PVP:Yes | Distribution:Download | Retail Price:Free | Pay Type:Free | Monthly Fee:Free
Desktop Client | System Req:
| Out of date info? Let us know!
Allods Online Review: Our Official Review - Traveling in Astral Space - Edit
7.9
| Pros |
 Nice graphics Variety in race and class Very little grinding |
| Cons |
 Lots of tedious running around Low player base Not terribly unique |
Allods is a game developed by Astrum Nivel in Russia, and is published by Gala-Net in the United States. A free to play game, Allods is a fantasy MMO that gets its name from the chunks of land that are the only thing remaining from the planet Sarnaut. The planet was shattered when a great cataclysm struck, separating it into many Allods which can be accessed by traveling by Astral Ships. Higher level players will be able to build their own astral ships in order to get to some Allods.
There are two factions in the game called the League and the Imperial respectively. Players can battle members of their opposing faction from their astral ships, and in areas designated specifically for PvP. The League has three races: Elves, Gibberlings, and Kanians. Imperial consists of the Xadaganians, Orcs, and Arisen. There are eight different archetypes to choose from, and a player can create up to seven different characters on an account which is a great way to try them out.
Aesthetics 9/10
The graphics in the game are very nice, although not photo-realistic. The scenery is bright and colorful, and the characters can have many different and unique costumes. Changing a piece of armor will change the look of a character, and it’s rare to run into another character that looks exactly like yours. While there are options to lower resolution in the game, there isn’t anything on the UI itself to lower resolution easily when in crowded areas, which has become a common option in MMOs of late. The game’s not too taxing on the PC, but it might not play at all on some older computers out there.
)
What really seems to help with Allods is that there isn’t a vending system like other F2P games have, so there isn’t an area that is overcrowded by players who are just sitting around AFK trying to sell items. Instead there is just an auction house for trading among players. There is some music in the game, but there can be long periods of time where there isn’t any. In some towns the music gets very tedious after awhile, and often I found it better just to turn it off completely. Still, the visuals are beautifully rendered and not too taxing on the system.
Gameplay 8/10
The game starts with a tutorial that has the player run through a simple scenario, familiarizing the player with quests, objects and gear, opening things. Each faction opening scenario is different, and run solo. It is not until after completing it that the player moves on to a new area and the ability to see and interact with other players.
League and Imperial both end up in an area where they do more quests past the initial tutorial, the League end up in a wooded type area, and the Imperial in a cityscape.
The quests are similar, just with different scenery.
There is no auto-routing which can be a bit annoying since so many other F2P games have it. What is nice about however is that when opening the map during play, there are markers that will show you where to go and a brief description of the quest in that area. While there is a mini-map, it isn’t on your screen automatically. This can be off-putting for some, but others might enjoy the forced exploration it can cause.
)
Movement controls are similar to other games, with WASD and click to move can also be implemented from the settings page. There is no auto attack in the game, but it is easy to target enemies with the tab key and begin spells or attacks if the enemy is within range.
Professions can be learned by buying a manual from the appropriate NPC. Unfortunately only one profession can be learned at a time, although after certain amount of reputation is built up a second one can be learned. While this could encourage trading among players, it seems very limited for players who want to craft their own items.
There is a “fatigue” system in place where some bonus experience is acquired in the form of “fatigue” which helps with leveling. Think of it like a reverse “bonus XP” mechanic. The longer you play, the less XP you’ll get, which means the casual player will always be getting great XP gains while a hardcore player might be slowed down after a while. Health and Mana regenerate pretty quickly so it’s easy to do mob killing quests without having to buy much in the way of potions.
The game has two servers, and unlike some games, they aren’t dedicated to a style of play such as PvE or PvP. Instead the player has a choice in game whether to play PvP or not by activating their Flag of War which allows other players the ability to attack, and can give bonus experience for completing quests while in this mode of play.
)
Innovation 6/10
This game is often compared to World of Warcraft, so it may appeal to players that need a break from playing WoW, or for players that want a similar experience in a game that is free to play. Some of the basic comparisons have come from character creation and the choice of playing League or Imperial factions. The Arisen and Gibberling races are unique, which makes them fun to play. The Arisen are a race of undead creatures, tall and lean with some of their body made up of mechanical parts. The Gibberlings are short furry creatures that resemble hamsters. The story behind them is that they are usually born as triplets, so they are played as groups of three, with one acting as a leader and the others act like an off-hand weapon.
Aside from that, the game doesn’t seem to have much to it that makes it stand out compared with other MMO games. Some might say that the Astral Ships make it unique, but I can name two other games off the top of my head that also have ships that can be manned by players for PvP play.
Polish 9/10
This game doesn’t seem to have too many problems with it as far as translations and so on, but some quests can be difficult to figure out. However, the forums and the Wiki are pretty decent, so it’s pretty easy to find solutions by browsing through them, or by asking other players.
Allods could be improved on by implementing an auto-routing feature, and a way to easily find available quests. An exclamation point will appear on the map to show NPCs with available quests, but the unfortunate part of this is that if the player is too far away from them, it won’t show on the map. So to find them all, there’s a lot of running around to do.
)
It can also be difficult to find NPCs since once again icons for them on the map are only visible when you are near them. So in a large town, finding something such as a banker can have you running all over. Downloading and installing the game seems to run at an average speed, however after a maintenance the patches can take pretty long to update when compared to many games out there. Overall though, Allods is a very well honed experience.
Longevity 6/10
Players new to this game will probably find it fun and interesting at first, but it does have some drawbacks, as the population of the game is rather low and it can be difficult to find a party at times. Leveling is not very fast either, which can be discouraging to players that want to get to levels where they can play a PvP style.
Unless the creators of the game come up with some new and innovative ideas on improving the game or some expansions, it‘s very easy to see how this game could die out.
Social 8/10
Chat in the game is typical to most other games, it has a World chat, the ability to whisper another player, local and zone chat. Zone chat is a nice feature because people who are looking to complete a party quest can often see others who are looking for it as well if they watch the chat. When I first played this game, it was easy to pick up random parties, now it’s sometimes very difficult, and you might find yourself standing around for a long time trying to get a party together for an instance. Another problem is that there are level restrictions that will make an instance fail immediately if one member of the party is above a certain level. As you can imagine this leads to a lot of frustrated players.
)
While most of the players I talked to in the game very friendly and helpful, the fact that the player base is dwindling makes it feel like solo play the majority of the time. For more social play, it’s probably best to get into a guild as soon as possible, especially one with members that are of a similar level.
Value 9/10
As a free to play game, it is quite easy to play this game without spending money on it. Though it wasn’t the case at launch, the cash shop items are reasonably priced in comparison with other games. Mounts and fashion seem to be very popular. There is also an item called a Holy Charm that is available for free from the shop, and it is used to prevent penalties from dying when it’s equipped. Most other games charge for this kind of item, so this is a very nice feature. As with most F2P games, acquiring the best gear may involve spending some real money. Gala-Net/gPotato has a better system in place for purchasing funds for in-game use than they used to.
Conclusion
While this game has got very nice graphics and choices for characters, there are still many things that it is lacking that seem to be expected in games that are this new. The fact that there is no auto-routing in a F2P game (which is my preferred style of MMO-gaming) I found easy to cope with, but the difficulty in finding NPCs was frustrating at times.
)
Players that like solo play will probably like this game, although some quests are difficult to complete without a party. It’s also nice for having a choice between two rather different factions. People who like heavy PvP might find this game lacking since it does take awhile to get into PvP zones, however there are arenas to practice against players of their own faction in the early stages of the game. Allods Online definitely is a game that worth trying, although it probably won’t hook most hardcore gamers for long periods of time.
"The fact that there is no auto-routing in a F2P game (which is my preferred style of MMO-gaming) I found easy to cope with, but the difficulty in finding NPCs was frustrating at times."
OH NOESSS THE HORROR. Really? Auto-routing.. finding NPCs? Well, I don't want to play those 'MMORPGs' with you, damn.
This game was pretty awesome in beta, BEFORE they released their cash shop. Stupid move.
is it fun?
Technically the cash shop has been open for years now so in my books this game has been released for quite a while.
oh God its another "games shouldn't have cash shops" post give me a break
hey folks, the industry is changing because the economy is. get over it and move on everyone else has.
I hate auto-routing. Do you want the game to play itself for you too? LOL. How lazy can you get?
"Very little grinding" ? At higher levels the game is a grindfest.
Also, I agree with its longevity rating. Competitive players would realize soon that PvE content is easier the more you pay (runes, elixirs, stats, rubies, etc.) and competitive PvP players may be demoralized by the power-gasp between paying-tiers population.
I can not agree more with causs, i played this in beta, me and a few friends....
Not-having auto-rooting actually sounds like an awesome feature to me. I gave it a try in beta and while I did find it quite interesting, I had bigger fish to fry back then (WoW :P ). Now that I'm free and waiting for GW2 / D3 to come out... I'll probably give it another chance.
Its not that it shouldn't have shops its that they have put some items that made game P2W
Ok first off this review is not about astral travelling, it’s about the low end starting levels of the game at least the levels under level ten and therefore the title is very miss leading as I was hoping it would actually talk about Astral travelling and players owning and crewing their own astral ships, which comes in at a much higher level of play in the game or so I hear, instead we get to read about the reviewer’s personal taste and what they would prefer in an mmorpg, namely auto routing, How about some info on what this review was supposed to be about, you know astral travelling by player crews, or am I just being a wee bit picky?
i agree
the title traveling in astral space. is what drew me into reading the rest of the article.
but only thing mentioned was the ability to build and pvp with your own ship at higher levels.
is this a game review or a personal opinion piece? because it came across as the latter, but you titled it the offical review.... strange
how about telling us what end game consists of etc.?
I played this game but i never got caps just because the game is a grindfest game, and get boring very quick, doing the same things all days and dont forget you need 2 months just to get the 3 final lvls, that was the main reason i stoped playing this crap........
if you need a job i think allods can be your job..GOOD LUCK
This game was really fun till you hit the low 20's....then you are forced to go to the PvP area to continue leveling...unfortunately, at that point it turns into the usual griefer gankfest where lvl 50's are hanging around making it very difficult to do anything. I gave up on it after a week of not being able to level.
But again, really a lot of fun till you hit that low 20's level!!!!
The end game consist on buying stuff in their shop.
There's no pvp in your ship. I don't know if it's actually possible but I do know that it's meaningless. Also, this game has no pvp in general because of it's unbalance between CS spenders, there's no limit on the amount of cash you can expend empowering your character.
I'm reading conflicting information here. Maybe someone can set it straight for me. The reviewer says there is a pvp switch (Flag of War) which can be turned on and off which implies that pvp is optional. Later someone said pvp is "forced" after you hit the low 20's. Are players forced to play with pvp "on" after a certain level?
...did the reviewer seriously complain about no auto routing? WHAT??
who do they get to review these things?? good lord...
Once you hit around mid twentys the area where your quest are is a pvp area. And you are able to be attacked. You could be lvl 20 and get killed by a lvl 50 thats hanging around your quest area. You lvl quicker if you turn your flag on btw.
If you dont plan on spending alot of money...forget about it. It's hard to find a goup or guild that would want you if you dont come fully loaded. It's the biggest p2w game i've played which is dissapointing because it does seem like a great game til you realize you have to get your wallet out or quit. And dont believe the people that say everything can be bought at AH. It can but you'd find it hard to find enough time in a day to grind that much.
Do they still have the "fatigue" crap in the game? Thats an entire differant rant.
So can someone give some sort of actual review of this game? It "sounds" like it could be cool for F2P, but I would really like to know SOMETHING about the game before downloading it. This is one of the worst reviews I have ever read!
From my point of view not a bad review... but it does need a bit more editing and I can't help but wish they'd add a couple sub sections under gameplay purely for pvp and pve.
dude you dont know what the hell your talking about so.........
I played the game till lvl 40 than leveling started to really be a hassle + It is a P2W game..Talking more than a monthly sub. Dont waste your time ! Let the game die and maybe a less greedier company will run it.
same to me, i quit at lvl25 or so. i m pvper type but being forced to go pvp while i am lvl25 against lvl 40+ turned me down.
and shame for the author of the article. its the type of player who likes the game play itself on autopilot. where the hell is your need of adventure sister?
I lost all my interest in game when I have seen that odious word "gpotato" in www. This reminded me immediately to disgusting Rappelz experience. Ok, graphics were actually nice and realistic ... but game holding lag world record ... and without gpotatoes you could not actually enjoy a lot game, you needed them also for quest hubs, for hp recovery, .... etc etc actually for everything that could make possibly game fun. And at the end of month have counted that I have spent more money for putrid potatoes then would for some great game and monthly feee. I guess my hate toward f2p started with Rappelz. Oh, forgot ... AFTER I have stopped to buy from my MC I had to get new Master Card ... because my money was still being substracted from company and they did not respond to my inquiry.
Ah, he does and you don't. Cash shop for the win here. Pvp outcome fully depends on who spends the most in the cash shop. Why anyone would waste money on such a scenario is beyond me....
Sorry guys, but all of you, including MMORPG.com, forget to mention something on the "Cons":
- IF U HAVE LV 20, AND U ARE ATTACKED BY A LV21 MONSTER< THERE IS 90% CHANCE THAT U WILL DIE!
IN ALLODS U DIE TO MOBS THAT HAVE ONE OR TWO LV MORE THAN YOU, AND IT IS WORSE, YOU DIE FOR NORMAL MONTERS! U DIE FOR NORMAL MOBS! STREET MOBS!!! AH WTF!
Are you serious? That is considered a good thing usually, when a game has something like.... You know. Difficulty?
If we're going to call it difficulty then its for uber hardcore gamers who have time to solve 1q in just 4hours.
Allods is a fun game, I do not see the pay to win like some players have mentioned. Although rune crafting, could give you an advantage over other players, and to use runes effectively you will most likely need to buy materials from cash shop. One other thing, I have not played at higher levels so I do not see the disadvantages other individuals do. I hope no one lets this game die because it is a beautiful game, with a lot to offer.
The "forced PvP" occurs in Asee Teph. Attacking a mob from the opposite faction puts your flag of war up, naturally. How dumb would it be to let you attack the opposite faction without letting them attack you? There are no level 50 players in the game ganking you there, level cap is 47 and NPC's sell items to one shot players with their flag of war up that are outside the level range of the area.
Some people grind some in the area before and after AT just to avoid the forced PvP there.
The minimap is available by clicking on the compass, but maybe that's an add-on. It used to be an Add-on but I think it's standard now.
dude you really dont know what your talking about. A ... the level cap is 47 not 50. B. you can buy emblems to prevent higher level players from ganking you, C. you really only have to worry about pvp if you attack a member or npc of the opposite faction, or someone puts up a ware banner, and the place is called asee teph its mainly a pvp area anyways,. D my conclusion of what you said makes me believe you never played this game or maybe heard about through word of mouth
allods has a really bad reputation because of all the really shady crap the company tried to pull in the past with their cash shop. it's not as bad now
it's true that you can super power your character by buying runes, but at least players who don't use the cash shop can still craft runes, it just takes longer to do it ingame
We played this game starttng in early beta. We each had multiple classes that we took to the max level as it finished the open bet period. The graphics we linked, the story line was ok and the mechanics were decent. However, the classes changed so drastically in the beta phase that they no longer resembled what they started out to be.
The rune requirements make the game so lopsided that it became apparent quickly that you would need to invest money to stay competitive and we're talking thousands of dollars. If you read their forums (they ban accounts and remove postings that are in any way negative to their point of view) the class issues continue and the lag is so bad that people have been quitting.
The fan boys claim you need to spend nothing but that's imply not true. We enjoyed it for a while but moved on to other things and have no intention to go back. There are simply too many challenges. That's the problem with a review like the one written...if the author acutally played for a period of time their rating would not have been 7.x it would have been less than 5.
in my country allods just got open beta on 8 Sept. and cash shop open at 21 Sept. and now at 24 Sept. there are several 40+ players and they buy item-mall with gold because at their level it's easy to get money (gold), i know this because there are 2 of 40 and a 41 level players in my guild and they just buy item-mall like double xp tome with gold...
so in just 16 days u can level to 40+, just 7 level to level cap, i think they can get to level cap in about a month or so...
and i just playing about a week and now level 24, but i'm enjoying the quest not in a hurry to level up and i just got to wild isle quests and dream factory next so i will be in Asee Teph at level 27+ so no need to worry about forced PvP in AT because u can use emblem to one shot lvl 30+ that try to gank u...
overall it's a very nice and good game, i'm enjoying the quest and story, 8.7 point from me...
The only con for me is that not much people are playing it
One of the many pros is that not much people are playing it :D
I play US version run by Gpots. Here is a honest review from a lvl 40+. The game is utterly divided into 95% free users that suck, and 5% p2w users who spend tons and fuel the economy. Crystal Chips can only be bought in Cash Shop and are needed for runes, if not one bought them, no one would have runes. Runes of atleast level 4, $30 gpot card and around 500g are needed to play the game PVE wise. PVP is entirely another story. People technically are divided by those that spent $1k usd to pvp, and those that spent $30 to pve. Astral is DEAD, there are no epic ship wars. Astral raids rare obtain interactions with other faction. Wardens are op, some warden builds allow for 10x~100x damage ratio compared to other classes. You got literally DEAD zones 30+ el june starts the dead zones. Tensess server has a bunch of retards and e-thugs, nezeb server has a bunch of solo elitists. You pick your grave to play in, so to speak. I sport a much more active pvp taste, played before Gipat and loved it, watched Gipat nuke them and kill it, now watching the easy mode lure unknowing players into it for more cash shop grind. You start right now, you will compete against the 5% that spends 100k usd on allods yearly. It is no joke, these people fuel the Auction House daily with tons of items of inflated prices. Good thing the reviewer didnt hit 40 then, they would have rage posted the true review of Allods.
For pvpers, pvp is gank or be spanked. You need to hit people with a gank before they bring their guild, yes usually 1 guild will come if you pvp their guy. Example, kill another level 31, they call a 46 to solo you so they can laugh. Example 2, you outrune a fellow 46, he calls in his guild, their guild friends in another guild, and anyone who can out chance your ruins. So its gank and run or be spanked. PVP happens prolly for 3 minutes out of the day, so if you want a pvp fest for atleast 1 hour, pretend the npc are players.
My review of allods? 3.5/10 because quest mechanics are retarded and imcomplete, game lacks major content, forced to buy runes to even play, any true class balance ends up as wardens being buffed each patch. Developers and Gpotato don't care about the community, milk the cow til they slaughter it.
If i kill someone from different faction then i go to safe zone and wait for 5 minutes to off the flag then go out and meet again with the char that i killed smiling because he and his friends can't kill me when my flag is off, unless he wear war banner and in that case i will stay away.
Right now i'm lvl 46 after about 2 months playing and only buy cash shop for experience tome and spend about 50 USD in my country currency, and i enjoy pvp and pve content. Overall a good game with good story remind me of my time playing offline game like Diablo dan FallOut.
i like the game because its many different classes and races.
for me it was a kinda hard start because i didnt know where i should go and what to do in the different quests
but after all its a good game with good graphic.
i havent found any cons yet :P
I also don't like auto-routing so this is a plus for me.
I totally agree!
I just downloaded the game for the heck of it and I have to admit its not bad
This game is quite a bit of fun so far, but I do have a few small quips.
The pay to win aspect is annoying at times. My 28 Arisen Sorcerer has lvl 4 runes and I still get smashed by some people. When 1 person can damn near single handedly shut down the oppositions main staging area even with 5+ oposing factions attacking him/her, there is something wrong with that. There is no fun when you have 0 chance of beating an at level person regardless of skill or gear.
There is no customer support in this game, and there is not even a decent way to make suggestions for it. You get the feeling they don't care any more.
I've also noticed a trend. You are doing the same quests over and over. Oh they give them different names, but it's the exact same thing. So far, there has been a person in every zone since IMD that tells you to find and examine some stones, pick some plants, and 4 or 5 other quests. At the end, he gives you a blue item.
There has been a find the lost treasure quest in every zone so far.
Many quests don't have enough info on how to complete them. ZIT is famous for this. I hate looking up quest info as I like to figure it out myself, but some just don't have enough info to do that.
With such low population numbers, it can be hard to find groups for quests, or even to sell off low level gathering regents. Herbalism has been a money maker in every mmorpg I've played, but in Allods, its a waste of time.
Expanding your bag to a useful size is god awful expensive, not to mention your bank.
Runes get very expensive. To get a set of lvl 7 runes, which are the minimum needed for anything endgame, its going to cost you $240, unless you are very good at grinding. 1 red crystal goes for ~4 gold at the exchange service and getting enough crystals chips to do any real rune merging is going to cost you 19,200 gold for 2 bags of 500 crystal chips. Then you'll need more for the gold flakes from the vender.
Thankfully they've made ways to get incense and mount feed for free via a daily quest.
Even with this, I have thoroughly enjoyed the game.