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Darkfall Review: The 2011 Re-Review - Edit
7.2
| Pros |
 Clan warfare some of the best PvP around Never a dull moment Refreshing skill system |
| Cons |
 Graphics and animations Not for those who loathe the grind Open loot is still too harsh for some |
Throughout the past couple of months I have been chased, beaten, robbed, murdered and taunted. A simple task such as travelling a dozen metres into the woods has left me emotionally scarred as a result of the numerous online-brigands constantly pursuing me. In reality I have become a quivering wreck: a short journey to the local shops is spent with panicking eyes, a twitchy mood, and equipped with a small blunt weapon just in case someone takes fancy of my jeans or indeed, my trainers - If someone so much as eyes my jacket, there will be panic swings.
Developed by Aventurine over the course of many years, Darkfall is of that ever illusive breed of MMORPG which isn't afraid to wear its decade-old influences upon its sleeves. Within this title we find a brutal, paranoia-inducing, thrilling ride that takes the essence of the sandbox game and lets it run rampant within a world of open PvP. If you're a fan of Ultima Online, Planetside and Dark Age of Camelot -I think you might just consider reading on with fervent excitement.
Kicking it Old School
Beginning your life within Darkfall is no different than other MMORPGs. Finding your way to the character selection screen, players can choose from six races typical of the genre; the choices being Humans, Dwarves, Elves, Orks, Mahirim (Wolf-Men) and Alfar (Dark Elves). What is interesting with these initial choices is the inbuilt alignment and alliance system that comes with each class. While it is not essential to stick to the certain race groups: Humans, Dwarves, and Elves can find common allies - while Orks and Mahirim are known for their furry friendship; the Alfar being the lone operative of the game. The result of all these genetic shenanigans is that players have enemies baying for blood from day one.
Aside from declaring war via hereditary status, the character creation tool that is on offer is standard fair. There are a number of sliders and options to distinguish your character and essentially there is nothing more than choosing a rather exciting looking beard and possibly chiselling yourself a strong jaw. Once the player is ready to continue, a starting location is picked and it's time to start the adventure.
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Beginning life in that most hallowed fashion of the MMORPG, players are dropped into life outside of a town border equipped with nothing but underwear and a blunt sword. The excitement of EverQuest players is already rising to fever pitch. Aventurine in a wise move has taken one or two influences from newer games so that newbie experience is intuitive and inviting. Rather than throwing a player into the big, bad world without so much as a nod of encouragement - players are offered tutorial pages within the game; there are even starter quests which, as well as offering rewards, slowly and subtly teach the mechanics of the game without ever blatantly holding the players hand. The opening experience, while by no means perfect, strikes that balance of old and new and offers something fairly refreshing and the apparent lack of 'Kill x of y' is an invigorating change.
Warrior, Rogue or Mage?
So after completing a dozen or so tasks and gaining a few pieces of armor, it is at this point that the player will start to consider paths and objectives within the game. Like many sandbox titles, Darkfall offers a class-system which is free from the traditional boundaries - and where this game differs again, is that the choices a player makes are limitless from any sort skill point cap. What this means is that a player can become both Wizard and Warrior while also becoming a master lumberjack with a side interest in alchemy. The choice to be anything really encapsulate that sandbox feeling that a lot of games lack by, albeit sensibly, restricting how many points a player can earn and devote to a certain role.
With this however come the negatives as well as the positives. Aventurine have done a good job in actually making their MMO fairly difficult and time consuming so that players will not max every area within a matter of days - while this fixes some of the problems, it doesn't address that fact that certain builds in reality become the predefined classes that they originally sought to get away from. There are only a small number of powerful builds that most people head for and while this is still player determined, it is an issue that makes the game even more narrow and unbalanced than the traditional system.
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Of course the plus side to all this is that, as the game offers a single character slot, nothing else is really needed. Except from trying out a different race and perspective, your single avatar can become anything and be of use to anyone given enough time and progression. There will never be a moment in which a player realises that his time spent in 'Cooking' was a waste and now has to start again. It is refreshing to play a game that dabbles in older influences but actually seeks to progress them rather than wallow in nostalgia blindly.
The approach to actually gaining skills is mildly exciting too and holds much immersion. While a lot of progression is based around grind (more on this later) and purchasing from vendors, certain skills are progressed by actually engaging in activities. For instance running speed and Stamina can be increased by jogging and sprinting throughout the lands of Agon; while sneaking is modified by crouch walking around the place. Other skills are also influenced by engaging in an activity that is relevant, so rather than hitting a certain amount of experience and hearing the 'ding' sound, skilling-up appeals to the more immersive player and just for someone who wants to try something different.
While Darkfall's approach is inventive the game, unfortunately for some, is based around that age old sticky-issue of grind. Combat is progressed by swinging whatever bladed or spiked object into whatever NPCs skull, and craft too is only further by the constant forging of items or objects. While some people feel this is a massive turn-off, I cannot see why Aventurine's approach should be met with hostility and an apologetic tone from its followers.
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The fact is, many people of this genre enjoy grinding - Myself being one of them. If the game is charming and engrossing enough, grinding becomes something that is just inherent to the experience and akin to the bubble-wrap of online gaming. At times, the grind can be a little too much and the developer in future should look for alternative ways to advance skills (and I'm not talking about questing) but as it stands, if you like grinding, then this game is fine - if you don't, well that is your preference.
Take me to Strawberry Fields
So of course we need a world for all of this gameplay goodness to inhabit and, again, taking heed from older games, Darkfall offers an expanse of land that would put most medium sized countries to shame. The world of Agon features a single massive continent and several decent-sized islands littered about. The greatest achievement in sculpting this landscape is that the developer have somehow made something beautiful, and yet, distinctively ugly.
Take for instance the human lands which a large portion of the gaming populace will find themselves in, at one point or another. We have winding paths, rivers and settlements - we too have grass plains, woodland and even little farmsteads. The place looks quaint and tranquil; its patchwork look even transports you to a better and nicer place. But alternatively, the place is awash with horrible texturized browns and lurid greens that offend the eye and scream for better system requirements always. While there is something endearing in the actual design of Agon, the graphical engine leaves the player cold and gives proceedings an intrinsically 'cheap' feel that only indie games contain.
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The character models too transport players back almost five years to something that would offend in a PlayStation 2 game. We are in the altogether futuristic sounding 2011 now, and Darkfall would not look amiss almost a decade previous. The animations are stiff and unnatural; when swinging a sword the body moves unlike it should do: the waist and legs remain still while only the shoulders exert any effort. Combat rather than being fluid and dynamic, looks like two badly operated puppets throwing their arms up while going through some sort of embalming procedure.
When games graphical abilities are its major downfall, this is a fairly assuring thing. The game itself is endearing and charismatic enough to keep your attention and Aventurine are supposedly looking to fix these gripes with motion-capture animation. When this comes to fruition then Darkfall will be a serious contender, until that point it can't help put wear the badge of 'indie developed'.
Really good review that touches on the most important aspects of the game. It only fails to mention one thing and that is the archaic and horrible UI that will in itself turn of many people.
If Darkfall is to be a serious contender to Eve then it has to fix the shortcomings of its UI, graphics and animation. It currently shows clearly that the game is developed by an indy company.
Thank you for this review.
I became sad but not surprised when I was reading that the animations were bad. I for one can play ANY game with ANY graphics, but the animations as you describe did drive me crazy whenever I watched gameplay videos of Darkfall. The other thing I felt the same for was the class system. Fans of Dark Age of Camelot who are used to dosens of classes to choose from per realm will not be used to such a narrow system.
Biggest mistakes done by AV, developers of DFO: No skill cap and alignment system (arac clans...)
All the rest of this game is wonderful, excelent, innovative, adrenaline-rusher, non coockie-cutter, non themepark, non on-rails-gameplay...
Yes, it is quite ironic that a system that is supposedly to provide you with lots of choices for classes in fact only has one viable build. The do everything melee/archer/mage build.
melee/archer/mage/crafter/gatherer
Fixed for you.
Sadly unlike other sandboxy type games like UO, SWG, EVE, Ryzom, & Fallen Earth,.
Darkfall doesn't let you play naturally and progress your character through natural game play style.
You have to skill everything for anyone to take you seriously And the peer pressure to do so just to join a clan is pathetic.
Honestly its just bad design and AV deserves the small amount of players it has playing DF right now.
This game could have been fantastic.
"Open loot is still to harsh for some"
TYPO
I've been playing Darkfall since the first day.
It is allot better than what is was and for me the full loot is a bit plus not a con.
However the massive grind in this game puts games like Aion to shame. If they sorted this properly we would have allot more players around.
Grind a side, best game there is right now.
For a game based primarily on PVP, Guilds vs Guilds and City Sieging - I would have thought it appropriate to spend more than half a day in a guild. Were you even able to launch over a wall?
I'm a little surprised to see comments about the animations, I know they had issues at launch...but I think they are pretty good now. Dont let the animations turn you away if you havent played, they aren't bad.
There's no doubt that the UI sucks...the UI is so bad that you can make adjustments to it which can cause a difference on your frame rates by more than 200 FPS....thats insane. Another con is simply that Adventuring is pathetic, they dont care about their subscribers and they take way to long to fix issues. For example, log in bugs have not been fixed for more than a year. Its just kind of accepted at this point.
As far as the game itself, it is hardcore...the wow players and fast track players should stay away. People that really enjoy an open game feel, a game that as sim as possible...Darkfall is it. While some may hate the full loot, it really is what makes the game so intense. You take that away, who cares about dying? Also, I'd rather lose my loot than lose experience like in L2.
to be honest idk wht everyosn probelm with the UI beside that it uses up from FPS i took me 15-30 min to get used to it when i played on EU launch. This is a greate review a great game and its only improving. And Graphics? the graphics are not bad and they even said they will be update in the next expansion.
The biggest turnoffs for darkfall are:
1. Long repetitive grind from hell. Expect to spend 6 months minimum bashing goblins with low end weapons to get your skills up to a competitive level. There are literally hundreds of skills that you have to raise. You can't just raise fire magic. You have to grind fire magic plus all 10+ fire magic spells individually. Then you have to grind like 5+ fire magic support skills on top of that. Then you can start grinding water magic. Grinding magic isn't cheap btw. You can't make enough money while grinding to support the cost. So you have to stop grinding magic to grind gold so you can grind magic.
2. Everything is static. The game promised player built cities, and housing. What they delivered was static capturable forts and useless static housing that serves as nothing but a recall bind.
3. Economy that does not work.
4. Low population.
This game is a refreshing breath in the mmo world, i wish i had enjoyed it more, but i didn't a second, well yes in fact, the few weeks after release were really really nice for some reasons. But after that it was just a pain, i should had macroed from day one, but refused. A game that need to be macroed or botted, hacked or whatever to be enjoyed isn't a good game in my book.
Full loot is not a problem in darkfall i don't know why the OP is even mentioning it, in fact most player see it as an adventage. Thats really funny in fact, it seam like he was forced to play a game he might not even tryed during off hours. If there is a problem, it is about gear unbalance between noob and high end gear. It's a know fact in DF the noob/vet balance isn't really good, bad in fact, whatever the fanboys and the dev claim. The game was supposed to give a fair chance to all, but don't. Nobody that picked DF wanted to have a glorified Lineage 2 with half hiden win buttons, they wanted a glorified Uo when talking about gear and its relation to pvp, one of the numerous error they made. Also gear unbalance isn't the only faulty mechanism into this, but the way combat and fps is implemented which was the most critisized aspect during all the first year, but i guess all those people left now, i think i was the last crusader abandoning the battle. Damn it.
The game is still good and should be played for the sake of it, it really deserve more that the average mark people give it here, just for that inovative aspect it deserve a lot more, but there is no inovation mark in the mmorpg rating list, they should really add one. DF is not even close to the game it copied in fact, the danger aspect of the game is really unique to this game. If the combat system was a little less frustrating and skillfull (i know i might get flamed all over but i don't give a shit, its well know mellee combat is a trade of blow because there is no dodge like a fps should naturally have) i would resub tomorrow.
I found the community to be highly elitest which I did not like at all. Without skill caps the game will never be anything more than a wanna be. Heck I had far more fun in UO than in Darkfall. Of course all just my opinion. You should decided yourself.
The community is probably one of the worst part of the entire game.
I've never seen such a clueless community in my life playing MMOs.
Sure FFA full loot pvp attracts the more aggressive folk but thats not the issue.
The issue is where these players come from.
These arent oldschool sandbox players from UO, SWG or EVE these fucking twats come from WAR & WoW.
No self respecting oldschool sandbox player would stand for a game that called itself a sandbox yet only had one viable skill spec...
These guys prefer it!!! its pathetic and makes me sad that these people cal themselves both sandbox players and hardcore...
I would go back if there were more people playing. My guilds roster looks more like an obituary.When I recently went back to the game for a month I mounted from NIF to the center of the map and saw 1 player that ran like hell back to his clans city. The game is alot of fun when there is a higher population. AV needs to do something soon to create more interest in this game or it will continue to be a ghost town.
It's true the UI is indeed functional and once you get used to it all is fine, however, most people that play games are not hardcore gamers but rather casual ones and I'm sure many would appreciate an attractive, stylish and sexy UI, rather one that looks like from the 2000s. With that said, Aventurine is heading in the right way, from what I read in their blog they are revamping their GUI, graphics and animations (they are working on motion capture, there are some photos of it) and everything is getting ready for their next expansion. It seems to be rather impressive and while I don't play Darkfall right now, I'm waiting for this expansion to give it a try.
Are there any significant reasons to not be a murderer yet?
Which is what, exactly? From everything I saw in my three month stay, they were basically just getting ideas of old games into this generation. That's commendable, but not innovative, I think.
Darkfall is suppose to have a "relaunch" later this year and I recommend waiting to play until that time, unless one is intensely interested in a full loot PvP experience, ala, Ultima Online 1997-1999.
The author of the article likes grinding but he's naive. In the context of a PvP game, a long grind leads to a huge imbalance in character power, which doesn't work when anybody can kill anybody else on whim. That doesn't mean that instant character is recommend by me; but the way things are now it takes months of heavy play, grinding, and macroing to make a competitive character; and well over a year if one plays "normally." What the game needs is major adjustments to the character development system so that one can make a final, competitive character in around 3 months of regular play; excluding trade and crafting skills.
Darkfall is a commercial failure primarily due to the grind, because it takes so long to develop a competitive character. The game is top heavy with Vets, many of whom used exploits that are now closed or aren't as well known.
Most players, besides grinding, also macro swimming, in order to raise their attribute stats, because they go up so painfully slow. It's ridiculous that at night probably 80% of those logged into the game are just swimming AFK or casting self-buff spells using a macro AFK.
All this has led to a game world that is empty of players. While there are a few PvP "hot spots" around the map, it's more like team deathmatch than anything that's immersive or purposeful or lore-based.
All this noted, and I could go on, Darkfall has enormous potential if the developer's adjust and fix the core issues.
The game could easily be as popular as EVE ONLINE, so definitely watch out for its development, if you're still going to stay on the sidelines, but are attracted to the basic concepts behind it.
Glad you re-revied Darkfall again the old rating was just plain unjustified.
There are two things in this review that I feel could have been better.
1. The main reason I joined and still play Darkfall today is because of the warfare mechanics. Boats, cannons, seiges, 100's of players. This is the best part of the game in my view and the subject is very rarely touch on from a review standpoint but in all fainess, rarely touched on by the community as well.
2. graphic engine is dated. However, if updating the graphics comes with a change in style I would be greatly disapointed. Oblivion has better graphics than Morrowind however Morrowinds art direction is more appealing to me. The trend in the MMO market to use the high end video technology to basically make a cartoon world more detailed is insulting to me personally. Darkfall doesnt have the best video technology but it has a much more intresting art direction in my view.
"A system of highlighting a handful of items in your equipment that will be duplicated in case of attack would be a fairly interesting concept - the murderer gets everything on your corpse while a duplicate of those items specified are kept for the victim."
this would be exploited into oblivion...
should of waited until the re-launch
If your going to try Darkfall join NEW asap as they will help you out with all of your questions aswell as group up with you to hunt or protect. The goodie bag is also a great addition to a starting character.
You shouldn't list open loot as a con. Yeah its too harsh for some but this game is not for them. There are con's but open loot is not one of them.
I don't play now because I reached the point where I will need to join a clan. I had been playing and having a lot of fun soloing and working with other noobs I met along the way, but to join a clan, a time committment not unlike getting a job seems to be required in most cases.
This is understandable given the way Darkfall is set up. But it is also the point where I had to decide whether to keep playing or not. I need to prioritize my RL first and I simply cannot dedicate a minimum of 20 hours a week to this game - which feels like what I would need to do to accomplish what I need to accomplish to keep clan members happy with my character development progress, etc.
Clans can be very supportive of your character development and there are fine people in them. I'm not criticizing that in any way. In my case however, I just like to play in my own way and given the way Darkfall is designed, that would make me a hopeless noob for years. Your clan will want you to do specific things and reach specific levels of competence within certain timeframes. This feels like a peer-driven and pressure-filled grind to a player like me. There isn't the joy of play and exploration, but more an anxiety-fueled sprint to meet the pace of a clan's expectations.
For that reason, I realized I need a more "casual" game.
All that said, I still love Darkfall and do not recommend any changes to make it more accessible. It is what it is and you can play it or not. Because I chose not to go on, obviously, doesn't make a bad or imperfect game. I wish DF and it's community well. I hope this games continues to thrive, improve, and grow.
I stopped myself from playing this game because of the videos with bad graphics. I thought, "wow, look at that guy swinging his sword, that does NOT look fun at all." Then I tried it...I have been playing for a year now. Once you get over that first hill of being a noob, get your skills up and know what to farm for what, I feel that losing my entire bank would not send me back too far. You just have to join a good clan, or solo like a little fish in a small pond filled with sharks. There is no other game out there like this, that I enjoy nearly as much at least.
The game was originally designed with a skill cap in mind they just couldn't get in implemented before launch so they pulled it. No skill cap + a horrible UI is why this game is failure plus. Also the game was heavily exploited in the early days. I think if they overhauled the UI, added a skill cap, and wiped and relaunched the game it would be much more successful.
Maybe read the lines after the quote?
And the game wasn't designed with a cap, find me only a dev quote about this. IN fact they clearly said they want a endless skilling ala EVE, but didn't want it to be time based but on use based like UO. The mix wasn't good thats all. And they clearly wanted to have the Dread Lords days of Uo where every had access to all main pvp skills, but everyone had hiw own playstyle.
I'm not sure anymore, but the only cap was that if a skill wasn't used it would decay, but when you remember how grindy it was the first year, its clearly the skill would have decayed quicker than your macro even at full speed all night long during 36 hours a day.
No clue why their is so much hate for this game.
Been at since July '09. My character is still nowhere near maxed but I can fight a bit if need be.
At some point in these comments I read people saying that the combat sucks. You cannot be serious right? Darkfall's FPS combat has killed the ability for me to pick up another conventional MMO. That sounds like an exagerration but after shooting my enemy in the throat with a keen silverbranch, landing a power attack with a greataxe to the back for ungodly amounts of damage, or simply blinding them with pungent mist I will never ever tab-target PvP again.
There are a multitude of things that could be better about this game but for my money it's the best PvP on the market.
As a parting shot I also read some slander about the community being arrogant and juvenile. Complete hearsay...If you were to make a character in DFO this evening and mentioned in Race chat that you were new and had some questions you would have people lining up to help you along. People in the area would be bestowing gear bags upon you. The few people that did choose to kill you would most likely rez you right after and give you a few tips on PvP.
Also, the alliance I am a part of consists of 50+ mature folks that in most cases started their MMO career in UO, DAoC, Planetside, or one of the other great games of that generation.
Now if you'll excuse me I will let the truth be silenced by troll venom and hearsay.
Good day.
Horrendous combat animations
Cookie Cutter builds (defeats the purpose of open skill system)
Awful UI
Bunny hopping
1-time trial
Those are the main reasons I don't play.
I think it's absolutely insane that trials are a 1 time deal. I dunno if it's to limit gold spammers or what, but they aren't doing themselves any favors with subscriptions. Oh you tried the game a few weeks after launch? Well you'll just have to buy the game if you want to see where the game is at now.
I trialed Eve something like 4-5 times before I finally subbed just now. These games are an acquired taste, you have to let people acquire the taste over time.
Like most reviews, this review is very superficial and tells little of how the game really is, such as the very low population, and the majority of the game's population spends the majority of their online time macroing and afk swimming because the "grind" aspect of the game is so long and consists of mindnumbing repetition.
Since launch I would guess the population is about a tenth of what it was, to the point that veterans of the game will often come to newbie lands and kill newbies just because they can't find any other competition.
IMO the biggest problems of this game are:
1) low population
2) mindnumbing, repetition-based progression AKA grind
3) no skill caps or skill restrictions mean that you must train everything to a high level just to be competitive, and that everyone is the same.
4) no sense of racial differentiation or culture - almost all clans are mixed race - race is virtually pointless in the game.
5) unlike EVE, there is no sense of geography or the position of your holdings mattering, as the same resources are found everywhere, NPCs provide everything you need, and banking is totally universal. Race and geographical location mean virtually nothing.
6) lack of depth to combat, because everyone is the same "class" - hybrid. melee combat is very simplistic - each weapon only has 4 different attacks and they are the same for every weapon. Magic school too are very copycat - each school has a bolt spell, a buff self spell, a buff other spell, a debuff spell, and a resistance spell. It is very bland.
7) the UI is pretty terrible. The chat in particular would have been regarded as primitive even back around 2001 and is inexcusable in 2011, 2 years after launch.
8) the newbie experience is way too brutal, mainly because alignment is quite ineffective and Aventurine decided to go with guard towers instead of roaming NPC guards. There is no sense of even the racial capital and surrounding racial home lands being any safer than in the middle of the map, which I think greatly limits the type of player that Darkfall will ever attract (see population problem).
The good things:
1) the world. It is huge, varied and really convincing and IMO by far the best aspect of the game.
2) contrary to the review, the graphics are generally very good, though granted the animations for some races are stiff and awkward. Real-time shadows and the rise and fall of the sun/moons are spectacular.
3) the AI is outstanding and makes PVE more like a FPS and a lot less dull than in other MMOs where you just spam the same series of buttons for every mob. In Darkfall, mobs have personality and they play to win.
4) the potential range of activity: mounts, ships, sieges, small and large group PVE and PVP are all possible in Darkfall, but sadly rare, as most people are too busy macroing or grinding PVE to pay for macroing.
To start playing this game now, in 2011, you must do one or more of the following:
1) buy a developed character
2) buy gold to use the offline skilling system and to buy heaps of reagents, so you can...
3) macro and leave your computer on all night most nights
4) not macro, and play ~8 hours per day for 3-6 months
I am not trying to bash Darkfall of anything but all of the above is the raw, unfiltered reality of the game right now.
Requiamer posted:
K, so I've included everything after that quote and you don't elaborate in any way as to why the game is innovative.
Honestly, it isn't that innovative, but that isn't a bad thing. It reintroduces old ideas to a generation that probably would laugh if you told them 2D games and games with less than 1 million polygons were fun.
This forum has absolutely terrible formatting, by the way. Just need to get my weekly quota of that out there. Try to do something that doesn't involve miles of pyramid quoting and you're slapped in the face for it.
Nice review. I do feel that you have missed out commenting on one area of the game that (to me) helps to make Darkfall very different from other games - naval warfare. Assuming that your clan is one of those that simply does not really get into that aspect (there are not that many genuine sea-going clans), it may be of interest to you that there are clans and players who will take others on their ships just to get a taste. As you might imagine, with the free for all nature of Darkfall, when you put your hard earned ship on the water and crew the cannons, the nervous 'erm this could hurt!' factor goes through the roof, especially if you see a huge warship loom into view. And as there is no 'cannon damage' skill, ship to ship combat is an area where new players on a crew really can help to kill anyone, veteran or not - while I am not a new player, it is priceless hearing my alliance in vent if we get sunk but 'scrubs' and end up swimming home :)
For those who are interested, Admiral Tweedle's YouTube video of a sea tower battle is a good watch. While typically these towers are fought over by numerous smaller ships, at prime time the behemoths can come out to wreak havoc on the waters of Agon. - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLcF_MHK9dQ
Well, don't get too carried away with the new player experience and how amazing the community is. It is a mixed bag.
E.g. a pair of Alfars did rez me only to kill me immediately again. Thinking it was a mistake I accepted another rez only to be killed again... there ARE an awful lot of asshats playing DF.
NEW is quite good but makes you a target when you solo.
I lasted a few months. I enjoyed the exploring and loved the PvE, but with no sense of progression the combat became dull and the repeated ganking just too much. I think if you want to play DF and enjoy it you have to be willing to play a lot, join a clan and have a low ping.
It wasn't mentioned in the review, but the in my experience with Darkfall, the population was not an issue at all. The Elf and Human lands which I spent time in were active and the only time you could get any respite from the paranoia of murder was the early hours of the morning. Also on that note, Darkfall is a game that succeeds with a smallish population just because the majority of the opening stages are spent avoiding others in case of attack.
How can full loot be a con? It's one of the games features... Obviously it's not everyones cup o tea, but it isn't fair to list as a con.
MMORPG.com . ... thanks for rating the game a little better I guess but next time you may want to have someone over 20 who is actually willing to play the game long enough to give an actual review.
Its blatantly obvious that he hasn't really played . .. and has the point of view coming from a 20yr old who is used to the latest console game graphics, etc. LOL
Sorry but this is a pretty FAIL review .. . please have someone age 30+ review the game after the next expansion!
If the game requires a month (or more) of indepth gameplay before it becomes fun, it isn't worth reviewing. (three times)
I am surprised myself by Sid's response. I wouldn't have thought Darkfall, with all it's hardcore old school cred, would have been home to the rabid fanboism that has unfortunately engulfed many other games. Sid, correct (civilly) me if I'm wrong, but your response came off as "You don't like it?! Well you're... DUMB!"
EDIT: I also strongly agree with Quake. If a game takes that long to begin to enjoy, it stops being a game. You shouldn't have to suffer through a month (that you're paying for) to enjoy a game. I realize I'm about to be flamed for being a carebear or somesuch nonsense, but it's a game. Those are supposed to be fun. Remember? I don't need to be l33t from day one ingame, but I should be having fun.
As has been stated previously the biggest problem I found with the game was a lack of the promised skill cap. When the game was in development they did state there would be a skill cap (even if it was a soft cap, which is still a cap). This lack of a skill cap ruins the economy of the game because everyone can be capped at everything with enough time and there is no reward for specialization. Instead of instituting the skill cap the devs decided to make specializations and I quit following the game, but it either introduced or will introduce prestige classes into the classless skill based game (which just makes me laugh). This all could have been avoided by simply having a skill cap.
Still no skill cap? then i wont bother. So stupid, i dont wanna be a warrior/archer/mage/priest just to be able too compete in PvP.
listen to yourselves - half of you are asking for it to be just like wow. It is a niche game thank god not an instant gratification one. You actually get satisfaction from hard work and decent game play not by tweaking your new char with hand me downs form yuo rlev 80
Lol... Not quite.
Great concept of a game...but this is what turned me off.
After the 24 hour grace period were you can not be harmed I asked someone in the game about the looting. The player told me if you die your enemy could take all of your stuff. I said to myself, ok lets ask the next logical questions.
Q: So do people run around with their best gear?
A: No, most actually run around with no gear at all. Unless they are really high up skill wise.
Q: Wait. so where is all your stuff?
A: In the bank vaults. But you have to be careful because someone could kill you at the vault and take all your stuff.
Q: Ok, so does your stuff help your stats, and be able to kill others and survive?
A: Of course.
Q: But you never use it because someone might take it?
A: Yes.
Q: So you spend all this time acquiring good stuff, that you may never be able to use, which means you won't be as good as someone who is trying to steal it from you after they kill which they could do since they probably have much better gear than you because they have been around longer?
A: Maybe this game isn't for you.
Q: Well I just wondering what the point is if you either can never use your best gear or have to wait forever for it? This is hardcore fun?
A: bye
This is what is hilarious. Even to this day this can still be found in the FAQs on the darkfall website.
"Playing a lot will help you develop a stronger character, it will help you to improve your character handling skills, and it will familiarize you better with the world and the way it works. However, this game is not all about individual skill, and there will be a skill cap so characters can develop up to a point. There are many elements that come into play in Darkfall, and a casual player can have as much fun playing the game, and possibly be more successful than a hard core gamer, in some fields.
Also remember that with no levels in the game, your friends will never outlevel you, and you can play together even if you have radically different play times invested in your characters."
Yet still no skill cap. Unless you count maxed in every skill as a skill cap. Then I guess technically there is a skill cap. However I don't see how that allows a casual player to become more successful in any felds than a hard core gamer.
I am not sure what tha answer is to the internet " I am a know all and everything sucks" crowd. All I can think is that there are a whole lot of spoiled folks who just like to whine to see themselves in type . Please - complaining about an interface when we all now the recent history of online games has dumbed things down and simplified to the point where you can actually get a char to lev 80 in a month so that you can dominate the camps and farm better gear faster. I almosty hate to say it but forums are part of the issue. Every game that I have played since eq2 has had the same type of comments. Endless argument about one group wanting risk / reward while the younger folks want instant gratification and the easy street - quests dumbed down and to be told what to do in a game due to inability to use imagination . Too many games haved turned into console games for multiplayer instead of mmo games and I for one am glad we are getting a few that differ. The new catch phrase is " sandbox" people throw that around to mean so many things and to sound cool saying it, then complain that they do not know what to do in a game lol. It is hard to have a mmo where you do not have endless wow type mobs standing around and you need to take exactly 10 steps left, one right then pull your uber-doober weapon that everyone else has to take out the boss while getting out of the next group waiting to do the same thing with the exact same gear. Hard becasue that is what many folks want and many devs cave in to the dollar first and foremost. Pretty much anything that millions of folk in today's world like and do daily is rarely something that I find of any value or entertainment value. Mainstream it all and turn the world in to a boring star trek next generation world if that is your thing - I just hope all the devs do not get on that boat with you.
A UI, graphics and animation overhall is in progress at the moment and will be launched with the next expansion hopefully early this year including DX11 support.
Here's some info on the motion capture studio for the new animations:
http://www.darkfallonline.com/blog/motion-capture-impressions-gallore/
New upcoming Ork Model:
http://www.darkfallonline.com/images/ork_male.jpg
New upcoming Alfar Model:
http://www.darkfallonline.com/images/alfar_male.jpg
New upcoming Mahirrim Model:
http://www.darkfallonline.com/images/mahirim_male.jpg
New upcoming Dwarf model:
http://www.darkfallonline.com/images/dwarf_01.jpg
New upcoming Human model:
http://www.darkfallonline.com/images/new_human_female.jpg
New upcoming Armor:
http://www.darkfallonline.com/images/advanced_leather_armor.jpg
Some new monster models:
http://www.darkfallonline.com/blog/darkfalls-art-from-design-to-model/
As someone who's been on this infernal MMO train since it first set off, I share your love of grinding. I absolutely loathe this new-fangled questing nonsense, spending 80% of my time traveling (!!) between areas where I have to kill 10 rogue beavers and collect forty bushels of corn. Give me a good camp with lots of baddies and I'm in gaming heaven. Maybe I should give Darkfall a try.
Nice, honest review. Something of note towards your thoughts on full loot. Duping is bad in general, if that was implimented for ideally non-worthless items it could be easily exploited and ruin the economy.
It should also be noted that every wearable/consumeable item in the game can be crafted. Also maybe one of the most interesting aspects of the game being sieging, you can lay siege to one of an enemy guilds' holdings (city/hamlet) and take it over if you win. Some of the fights are hundreds vs hundreds, which is why some of the cosmetics of the game are not quite 'there' for 2011.
Loading that many particles (spell effects plus high poly count character models) doesn't allow for many facial variations, hitboxes (only front and back), or model complexity (although everyone looks cool in mixed dragon armor and some of the other better gear variations imo) and still be able to withstand latency issues. With aiming being a factor lag is a lot more unforgiving. Anyways, just some additional thoughts I felt could be added.
I don't mean to be rude but I doubt that someone who is 20 is old enough to see their vision and what they are doing unless you have been gaming since you were born . .. I guess but still most of my favorite games would be considered crap by todays average 20 yr old.
I very much appreciate the review, I would just have picked a different person is all. He didn't seem to want to play it at all. Read the survivor thingy he posted before that.
I would rather have someone who was into way into EU or UO when it came out review the game. Coming from other types of games is a very difficult adjustment, especially todays gamer who is spoiled from easy MMORPGs and high-graphic solo games. They definitely tend to raise the bar higher imo but lower in areas that do not matter for many of us old-school gamers.
LOL
Game is many times more fun by wearing your best stuff at all times. It's how I have played since I rerolled my character and I have never grind, but get my skills/stats up as I craft and visit mobs for certain mats. My gear isn't even that good but I find it a lot of fun with the approach that I have to this game. I tried the approach that many people have and did not have fun . .. you know the macroing, not wearing gear you dont want to lose, etc. The most grinding that I ever did was about 12 hours over a week period of debuffing mobs (now that theres meditation it should fix this when they adjust the means of earning points . .. probably will get them from quests and stuff as they are revamping the entire questing system).
The adrenaline rush is much more intense by having this approach that I've had since I rerolled (over a year ago I rerolled and did a trial for fun to see how the grind is these days). Emotional highs and lows are more extreme with the more risks that you are willing to take. You win a hell of a lot more if you are willing to take risks too.
; )
i thought this game already died.
Fair review. I don't agree with your statement on full loot though, I consider it a big plus. Your suggestion to make it less harsh could be exploited a lot aswell; allies could kill eachother in order to duplicate items.
Anyway, why doesn't this review go along with new screenshots of the updated graphics?! You set the graphics as a clear negative point in your review, but aren't showing the significant improvements that have been made, and instead show pre-beta screenshots?
This is of course total rubbish. Even I, that played the game for no more than 3 months, did use the best equipment when went to do some PvP. Only when I gathered resourced I rarely had anything other than the pick axe. Why dont you check out one of the numerous PvP vidoes on youtube, where you could easily see that all the players actually wear the best gear they could.
Marmite is made of yeast, not beef :p
i've been playing darkfall for around 8 month's now and wish i had find it earlier..
This game have everything openworld pvp, seabattles, citybuilding, openloot, no tab target ( swing where ya hit ) economie based on the people crafting skills, player housing, and ofcourse the adrenaline rush while playing this game..
grafhics, most of people playing darkfall can't even play it on full mode.. because of the fps but the grafhics are not bad there really nice..
Poeple have comments of the game by playing darkfall for 2/3 month's and expect to have seen everything.. no deal here.
I don't even have see everything in darkfall..
don't see any difference between either leveling your char up from 1-80 or getting up skills (darkfall)
Yes darkfall is hardcore game and won't appeal to all. The combat system is skill based and not enterly about the stats..
I see poeple walking around with a 2 month's old char killing vets in darkfall. so its possible.
I do agree on the player base of darkfall which needs a boost.. the game would be must more enjoyble with more players.
Besides the fact that most of players don't attack newbies..
I had to laugh when you had the balls to say many people enjoy grinding. No one enjoys grinding, though some people endure it if the end result is worth it. Poor graphics and animations are definitely a negative but if the gameplay is solid easily overlooked. A poor ui however can be a deal breaker, coupled with what sounds like only having one true "bestest" skill layout makes me happy i wasted no time on this. Sounds like a grindfest watered down version of shadowbane minus the rubberbanding,sb.exe crashes,and mouse click movement.
I beg to differ here, that-s what people claim but its not true, in fact its quiet the contrary to me.
Combat system is made in such a way all the fps aspect that could have made it skillfull have been taken from the designers. Did you ever asked why in hell everyone use magic in this game, they are no blade fight, no archery fight whatsoever. Blade and bow are just there as an addition to magery, why is that? did you ever asked you why, after all anyone can feely use swords or bow, why nobody do so as their main playstyle? Because it is just a shooter game, so people shoot spell, just like they woudl have used machine gun in a shooter game. There combat system is crapy period, swords are useless, people only use the 360degree twirl move and magery thats all. When you fight with same gear, same character skill with blade you will end in a tight everytime, because there is no way in hell your player skill could influence the combat. Put 2 guys in front of each other and have them macro, or have them run around like mad monky with their uber twitch skill it would be the same result. NO skill is involved, there is no dodge but for magery because it is range stuff so you have all the fucking time needed to make you little twitch move to sprint from the spells bolts. In close combat this is a nono. This is not about player skill i'm sorry, go play Mount and Blade and see the difference by yourself. The combat system is just a shooter game with magery in place of machine guns. Honestly such a waste of everyoen time, the dev for making that, they could have make just a cheap shooter for 3 years and sell it, why did it took them 10years to make this, and its a waste for us player because they just deliver us shitty product. So yes if you don't want to use magic the combat system is about stat and gear stat, nothing else, everyone knows it, and everyone is playing accordingly to that.
aint marmite left over beer lol..
Anyway Darkfall is so much bett than it was.. the grind when released was jsut crazy.
I recently came back a few weeks back and now the game is so much better your skills progress at a good rate and you can get competitive in group pvp within a few weeks.. Sure you wont take on the vets that ahve been around since start 1on1 but this is an MMORPG your character develops over time so did theirs...
I play the game without macroing and have great fun going out hunting different mobs and the guild im in also lots of PVP action nearly every night..
Player built houses is prob not a good idea esp if you can build them where u want.. the world would just be covered with them.. maybe certain zones in the world where u could build would be ok..
I have been playing Darkfall 'Casually' since launch.
Reading your review was intresting... a few points I would like to mention.
Regarding the graphics, yes there abit dated but does graphics matter at the expense of gameplay... darkfall has gameplay while graphics are all well and good without that gameplay you are nothing.. I ask you whats easyer... improving graphics or improving gameplay?
With there motion capture studio and improved textures of late... I dont have a problem with the graphics and expect the new player models / armour types etc to bring the graphics up a notch.
Regarding the Looting system.... Sorry I have to shoot down your idea... ONE thing (a big one).. If you dont fear loosing your stuff then you loose what makes darkfall exiting... Also any system that limmets what you can loot and removes the loss is exploitable and carebear which is not what darkfall is about... Simple system and if you cant take it then you should not play. Low to mid level gear is so easy to come by most players trash it.. and vets often will only loot regs, gold, and enchanting mats.
You failed to mention the impending expantion that is set to fix the issues regarding the must be a jack of all trades issue.
Regarding the grind...
Yes there is a long long... Long LONG grind but Its only so much a grind if you make it one.. A player can be quite viable with some skills such as a good melee mastery, mid level utility spells etc..
The slowest grind is that of stats in this game, it takes alot of time to get your stats up to max...
But reall the grind to be pvp viable is only a few good weeks of playing... DF is a multi player RPG game so expecting to be a god on your own is not going to happen when you could be rolled by a large group at any time!.
Join a guild and enjoy the game the way it is.... The servers are not as quite as people make out... Its not launch numbers but there is a healthy player base and its growing... Look at it this way if everyone who doesnt play because they think the population is too low played there would not be a low population lol...
O... And Marmite is yeast extract and contains no meat... Bovril is more like beef.. yet this is also a none meat product... and for the record Marmite is horrible.
@Sid_Vicious: I thought it was a fair and balanced re-review, albeit more a preview rather than a full blown re-review ;) even though I do not play Darkfall. The re-review should have compared the state of DF then to how it is now, and also included a fuller range of what is possible in the game (sand wise). That said, there were a couple of points that I think should have been changed and/or included:
1. Open loot - both a Plus and a Con. One of the reasons I was attracted to Eve Online - how this [open loot] gaming mechanic was implemented within the game's philiosophy of player control of territory and resources I really liked the implementation of high sec and low sec space (you CAN be killed even in 1.0 space - but you will also be destroyed by NPC ships guarding 1.0 space) - but I think that Aventurine need to tweek to the alignment system to stop blue players assisting red players without penalty i.e. turning them gray.
2. Fails to properly consider the vault system and it's mantra: use only what you can afford to lose (in Eve, fly only what you can afford to lose), and bank, bank, bank, spare items, gold, equipment, before venturing out. No need to change the system (duplication of items is a BAD idea) rather than change one's mindset.
3. No discussion on the range of activities inc. PvE, in Darkfall (such as they are)
I'll keep DF in mind, for such time in the future than when I have more than 4 hours a week play-time available, but the deal-breakers for me are points (3) & (5) in Polarisation's 'Cons' list.
You can't. That's DF's #1 issue at the moment, adding diversification to character development. Prestige Classes are supposedly going to address this issue in the next expansion, but we'll see how it goes...
Rockgod yes you can log in wear heavy armour and melee and be viable, it's called Destroyer and you gain 30-40%(?) more damage v.s. anyone with a staff out. Protections on armour have been raised and mean more now, a guy in Full plate takes like 15-20 damage from a decently leveld spell. Ofcourse to be truely competitive you'd want witches brew and archery however. Destroyers mostly shine in group fights where they can easily come at the back of any spell casters not paying attention and rape.
You can not design an archer type as it stands. You've got a few choices though. You can pick from aquashot (underwater), jumping shot, manashield, mage killer/hunter. Archery these days is considered one of the highest DPS, it's all about your aiming though. I wouldn't say you'd be competitive as an archer alone.. you'd get wrecked if someone got close.
Upcoming expansion we're going to have prestiege classes which should throw the current 'use any ability' thing off the map.
yup! totally agree with you mate
those two elements really killed it for me. Heart breaking!
I really loved almost everything about Darkfall, but there were certain aspects I just could not stand. The focus on PvP, full loot, and the FPS combat system were all GREAT in my opinion and created a feeling of immersion I have not felt in another MMO since Ultima Online.
Unfortunately the massive grind and total imbalance between newer players and veterans eventually made the game unplayable to me.
Open Loot is NOT a con!
I haven't seen everything in Darkfall and have been playing almost 2 years . ... I've seen about 70% of the map and about half of the dungeons. Many places in the world I have not seen for a year or more. Most of the new content that came out I haven't seen yet .. . treasure maps, ice dragon, etc. I haven't even capped a sea-tower yet and that came out long ago.
It is so refreshing to see this much buzz on the review I love it. It just shows you how many people are actually interested in DarkFall. I have been playing this game for quite sometime now and I can tell you first hand that there isnt another game out there that can compete with its game play. With just a few additions and upgrades this will truely be the modern day Ultima Online. All I hope is that they dont fall into the carebear players crys and end up making a trammel. Its funny how the players that call it too harsh are the ones who are still playing the game. Its a rush to play and guess what your not always gonna win like you do with other games.
Rondor Kinsmith
Easy Company
NA Server
Do you think it's like if Urkel was reviewing Harley Davidson motorcycles and leather jackets?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91lJzbhdH4U
I posted about this earlier but that is the good and bad thing about DarkFall sir. After experiencing Darkfall PvP the thought of tab-targetting again is simply laughable.
A bad joke to you is a flawed but fantastic MMO to me.
But if you have someone review it who already likes that kind of game, the review will be biased. But I also agree with you. Honestly we have to accept that reviews will be biased (like Anthony Lane's review of "Watchmen" in the New Yorker which was horrific, and barely deserved the minimal honor of being called a review). The only way a review can be in the middle is when the writer understands where the media in question is coming from artistically, but isn't already a fan of other, similar media.
Its obvious to any player that he hasn't played . ...
First paragraph is the most obvious:
"Throughout the past couple of months I have been chased, beaten, robbed, murdered and taunted. A simple task such as travelling a dozen metres into the woods has left me emotionally scarred as a result of the numerous online-brigands constantly pursuing me. In reality I have become a quivering wreck: a short journey to the local shops is spent with panicking eyes, a twitchy mood, and equipped with a small blunt weapon just in case someone takes fancy of my jeans or indeed, my trainers - If someone so much as eyes my jacket, there will be panic swings."
LOL seriously?
He was playing cataclysm or something haha and looked up some info about Darkfall and found some photos from over 2 years ago .. .. revisting Darkfall after 2 years! I know, lets use 2 year old photos! . ..
The first time someone did a Darkfall review he gave the game a score of 2/10 and only played a couple hours LOL (AV checked the logs and were enraged just like the community was).
He probably would have been killed only once or twice during a 2 week trial unless he was asking for trouble or not paying attention. He makes it sound like there is actually PVP all over the place. The world is HUGE! I call BS that he played beyong making a character and maybe getting killed by some goblins.
No he might actually like it if he tried it . ... maybe when he hits the new cap in WOW he will give it another go?
Someone obviously only ran around for 2 minutes, couldnt figure out the UI, then rage quit when some dude killed him.
So now a "Refreshing skill system" is one that grows skill-optimiced-clones.
Sigh.
The review is proceeded by a 'Survivor' Series of articles that accounts for around 3 weeks of play. I have played the game for roughly, a little more than two months and actually enjoyed it. The content of my review is not overly negative so why blindly pick on what I said that was bad?
As for my age, yes 20 you may feel is a little young. Well if it makes anyone feel better, I have been gaming since the wee age of 2 with my Megadrive and then graduating to PC Gaming for the advent of Windows 95. I bought and played EverQuest on release with my dad and even a little later played loyally for around 4 years on my own. Nobody was more into EQ that this kid here, I adore the game even today.
If you want to go over my MMORPG credentials go ahead, I have played every major release since 97' and still continue to do so. Sure I didn't put in time with Atari consoles, Commodores or Spectrums but we are not all perfect are we?
Well thanks for the review anyways. I appreciate what would be a generous rating since it did not seem like its your type of game. Good luck to you and thanks for clearing that up.
: D
Feel free to send me a tell on NA if you want someone to group with and show you around some of the cooler stuff.
If you used in-game screenshots, frapsed a vid, or wrote anything indicating that you actually played I wouldn't have had that assumption. I am almost certain that most DF players would read that and think, "lol I bet he didn't even play it".
This game is for the True Hardcore MMO Gamer and they will pride themselves on that! They are no carebears, they are the best of the best!
Actually, to normal folk, the True Hardcore MMO Gamer is one of those people that will happily grind all day that a non-gamer would Literally not last one minute doing. They'll grind for that 0.1% improvement and all that wood and gold. Then lose it all after being ganked by 6 other people.
Do not fear for the True Hardcore MMO Gamer though, for he has nothing else to do and can start again all over tomorrow. In fact, he and his Hardcore friends will be ganking 6 vs 1 tomorrow to gather a stash of goods!
The 6 vs 1 is irrelevant, of course, because the game involves skill! Skill to destroy your opponents (oh, and stats which you have grinded (and grinded (and grinded)) for!
Enough of that. In the end darkfall was a baaad game. It suits a certain type of gamer, but would be completely unrewarding for anyone that is unable to dedicate a large part of their week to it. Its really just not worth it.
I like the idea of open world PvP, but it inevitably ends up being about uneven numbers and not 1v1. The day someone invents an MMO with a genuinely entertaining questing system and a PvP system that actually encourages skill and teamplay over ganking and stats... and we might just have a WoW beater. Its probably not going to happen (Well... maybe until Blizzard's next game?)
Uhhh . .. I have never grind nor macroed dude so how do you explain that?
And this is why many people don't play these games after reading stuff like this. "The UI is bad". Okay, define bad; specifically. I dual client WoW and have the other client set to not load any addons (aka stock game) I see no difference from Darkfall's UI compared to WoW's UI (or LoTRO, Warhammer, STO, Rift, Lineage II, EQ 1 & 2, and yes..even EVE).
If you say it's bad because you can't truly customize it. I agree completely. But I also know that LoTRO didn't have LUA-support until very recently. So, I can't knock DFO.
@NinjaGaz
PVP:
You do know it's human nature to stack the odds in your favor. Even in WoW's Arena System the healers get alpha-ed (aka 2v1,3v1,5v1) because anyone smart enough to pvp knows that if the healer goes down you've almost certainly won.
To date I have only been in 7 true 1v1 pvp fights. I count true 1v1 fights as the opponent was out looking for a fight and not "oh you're low on health; lemme help you with that!". However, I have been in countless fights of 1v2+ (Gank Squads). In fact, there is no game (MMO, RTS, or FPS) that I've played where the other side didn't gang up on one player.
Questing:
What would be a genuinely entertaining system? You have your choice of "Defend This", "Escort That", "Collect/Gather This", and "Kill Those".
PS: for those wondering, yes I played DFO..for about a month and a half before I got tired of grinding my stats/skills only to find it still wasn't enough to be pvp viable; only macro was my buff macro...rarely macroed due to lack of reagents :P
Oi! Marmite is spreadable dead yeast, not beef :)
I know because I love it (and, thankfully, can get it in the US - along with HP, Coleman's, Irn Bru....must go, it's tea time).
I jumped on the hype for this game recently and I guess you can call me the 2 min players as I stayed for about ten minutes of combat and uninstalled the game. You can say darkfall is for the hardcore true mmo players but considering there is a ton of players that dont want to play past the ten minute mark should say something about that game... IF I want to play a fps that doesnt have a crappy UI I'll stick to left4dead.
Played for 1.5 years, not a bad game but:
1) Grind is heavy, more than a standar f2p korean game, after 1.5 year i'm not maxed in my stats and skills i use more.
2) Cause point 1 tons of people do MACRO and afk tasks
3) Low population, world feel empty
4) Towns are owned by the same guild with 1 alt in every town to gather resource
5) New players are fucked up and the only thing they do is grind grind grind, and macro the night trying to catch the vets that with the ultra slow progression has 1.5 adavantage stats/skill
6) No content apart grind and macro, only random pvp
7) All are hybrids, battle mages everywhere. You don't have alternatives, mages with piece of infernal own specialized people, make specialization useless
For hardcore people with a lot of free time that like quake arena. Av do a great job in making this game but they should focus more, in diversity, content and spedd up character progression (afk meditation is a beginning though).
This is an 'edit' of the 2 year review, what happened?
Good to see it going strong but FFA was never my style.
You're right that its human nature to try to alter the battles in your favour, through ganging up or perhaps uneven levels/gear. The dream, for me, is that one day someone can help to remove this imbalance through the game (Restricting the imbalance). I find that PvP (or in general, competitive gaming vs other players) is most rewarding when fights are balanced and you come out on top. Even just to lose, to have fought well is still a rewarding feeling.
In reality, I mainly got this from playing games such as Unreal Tournament, where you had many 1v1s, 2v1s, 1v2s with pretty much equal footings (armour/weapon dependent) but then also the factor of the teamplay. To win (or compete well) in your individual battles is rewarding and to do some great teamplay is even more rewarding!
A lot of PvP games have started to focus on these Epic battles, but inevitably it ends up being zerg vs zerg and there's no skill there either. Open world is always open to ganking, etc. Perhaps they need to look at changing the way kills work, e.g. rewarding XP for the amount of health taken off an opponent before they die (so ganking someone at 20% is of little benefit, so is 5 people attacking someone at 100% health) and having it being more encouraging to attack someone of a higher level and very discouraging to attack someone of a lower level.
Who knows, but trying something different and getting the rewarding feeling for a kill would be the way to make a truely great PvP game.
DF is still a p.o.s. after two years.
Ok, I played Darkfall in Beta, again months later and I am currently playing now.. I played A MONTH without ever getting killed and I finally died, and I had actually gotten my stuff back, noone looted my gravestone.. I trained up just about every crafting skill, trained up my combat skills and did quests for the first month while I had my newb status.. Then I focued on crafting and maxed out blacksmithing, woodcutting, tailoring, cooking, you name it.. It was a long and very fun process, living the life of a merchant in Darkfall, almost any clan will take you, but it is very harsh because they dont offer the protection you are required.. It'll get you rich fast, but nobody sticks out for the merchants it seems.. That is my only complaint, all I ask of clans for my services is their protection..
The utter retardation of the fans in this thread is absolutely hilarious.
"Darkfall is a commercial failure primarily due to the grind, because it takes so long to develop a competitive character. The game is top heavy with Vets, many of whom used exploits that are now closed or aren't as well known.
Most players, besides grinding, also macro swimming, in order to raise their attribute stats, because they go up so painfully slow. It's ridiculous that at night probably 80% of those logged into the game are just swimming AFK or casting self-buff spells using a macro AFK."
What put me off after 3 months of being a newbie was that it seemed macroing = cheating was what you had to do and what most players had done to become competitive.
Also combat is so fast paced and the UI so quirky that as a beginner you rarely have a chance to defend yourself or even run away from the regular gankings.
But it has great potential!
Nice review,
Just have to add that they added meditation to Darkfall and they already lowered the price and increased the gain from it.
Atm its all magics schools and rigor, ignor pain and reflex, that can be meditated upon (you pay some gold and skill goes up when you ofline)
They will be adding more to meditation, probably even Stats will be added, so .........
AND also overall skill gain has been double again, with upcoming skill gain increase for crafting.
Oh and charecter animation while fighting feels very natural (not like some other FP mmo's out there, ex: Mortal online)
Oh and what engine lets you shoot an arrow straight into the air wich will land, after some waiting, a few feet away from you ?
Thus concludes Ed Zitron's 2 year re-review.
Was actually in the process of downloading this game when I came upon this article and the posts about the article.
Honestly, thanks very much for helping me reaize that this really wouldn't be the game for me.
I could to without more little f'idiots and a bunch of 'generation smacktard' players. No thanks.
The community is probably one of the worst part of the entire game.
I've never seen such a clueless community in my life playing MMOs.
Sure FFA full loot pvp attracts the more aggressive folk but thats not the issue.
The issue is where these players come from.
These arent oldschool sandbox players from UO, SWG or EVE these fucking twats come from WAR & WoW.
No self respecting oldschool sandbox player would stand for a game that called itself a sandbox yet only had one viable skill spec...
These guys prefer it!!! its pathetic and makes me sad that these people cal themselves both sandbox players and hardcore...
"The game was originally designed with a skill cap in mind they just couldn't get in implemented before launch so they pulled it. No skill cap + a horrible UI is why this game is failure plus. Also the game was heavily exploited in the early days. I think if they overhauled the UI, added a skill cap, and wiped and relaunched the game it would be much more successful."
Agreed.
Darkfall isn't perfect but it is one of the best games out. Over the past 6 years there have been countless WOW clones that all sucked but Darkfall IS the anti-WOW.
1. FPS style combat instead of tab targeting(WOW).
2. End game is PVP instead of PVE raiding(WOW).
3. Crafted gear is actually the best gear in the game instead of a waste of time(WOW).
4. Player owned houses/cities vs neither in WOW.
5. Naval combat vs no naval combat (WOW).
6. Day 1 riding a mount, participating in Naval combat and city raiding(clan dependent/manning of cannons etc.) vs day 1 in WOW being a lvl 1-15 nothing.
7. Having the ability to level ALL the crafting skills vs only 2 in WOW(per character).
8. Free expansions vs $50 expansions in WOW.
9. Destroyable/player made everything(cept housing) vs static everything in WOW.
10. Skill based combat vs gear based (WOW).
11. Full loot vs no loot PVP (WOW).
12. Total freedom to play anyway you want vs quest based follow the the bouncing ball (WOW).
13. (unfortunately) little lore vs expansive lore (WOW).
14. mounted combat vs no mounted combat (WOW).
15. The mob AI in DFO is amazing and by far the best of any game vs tab target/spam attack while watching tv and still killing everything (WOW). Lets see someone play 5 characters at the same time in Darkfall. The mobs in DFO will kite you, will work as a team, will heal each other etc. It makes the PVE much more interesting than any other game I have played.
For those that complain about the grind, think of this... if you played WOW from day 1 and your character is max'd you will soon have to pay $50 to restart the grind to max level and then the constant grind of getting more gear. In darkfall once you max your character you are done with the grind forever, Don't think your fresh lvl 85 gear (blues) in WOW can compete vs the vet with all high end epics. You can now level your magic, defensive skills and stats via offline meditation... it is a bit expensive but money is easy to come by in darkfall.
In WOW you feel like playing a warrior, so you level to max level and then grind a million dungeons/raids to get your gear...great, now you are bored with doing the same thing over and over and you want to cast magic. grats you get to start over at lvl 1 and lvl to 85 then grind gear until the next patch which will make your gear obsolete and now you have 2 characters to grind gear on. If you were to only level melee in DFO (the equivelent to WOW) it would take no time. How long would it take you to level every class in wow to max level and to get high end gear on every character... the grind in WOW is endless by design. The grind in DFO is brutal but realize that even in the carebear WOW the grind is HUGE to try to equal the ability of DFO.
Darkfall does have its downsides as mentioned in numerous posts above but the upsides more than make up for it, IMO. Also AV is updating the game much, much more often than in the past as well as planned complete UI revamp, complete revamp of animations/sounds, complete revamp of the world graphics and many more updates to come (more player housing). Darkfall IS NOT the game for everyone without a doubt but if you give it a chance then you will never want to go back to the army of WOW clones.
I COMMAND DEAD POST TO RETURN FROM THE AFTERLIFE!
* AV is also adding penalties to the protection the gear gives you if you mix pieces from heavy/medium/light armor. This should help to add some balance and some specializations (ie. Heavy armor will give penalties to casting and bonus to melee but mixing light armor in as currently done will take away the bonuses from either set and add the negatives from both.)
For current notes on the progress of the game check the link below:
http://www.darkfallonline.com/blog/
they ever talk about fixing the skil cap as far as i know thats the only thing wrong with that game ppl that are macro freaks will always have the adv
Marmite, you either love it or you hate it ;)