Glorious Alpha Two Testers!
Alpha Two Realms are now unlocked for Phase II testing!
For our initial launch, testing will begin on Friday, December 20, 2024, at 10 AM Pacific and continue uninterrupted until Monday, January 6, 2025, at 10 AM Pacific. After January 6th, we’ll transition to a schedule of five-day-per-week access for the remainder of Phase II.
You can download the game launcher here and we encourage you to join us on our for the most up to date testing news.
Alpha Two Realms are now unlocked for Phase II testing!
For our initial launch, testing will begin on Friday, December 20, 2024, at 10 AM Pacific and continue uninterrupted until Monday, January 6, 2025, at 10 AM Pacific. After January 6th, we’ll transition to a schedule of five-day-per-week access for the remainder of Phase II.
You can download the game launcher here and we encourage you to join us on our for the most up to date testing news.
Alpha two review : two weekends in (main Bard)
Yizan
Member, Alpha Two
Hello,
I've been wanting to do my own personnal review for the Alpha Two so far.
I've been playing two weekends in the game.
To clarify my MMORPG history, i've tried many of them from GW1, WoW to GW2, BDO, Rappelz, Lineage, Throne and Liberty, FFXIV, Neverwinter, Lotro...
You get it, i'm a MMORPG player. I love the genre, I love good MMORPGs. My top three would be GW2, WoW, GW1. So far those are the game with the most interesting diverse content, gameplay and replay value. Balanced PvP and welcoming for new payers. Large scale PvP. Challenging content and casual content.
What I look for in MMORPGs : a unique class that I can enjoy coming back to play, good combat obviously, challenging group content - I LOVE killing hard bosses - a great engaging story, I love knowing the depths of the world i'm exploring and cohesive story makes a game so much more successfull in my opinion. Cinematics.
I approached AoC with a great open mindset, ready for anything, i've been following the game since the kickstarter, I'm SO EXCITED for that game. Keeping in mind the idea of AoC is to bring some fresh air in the genre with an oldschool approach. That's what I get from the communication.
First review, the game got me wanting to play more. That's a good sign.
Let's put my ideas into points. I'm pretty positive about the game but I'm gonna focus on the things that are quite underwhelming so far. Obviously as constructive criticism.
Classes :
So far that's my favourite feature of the game. The class system is very nice and unique, each class has their own identity and purpose. Quite complementary to each other. The classes are pretty common yet they feel different to play from other MMORPGs. Looks extremely promising for the future. Big enough skill tree with the need to make choices. I like the idea of not being able to have every skills unlocked and pick and chose to create a build of your own. The animations for an Alpha are very cool. I feel like you nailed that part, I'm very positive and excited about secondary class system and how it can expand the gameplay even further.
I've tried most of the classes to lvl 2/3 to get the feeling of each playstyle. I picked the Bard. If you love the mesmer on GW1/2 you will love the bard. Very interesting concept, very beautiful visual, very interesting support while being quite offensive. That class gets me excited to level up. Good job on one of the biggest portion of the game.
World :
Visually ? For an Alpha ? Impressive ! Some games do come out being much uglier than what the Alpha brings on the table. I really love the aesthetic of the game. The colour palette, the overall cohesive world. Feels very oldschool fantasy. It looks like a third person Baldur's Gate game.
Exploration and progression :
That's where I want to open discussion for the future of the game on that part. So far questing and exploring feels very pointless, not so rewarding and not engaging. The world of Verra looks big, mysterious and you wanna go out there and get lost, but there's not much groundbreaking things to find yet. I'm quite lost at finding quests and understanding them most of the time. The rewards are very underwhelming. Exploring areas does not feel fun, i'd like for you to consider puzzles, underground areas, verticality or climbing, hidden NPC's, spells to unlock through quests or bosses maybe, exploration, hidden paths and so on... for the future of the game. I know that's only the alpha, that's why I'm putting that on the table. The world does not feel so alive so far.
Leveling :
Since combat is so fun and complementary with classes, grouping with players feels rewarding and quite important, which gives a sense of community. BUT the game is not very clear when it comes to understanding the system, where to go, who to talk to, what to interact with. I know it's not supposed to take you by the hand and make it easy but I find it to lack clarity. It's not so fun to be clueless around for UI reasons. Since the rewards of the quests are pretty low, the most efficient way to progress is farming mobs. Which is pretty disapointing so far. Spending hours of killing mobs for a small amount of XP is not so engaging.
UI :
One of the most unclear UI i've experienced, the map feels attrocious to read, the quests are not easy to read and find. No NPC stands out, if you are looking for a quest or who you need to talk to, everything is super unclear.
The overall game lacks clarity and does not feel good to read.
This needs to be added later :
A proper introduction and a proper story to the game. An introduction cinematic, some major NPC's who are part of our story. Something to engage the player, someone to relate to.
Take WoW, Jaina, Sylvanas, Thrall... those are major part of the game and make the game feel alive and meaningfull.
Same for FFXIV, without the main NPC's the game would lack heart and depth.
For the future of AoC I would love some iconic NPC, cinematics and story telling. Something to ground the foundation of the game and give it meaning.
So far the game puts you there, find your way to a node, survive and figure everything out with an unclear UI.
Character creation :
Again, I know this is for the Alpha, it's just temporary for the sake of playing, at least I HOPE. This has to be the ugliest characers i've ever created in a game. The hairstyles are attrocious. I do not enjoy looking at my character and barely seen a good looking player so far. This feels very old, cluncky and your character in game does not feel true to what you customized in character creation.
The light in the creation is so bad that textures looks worse than in game.
This is a major change that I expected for future versions of the game. But I know that will change, obviously. Just wanted to pu a finger on that.
That would be my review so far into AoC, a very promising Alpha, engaging game with easy points to focus on for a better game quite quickly since the core of the game is pretty interesting. A strong foundation with amazing combat, class system and VFX -for an alpha- if that's the game in it's early stage, it can only go up and that leaves us with great hopes for the release. Congratulations to the team.
I've been wanting to do my own personnal review for the Alpha Two so far.
I've been playing two weekends in the game.
To clarify my MMORPG history, i've tried many of them from GW1, WoW to GW2, BDO, Rappelz, Lineage, Throne and Liberty, FFXIV, Neverwinter, Lotro...
You get it, i'm a MMORPG player. I love the genre, I love good MMORPGs. My top three would be GW2, WoW, GW1. So far those are the game with the most interesting diverse content, gameplay and replay value. Balanced PvP and welcoming for new payers. Large scale PvP. Challenging content and casual content.
What I look for in MMORPGs : a unique class that I can enjoy coming back to play, good combat obviously, challenging group content - I LOVE killing hard bosses - a great engaging story, I love knowing the depths of the world i'm exploring and cohesive story makes a game so much more successfull in my opinion. Cinematics.
I approached AoC with a great open mindset, ready for anything, i've been following the game since the kickstarter, I'm SO EXCITED for that game. Keeping in mind the idea of AoC is to bring some fresh air in the genre with an oldschool approach. That's what I get from the communication.
First review, the game got me wanting to play more. That's a good sign.
Let's put my ideas into points. I'm pretty positive about the game but I'm gonna focus on the things that are quite underwhelming so far. Obviously as constructive criticism.
Classes :
So far that's my favourite feature of the game. The class system is very nice and unique, each class has their own identity and purpose. Quite complementary to each other. The classes are pretty common yet they feel different to play from other MMORPGs. Looks extremely promising for the future. Big enough skill tree with the need to make choices. I like the idea of not being able to have every skills unlocked and pick and chose to create a build of your own. The animations for an Alpha are very cool. I feel like you nailed that part, I'm very positive and excited about secondary class system and how it can expand the gameplay even further.
I've tried most of the classes to lvl 2/3 to get the feeling of each playstyle. I picked the Bard. If you love the mesmer on GW1/2 you will love the bard. Very interesting concept, very beautiful visual, very interesting support while being quite offensive. That class gets me excited to level up. Good job on one of the biggest portion of the game.
World :
Visually ? For an Alpha ? Impressive ! Some games do come out being much uglier than what the Alpha brings on the table. I really love the aesthetic of the game. The colour palette, the overall cohesive world. Feels very oldschool fantasy. It looks like a third person Baldur's Gate game.
Exploration and progression :
That's where I want to open discussion for the future of the game on that part. So far questing and exploring feels very pointless, not so rewarding and not engaging. The world of Verra looks big, mysterious and you wanna go out there and get lost, but there's not much groundbreaking things to find yet. I'm quite lost at finding quests and understanding them most of the time. The rewards are very underwhelming. Exploring areas does not feel fun, i'd like for you to consider puzzles, underground areas, verticality or climbing, hidden NPC's, spells to unlock through quests or bosses maybe, exploration, hidden paths and so on... for the future of the game. I know that's only the alpha, that's why I'm putting that on the table. The world does not feel so alive so far.
Leveling :
Since combat is so fun and complementary with classes, grouping with players feels rewarding and quite important, which gives a sense of community. BUT the game is not very clear when it comes to understanding the system, where to go, who to talk to, what to interact with. I know it's not supposed to take you by the hand and make it easy but I find it to lack clarity. It's not so fun to be clueless around for UI reasons. Since the rewards of the quests are pretty low, the most efficient way to progress is farming mobs. Which is pretty disapointing so far. Spending hours of killing mobs for a small amount of XP is not so engaging.
UI :
One of the most unclear UI i've experienced, the map feels attrocious to read, the quests are not easy to read and find. No NPC stands out, if you are looking for a quest or who you need to talk to, everything is super unclear.
The overall game lacks clarity and does not feel good to read.
This needs to be added later :
A proper introduction and a proper story to the game. An introduction cinematic, some major NPC's who are part of our story. Something to engage the player, someone to relate to.
Take WoW, Jaina, Sylvanas, Thrall... those are major part of the game and make the game feel alive and meaningfull.
Same for FFXIV, without the main NPC's the game would lack heart and depth.
For the future of AoC I would love some iconic NPC, cinematics and story telling. Something to ground the foundation of the game and give it meaning.
So far the game puts you there, find your way to a node, survive and figure everything out with an unclear UI.
Character creation :
Again, I know this is for the Alpha, it's just temporary for the sake of playing, at least I HOPE. This has to be the ugliest characers i've ever created in a game. The hairstyles are attrocious. I do not enjoy looking at my character and barely seen a good looking player so far. This feels very old, cluncky and your character in game does not feel true to what you customized in character creation.
The light in the creation is so bad that textures looks worse than in game.
This is a major change that I expected for future versions of the game. But I know that will change, obviously. Just wanted to pu a finger on that.
That would be my review so far into AoC, a very promising Alpha, engaging game with easy points to focus on for a better game quite quickly since the core of the game is pretty interesting. A strong foundation with amazing combat, class system and VFX -for an alpha- if that's the game in it's early stage, it can only go up and that leaves us with great hopes for the release. Congratulations to the team.
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