SpasticFuctard
05-25-2005, 02:30 AM
I didn't get to see much of the team experience. Folks at the kiosks were more intent on their own experience, what I did see of the teamwork gui at least was that it was fairly limited an uninformative. No hint of status effects, nothing much beyond a fairly unremarkable head with a circular damage bar around it. I don't even recall any mechanism for locating a teammate.
Ranged weapons are very useful. They're vital, fast and fluid. You can pump a pile of arrows into a giant as it bears down on you, and then rapidly switch to melee as he's on top of you and carve him into giant cutlets. They were also damn handy in luring the boss into the traps at the end before hiding and letting them carve him up.
The controls were excellent. responsive and intuitive, my only beef was a limited control bar which was consumed by weapon equips, items like potions, not to mention class abilites and spells. Thats going to get very cramped very very fast. Combat is a more action oriented style than any of the MMORPGs to date. You can dodge attacks, block swings, jump away and use terrain and tactics real time to your advantage. Its interesting and involves no small amout of skill.
The experience changed my notions of this MMORPG and what one is dramatically. I had been expecting a more MMORPG experience, and this had elements of an action game like Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance embedded throughout the game play. The ability to use the world and the terrain to effect in the puzzles and obstacles was excellent, and allowed even the frailest mage to succeed if he just thought through things a bit. This feature is the one that I hope to see continued most throughout the development of the game. As a 20 year DM of D&D, I know how hard it can be to present players with alternative solutions that are accessible without being obvious.
In short, despite limited team tools, and limited experience with what existed. The game shows excellent potential to be the Blizzard Killer.
Ranged weapons are very useful. They're vital, fast and fluid. You can pump a pile of arrows into a giant as it bears down on you, and then rapidly switch to melee as he's on top of you and carve him into giant cutlets. They were also damn handy in luring the boss into the traps at the end before hiding and letting them carve him up.
The controls were excellent. responsive and intuitive, my only beef was a limited control bar which was consumed by weapon equips, items like potions, not to mention class abilites and spells. Thats going to get very cramped very very fast. Combat is a more action oriented style than any of the MMORPGs to date. You can dodge attacks, block swings, jump away and use terrain and tactics real time to your advantage. Its interesting and involves no small amout of skill.
The experience changed my notions of this MMORPG and what one is dramatically. I had been expecting a more MMORPG experience, and this had elements of an action game like Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance embedded throughout the game play. The ability to use the world and the terrain to effect in the puzzles and obstacles was excellent, and allowed even the frailest mage to succeed if he just thought through things a bit. This feature is the one that I hope to see continued most throughout the development of the game. As a 20 year DM of D&D, I know how hard it can be to present players with alternative solutions that are accessible without being obvious.
In short, despite limited team tools, and limited experience with what existed. The game shows excellent potential to be the Blizzard Killer.