My experience with Ashes of Creation begins, fittingly, with character creation. It’s solid. Not outstanding, but good, functional, readable, and flexible enough to get you started. I would personally like to see more hairstyles, but nothing here felt actively lacking. So far, so good.
That said, the first thing that stood out to me visually was how soft everything looks. Characters in particular appear slightly fuzzy, not low-resolution, not unfinished, but as though a thin film or haze sits over them. That same softness permeates the game world itself. I’ve disabled FSR, I’m running the game at Epic settings in 1440p, and the only change that noticeably improved clarity was lowering Global Illumination to Medium. That setting, oddly enough, produces the cleanest image for me.
This could be something on my end, but the effect is consistent enough that it’s worth mentioning. The game never quite looks crisp, even when it looks technically impressive.
On a positive technical note: I appreciated that the game runs smoothly through Proton on Linux. That alone deserves recognition, and I sincerely hope this remains supported going forward.
Movement, Weight, and Responsiveness
Once in the world, the first major issue I ran into wasn’t performance or stability it was feel.
The game feels sluggish.
Not the combat timing itself, that seems reasonably smooth. But character movement and responsiveness. Characters feel heavy. Inputs lack snap. Traversing the world on foot feels dull, and that dullness compounds over time.
Mounts are a mixed bag. I genuinely like that you have to physically mount them after summoning, and that dismounting leaves them behind. That’s a small detail, but one that opens up roleplaying potential and grounds the world nicely. However, actual mounted movement feels clunky. They’re fine for long-distance travel village to village but moment-to-moment control feels awkward. As a result, I often found myself preferring to explore on foot… which unfortunately isn’t very engaging either.
I want to be clear here: I hate class homogenization. I’ve argued against it on these forums for years, and the last thing I want is for Ashes of Creation to become “just like every other MMO.”
That said, movement tech does not need to be combat homogenization.
Giving archetypes limited, non-combat (or optionally combat-adjacent) movement tools would dramatically improve exploration and moment-to-moment play. Games that do this well are almost universally praised for it. A recent example for me is Dune: Awakening, where a dedicated traversal ability transforms early exploration into something genuinely fun. Another is The Bloodline, a one-person sandbox RPG where mastering movement makes you feel skilled and expressive in the world.
Right now, Ashes prioritizes realism over responsiveness and I think that’s a mistake. Snappier input will inevitably stress animations, but that’s a tuning problem. Fun should come before realism.
This sluggishness is further reinforced by invisible walls. In an open-world MMO, these simply shouldn’t exist. Let me fall. Let me die. Let me backtrack for ten minutes if I must all of those are preferable to running face-first into an invisible barrier that reminds me I’m playing a game.
Combat, Archetypes, and Progression
For my latest test run, I tried the archetype I’m most interested in thematically. Conceptually, I like it. In practice, there are some issues.
Manual auto-attacks in my case with a wand actively detract from the experience. They don’t make combat more engaging for me; they make it feel awkward. Combined with the general heaviness of movement, this contributes to combat feeling less fluid than it should.
One positive worth highlighting: you’re not locked into specific weapons. That freedom is good design. Weapon skill trees being separate from archetype progression and not competing for trait points is also excellent. It allows experimentation without punishing identity.
However, how skills are currently obtained feels overly gamey. Press K, click an icon, gain a spell. Mechanically functional, yes but thematically hollow.
I care about lore, and I believe lore should be used to teach systems. Right now, I spawn into the world knowing how to summon creatures and cast spells, without any understanding of why. How does magic work in Verra? Why can I do this and a rogue can’t? Where does this knowledge come from
Early quests that teach spells or at least contextualize them would go a long way. Ancient ruins, forgotten tomes, mentors, cultural traditions. Use the progression tree to modify and specialize abilities, not to explain their existence. Engage me with the magic system instead of simply handing it to me.
Tutorials, Stats, and Readability
Ashes clearly assumes players already understand MMOs. I do so I can piece things together but that’s not an excuse for poor onboarding.
At level 1, opening my character sheet and seeing triple-digit stats immediately felt wrong. Gear granting large chunks of health and attributes this early flattens progression. In low-number systems, upgrades are meaningful:
Strength 6 → 7 changes how you play
+1 damage is noticeable
Single points can unlock breakpoints
In high-number systems:
+12 Intellect is just another tick
Upgrades are mathematically correct but experientially invisible
Gear becomes background math.
Tone the numbers down. Let stats grow gradually. Teach players why certain stats matter — and ideally give them some out-of-combat relevance as well.
Professions, World Logic, and Visual Language
When I reached the first settlement, I was given access to multiple professions. I tried fishing. I stood by the water, dragged the skill to my bar, and… nothing. The game simply tells me fish aren’t biting without explaining why. No indication of valid fishing spots, no visual cues, no guidance.
This pattern repeats elsewhere. If harvesting can only happen in specific locations, show that. Don’t dump every system on the player at once. Introduce them deliberately.
The settlement itself lacks visual clarity. NPCs and professions don’t stand out naturally. Real places communicate function visually: sawmills have logs and blades, apothecaries have plants and bottles, docks have fish, nets, and people working. Ashes needs stronger environmental storytelling here.
This also ties into world logic. Where does food come from? Fishing? Hunting? Supplies? The area between the portal and the outpost is dangerous so how is this settlement sustaining itself? These details matter. When internal logic breaks down, immersion breaks with it.
Even NPC interaction feels clumsy. The interact key is the same as looting. NPCs can’t be clicked or highlighted. Small things, but they add friction where there shouldn’t be any.
Closing Thoughts
So far, my experience has been… meh.
I fully acknowledge this is an Alpha. I’ve been a member of this community for many years, and I genuinely want Ashes of Creation to succeed. That’s precisely why I’m being critical.
Right now, too many systems pull me out of the experience instead of drawing me in. The foundation is there the ideas are strong but the moment-to-moment feel, onboarding, and world readability need serious attention.
This isn’t about making Ashes like every other MMO.
It’s about making it feel good to exist in its world.
