Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen Early Access Review-In-Progress

Pantheon: Rise of The Fallen entered early access this month, and before I get into my initial thoughts, I want to get a few caveats out of the way so that we are all on the same page. First, I have been a Champion level backer since the Kickstarter ended in 2014. EverQuest was my first MMORPG, and I wanted to support a project that could re-envision that style of slower gameplay with several modern systems and updated graphics.

During the earlier part of 2024, Visionary Realms implemented seasons to test pre-Alpha builds of Pantheon: Rise of The Fallen. While I did log in on a couple of occasions, I found the pre-Alpha “seasonal” content limited, and at times, my Champion access period conflicted heavily with prior commitments.

Now that Steam early access has begun and I have more time to play and test, I am struggling with my initial thoughts about Pantheon Rise of The Fallen as it enters what I would describe as full Alpha. Am I enjoying the current state of the game? Who will this game appeal to? Can I see the path forward to a game that would be something I might want to play for years to come? How would I describe this to anyone without a built-in bias towards games like classic EverQuest? Is it a somewhat unique experience compared to classic EverQuest? Will modern gamers enjoy it? Is it currently worth the $39.99 price tag?

Pantheon: Rise of The Fallen has a decent amount of content to explore for a game coming out of a pre-Alpha into an Alpha. I recommend anyone interested in picking it up first look at their Early Access fact sheet. Players have six zones, six races, and twelve classes to play around with. It’s your classic fantasy MMORPG experience.

There are, however, a few caveats. Depending on the zone and how many development passes it has received determines what kind of current playable state it's in. Newer zones may have more placeholder assets, bugs, and balance issues. That same can be said for specific classes; I have tinkered with eight of the twelve and can tell that certain ones have had more development passes and improvements than others. Some feel great, such as Shaman and Wizard. But others, like the Warrior, still feel rough, and Cleric is a solid class but a bit boring to play while being a great healer… so it's a classic EverQuest Cleric. I also love that support characters, like the Enchanter, once again play a significant role in helping manage large fights and random wandering adds that can decide to ruin your day.

Leveling may also be a challenge for many in Pantheon: Rise of The Fallen, as at level 5 onwards, players will need to do corpse runs to reclaim gear and deal with some experience loss every time they die. The current level cap is 40. Many may find progress too slow unless they seek out groups to help speed up the process of grinding out experience from more challenging encounters and dungeons. If you like to go it alone, progression can be agonizingly slow. Fighting enemies solo can quickly turn into multiple deaths, especially if some random mobs are wandering the area and jump you while battles are ongoing. Luckily, my experience with the Pantheon: Rise of The Fallen community has been great. Most folks are helpful and happy to group up to explore zones or camp their favorite spawn spots. It’s one of the best experiences I have had with an online community in a very long time.

Also, don’t jump into the game expecting a similar amount of quests/tasks to what you would see in other MMORPGs, such as classic WoW. Tasks are available from various locations, but you must interact with every NPC to see which ones have them. Visionary Realms will be implementing a Perception system that is made up of two skills: Insight and Investigate. Once rolled out, this system will help locate tasks and other clues in the environment that may be important for your character to notice instead of having a more traditional graphic appear about NPC heads. Each class will have the ability to notice different things through Perception and a custom UI will display the information, but it’s not in place yet. In my opinion, while I don’t think the team should have delayed early access because of the Perception system, it may have been better for the developers to implement using a more traditional quest/task indicator on NPCs that can be seen easily by players until the system is ready to go live. I don’t have much of a problem with the lack of quests or the inability to see them easily. I prefer that the final classes and races be rolled out reasonably quickly, along with more character model improvements and character customization options, before the developers worry too much about implementing more quests/tasks and Perception. 

Performance

My initial impression of server performance is that it's surprisingly good for an Alpha that has just gotten underway. Visionary Realms has offered players several servers across four regions. While most players initially started filling only a few select servers, the population has spread out a bit more after performance issues appeared on the more populated servers like Black Moon. Visionary Realms has temporarily locked new character creation, specifically on the Black Moon sever, due to performance issues until they can find a solution.

For lower-population servers, character models move smoothly as you pass by other players in the game, and most of my interactions with the various systems, such as combat and crafting, have been quite responsive. I would like to see the multiple shards of a server become transparent in the future for the friends list and guild roster. It would also be nice to transition between different server shards/layers without completely logging out of the game.

If a server has a large population of players online, other characters can appear to stutter-step often as you run along with your group, and animations can sometimes not appear correctly in combat. The network code delay is especially noticeable on elevators as other characters appear to float above or sink below the platform when in motion. But I didn't have an issue with any actions mechanically completing when I activated them, and I have only had two crashes to the desktop so far. I have also not fallen through the world or gotten stuck in terrain… yet. However, I have encountered many bugged mobs when I try to attack them in some areas, and some enemies can appear underneath the terrain when I clip my camera at a specific angle while exploring. 

Overall, I am impressed with the server performance compared to other games, even for many games at full launch. It should be noted that some players are reporting issues with connecting to the login servers, depending on who their internet service provider is. Visionary Realm has responded to this issue on the official Discord server, stating, "If you are getting connection issues at login, the issue is most likely an application is blocking access to our SSL certificate server,” and that “You need access to gl-cacxhwf7dqdvfhc8.westus3-01.azurewebsites.net as that is our SSL certificate server. Please reach out to your ISP and give them that URL.”

But How Does It Feel To Actually Play?

Combat feels like classic EverQuest did at launch; fights are slower-paced, and the use of various abilities feels more tactical. When you come up against enemies that are designed to challenge groups, the fights can take much longer than what players are used to in more modern MMOs. But you are not idle; players constantly use their abilities during a fight, and your weapon damage (white damage) matters again. Fighting one elite goblin can be a challenge for a full group. Having an add respawn or aggro on the group as it wanders by can feel like a thrill as the Enchanter uses crowd control to deal with them, or the monk has to hold them to save the clothies and the tank scrambles to generate enough threat to pick up the new target. There is also time to chat with group members between fights and relax or plan what spawn group might be best for the puller to break next.

Hats off to Visionary Realms; you have nailed the base feel of combat. If you want to experience the classic MMORPG pace of combat, this is it on a bare-bones level. While there needs to be more adjustments and balancing to smooth out the rough edges, I hope it will come naturally as development progresses. However, the distance at which enemies leash back to their spawn points is one part of combat that needs adjustment sooner rather than later. 

The core of combat is here; it just needs to be fleshed out and improved. If you are not interested in trying an older style MMORPG form of combat or are someone who hated EverQuest combat back in the early days of MMORPGs, you will likely not enjoy Pantheon: Rise of The Fallen in its current Alpha state.  

The music and sound effects are sometimes few and far between in certain areas, but that is my only complaint. I love the environmental music and sound effects. It’s a joy to listen to some of the background music while I am exploring. The classic EverQuest level-up sound is also a plus in my book and gets me nostalgic every time. There are no issues here; please keep it up and add more of the same quality as development continues.

About That Art Style Change...

Currently, the graphics are awful. Pantheon: Rise of The Fallen looks like a game from around the year 2000 that has some improved textures and uses a lot of placeholder assets because it’s in an Alpha state. I am doing my best to give the graphics that Visionary Realms has decided to use a chance, and so far, it has not grown on me.

I can see where the developers could go with it, especially regarding some creature models. But there need to be many more passes that improve textures and lighting, which I hope will also come with time. There are also no unique identifying elements to the current graphics/models that jump out to me. Parts of the environment in different zones can look decent. But when you see World of Warcraft graphics/models, you instinctively know this is WoW stylized art. If graphics are your thing, give the game a pass until it is closer to release and see how the art design improves. I can ignore the graphics if the systems and mechanics that are eventually implemented are great, but I know it's a deal breaker for many. 

As a fan of their original art direction, I am still disappointed in the change and fully admit to having a bias. I also understand that the changes made are helping to speed up development. But when you choose to go this route, something in the art design needs to scream that this is uniquely Pantheon: Rise of The Fallen, and currently, much of it is only screaming that "this is generic art."

Because of the change in direction for the graphics, players will now place more pressure on the mechanics and gameplay systems. The base gameplay loop exists: explore and kill enemies to level. Then, buy skills and kill more enemies for your next level. Unfortunately, the systems that would add more uniqueness to the experience are either partially implemented or need a first implementation pass. These systems include Perception, Skill Mastery, Fractures, and Climates.

Crafting professions are in a very early state as well. I see the potential of the various professions, but they feel incomplete, and a couple still need to be added. The current token system for learning professions is also a pain; once you decide on your two choices, it locks you into them. Thankfully, Visionary Realms will eventually do away with the profession tokens once the complete crafting system is ready to roll out. 

Multiple UI elements also still need to be implemented and refined. For example, basic guild functionality is present, but there is no UI to see who is online or to help manage your guild members. It's all currently done via chat commands. While the missing UI elements would add a lot to the quality of life for players and the overall experience, none are essential to playing the game. 

If you're willing to puzzle out yourself what systems/UI are implemented and not implemented by a mix of trial and error and/or looking information up in the community, it's an okay experience and very doable. But any form of in-game tutorial is currently minimal at best. Players should also be ready to explore the world of Terminus without the convenience of having access to an in-game map and minimap.

Conclusion...for now

Even with the current state of the graphics and missing systems, I have enjoyed early access and look forward to exploring Terminus more. I realize that my nostalgia, with how much it feels like classic EverQuest, will wear off with time. But there is enough content here that I expect to play a lot of Pantheon: Rise of The Fallen in the coming months. It doesn’t quite feel like a long-term home yet because it’s still an Alpha, but the potential is there, and I have not felt that in a long time when playing an MMORPG. For me, the $39.99 price tag is worth it so that I can provide feedback on what I like and don’t like about a game that I am already enjoying the core experience of. I am also having a ton of fun playing with my wife and friends as we explore the world together. 

The combat is very different from almost all other MMORPGs currently on the market and is personally satisfying. But it can be a slow burn before it feels rewarding for many players. Who would I recommend Pantheon: Rise of The Fallen to in its current state? Pantheon: Rise of The Fallen is a niche game in its current state and may stay somewhat niche as it approaches release. If you are tired of the more traditional fast-paced combat in recent titles and don’t mind the early state of Alpha development, then this may be the game for you. 

Thankfully, there’s no shortage of information about Pantheon out in the wild, whether here on the old MMORPG.com, streams from creators, or gameplay streams from the devs themselves. These can give a good sense of pacing, visual feel, and more before you pull the trigger on an Early Access purchase. However, remember that there will be server wipes before the 1.0 launch, so our adventures in Terminus may get repetitive, and progress will certainly be lost/reset before 1.0.

At its very core, Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen is very different from more modern games. If you prefer the combat of more modern MMORPGs and/or more complete gameplay experiences, I recommend a hard pass until development is further along. Stay tuned for my full early access review.