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Sword of the New World: First Look Preview
MMORPG.com Staff Writer Adele Caelia has been playing the beta for Sword of the New World. Now that the game has launched, she gives us her quick impressions of the new MMORPG.
Sword of the New World is the latest Asian MMO to hit the market. The game, published by HanbitSoft, has won best graphics and been given the Korean presidential award in 2006. It promises to bring a new and unique experience to the MMO market.
;)
While SotNW is brought to us from Asia, the game itself is set in 17th century Europe. The world of Orpesia is at war. The King of the nation Opoluto realized that he would soon be conquered, so he sent an explorer across the sea to find new land, and took his subjects west across the sea to start a new world. Although this isn't too original and sounds vaguely familiar, it is a nice change of story for this type of game.
Multi-Character Control
The game has a MCC feature, multi-character control. This is not the norm for MMOs, but it is very interesting indeed. At the beginning you start in the world with one character, and after going through the tutorial you may move back to your quarters to choose more characters to add to your team. When you create your character you must chose a family name. All of your characters will share this surname and your quarters will hold your family. Your quarters can house up to nine people, and each family can own up to four quarters. In the end you can have up to 36 characters.
Sword of the New World boasts five classes: fighter, wizard, scout, musketeer, and elementalist. With the MCC, each time you go out into the world, you can choose up to three family members to take with you, forming your own group. This is a very cool feature, and makes it easy to take on almost anything in the world, although I find that it pretty much eliminates the need to group up with anyone else unless you are PVPing. The MCC makes the game feel more like an old school RPG than an MMO.
;)
Player vs Player
For those who do enjoy PVP they can join a clan and participate in clan vs. clan, climbing their way up the list to become the most powerful and well-known clan on the server. Players can choose a faction (royalists or republicans) and fight for their political rights, or climb the ranks and make a name for their character by delving into arena play. Arena play can be done in teams (capture the flag) or gladiator, last one standing style.
Pacing
The game is very fast paced and the mobs respawn very quickly, forcing you to be quick on your feet (or rather, your mouse as the game is click to move). If you don't move out of the area quickly after killing mobs, you will probably end up dead yourself. The fast pace is easy to adjust to and in the end makes you feel quite powerful. I was able to blow through most mobs very quickly and easily if I didn't stay in one area too long. My favorite class has been the wizard and musketeer. The wizard seems to just reek of power and can pretty much crumble anything that comes its way, and the musketeer, well I just like the gun animation, and to see the mob go flying across the screen after it has been shot.
Graphics
It is very easy to see why the game won an award for its graphics. It is very pleasing to look at. The clothing, for example, is interesting and stylish. The artists did a great job of taking old styles and creating something new and exciting. The biggest downfall is that it is not possible to choose hair color, facial features, and body type. Each class has an avatar and that is how everyone will look, however each class has a set of clothing players can choose from, and the clothing is pretty awesome.
;)
Overall, this game is a huge step in the right direction for the Asian MMO market as far as appealing to players of traditional MMOs. It is much better than the recent Asian MMOs that have come out, and is a nice way to pass the time if you are looking for some fast-paced game play.
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No choice for face, hair, etc... Surprised? Not at all, afterall, it is an Asian game. I just wish they would leave their crap overseas instead of infesting our shores with it. Our children are dumbed down enough by your idiotic anime (do you anime lovers even listen to the dialogue or just look at the pretty pictures?), now they get a big dose of it from your non-stop plague of games. Expect more people! Ask for more!
Blah.
- Mal
so....your whole beef with the game is the toons look the same...wow... how in depth
Did you even bother to read the hands on? Ok, I gather you really want character face and hair customization...do you enjoy playing with dolls too? What difference does it make when you see the back of the head most of the time. I see you play Eve, hows the character face customization there? Perhaps Asian devs are more interested in the abilities of the character than thier superficial looks. What does anime have to do with mmo's? As to your gripe about click to move and it being lazy... How would you propose to move three characters at once? It's my opinion that your probably not very knowlegable of either anime or MMO's... at least this one. Sword has a lot to offer and has innovated in many ways. Being able to play three toons at once is very cool and lends much to combat, both pvp and pve. So take the stick out of your Anoose and relax.
Pyro -
Yes. I expect more than walking around and seeing me everywhere I look. Don't like it? Too bad. I also hate click to move, but I'm too hung up on toons that are the same to even give the game a real try. Glad you can get past that kind of laziness, but I can't. It demonstrates a lack of caring that will show through in other parts of the game. Shrug.
Hey your welcome to your opinion bro, however Im old school... I care more about a game being fun than how it looks.
Often times like hollywood game developers their effort into making the game gorgeous, and what you get is a very attractive piece of crap.
Im not saying SOTNW is an awesome game, however I will say its the best asian mmo I have seen yet, and later on there will be personalization as there are tons of hidden classes. So your party wont look exactly like the next.
The only reason I can think of to make the classes similar, is mainly due to the fact there are so many classes. Its not like say wow where there are 8 classes, there are over 30 in this game. So when you roll up on someone in pvp, one glance and you know what your dealing with.
I understand you want more personal touch, but I think the game is good with out it. Just my two cents.
Did you even bother to read the hands on? Ok, I gather you really want character face and hair customization...do you enjoy playing with dolls too?
Yes, I read it. I cringed often. Dolls... HAHA, you so funny... HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Idiot. People like you are the problem.
I see you play Eve, hows the character face customization there?
I played it for 2 hours on a friends invite. Are you looking at Pyro's post instead of mine?
Perhaps Asian devs are more interested in the abilities of the character than thier superficial looks.
They're not, that's part of the problem. It's a game mill system - keep churning and hope a few thousand gullible Americans will bite each time.
As to your gripe about click to move and it being lazy... How would you propose to move three characters at once?
I didn't say click to move is lazy, I said reusing the same graphics for each individual person is. However, I hate click to move, and there is ALWAYS a better way. Will they try to find it? No.
It's my opinion that your probably not very knowlegable of either anime or MMO's... at least this one.
I used to be a big fan of Anime, and one day I woke up. As for this MMO, I keep an eye out for all future MMO's, waiting for the one that will work for me. I have few hopes because companies like this one know people don't expect much.
And so, I voice my irritation in hopes that someone creating a game will see that we want all the features, not just some.
- Mal
maledicta777, you are so American (Western) - centric, that it's almost racist. All the issues you raise are based almost purely on cultural difference, and you assume in a rather harsh fashion that the Western viewpoint is better.
The relative lack of customization is because Koreans (Asians in general) value teamwork over individualism. They don't care as much if their individual toons look unique. They care whether the framerate will remain good when a ton of characters are on screen. They care whether the developers spent the time on gameplay/pvp/teamwork rather than building an indepth customization functionality.
As for this game, it's been heavily funded. It's not one of the many free2play games that are released all over the world. This is one of the top games in the Asian market. There is no churning or lack of effort here. The developers built a great game that appeals to the Asian market, and they realized that exporting it to other areas of the world might be a good idea.
Point and click is one of the most established control schemes in gaming. All RTS's are point and click. Complaining about point and click is almost like saying that you're not a gamer. Korea is the RTS mecca. Blizzard chose Korea to reveal their flagship Starcraft 2. Point and click is the norm in Asia, unlike the US which has been heavily influenced by FPS games.
As for anime, why in the world are you dissing that genre? It is a HUGE market in Japan and has worldwide appeal. Anime movies/series have won top awards including Oscars.
In any case, I'm glad you won't be playing games like this because someone as closeminded as you wouldn't contribute much to the community of any game.
Ah yes those asian games are bad for our children. I mean, we should teach them that gameplay is of non importance. Nope, its all about how your character looks. Thats what we should teach our children, thats its all about the looks, right?
They will keep comming this way becuse they are succesfull, and your just going to have to live with it. But have fun in City of heroes, you can do the exact same mission in the exact same environment over and over again, but at least it has good customization, and thats all that matters, right?
but just to inform you, Asian mmo developers don't add customization because they are trying to show as many characters on the screen as possible. Games like Lineage 2 feature hundreds of characters on screen in raids and sieges. \They would have to seriously increase the system requirements if they added a lot of customization. But this is ofcourse is a gameplay feature, which is not important because charcter customization is the most important thing of any MMO!
But I guess the western end of this world hate asian mmo because they have an abundant list after list of games they develope. IMHO grind fests are in almost every game to a certain degree. I think grinding is a good way to level to a certian level, then change the pace a little. Maybe this game will do that, maybe not. But i'm 100% sure that other companies, such as the one funding Aion will change their way.
Asian MMOs will be taking the markets in asian countries and those who love them in the US will flock to them instead of american games, because like what the post i quoted says "They value teamwork over individualism."
Wow... What an extremely in depth article. I feel like I learnt something about it...
Next time put some effort into an article. I could have made a better article in an hour or two.
1 - It's a first impression article, not an in-depth review.
2 - You are welcome to go for it. We're still looking for writers.
How about customization AND gameplay? THAT is the point of what I wrote. Do you really think one must be sacrificed in order to obtain the other, or some half-and-half mix job is necessary? I'm glad that some of you are okay with hack job games, it is just a shame that you don't ask for more. If you did we would get both sides of the equation and maybe, just maybe, our money's worth.
As for anime, why in the world are you dissing that genre? It is a HUGE market in Japan and has worldwide appeal. Anime movies/series have won top awards including Oscars.
Christianity has a huge market and worldwide appeal as well, but you don't see me buying into that crap. Next time you watch your favorite anime pay attention to it. I mean REALLY pay attention to it. It should turn your stomach to listen to the dialogue alone, nevermind the pathetic story lines. Shrug.
But have fun in City of heroes, you can do the exact same mission in the exact same environment over and over again, but at least it has good customization, and thats all that matters, right?
I have played COH/COV, and no, it is not all that matters. They sacrificed good content and gameplay for great customization. Once again, the either/or phenomenon. Wouldn't it have been great if that game had better content and ideas to go with the customization and nice controls? Oh yeah, that's right... dumb yourselves down to whatever level they provide for you. You guys make a great audience... Later tonight I've got a sock puppet show for you, oh and I forgot the sock. You'll love it.
One last thing, click to move is fine in an RTS, but an RTS != MMO. It is lighter on bandwidth to use point and click, but these days it just comes off as awkward compared to other MMO's. Get out more.
- Mal
Mal,
You're an ass. Please shut up or grow up. I don't care which.
And yes, I think you play with dolls too.
Also, the next idiot who thinks that anyone who acts as Mal does is a stereotypical American will have the courtesy of my foot shoved up their ass. You people are just as racist against us when you know full well that any person from any country can be a self-righteous prick. You people need to grow up just as much as Mal.
As for the game, it sounds sort of neat. I think I may give it a shot if there's a trial available. Reminds me sort of Diablo 2, which had that same kind of god-mode slaughter till you puke mentality. I love it. Much better then scheduling five hours a night to raid and wipe over and over with a bunch of immature brats. Now the real question. Were they smart enough to not include bind on pickup in this game? I just won't play any game that has any sort of no-drop, or bind on pickup. Bind on equip is fine, but bind on pickup completely ruins games imo.
There has never been a written law that MMO's shouldn't use Point & click. this game has fast past action that requires you to swap through your different characters quickly, and P&C simply works much better then WASD movement. It has already been pointed out that this game is similar to an RTS in many ways, there is no reason that it should use WASD movement just because it has a massive amount of people connected to the server, thats rediculous.
There is currently a free trial where you can play up to level 20. And there is no bind on pickup or bind on equip whatsoever.
The game is viciously boring and repetitive. Set up at your spawn -- any spawn will do -- and then one of your three characters runs around picking up loot. That's pretty much it. Once in a while, an AOE if the somewhat random spawn rate gets a little hot.
There's a reason they wanted a five-minute disconnect timer on the auto-defend. People tend to play this game AFK. Even at 30 mins, most people will be running on auto pilot.
I just don't see the point.
With my brief trial on the game, I would like to comment that this game can be fun and charming (I like the character models which are depicted to be of beautiful eurasian breed). I also like the renaissance art style of the various architecuture of the buildings. However the one turn off about this game is the grindy nature of the game.
Wow... You're pretty ignorant. How much anime have you ever watched to assume its all idiotic and will dumb down children? You do know there is a lot more deep anime than american cartoons right? You do know there is Anime/Manga that's on par with the greatest american comics right? Have you ever watched any in the original language (subtitles)? How many american kids grew up watching Voltron and Thundercats? Do you think all those people are dumbed down because it was from japan? Bashing shit you know nothing about is stupid. I can agree the majority of asian MMORPG (not games) are horrible. Hating on all asian games and anime is ridiculous. Do you think gaming would be where it's at if not for NES? Don't even tell me the atari or commodore 64 was gonna do it. I'm really gettin tired of people hating on anything that comes out of asia. If you hate it so much throw away most of the shit you own. Go all american for real.
I hate the p&c and i dont play a game to be a cluster of players,
i play the game for my enjoyment - i love grouping and i dont mind soloing but to have a 3 person team and then remove the need for any social interaction other than pvp seems to remove the fun of mmorpgs. I'm yet to find a p&c style game that has any depth and any that come close to being a full mmo. I wish some Asian games came out with some decent character structure and game play - i guess as these constant meh games point out, is too much for someone to achieve.
And I love anime and I do not live in America.. but nor do i think there is anything wrong with not liking anime and living in America...
No matter how much you argue about it these games lack the quality of WoW or other style of games.
Mylin
shrug
Agreed.
P&C worka fine for 2D isometric views, it's an idiotic game mechanic for a 3D environment but many Asian MMORPG companys refuse to evolve out of this stupid idea because they refuse to change even when it's an improvement.
I tried the beta test and P&C works as lousy as you would imagine it would work. Lots of fun trying to go up stairs when they're too high for you to click on the top.
I have a basic rule, if the MOVEMENT mechanics of a game are clunky there's NOTHING that can help it. Auto Assault is another example of developers who ignored something as basic as movement. I wouldn't be surprised if this game follows Auto Assault's path down the drain.
You can safely try pretty much any MMO out there besides WoW.
The faults in graphics and game mechanics aside, either is pleasing, or brings about displeasure to anyone that loads up an plays. You pick.
The flaw i see is an obvious one, and that's the billing system. They cut their throats even before they started. Bringing out an item mall in a pay to play game... So you pay monthly and know the whole time if you want the rest of the game ( parts used to stock the item mall) you have to dish out many more dead presidents and Maybe if you've spent enough you MAY experience the full effect of the game. Which is unlikely, by design, if you became satisfied you wouldn't spend anymore money.
Personally I'm no sucker ( I'm a licker
). So i will never play this game. And from what i experienced in closed beta, i ain't missing anything. Besides i own guildwars, i get wsad controls with 8 characters just fine if i wanted to.
Look at how hard archlord hit the wall with this type of billing system, they lasted what 2 months by the most.
As for Asian gamers, they are really no different then American gamers. They like the same game play and customizations as we do. And yes they are sick to death with the shabby force fed grind mmo's out just as we are.
Folks stuck on the ethnic trip arnt really experienced gamers. There is a silent code, either your a gamer or your not, just as your a noob or not and either your a jerk or your not or you just plain out don't get it.
Racial lines have no place in the gaming scene plain and simple. And if you make it an issue then your a noob jerk that just doesn't get it.
Hmmm no character customization, only 5 classes, and room for 32 ? characters in your house ? Someone explain this to me LOL
Also this is an asian thing. If the asians cared for cutomization this kind of crap game wouldnt be the number 1 thing on the market. Along with 10 others with slightly better options. If Grind wasnt something they liked than every asian game wouldnt be so heavily into it.
I's very easy to be PC about this and believe every racial and ethnic group wants the same thing, but facts speak for themselves.
This game is fun til lvl50ish then the grind becomes unbearable. You pretty much are forced to afk level to see any progress. Yawn.
But as far as the game is concerned, I found it to be very 'pretty' for a free MMO. Scenery and surroundings were decently developed and generally well rendered. I personally don't care for the 'zoom-in' when you speak to quest givers as it reminds me too much of certain console games which i played to death but that's just me.
I found the combat tedious and/or tiresome. I can see where teaming a group of toons for each player might make the game more fun, sometimes you can't find a group when you want to, but isn't part of grouping interacting with other people? Sure, you want to 'get the job done' but it's hard to feel like part of a group when it's you grouped with...you...grouped with you...
While you are playing (not AFK playing) Point your main toon at the next guy and slam away. Let the two 'hangers-on' family members do whaever they do automatically. It was easy enough to use but to me it felt like a sanctioned 'bot'.
The music wasn't entirely terrible but at the moment once you've heard a few minutes, that's enough.
All in all, while I didn't feel like I had completely wasted my time in downloading and playing it to try it, I find SofNW something I wouldn't and couldn't ever invest more than a trial run in.
A bit over-dramatic. Maybe you learned that from terrible anime? *gasp* *stare at opponent for 20 seconds* *gasp* *pull out oversized weapon* *stare at opponent for 20 seconds* *overly expository dialogue with DEEP DEEP philosophical meaning* *stare at opponent for 20 seconds*
OMG!! POWER LEVEL 9000!!!
Someone has been watching too much dragonball z in their childhood?
Also I see that you gave up on trying to prove your point on how gameplay and character customization can go together, and are now posting random crap.
It seems he has watched a lot of bad anime and is taking it out on the genre as a whole. Very mature.
As for my original point, I said what I wanted, and because people want to be able to play on their crap computers, it is supposedly IMPOSSIBLE to have gameplay and customization. I just spent 1200 upgrading my comp, and I'm ready to use it. Instead, the Asian market caters to the lowest common denominator. Guess I'll give the computer a nice workout when AoC and Warhammer is out. Oh yeah, but enjoy the crap that is handed to you from Asia, you LCD people you...
Oh, and I would have had no idea what the Power level 9000 crap was if not for a roommate that enjoys ALL of the anime crap and attempts, on a daily basis, to get me to like it as well. How did you freaks know it? Cause ya love it... yes you do... oh, yes you do...
- Mal
way to get off topic lol
Well so far...downloading was complete hassle and unsuccessful till i tried the bit torrent (which i had to download). That worked.....of course stil can't play because they have not sent the email verification, thou i've asked for them to resend it.
Looks great! Review sounds great! Is it great?? Don't know, Can't say!
And have no intention of paying for it till i can try it out.
From what I've experienced, guild wars has binding, vanguard has binding, eq1 and eq2 have binding, and probably others that I haven't played. So although I wish what you said was correct, I don't think it is. :(
warhammervault.ign.com is "guessing" that the requirements for Warhammer Online will be, based on the engine used:
3GHZ Processor
1GB of Ram
NVIDIA 7600+ or ATI X1000 series video card
Physx card is recommended but not required
Roughly 10gb of Hard drive space.
Probably the recommended, not minimum. I doubt many will run at that speed, so you'll have to scale down. You really shouldn't look at pre-beta screenshots and make uneducated replies. But I've read your blog, so I don't expect much more.
I've read through the minimum requirements of asian games, and I have a friend who plays Final Fantasy XI on his crappy laptop. While on the other hand Warcraft, even on minimum settings, will slow down to a crawl if you have a crappy system and more than 15 people on the same screen (ask a friend of mine how big pvp worked for him - DooD!! You're dead!!! I am? That sucks. Oh crap, I am!). I guess they just expect more from systems.
So yeah, Warhammer will expect more, Age of Conan will expect a lot, and you're an idiot.
- Mal
wow, man, do yourself and don't post in this thread again. your only humiliating yourself.
1: If thats the Recommended system requirements, then that is the undeniable proof that WARHAMMER is a low system requirements game, because considering that Warhammer will be released in 2008, the standards are much higher. Heck, even by today standards those specs are average, not high end.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=ZimtllqjS3g
Thats what a high end system MMO looks like in 2008. Oh by the way, thats an Asian MMO.
Next, While Warhammer may be in beta, the screenshots are there to promote the game. They are polished and the screenshots are taken from areas that are FINISHED. it does not matter if they beta or alpha screenshots.
Thanks for comparing FInal Fantasy XI and World of Warcraft, because it once more shows that you don't really know what your talking about:
Fact: Final Fantasy XI was released in MAY 2002! World of Warcraft is released at november 2004, thats a time difference of well over 2 years.
Fact: Final Fantasy XI was restricted because it runs on the Playstation 2.
Its silly to compare the two. Please don't go into debate with me, you only make yourself look stupid. Next time do us all a favor and just type : "I don't know what I'm talking about". saves a lot of time.
This game is no less boring and repetitive than any MMO. People complain about mindless grinding, and then when a company makes a game where you can go on auto defend for awhile and get some xp a whole other group a bitching erupts. Also, if thats how you played the game then you were in areas below your lvl and ability. It shouldnt take a genius to know when it's time to move on. As to the timer for auto defend... you can toggle it off in options. If you cant see the point, then why do you play MMo's at all?
Regardless of where we fall on the whole anime or asian MMO spectrum I think we can all agree that we gamers want more out of our MMORPGs. More creative quests, way less grinding, intuitive crafting, a balance between good graphics and system performance. I totally agree with Mal when he says we should all demand more out of developers making the new gen MMORPGs. I for one believe that for a genre ( MMORPGS) that has been around as long as it has, there should be more evolution in gameplay than there has been historically.
Yeah, Huxley is definitely an attempt in the right direction. Especially running the Unreal Engine (Cary, NC).
As for Warhammers requirements, no, they don't shift THAT much in only a year. They haven't shifted that much for the Asian market in 5 years (as you will see below). And yes, beta shots change, considerably. We could see that in early screenshots of WoW, and the changes that have been going on with AoC, which has changed considerably.
Final Fantasy XI was mentioned in passing, grouped together with other Asian MMO's... like:
Archlord (10/6/06)
Minimum Requirements
- Windows 98SE/ME/2000/XP
- Pentium or Athlon 700MHz CPU
- 128Mb RAM
- 1.8Gb Hard Disk Space
- 16 bit DirectX 9 compatible soundcard
- Supported 32Mb graphics card
Flyff (12/25/05)
Minimum Requirements:
PentiumIII 800MHZ
128MB RAM
Geforce 2mx 200
Direct X 9.0 or better required
Guild Wars (4/26/05)
minimum requirements:
PIII 800
256MB RAM
500MB HDD
32MB video card
Kal Online (11/6/04)
P3 with 600 MHZ
128 Mb Ram
16 Mb Video card
DX 9.0c
Rappelz (11/03/06)
Pentium-III 800MHz
128 MB 3D accelerator VGA card
512 MB
DX 9.0c
And Final Fantasy XI has at least the same requirements as these 'newer' games, and newer by 3 years. It happens to surpass several of them.
Yeah... so, you actually have a blog that talks about this stuff? Do people trust your opinion? Should I hand out my email address so people can come to me for advice when you fail them miserably? Just checking cause I'm not sure if you're really arguing that Western games have less requirements or that they can't be turned up to demand more? I mean, really... are you?
- Mal
p.s. Thank you Darksider25 for your agreement, especially in your first post to MMORPG. Welcome to the mad house!
LOL... He didnt agree with you at all. He said "Regardless of where we fall on the whole anime or asian MMO spectrum I think we can all agree that we gamers want more out of our MMORPGs." You said "I just wish they would leave their crap overseas instead of infesting our shores with it." Also your comment wasn't in reference to only MMORPGs. Please don't make it sound like people agree with your shit. Either you like a game or hate it. How can you hate every asian made game and anime when you havent seen or played them all? Please explain to me how the NES didnt do great things for gaming. Also please explain to me how PS1 didnt bring gaming to the next level. I'm positive you cant.
edit: I'm sorry to go off topic... but I find this type of shit offensive. Again, I will say that i agree that most ASIAN MMORPGs suck. I won't say everything they make sucks because that's false. I also won't assume a new asian mmorpg is going to suck and will be "just another point and click grind fest with no content (typical hater speak)."
Few things. reason you have 32 char slots but only 5 playable classes is because you unlock other classes (they call it rnpc, can't remember what it stands for) which you can then make and level. You unlock them by doing quests throughout your char career, first 2-3 get unlocked within first 10 lvls or so.
It's an ok game but I am not sure what they have for an end game, and like all asian games it's a grind fest. Also since you have your own party (3 chars) you get a healer that will auto heal your party =p so it has no downtime but you still have to kill a ton of mobs. Also, you fight a lot of mobs, and 1-2 shot them, so you ca often be fighting 5-15 mobs ata time with your 3 chars. Makes it somewhat fun.
Still, no idea what they have for end game.
Pvp is impossible as ever character has a skill (or many skills) that will do 1000%+ damage. This makes pvp one shot fest. Since musketeers have the longest range, you have them one shot everyone before anyone can one shot them =p not a good pvp system.
All in all it's an ok game to pass some time, some people might even like it. Not worth a monthly fee though.
I assume he means its boring... all looks - the 3 players is a new feature though, least for MMO's ..does that cause more lag?
Yeah, I tried this game until lv 50. LV 20 with different MCC combos. it is very refreshing for a while, especially not having to set up your own macros for afk lving. I think I afk lved 10-15. But it eventually gets boring for me cause of the repetitive grinding. I could easily see it as on the top 10 for these type of mmorpgs.
Lately, I've been pretty disappointed with mmorpgs these days, think i've been through too many of them -_-. Time to go back to consoles
...
I really enjoy this game, played it in Beta, and now am happily playing the retail. The character customization, or lack therof, is a bit of a bummer, but the good in this game surely outwieghs the bad imo.
The phrase "Asian MMOs Suck!" keeps popping up. Well, that's your opinion not fact. Some of us enjoy the style and play of Asian MMOs. Plus, I think this game is more original than it's given credit for.
I'll be playing this one for a while...*launches client
A very mediocre game, my opinion of course. Everyone looks alike which is a major disappointment far as I am concerned.
Don't see how they can rate it high on graphics when they did extremely little on avatar customization. Graphics to me is the avatar, everything else is secondary.
Secondly this game has zero staying power. People will level and and get bored very fast with this type of game. There is very little grouping, hence a lot of soloing and not much socializing. People tend to continue playing games where they make a lot of friends, this is not that type of game, hence a major design flaw.
Thirdly, there is very little content in the game, but I will grant them that it is new and most new games are weak in this area too.
Again another typical Korean game that will not do well in the US and Europe. While they did do somethings different, they still missed what people in this hemisphere find fun about MMO's.
I give this game 6 months and the servers will be ghost towns.
jeez talk about Stereotypes, i think you've fallen victim to one of the biggest ones.
So you speak for all of Asia do you? And you're saying all Asians are all the same?
Live in China and Korea for a few years and notice, for example, the number of individual entrepreneurs starting up their own little one-man businesses - on nearly every streetcorner - then come back and tell me that all Asians are just one big swarm of ants who think and act alike.
If anything, this notion that "Asians aren't individuals" was started in the West
and sounds a whole lot like the very racist "Asians aren't really people".
Having played the beta, I can unfortunately say that this is a fun game....for maybe 5-10 hours, after which the repetition of play and the almost hands-off combat system starts to drag in a horrible way. I always like to preface that I did not like Diablo 2 when I am about to trash what is essentially an evolved descendant of that classic, so people who loved Diablo 2 might like this.....but for me it was mindless, but pretty (Here's how combat works btw: click a spot, characters run that way and kill everything life mass murders on a serious spree, basically, with no input needed from the player.....in fact, trying to interfere and use special abilities can screw up the process and get you killed, ironically)
On the limited character models: the costuming is incredibly cool, but the similarity between models became fairly annoying when running around in densely populated areas. It's so bad that you can easily lose track of your own characters in high traffic regions if you aren't paying atention. Pretty bad.
But this game is very, very pretty..... just wish it was more like, say, Guild Wars than Diablo. Seriously, mobs are so thick and respawn so fast that I started to feel like my characters' sole storyline for the game was to completely destroy the New World's ecology by rendering everying living extinct, as quickly as possible. It was nuts.....not even a token effort to simulate some realism (like how wolves eat rabbits and deer in WoW, for example.)
As a result, this makes Swords feel very, very much like a Gauntlet/Diablo style video game with loads of cheap action, but doesn't even bother to exrapolate from what could have been a potentially very cool role playing game setting......there will be absolutely no role playing in this one, folks, for those who care about that stuff. And the storyline....hmmmm......I hope the final release has better localization than the beta, because I ended up taking quests where the english translation was so poor I actually had no idea what I was doing or why I was doing it from the garbled text!
I really expected too much from this game and totally forgot whos made it. Yeah, the same old sh1t. Everyone is the same, and thats totally against the term RPG. Click n move just make the things worse. And i dont know for sure but i bet the possible equipment items are very limited. Jesus why do they make games like that?
Well, you can't imagine, but there are people who wants to play an MMO with an old computer - for example in Eastern Europe... I'm Hungarian, and lots of people has a GeForce 4200 or a Radeon 9600XT even now. They can't buy a new computer, because they don't have enough money for it. (yeah, I know, Hungary is a very margin place for an American or a developer - but Poland or Russia is too?)
And some ON: The game is fun, battle is quick, and it's completely good for entertain yourself - if you get tired with your favourite game. Controlling three characters together isn't always so easy (caster stays back and the respawn begins to hit him/her...), and unique player characters make your team different from other familys. I liked SotNW at beta phase, and I'll continue it now.
Okay stop it, we had our laugh, you don't know what your talking about, let it go. Your looking at games that are low budget and are made specificly for low system requirements. Does that mean all of them are based on low system requirements? Ofcourse not, but low system requirements will always be kept in mind in most games, just like many western MMO's, and thats a simple fact, but there are still asian MMO's that require a god rig. Go look up Aion, Its using the Crytek engine and is clearly more impressive then WAR from a technical standpoint. Huxley has been confirmed to use the Unreal 3 engine, and Lineage 3 has also been confirmed to use the Unreal 3 engine. The fact your trying to use 4 low budget MMO's that are specificly made for a low system rig to represent over 200 mmo's is hilarious. In fact, you have such little knowledge of the MMORPG genre that you didn't even know that....
Guild Wars is a WESTERN Game.
Yes I have a blog that talks about this stuff so people can listen to someone who knows what the heck he is talking about, unlike yourself. I mean, the fact that you didn't even know Guild Wars is a western Game(Developed by Arena net) is simply hilarious.
But why are you judging the games on the requirements? Asian MMO's are known to have great graphics with low system requirements. I dare you to find an MMO that looks as good as Lineage 2 and Granado Espada that have such graphics and such low systemr equirements.
you know nothing about MMO's, drop it, you lost the debate.
You can also stop acting like a child by attacking my blog. The cold fact isn't that my blog is bad, you don't understand the content because you have absolutely no idea what you are talking about.
edit: I changed my mind, please continue to post. your posts are an endless source of entertainment, there is nothing more hilarious then watching a person who has no idea what he is talking about act like he actually has a clue.
Ok, you cant customize your face, but you can customize your outfit. There are about 6 -10 outfits per character of the original 5 classes. So, no everyone doesnt look the same.
Now as for the game being a grind fest... Yes its an asian MMO there is a grind. However, I went from level 1 - 20 last night with my three toon group, and then leveled another up to 16 when I wanted to switch. As you get higher it does get slower. But... you can speed it up by fighting harder monsters. If you move into the start dungeon you can hang out there till 27 but its going to take forever. Or... you can move on quicker.
Also, you can do quests to break up the grind a bit. While they are similar to other games quest, they do sub in some mission content witch is similar to an instance but timed.
There are TONS of UPC (Unique Player Characters) to collect, so the team combinations are endless. I have gotten 3 upc's since I started, and may have missed a few.
PvP
there are 1 v 1's , clan wars, faction wars, colony siege's, and baron pvp (open pvp). If you like PVP its a very intense game. One poster said its all one shots... well... from what I have seen so far thats not the case, might get 3 shot if you dont have a healer or potions... but, thats just not being prepared.
Item enhancement
Every item you loot can be enchanted. Im not sure what the cap on enchantments is, but 1 - 4 is free. Any enchanting over 4 has a chance of destroying your item, but drastically increases the power. Enchanters over 5 have an increased percentage, and enchants over 9 have an even higher percentage.
As far as MMO's go I think SOTNW isnt bad, are you grinding? Yes... but your grinding in WoW as well, whether its rep, honor, or the same instance over and over for your tier 5 armor. All mmo's are grinds... its all about what grind you like or can live with.
Well at least the combat pace is just as slow as every other kore..nope..its much faster actually. Well hey, that stance system? Its avaible in EVERY kor.....or maybe not..
Well at least every korean MMO offers both factions vs Faction AND clan vs clan politcal system..or no wait, this isn't true either..
This game isn't like every other korean MMO, its that simple. there are features that set it apart, period, end of discussion.
But I'm sure tha in 6 months the servers will be ghost towns..just like every other kor..oh right I forgot, most korean MMO's are actually alive and doing very well.
Stop spreading false rumors Ozmodan, or should I say ciredric?
When a toon represents your avatar in the world it is important. In this case it is an early sign of a lack of attention to detail. It leads one to wonder what else they cut corners on, and if the habit is wide spread then the game is liable to be poorly made. He also has a point about the general dumbing down of games. Those of us that have been gaming since the early eighties have noticed a steady downward trend in the mental challenge of games. This trend began in the mid-nineties and has accelerated to the point that your average eight year old can play an MMO. I knew old school gaming was doomed when Deer Hunter out sold everything.
Sword of the New World spices it up a bit by giving you a combination of 3 characters, but since those characters differ not at all from what another person can have I am sure the same combination repeats itself over and over. Just wait until everyone figures out the most powerful combination..............
Heck that is half the problem with America buying more foreign stuff than we sell to foreigners. What does this spell? Economic disaster 56% of American businesses are already owned by foreign countries/companies. Keep up the good work people. I'm not saying that all stuff foreign is bad, but you people need to start taking a little pride in made in the USA while we still actually own some of it.
Just FYI lumber is one of the few things we actually have a balance of trades surplus on ray, and most semi-conductors are manufactured outside of the US so its more like 90% not half.
Also in SOTNW you arent an avatar, your a family. You may use one toon tonight, and use two different ones tomorrow. Its not about a single character, but the group.
Husband and I tried to play this thing - we are both lovers of history and gaming....I palyed UO since it came out (before it was on the net like it is today- yes i'm old) so point and click was no biggie......but it just isnt for us. I am sure some will like it and it will have a following but with today's need to be able to maneuver slightly faster than poin and click allows (fond of my WASD keys) and the bland ability to customize leaves me with giving this game a 3...on a scale of 0-10 and it only got that because 1. the graphics are quite pretty and 2. they had the ballz to release it here.
Its definitely not for everyone, but with the fact you control 3 toons, I have no idea how wsad would work... and I hate point and click games. I just see this more as a RTSMMORPG than a MMORPG and I like RTS's =)
WASD - for the character of your choice, the others follow. Simple as that.
As for Lineage 2 and Granado Espada, I've played on MUD's that were better than either game as far as customization and play go. It's funny that you refer only to the art when considering these games, as if that is the end all of system requirements and what is worthwhile to play. You should just order a poster, hang it on your wall, and declare it the best Asian MMO ever.
But keep pointing out these 'Great Games' that rely on American and German ingenuity and higher end system requirements. In the meantime, do me a favor and actually list an Asian game, on the market, that is good. I started by saying that Asian games are terrible with customization and play, and I have seen no evidence so far that I was wrong. All I get is, "You so funny, stop posting!", and "Look at this great game that is based on a Western Engine and isn't out yet!" And you stand by this insane idea that you have to choose between having a great looking game vs. playability, content, and customization.
- Mal
No because in that instance it would take longer to give orders. For instance, there are some boss fights where you must get OFF each other fast.
Take the armor maker in Robidouex (spelling) you have to fight him and he aoe attacks. you have to set up your toons before you start the mission to work individually not as a team, then as soon as you enter F1 and click one spot, and while the toon is moving F3 and click another spot, now you have split your team to 3 different positions in the time it would have taken you to move one.
As I stated previously Im a HUGE fan of WSAD I couldnt stand lineage due to click to move....however, in this game your controlling three toons and you can controll them separately and in many instances have to micro manage like an RTS. If you had to move each toon with wsad a lot of missions would be difficult / impossible.
Unfortunatly for you,your statement that they are bad is nothing but your opinion, nothing more. I can list many asian MMO's that I think are good, but that doesn't mean that you have to think they are good. I can return the question and ask for evidence why they are bad, and you can come with nothing else but your opinion, and judging by your posts and the fact you didn't even know Guild Wars was a western MMO, that opinion is comming from someone who has no idea what he is talking about. Now as I said, I can't show evidence for what makes a game good because that is based on opinion, but I can show you a game that has wide customization.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=JPQJhYD-F20&mode=related&search=
Perfect World.
And yes, game developers have to make decisions between customization and gameplay. This is not an insane idea, this is fact, its that simple. Ever wondered why a game like City of Heroes and Everquest 2 don't allow for huge siege battles or huge raids? Or try gathering a lot of people in SWG. Unless you have high end computer (which most people don't), you will start to lag.
Customization is a main issue in a lot of asian mmo's as they are ports. Meaning, Company A creates it and Company B gets the right to sell and distribute it in a different region. The problem with that is their hands are tied creatively with a lot of things. They didnt make the code and have to get permission for many changes. Its like fighting with a hand tied behind your back.
I agree these games do lack extreme customizable options like some of the US games, but, customizing and the ability to do so it one option of the game. Can the game be good with out customizing? Yes.
Lots of people in this thread say, the game sucks cause you cant customize and that means the devs were lazy else where. Thats just an unfair and untrue argument.
Perfect World didn't look half bad, the character customization was nice, but I wonder where it will fail? Something tells me it will be on some significant aspect. Looks like it isn't even available yet for US... am I right?
- Mal
Edit: yeah, looks like I'm right. So much for one of the 200 games you mentioned that are on the market and invaded our shores. Really hard to dig down and find a decent Asian game that handles customization and playability well. Not surprised.
Actually I found that game in less then 5 minutes of research. Its not avaible for the US yet, its a new game and it takes some time before it reaches our shores. The company behind the game already confirmed that they have plans for a worldwide release including the US and Europe. I also never said that 200 games actually made it to our shores, I said there are over 200 asian MMO's. The amount of asian MMO's that actually hit our shores is very low, about 3% or so of asian MMO's actually come here, hence stereotyping is silly.
No it doesn't, but I hit reply instead of quote. I was addressing two seperate issues brought up in the post I meant to quote.
My wife bought a copy of it on Friday at Best Buy here on the East Coast.
And your toons will die in the first massive AOE. Congratulations!
Well i bought the game and first off its shallow..but my god its fun for an hour or so..perfect if you dont have much time wehter i stick with it for any length of time is doubtfull but for the price i paid £10 its worth it.
Why? You could still switch characters around and still have key bindings for the different characters skills! Anyway if this game plays more like an rts point and click could work well (and it works well in old isometric rpgs too), I guess I will have to try for myself. Will be interesting to see how Gods and Heroes handles this since they seem to have you control multiple characters as well.
Yes, but not every player has a healer in their group (only the scout has healing skills); and you can run out healing potions fast... I think WASD couldn't be the right system for SotNW - well, it takes some time to get used to the camera, but it's still fast.
I have to say that the graphics look amazing. Those artists really deserve a lot of respect. As for the rest..meh..same basic features with only the multicharacter sounding interesting. Which Guild Wars already had from the beginning. As for the people who think that only point to click works with more then one character..check Guild Wars. Combination or choice for keymapping is always better then being restricted to one of the two movement systems.
And character customisation is basically a good selling point for a game. I have to agree with certain critics in this thread, Some devs will never learn, This is just another beautifull looking, but very boring bland run of the mill MMO. Next in the line will be Aion. 'Oh You can fly in that game! That will be so great! Arghhh...80% of the mmo players get totally braindead after seeing nice graphics.'
Offtopic : O and although I happen to like the anime style for the art, I have to agree with the dialogues being laughable most of the time. (With a few great movies and series as exception).
Well it was free so I downloaded and gave it try. Pretty awful game. I hated the P&C and I defintely don't like anime -- (after all if you are used to Rembrandt and Raphael anime is in the toilet somewhere along with other waste). The characters are really ugly -- the boys all like girls and I can't tell them apart.
The UI needs a ton work -- it really stinks. If this is the best in the Asian market -- no wonder they all like WoW.
This game is as good as poisoned chinese toothpaste -- glad I never forked out any money for it.
Too bad -- as I like the setting, but alas there rest is so terrible that it is not worth playing just for the setting.
Send it back to ASIA!!
Most of them get around and the rest are pretty much the same Gameloading. I had a list of all those 200 mmos and with a few exceptions like basketball mmos and such most of them were just generic fantasy mmos.(either based off RO or L2)
You must be trolling, I mean I cant imagine anyone being silly enough to compare animated cartoons with classic art. You can flame every single MMO for that reason. Furthermore all those paintings lack one dimension and that is time (animation). Actually, the more I think about it, the more I realise how stupid you must be to make that comparison in the first place. Not to mention that you downloaded a whole game without checking screenshots first.
I mean how would you describe colourfull WoW? Being created by a wannabe Picasso on acid with a homo phobia? It is sad btw how some people get insecure when their character doesnt look like some pumped up version of Arnold Schwarzenegger with pointed ears.
I like my character to look different than the guy next to it. Be it a different anime haircut or a cool looking evil grin :P
Adele Caelia has again favored us with another poorly thought out review. Playing the game for one hour is hardly cause to give an 8.2 rating. While it looks pretty on the outside, you really see it for what it is when you open the hood and see the hampster spinning the wheel.
The game has very little customization, everyone looks the same, no content to speak of. After doing the beta test I can assure you, this game is no different than all the other Korean grindfests and they want to charge you to play it?
While the asian market seems to like this mindless killfest type of game, it will not do well on this side of the ocean, people like to use their brains when they play a MMO here.