Originally posted by mckimmins

This game is alot of fun. Although I am only level 20 or so myself and have lots left to check out. The combat system is what really makes this game great though. Pairing this up with a typical p2p game and you got yourself a really nice and free side game I think.

I agree 100%! The combat is fun and is the thing that I liked right off the get-go. It's not a main mmo, but it is something to play around with for a change of pace.

As a Final Fantasy fan, this game looked awesome, but when I tried it out (about 5 months ago now), the download client didn't come with an .exe to play the game, and when I asked where can I download just the .exe file, they said just download the client again, and being in Australia with our crappy internet speeds, this is highly annoying.

However I might give this game another chance while I wait for Aion, very nice review btw.

this game is fun until u get tired of grinding :D

dont say i gave up too quickly

i was lvl 98 in sikyon, 111 in argos, 110 and 109 in delphi

I won't say anyone gave up on this too early. By level 40 (about 10-15 hrs play time) it gets grindy, by 60, it's nothing but grind (the quests get really slow, and you have to kill a lot more mobs). I've not gotten past there and can only imagine what it gets like once you get to 90 or 100. (Reminds me too much of the early days of EQ and 35 to 50.) I understand that the nation and guild dungeons are well worth the grind, but it's only PvE. It's not THAT exciting.

PvP, while interesting, had a really bad tendency to be completely unbalanced in favor of only one or two merc party builds. They'd change something, and it'd just switch to something else. I might consider coming back to the game again later if I can hear some positive reports about improving this.

From what I saw of the item store, everything you could buy was tradable in game, so if you didn't want to spend a lot of cash on items, you could always grind out gold and buy them off other su... err players. :p I'm not sure that the item store is that overpriced, though. From the looks of it, you could easily get by with only spending $10-$15 US every month on the game (same price as a sub) and less or more as your desires. It is a lot better than some of these other games where you can easily spend $30-$40 a month or more. (I think of that article I read about Puzzle Pirates where Three Rings said that a few of their players spent a thousand or more a month... yeesh.) There are items that are immediately consumed, but they weren't absolutely necessary to buy when I was playing.

Crafting was quite interesting. Some of the crafting skills at the time I played were quite useless early on. I'm sure that if you went through the expense of grinding up the craft, you could probably make some good gold off the higher levels. Others, such as weapon and armor making, were almost absolutely necessary early on. Some items are only available through crafting. I mention gear specifically because you can enchant your items from drops, but they start out at 0. If you craft, you get a chance at a 'critical success' getting a +1, +2, or higher (I've crafted up to a +7). Given that it takes two identical items and a special stone to enchant, getting +3s and higher are, which can become fairly common, really start to save money on the crafting process for gear. To highlight this.... It takes two +0 items and an enchant stone to make a +1. To make a +2, it takes 2 +1s and 2 enchant stones to make. To make a +3, it takes 2 +2s and 3 enchant stones. In total, for that +3, you took 8 +0 items and 6 enchant stones. If you crafted it, it only took the materials for one. Now, it is chance based to get higher than +1, and I'm not sure on what the odds are. Even if it was only about 10% to get a +3 (which 'feels' about right... never really tracked it, but it seemed to be a bit higher), you'd come out about even (figuring in the cost of the enchant stones, too).

Overall I enjoyed the game, but because of the fact that you had to grind out levels for not only your character but also your mercenaries, I really get tired of it. The rewards from PvP helped (xp books your mercs can use), but you can only use so many rewards in an hour. The unbalanced PvP was quite the turn-off, too. If I had taken the time and worked in a guild or nation, I might have found something a little promising in it.

As another long time player, here's my comments. I began playing about 5 mins after the doors opened over a year ago on the first server. I have 2 characters on the Thebes server. A lvl 107 spearman and a lvl 50 Chainsaw. I was first hooked by this game due to its similarity in many ways to Ragnarok which I have been a freak over  for about 8 years now.  So here's my 2 cents.

Free?..well, not hardly, you can play without ever spending real money but you will never play without using item mall items (even if you buy them from the market for in-game gold. IF that is, you stick around for moroe than a month. I have spent my share, though only the basics. I have my teleport license every month (could not/would not play without it). I have admittedly also done the asthetics. I have a war griffon, armed raptor and my Mars Rider along with other lower mounts. I have the Wings of Light and my scarlet costume and horns set. So I am guilty of using the item mall.

As I saw a couple others say, the game really is dependant on YOU ignoring the underlying motives and WAY too obvious greed of the developers. Everything in the game is targeted in one way or another to make you very frustrated into using item mall items...whether you buy them, or buy them for in-game coin from someone who did...NDoors gets the money one way or another. Likwise to the  the reviwwer, it is indeed the combat model that hooked me, and why I still play...likewise the "Stuff" i own. I would never leave Atlantica, I look too damn good to never be seen idle on my Mars Rider in Kuala Lampur (The town I chose for some reason to homestead in..lol) again. I do love the game, but as many players would agree, I despise the company behind it. The mobs are extremely overpowered at high levels, the bosses almost impossible to beat without massive upgrades and item mall super potions and scrolls. (None of which can be crafted). And the grind is enormous. 

Those of us who are still around from the opening day, are "those" kind of players, who find something, fall in love, and then stick around even when feeling abused by the folks behind it. The reviewer was aslso right about something else...the FUN is there, but you just have to work hard, long and wait to find it. Attaining high crafting levels is an endeavor that takes months. Attaining a high levels character is rewarded with actual respect form players...because they know how hard it is...the community is a real plus in Atlantica. After lvl 50, you find yourself in a pretty interesting family like community, espcially within guilds and nations. Players show alot of respect for high level characters, they know how hard it was/is to achieve, and it's one of the few MMOS I've found, (Ragnarok is another)  where the community shows respect for its elder players...a lvl 100+ character is actually appreciated, and you are given the reespect you deserve for all that hard work...this is a nice personal plus for many of us.

In conclusion, yes, the game is great, and if you try and work hard, you will and can have a great deal of fun in Atlantica...Despite the fact, that you will find after awhile that you LOVE the game and yet HATE NDOORS..a rather strange dicotomy.

 Though accurate and fair, I find the review to be rather shallow. 

Unlike most MMORPGs, Atlantica actually has the framework/potential to be a compelling game, or at least a game that can push or expand the genre further than the genre's currently somewhat narrow confines.

On the negative side, it is unfortunately currently damaged by sloppy updates, medicore developer/publisher communication/interaction with the user-base, lack of design focus after level 100, and not enough content (little dynamic content) after level 100 .

But it is at least a living MMORPG with new updates coming regularly enough. :]  It's an MMORPG, that can be enjoyed.

Oh and btw, to all who believe the item mall IS necessary, the item mall is never necessary, unless you want to be at the extreme top at PvP and don't have superfluous amounts of time on your hand.  Item mall use can make your life easier, but  keep in mind (almost) everything is trade-able in game, and if you stay patient, you'll realize many items such as Warrior's Pack are hardly necessary.

I'm enjoying the game very much so fay and think it's the best freebie I've played. Most have that incredibly annoying camera that won't zoom out to see what's ahead. I hate that. AO is a bit slow in the controlls for me, but I can live with that.I use left and right mouse bottons to move as I do in most games that allow it. In AO I need to keep releasing one to change course at times and at others times it's smooth as ice. That may be due to lag as I'm in Australia. Overll I like AO.