Please go easy on me as this, is my first attempt and can only comment on what i have experienced myself :) i wont make it huge but just touch on certain aspects.

Ratings are based on a 1 - 10 scale.

1 - 2 Atrocious

3 - 4 too bad to put up with

4 - 5 Barely able to stand

6 - 7 average at best

7 - 8 good and works

9 - 10 excellent job

CHARACTER CREATION = I give character creation a 4 - 10. i only give it a 4 as i enjoy creating a character that is as unique as possible. In DF you have very limited options and no way to really customize your char. Yes you get about 4 options to change earings, tattoo's etc but that really isn't enough for a mmo. 4 - 10 dissapointing.

STARTING OUT = 6 - 10. Starting out you get a limited tutorial that consists of about 6 pages, each with a small paragraph explaining basic rules. it does what it needs to but leaves most for you to find out for yourself. not a bad thing but players new to MMO's could really do with more help.

QUESTS = 7 - 10 Quests are in short supply, which to me is a good thing. i hate having to follow certain paths and i hate being lead by an arrow. Quests in DF seem to be just to start you of with a few basic weapons, armour and tools, and then turn to kill 10 repeatable quests just to raise cash. for me this is a good thing. i imagine myself as a young warrior trying to make a little cash to get by, working for the local authorities stemming the tide of trolls/goblins and such. Though for some who are looking for quests, you are going to be very dissapointed.

CONTROLS =  7 - 10 while new..work well. the first hour was a struggle for me just getting used to the controls, now it's second nature like other games. the movment seems fluid and while it takes some getting used to, has a purpose. the game seems to make looting and such dangerous, which works well for a loot all pvp enviroment.

COMBAT = 8 - 10 combat is fun! It's nice having to actually interact in combat. Having to position yourself and having enemies try to dodge adds a lot to combat. Archery and spell casting is fun to as it's easy to hit other players so you have to choose your targets carefully. Combat is one of the big plus marks for me in DF.

PVP = 8 - 10 It's what the game is made for! adrenaline hits, anger tantrums, nerdrage! haha everything you could wish for. pvp is frustrating when you come acroos exploiters but in a fair battle is great! not that you get many "fair" battles :) but for pvper's you can't really go wrong here.

SOUND = 6 - 10 Dont know why but the sounds to me seem to be a bit hit and miss. sometimes everything works fine, other times sounds dont seem to fit with your surounding's, can't quite put my finger on it but they seem average at best for me.

CRAFTING = 7 - 10 Crafting is a grind! a huge grind and a money sink at first. not a bad thing as it stops everyone becoming master crafters and thus ruining the economy. You can make virtually anything in the game which offsets the loosing all loot to a ganker nicely :)

Although DF has a bad reputation at the moment i have to say i love the old EQ style feel of finding out for yourself and learning the hard way. The game does have problems, but mainly with the early exploiters! these guys are so far ahead of everyone else that they can do what they want really, and most of the time you have no chance against them. What would make this game is a rollback, yes it would upset so many people but it would also attract a good deal more. The game runs with less bugs than most games have after 3 years! it runs smooth, looks dark and dreary like it should! and the core of the game seems to work well. AV although have shown thier inexperience up untill now, are actually improving the game with every patch.

A free trial would be perfect for this game as not many will give it a go at the moment due to bad reviews etc. If you are on the fence then give it a go. Dont expect polish but a solid core to the game, which experience shows us is all a game needs to continue..VG springs to mind how  a good core can turn a games firtunes around. If you like death penaltys and harsh pvp then come in and have a go. If not i would suggest not wasting your money.

I know i have not spoke about everything but i have limited time ( at work ) and no experience in writing reviews. But please feel free to ask about other aspects of the game and i will do my best to answer them. Please dont expect me to answer trolling as liking the game is my opinion and mine only :)

DARKFALL 7 - 10.

Thanks for the well written review!

While I disagree with your ratings I think you did a good job for your first review.

One thing I would like to know though, if you don't mind, what other MMO games have you played and for how long?

Just curious.

Originally posted by Dameonk

Thanks for the well written review!

While I disagree with your ratings I think you did a good job for your first review.

One thing I would like to know though, if you don't mind, what other MMO games have you played and for how long?

Just curious.

I'm mainly an EQ man. Played from the start for about 8 years, then played WoW for a year. then flitted between Vanguard, AoC, Ryzom, DDO, War, FF12 and a few others that i just spent a month or so on! oh sorry i played Lotro for about 6 months.

Thanks for the good words though.

Nice read coming from a fan/player, biased but honest.

The only thing I would ask, is that you qualify the ratings. But that isn't even neccassary.

Heck, you could leave the ratings out of it, and it would make a decent blog actually.

Take care.

Originally posted by Respit

Nice read coming from a fan/player, biased but honest.

 

The only thing I would ask, is that you qualify the ratings. But that isn't even neccassary.

Heck, you could leave the ratings out of it, and it would make a decent blog actually.

 

Take care.

How do you mean "qualify the ratings"? do you think it better not to have ratings at all and just leave it as a blog type?

Just asking for future attempts :)

I maybe should have added in the title that i am a fan/player just so those that wanted an unbiased review knew not to read it. I try to be as honest as possible but being a fan, it's hard to pick up on the bad things as you remember the better parts first. But thanks for the comments :)

Yeah, nice read. Trial would be awesome... And you should also rate graphics. I know it's not that good in DF but it's kinda common sense to rate graphics :) 

Review or blog, either or.

Qualify as in:  1 = Coldest. 2 = Colder, 3 = Cold, 4 = Tepid, 5 = Lukewarm, etc...

No big deal though.

Like I said, it was a good read as far as I am concerned. You didn't put the word "Epic" in there anywhere, and that is plus everytime!

Added a ratings guide.

Ye can't believe i didnt mention the graphics lol!

GRAPHICS = 7 - 10 Graphics work for me without being great. The dark colours and earthy feel make for a forboding atmosphere which adds to the pvp experience. The character graphics are what lets the game down. mainly due to the character creation being so limited. it's hard not to look the same as everyone else. and without any rare drops as far as i can see, we all wear the same armour/weapons. The enviroment is the saving grace for the graphics, again while not being great they serve a purpose and work well on my average PC. though shadows had to be turned of!

i don't mean to be disrespectful to the OP, but why is it that in df so many players feel the need to review this game?

is it the lack of real reviews (as there are none yet, you can't count the ed zitron review i guess) or because the game is lacking subscribers and you guys try to interest people for df?

Originally posted by pwnzorellOr

i don't mean to be disrespectful to the OP, but why is it that in df so many players feel the need to review this game?

 

is it the lack of real reviews (as there are none yet, you can't count the ed zitron review i guess) or because the game is lacking subscribers and you guys try to interest people for df?

Were just interested in the game we play friend that's all :)

I'm at work and can't play so i spend time reading about it on forums when i get peace. and more often than not i get involved in threads about games i am interested in. I think you will also find, it's not just a DF thing as i have read many player reviews on mmorpg on lots of games :)

I also frequent sky sports football forums :)

And yes we also want others to be interested in game too....as a game player i couldnt understand why you wouldnt want others to try the game you play? My review is by no means unbiased friend...i am a Darkfall fan so players sitting on the fence undecided should take that into consideration when reading my review :)

Its called "imersion" i think. You find something fun and you want to talk about it : )

Think the WAR dude talked much about it. He wanted people to feel "imersion" for WAR and make them talk and have fun.

Originally posted by pwnzorellOr

i don't mean to be disrespectful to the OP, but why is it that in df so many players feel the need to review this game?

 

is it the lack of real reviews (as there are none yet, you can't count the ed zitron review i guess) or because the game is lacking subscribers and you guys try to interest people for df?

Probably the same reason anyone else posts here. Because they can, and derive some enjoyment from it.

Personally, I have no problem with it unless it is full of mis-truths and spinnage.

Originally posted by Respit

Originally posted by pwnzorellOr

i don't mean to be disrespectful to the OP, but why is it that in df so many players feel the need to review this game?

 

is it the lack of real reviews (as there are none yet, you can't count the ed zitron review i guess) or because the game is lacking subscribers and you guys try to interest people for df?

 

Probably the same reason anyone else posts here. Because they can, and derive some enjoyment from it.

 

Personally, I have no problem with it unless it is full of mis-truths and spinnage.

Ok, i was just wondering, it wasn't meant as an attack in any way. :)

And i agree with the part of mistruth and spinnage 101%!

Originally posted by pwnzorellOr

Originally posted by Respit

Originally posted by pwnzorellOr

i don't mean to be disrespectful to the OP, but why is it that in df so many players feel the need to review this game?

 

is it the lack of real reviews (as there are none yet, you can't count the ed zitron review i guess) or because the game is lacking subscribers and you guys try to interest people for df?

 

Probably the same reason anyone else posts here. Because they can, and derive some enjoyment from it.

 

Personally, I have no problem with it unless it is full of mis-truths and spinnage.

 

Ok, i was just wondering, it wasn't meant as an attack in any way. :)

 

And i agree with the part of mistruth and spinnage 101%!

Indeed, it is nice to hear different views, hoping to spark off new thoughts.

To the OP: to really attract interest and maintain interest, AV have to clean up its acts.  Offering a broken game with so many issues won't cut it.  DF does have a strong starting follower.  They counted 300k signed up for beta.  They ended up unable to fill a server,  Now they cannot even find enuf new sub to replace the lost subs.

Its not attracting new, its retaining old.  It has rinsed thru 300k loyalist who has spent 8 years or less chasing the shadow of this game.  How many more can they rinse thru?

Internet is an open world and news spread out fast, notably bad news.

Not a good review, lacks many details, like "time played".

I was also enthousiastic the first two weeks I played. After that, it went downhill very fast, as I realised how shallow the game was and how featureless is was compared to UO even 12 years ago.

Originally posted by The_Korrigan

Not a good review, lacks many details, like "time played".

I was also enthousiastic the first two weeks I played. After that, it went downhill very fast, as I realised how shallow the game was and how featureless is was compared to UO even 12 years ago.

Suprised it took this long really :)

How do you mean shallow? the reason i ask is that usually i class how a person plays an MMO as either shallow or deep as MMO's usually leave a lot of the gameplay to yourself. And DF definately leaves it in the players hands to shape the game and world :)

Ok i have played the game for 13 weeks now. i have never macroed and never will. I dont AFK skill at all. I spent the first 3 weeks solo...which to be honest was a breath of fresh air. I then joined a clan and got a culture shock as PVP was everywhere. Since then i have honed my skills and can hold my own with pvp...also there seems to be less griefers the last 4 weeks or so which is making the game much better, though that could also be due to me being in a clan now..not sure on that one.

As far as featureless goe's friend...i didnt really take much notice of the features so it really does not count for me. I decided to try the game and enjoyed it so i stayed. Simple as that :) I also never played UO so could not comment on that, i was more of a EQ vet.

Originally posted by Orthedos

Originally posted by pwnzorellOr

Originally posted by Respit

Originally posted by pwnzorellOr

i don't mean to be disrespectful to the OP, but why is it that in df so many players feel the need to review this game?

 

is it the lack of real reviews (as there are none yet, you can't count the ed zitron review i guess) or because the game is lacking subscribers and you guys try to interest people for df?

 

Probably the same reason anyone else posts here. Because they can, and derive some enjoyment from it.

 

Personally, I have no problem with it unless it is full of mis-truths and spinnage.

 

Ok, i was just wondering, it wasn't meant as an attack in any way. :)

 

And i agree with the part of mistruth and spinnage 101%!

 

Indeed, it is nice to hear different views, hoping to spark off new thoughts.

To the OP: to really attract interest and maintain interest, AV have to clean up its acts.  Offering a broken game with so many issues won't cut it.  DF does have a strong starting follower.  They counted 300k signed up for beta.  They ended up unable to fill a server,  Now they cannot even find enuf new sub to replace the lost subs.

Its not attracting new, its retaining old.  It has rinsed thru 300k loyalist who has spent 8 years or less chasing the shadow of this game.  How many more can they rinse thru?

Internet is an open world and news spread out fast, notably bad news.

What are you talking about?! where did you pull that information out of??

And NO, they havent even adveritsed the game yet so a big wave of players hasnt happened yet, most people dont even know DF is out. Yes most people dont read internet gaming forums.

Originally posted by The_Korrigan

Not a good review, lacks many details, like "time played".

I was also enthousiastic the first two weeks I played. After that, it went downhill very fast, as I realised how shallow the game was and how featureless is was compared to UO even 12 years ago.

Sorry to rain on your parade but UO wasnt that great in Beta or on release. Same as with every single MMo out there. You must have played it much later if at all.

Originally posted by Cristina1

 

What are you talking about?! where did you pull that information out of??

And NO, they havent even adveritsed the game yet so a big wave of players hasnt happened yet, most people dont even know DF is out. Yes most people dont read internet gaming forums.

yub, just those 300k~ people who registered for beta and waited a few years for the release. a few of the long term followers played at release, very few of them are left. most of them are now "hating" on the official boards, you should have noticed, but yeah i know, they are only qqing and should go back to wow - how dare them to criticize the game they play and make suggestions, they must be pathetic trolls!

it's a niche game, targeted at a specific audience, most of them knew about the game for many years. do you know the power of "word of mouth"?

Originally posted by Cristina1 

What are you talking about?! where did you pull that information out of??

And NO, they havent even adveritsed the game yet so a big wave of players hasnt happened yet, most people dont even know DF is out. Yes most people dont read internet gaming forums.

The game will NEVER have a "big wave of players", and don't lie to yourself about it. In real life, if you put in a dam so that water can't get into your reservoir, then you'll have a lot of pressure when you decide to smash it down, and a flood will occur.

We've already seen with Darkfall that, even after opening their store up, the water pressure's disappeared, and there's nothing really left except a few fish flapping sadly in the mud.