The world as we know it is but a shell of its former self and nature looks to reclaim the destroyed areas that were once maintained by humans. In a nuclear post-apocalyptic world, you will need your wits and your skills to be at their peaks to survive everything that is being thrown at you. An MMORPG that is fairly similar in form to other games of its type where you are a survivor, fighting against animals, monsters, and other players, does it have what it takes to stand up against a game like Destiny or other MMO type games? This is our first impressions of Will to Live Online.
Gameplay
From developer SystemSoft Corp, we step into this game and there are several things that will look similar to other online games being played today. For example, there are NPCs who give you a quest and expect you to do that quest in return for a reward and some level of experience. What type of quests? Surely with this being a shooter MMORPG, there would be different types of quests that allow for more in-depth gameplay. You would think it and you would be wrong, this game has a cookie cutter feel to other bigger games, go out and get me five mushrooms, kill me 10 rats, oh I need hides from that wild dog. The questing system is pretty similar to most games available today, MMO or not. Yes, there are bosses to fight as well, but with limited weapons and resources, you need to make every shot count. Does the system work? Yes, it does, and it is a tried and tested method of leveling up used around the industry.
Character progression is another staple to most online role-playing games, and the same rings true for Will to Live Online. There are four classes to choose from, and each of them gives you a different play style to go forward with. Each class has its own unique skill tree and their own specific weapons that they are attuned to using. The entire post-apocalyptic world is open for you to explore, with a few safe zones inside of cities, allowing you a safe haven to get quests, restock your munitions and supplies, and take a breather from the monotony of similarly created NPC given quests. The open world feature is a very good way to explore without taking any quests, just remember that any venturing outside of the safe zone is risky, and if you aren’t geared properly then you may suffer the ultimate fate, death.
Normal MMORPG features such as mini-maps and creating groups with your friends are also still available in this game. You will be able to get together with your buds and chill in the wilderness taking pot shots at giant rats, wild dogs, and whatever else you fancy. What you choose to use against said beasts is up to you as this game has a lot of different weapons, and also a lot of different ammunition choices to choose from. I feel that they were trying to make a realistic shooter with all the different choices available to purchase in-game. The game even offers you a Faction system which allows you to join and do missions specifically for your chosen faction. You will get specific experience and gear from quests for your chosen Faction, including the ability to become enemies with another Faction.
Like any MMORPG there is a story behind apocalypse, which includes scripting for the main character and the NPCs and everyone in between. When you first enter the game and read some of the writing you will be lost and confused, or you will think the script was written by Yoda himself. The scripting itself isn’t horrible, and it provides some good background on the game and the areas you visit. The reason for the poor translations? This game is originally made in Russian and you will figure that out when you hear the voice actors speaking the native language of Russia.
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Combat in Will to Live Online is pretty basic and is set up mostly for firearms, even though there are knives for melee attacks. The weapons are set up for pistols, DMRs, sniper rifles, assault rifles and more. The weapons are all pretty basic for the game and each has different calibers, as previously stated. The level of weapons you can buy increases as your character level increases. These levels will help you out in PVE and PVP as most of the higher level opponents will require you to be geared appropriately. Fighting something in PVE doesn’t normally cause more than one mob to attack you at once, but I also haven’t seen anything in a big enough swarm that would attack at once. If you run through an open field, however, this will cause a massive aggro of the mobs around you so be prepared to run or fight. One last thing about combat that you will want to keep in mind: if you die, and you will die, you will lose some items from your inventory and will have to run back to reclaim them. Remember, if another player runs across your dead body then they will also be able to loot your corpse.
Will to Live Online uses Unreal Engine 4 as its engine of choice, even with that being said, the graphics in this game are something that dates it back to earlier time period games. The models are low poly and the rest of the environment suffers from a similar lack of detail. The models from one enemy to the next vary in quality which makes for a less than adequate view of the graphics that this game could have.
Will to Live Online is in early access and is still being worked on, and hopefully the game will get updated graphics and other key upgrades throughout the early access period to make it something that will be good enough for a full launch. The translation of the script could use a good western localization as well. If these things are updated then I would love to take another shot at the game.
