Distribution:Download,Retail | Retail Price:Free | Pay Type:Free | Monthly Fee:$09.99
Desktop Client | System Req:
| ESRB:T
Dark & Light Review - Edit
4.0
Hopeless
| Graphics | 6 | |
| Role-Playing | 4 | |
| Fun | 6 | |
| Performance | 6 | |
| Sound | 4 | |
| Value | 2 | |
| Community | 3 | |
| Service | 1 |
;)
Crafting
The idea behind the Dark and Light crafting system was sound, but it feels like they forgot to finish it before they released the game. Aside from the bugs that in it self makes crafting a bit confusing, the system is probably the most complex and time consuming crafting system I have seen. Even at novice level it requires quite a bit of traveling to get the magic ingredients you need to create an item. As a beginner you need at least four of each ingredient to make four training items that you then combine with four ingredients to craft the item you want. This could be a good way to make a unique crafting system and to limit the high level crafters, but it just doesn't seem to work well as intended. And the game lacks a means of getting the crafted items out to the players.
Graphics - 6
The graphics does not live up to the standard, what pulls it up to a 6 is the incredible detail of the world. They're below average, if not a game-breaker.
advertisement Sound - 4
The sound is disappointing, low quality, and little diversity. The music is the only redeeming quality.
Role-Playing - 4
While hard to judge by the few players you meet, there does not seem to be that much spontaneous role-playing. The events, however, great encourage it. They may have been a high point of the game. Unfortunately, the company responsible (Alechemic Dream) announced that they've greatly scaled back the number of GMs working on them. As such, don't expect events to happen too often.
Value - 2
The game in its current state is broken, full of bugs and does not have half of what was promised. You can play it though, so buying it is not entirely without use.
Fun - 6
The game itself is still relatively fun for a run-of-the-mill MMORPG. It offers lots of exploring and skills choices, while the events offer story. It may not be anything special, but the basic day-to-day gameplay that is actually implemented is not this game's biggest problem.
Community - 3
The community is rapidly breaking down and only few people are left enjoying the game. Those that are still around, though, are generally good natured people.
;)
Performance/Lag - 6
This is the games strength. There is practically no lag even with relatively large amounts of people in the same area. Some credit has to be given for turning this around since launch. Oddly, the game also seems to cap FPS at 25. However, the early problems and the issues I had simply setting up the client detract from the score and leave it average.
Customer Service - 1
I had no response from customer service. Many other people have the same problem with slow response time.
Overall
There are a lot of bugs in the game - most of which are more peculiar than annoying - but when fixed, this could be a passable game. The question is, will anyone be around to see it? The game offers a degree of freedom that is rare in online games and its events really brought the community together before being scaled back. The problem is simply that they promised big things and didn't deliver them. The community feels like they were lied to and as a result even the good parts of this game may never have a chance to shine.
