Welcome back to what we like to call a “review in progress”. I’ve now been covering Darkfall: Unholy Wars over the past few weeks and over that time I have hopefully shown all of you some of the good and some of the bad in Darkfall. While I’ve been enjoying my time in this huge sandbox MMO, I feel as if the ground is slowly closing in on me, in terms of things to do.
My third week began the same as my second week ended, farming items. Luckily this only lasted for a few hours before I was able to craft the next tier of Skirmisher armour. It felt pretty good to be able to craft the next tier of armour, but I still can’t help but feel that the crafting progression is still too slow. With most of my second week in-game spent farming and relentlessly crafting gear just to reach that twenty-five crafting rank.
After many hours spent in the fiery town of Flaming Skull, I decided to re-locate. This is where it got interesting. Upon checking the map, it appeared that there was a town not too far above me. But it was outside the safe-zones. The process for me was: get to that town as fast as I possibly could. Along the way my desire to gather resources got the better of me, I decided to mine a node for a while, everything seemed clear. It wasn’t until I looted a chaos chest, full of six-hundred gold, that I was ambushed. With getting taken by surprise, in a matter of seconds I was dead and my new gear, along with what I had just looted and harvested was completely gone.
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To say the least, this is absolutely infuriating. I’m sure that most would agree that when you’ve been looted of everything in your inventory, it is most annoying. But then again some of you would agree that it was my fault in the first place for stepping out of the safe zones. It’s an element which gives Darkfall its character and a unique place in the MMO market. There’s a sense of urgency and peril around every corner. This is something that will either enthrall you, or drive you away. But it’s key in making Darkfall stand out from the crowd.
This week I’m bordering on two thousand prowess. All from crafting. From this I’ve deployed most of these points within the skinning skill. This is my first skill which I’ve fully maxed out and is incredibly useful for farming certain monster spawns, guaranteeing I’ll recieve items upon skinning.
I’ve also been experimenting with the different classes in Darkfall too. Putting some points into the Warrior class, making killing monsters a lot easier, rather than having to precisely aim with my bow.
Darkfall has also seen various patches this week. Mostly performance, although this is an area which I’ve still had an issue with. The latest performance patch sends my rig into overdrive. Now with Darkfall’s engine, it’s not exactly Crysis 3, yet it somewhat overloads my PC.
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As I’ve said before there is only so much that can be actually “done” in Darkfall. Aventurine’s game is a sandbox so I could go and do what I want, but only within the games mechanics and what that limits me to. I’ve spent over 20 hours in the game so far, and have a long final week of playtime ahead of me before we post our official score. It’s certainly been a good experience playing a game as unique as Darkfall: Unholy Wars. Next week concludes our review of Darkfall: Unholy Wars with a full summary of the pluses and negatives. Until then, try not to get ambushed.
George Dimmock / George Dimmock is a Freelance Gaming Journalist and has been writing for MMORPG.com since 2012. Lover of all things gaming, George has been playing MMOs since 2005 and has been hooked ever since. You can also find him lurking on Twitter, @G_Dimmock
Check out more of our Darkfall: Unholy Wars coverage:
- Last week's review-in-progress
- Read Chris Coke’s, The Tourist: Traipsing in Agon
- Take a look at all of our Darkfall: Unholy Wars videos
