of now so it will benefit you to do some studying before jumping right in and spending your points without having an idea in which direction you want to go.

Crafting:

Crafting is a big part of FE and highly addictive. There is a multitude of tradeskills to advance in and every tradeskill has a large variety of books to be learned, most of which can be advanced into their secondary and tertiary tiers. Anyone can craft up to their level cap (put points in Int & Perception to increase it further) and it is pretty cool to make your own ammo, horsefeed, armor repair kits, etc. In that sense it is a true and deep part of the game, rather than just an optional means to obtain 'epics'.

Crafting stuff takes time but is not bound to location (though you get time bonusses at workshops). Completion takes anywhere between a single minute for simple stuff to hours for advanced parts. Active recipies get shown in a pop up and you continue crafting while offline.

Itemization:

Itemization is varied and vast. Plenty of choices to be made. Even though each level has it's own 'best crafted gear' which you see a tad more often while leveling, there are so much alternatives that the crowd around you is varied and it is real easy to go for a more unique look. (I crafted a lot of non-armor clothes just to see how that High Hat / Cowboy Hat, Goggles / Black Longsleeved Shirt / etc looked like)

Advancement and progression:

Rich! Crafting my first 'real gun' and my first mount was awesome and every few levels there is new stuff to use and try.

Equipment:

Plenty of gear slots, you can run around with an arsenal of weapons equiped, to be swapped at your command. Armor has it's own tab which a myriad of slots as well. Also; gloves are seperate items; wear different ones on each hand if you fancy this.

Community:

The community is just ace, so far. Really helpful lot.

Lag and graphics:

There have been a lot of fixes and optimization already. When I started this game a week ago I had some serious client side lag in busy towns, this has been almost resolved for me now and I even cranked up my ingame settings and forced 8x AA on my graphics card. This made the game look a lot better because at low settings you can't get around the fact that graphics aren't top notch. (which isn't much of an issue for me personally, though. After a few days playing it won't bother you as much as your very first impression).

(Playing from Europe on XP with nVidia 8800 GTX, Intel 2.66 Core Dual and 2 gig ram)

Animations:

Apart from some mobs, they look pretty ok. I have seen much worse.

edit:

Some animations are very nicely done; the way you move on a horse (and are able to toggle between walk, trot and gallop (default numpad / ) looks very natural and better than most other games with horses as mounts. Yesterday I saw this guy pull up in his dune buggy, the way he openened the hatch and jumped out looked very nice as well.

Animations on ATV's and bikes are too static as of now. Also ATV's stop dead at about every curve. They need a more 'springy' animation for those I think.

Stability:

I had some crashes in my first days but nothing ever since. Impressed! (AoC, WAR, etc, eat your heart out!)

Bugs:

There are some bugs here and there, but nothing gamebreaking so far for me. They are being adressed at a high pace though.

Ingame support:

Almost instantly! Get to know some GM names and just convo them if you have a problem.

PVE & AI

My only gripe really, is with the AI, agro range is very short and there isn't much sophistication here yet (though I had some ranged mobs go 'prone' on me yesterday which was a nice exception) and mob pathing is a little silly as well, sometimes. I hope they will improve this soon.

Questing itself is pretty good though; there is more variety in the quests than many other games I've played and it has yet to feel like a grind. Also the amount of quests is massive.

PvP:

Due to the lack of large pvp zones in the first secor I haven't been doing much of it yet. Only got a few snipe kills from a watchtower (FUN!) and got slaughtered by some higher leveled players a few times. Will write about PvP later.

Lore & writing:

Pretty good and often very funny. Some tooltips are hilarious even. Hats off for the absurd and black sense of humor of the writers. An example:

Conclusion:

All in all: a highy addictive, refreshing game with a host of variety, a lot of freedom and without much handholding. Only trade-offs in my eyes are graphics and a.i. (until they improve this). Having a great time so far :)

EDIT:

I''m level 19 now, played a couple of weeks and experienced a lot more content in the meanwhile.

Questlines and PVE challenges definately got more interesting higher up in Sector 1 with a series of complex dungeons (open for anyone to enter) and bosses to kill. I think they did some very good stuff there with tougher Master mobs, different levels reachable by real time elevators and nicely written questlines. Here the incentive to group up with other people starts to surface though you still won't need groups for 90% of the normal quests (there's just TONS of them). I like that balance.

I went to Sector 2 briefly to buy some books to support my tradeskills. (Saved me around a 1000 chips not to buy them from the AH) and loved how the landscape got greener higher up north. Also it was quite a trip; it took me about half an hour to get to the first small town in S2 from halfway S1 so make sure you have plenty of fuel or horsefeed with you if you plan rides like that.

I visited the Vista and Chota towns and liked especially the Vista one which is located in a copse of trees and around a pond. When you DO see trees in FE they are modelled pretty nicely. I did one quest for both the Vista's and Chota's to get 1k of rep which allowed me to use their traders. This also allows you to buy the starter faction armor and weapons (75 skill stuff) but I was pretty glad that most of my best crafted stuff of that level range was very balanced in comparison (and a lot less costly to make them yourself).

I did some trading on the AH and I am happy to see that there is quite some money to be made there. (Which is dearly needed when you want to max all your crafting skills).

The bottom line is that above review after playing a few weeks still stands strong in my opinion.

I think this is among the best reviews I've ever read. Two thumbs up and full agreeement.

Very Good and accurate summary..... Well done OP

OMG thx u 4 teh complimenz gusy!!!

^_^

The hair usually comes in three different ways to wear it. Also, you can also open you're gear window, and right click on things like jackets to zip, and unzip them as well, also some hats also have options on how you wear them.

Spot on review!  I can't believe I was almost not going to try this game. Most fun I've had in an MMO in a long time. It certainly needs some polish, but it's already a great game that has amazing potential.

Thanks for taking the time to write this nice review. I have yet to try the game because I just haven't heard a whole lot from players on it. That is at least not the things I wanted to know about. Kudos!

Dear DarkPony ... this post is great and sums up the early game experience perfectly .... could'nt have expressed it better, all people wanting to know a little about FE should read this !

Ps I am hopelessly addicted to this game ..... :o

I completely agree with the OP.
I'll be here in FE a week tomorrow, and I am completely addicted. They have done, and are doing, a fantastic job here.

Quick question.  Does crafting an item continue if you log out?

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Originally posted by Ruyn
Quick question.  Does crafting an item continue if you log out?

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This week or 2 week old?  bugged MMORPG site messed up my post.Ya ya i know ,your saying thank god ! ...lol.

I will just have to make another  one,rather than reply to the same areas the OP touched on.

On a whole,the game is not bad,it just does nothing to spark my interest.Every single aspect of the game,is ho hum boring.The combat is very boring,the crafting is boring,and the immersion or exploration i found to be average at best.

The world feels like a large mass yes,but it also feels bland,there is nothing exciting going on anywhere.It feels like a generated world with some mobs dotted around.Example i found this spot where there is like 5 or so NPC's that give you quests.Ok fine,except all around them there is foes that seem out of place amongst these npc's that are willing to help you.Shouldn't they be fighting each other?

I can't believe the op said the immersion was great,i felt like ,what immersion?The whole looks and the way npc's were structured,it had the feel of a console game.

We should have seen NPC's riding about on mounts,moving around like there is some life to the game,but not much of that at all.I guess it is that post Apoc that does it to a game,it actually makes it too easy to design a game,because everything is suppose to be more or less dead lol.

Crafting:needs mechanics,the EVE approach is far too boring.

Combat:well if they are going to make crafting a hohum mechanic,then at least give me some excitement in combat...nope boring.I did not like the aiming system,i played FPS's so yes i know twitch combat,it just felt jerky in the this game,not smooth at all.

To sum it up in best terms,this game gave me the EXACT same feel as to when i played TR.Both games were a struggle ,just to login and when i do login,i have to force myself to find something to do.Worse is that finding something exciting to do,was impossible.

Post Apoc/fallout types game i guess are meant to be boring,after all the world is suppose to be near dead after a fallout right?The problem is that this game does not really stick to the theme,most mobs are normal wildlife and humanistic.I guess i was hoping for some cool looking mobs with cool features and effects,nah just boring stuff.

Congrats Darkpony, your review was so well written that you have sold me on getting the game. Bravo sir Bravo!

Thanks for all the great replies :)

Updated with a screenshot I just made to give an example of the sometimes funny as hell tooltips.

OP reads like a paid advertisement. Well done, and probably all true on at least 1 plane of existence.

Originally posted by Timzilla

OP reads like a paid advertisement.

I'm not sure even a pain advertisement would have been that glowing,  I kept expecting to read how playing the game cures cancer and makes your bathroom clean itself.

Originally posted by Timzilla

OP reads like a paid advertisement. Well done, and probably all true on at least 1 plane of existence.

At least I'm not alone on that plane, considering most of the replies here.

p.s. Generally in advertising you want to stay away as far as possible from mentioning any negative aspects so I must suck in that.

Originally posted by Timzilla

 Well done, and probably all true on at least 1 plane of existence.

Yes, the prime material plane, the one upon which we dwell.

Originally posted by Timzilla

OP reads like a paid advertisement. Well done, and probably all true on at least 1 plane of existence.

Why is it always the haters and naysayer who can't accept that their opinion is not the universal truth?

You don't like the game. Many, many others do. Grow up and live with it :)

DB

Spot on DarkPony.

I can't remember the exact item, but it was some sort of camo pants and the tool tip was something along the lines of  "They will never see your legs coming." That kinda attention to detail is what sets this game apart.

Didn't know about using the gear window to zip coats. I'll have to check that out tonight.

Outside of EVE, it's the best game since pre-CU SWG.

Originally posted by DonnieBrasco

Originally posted by Timzilla

OP reads like a paid advertisement. Well done, and probably all true on at least 1 plane of existence.

 

Why is it always the haters and naysayer who can't accept that their opinion is not the universal truth?

You don't like the game. Many, many others do. Grow up and live with it :)

DB

Or we can just sit around and criticize anyone who likes a game that we don't like, because obviously if their opinion is different than mine there must be sinister motives behind it...

The review was very thorough, and very worthwhile to read for anyone considering playing the game.

I played in Beta, and there were a lot of things that I liked.  It certainly has the potential to be a great game, I'm just not sure if it's worth the investment of my time and money just yet.

So the lag issue has been improved? I was in beta, but hadn't played for a few months. Enjoyed the game in beta but the lag made it unplayable in certain areas....especialy in towns or when grouping with more then 1 or 2 players. Out alone, hunting mobs it seemed to be fine performance wise.

The performance issue was definately one thing that was making me hesitant about trying it again. Was a very good game otherwise I thought....though not a big fan of the Mad Max/Post Apoc setting in general.

Originally posted by GrumpyMel2

So the lag issue has been improved? I was in beta, but hadn't played for a few months. Enjoyed the game in beta but the lag made it unplayable in certain areas....especialy in towns or when grouping with more then 1 or 2 players. Out alone, hunting mobs it seemed to be fine performance wise.

The performance issue was definately one thing that was making me hesitant about trying it again. Was a very good game otherwise I thought....though not a big fan of the Mad Max/Post Apoc setting in general.

Too bad the game doesn't run well on all PCs, which I'm pretty sure will be sorted out in future. 1 week, 1 month, 1 year or etc. remains to see, but let's hope asap. I assume your specs are enough to handle the game. Tried different drivers of your GPU though? For people who can't get it to run smoothly must be quite pissed. Sad.

I dunno about the review, there are almost no negatives pointed out and looks more like something pulled off by someone who  is blinded by the positives, meaning selfish. The review isn't bad, it sums the content up, but could you maybe write a little about it from a general point of view, what kind of player would like or dislike it and what to expect from the gameplay by comparing it to other MMORPGs.

Originally posted by DonnieBrasco

Originally posted by Timzilla

OP reads like a paid advertisement. Well done, and probably all true on at least 1 plane of existence.

 

Why is it always the haters and naysayer who can't accept that their opinion is not the universal truth?

You don't like the game. Many, many others do. Grow up and live with it :)

DB

Why is it that an opposing opinion must come from a naysayer or hater? I can assure you that a video game is the least significant thing in my life. There's no possible way one could be deserving of hate. It's just opinion. I find the game to be bland, uninspired, repetitive and boring. Our characters are cookie-cut carbon-copies of each other from graphics to abilities. There is only one mold for a combatant and one mold for a crafter. Again, that's just opinion. My experience with the game is about 180 out from the OPs. Still I thought his writeup was skillful and concise and it really could be true in the right plane. I stopped doing drugs years ago, so it won't hold true in mine. Anyway, please try to accept that your opinion is not the universal truth.