All teh MMO's
Posted: May 31st, 2006, 14:26
ok, so this is deviating a little from the standard review format, but if i made a proper review for every MMO i have played I would be here for ever. So ive made little mini reviews of each, and if people want me to exapnd on specific ones, they can request it.
EVE
Most of you know it, but for those that dont, think updated ELITE, but MMOised. For those shocking few who might not know what elite is: Trading/mining/flying about shooting things in space. Also some other stuff, like researching and manufacture. All based around corporations and buisness, set in a very Iain M Banks style fairly believable future-world.
Graphics: Shiney, but can be scaled down to run on practically anything. Updated graphics soon promise to make it even shinier.
Good things: Sense of community, sense of achievement when you get stuff (as its harder than most MMO's to get things, and easier to lose them), flexibility with characters, reasonably good dev support, very different "feel" to other MMO's, will last you a long time (if you like it). Skills carry on training when you are not logged in. Really, really complex.
Bad things: Sucks time from you like a big temporal hoover. You cant really play this casually and get enough from it. Can be crushingly bad when you lose something thats taken you months to achieve because some wanker of a space-pirate. Really, really complex.
9/10
WoW
Any gamer who doesnt know what WoW is needs to see a brain doctor. Just in case, its the MMONG version of the classic RTS warcraft. Two sides split into several races, all with a classic fantasy theme (elves, orks etc). Pretty damn big, and undoubtably the most successful MMO out there (financially at least)
Graphics: They went for a cartoon feel with this, and it works well. Beginning to get a little long in the tooth (no fancy bump-mapping or anything like that) but that just means you can now set most of the options way high, and see the lovely design in crispy-clear-o-vision. Looks stylistically the same as the RTS, just bigger. Works well, if you ask me, but its very much a personal taste thing.
Good bits: Easy to get into, you can dabble with it a bit more than EVE, severs are always busy so theres plenty of randoms to team up with if you so wish. Although it does nothing new, as such, what it does do it does very well. The balencing of things like leveling up to time spent playing seems right, the quests etc are not too hard but not too easy. Dancing animations.
Bad Bits: The servers are always *very* busy, so it can sometimes be a chore to find one that isnt groaning under the strain. Due to its popularity, theres a hell of a lot of annoying bastards whinging on the open channels, even by MMO standards (although that can always be fixed by just not watching the local channels.) There really is nothing new in there, so if you're bored of the fantasy thing, look elsewhere.
8/10
EQ2
As standard a RPG fare as you can get really. The sequal to one of the grandaddies of MMO's, and to be honest, its basically the same game with a shiny makeover.
Graphics: Technically very good. They shine in the right places, everything looks sufficiently bumpy and realistic (in stark contrast to WoW). However, its all a bit paint-by-numbers, and lacks soul. Its kinda wierd to describe, as all the component parts are there, and very nice, but the whole looks fucking horrible.
Good bits: To be honest, I have no clue. I played a week long trial, and at not one moment did i see anything that isnt done just as well, if not better by other games.
Bad bits: Its very generic, the graphics are both horrible to look at and hard on your system, its just not very interesting. Having said that, they are the only major complaints about it too. Its just too...bland.
5/10
Saga of Ryzom
A french developed title, I believe, and you can tell. Its all so undefinably continental. One of the rare MMO's that tries to break from the standard "heres a world, theres magic elves and orks" thing, this has some original races and a pretty original (even award winning) storyline. Also features some interesting technology such as realistic modeling of herding behavour in animals and a rather nice skills system.
Graphics: Nice, but fairly bog standard. Not so bad it makes you cry, but nothing that'll make you go "oooh". Some of the creature design is rather lubberly though.
Good things: The storyline is both original and good, it tries (and mostly suceeds) to do new things without breaking stuff thats tried and tested.
Bad stuff: Nothing specific, unless you have a particular hatred for french things.
7/10
Auto Assult
Another brave attempt to break away from the MMO cliches, this is all set in a mad max style post apocalptic world, and pretty much all the action is from wheeled beasties of the road. Much more action orientated than your average MMO.
Graphics: Not bad on my poor system, and apparently quite shiny on higher end stuff.
Good points: Its quite fun belting it about in the desert in a suped up van firing rockets at people. Nearly all of the world is destructable, which is nice.
Bad points: It doesnt really work, somehow. Fun as it is initially, you soon get past the fact that "OMFG im in a CAR!" and realise that its basically just another generic MMO, doing the same old stuff. Also, the bits in the cities where you get out of your car are truly horendous.
4/10
City of Heros/Villains
Is is two games, or one game, or what? Good question, and im not entirely sure. The mechanics of the two are basically the same, they interact with each other, they are launched from the same shortcut, and if you have both you still only pay one monthly fee. However, they can be got seperately, so you can have either/or. Also, the *feel* of the two games is very different, despite the fact they are basically the same. So I dunno.
However, in a basic summary of both: Its an MMO based around comic books, such as the X-Men and Batman and the like. CoH deals with the good guys, and tends to be a little more camp, wheras CoV you play as a bad guy, and its a little more gothic. Both never really take themselves too seriously, though. The options for making your character (even though most of them are purely cosmetic) are stupidly many, enabling you to make pretty much any theme of character you can think of (although copying Marvel characters is a big no-no, due to a bad case of Lawyers).
Graphics: Looks ok, if a little dated, on my rig. Faster machines can make it look very shiney indeed, with depth of field and all sorts. Stylistically, the CoH levels are mostly rather bright and cheery, wheras pretty much all of CoV is grungy and run down. All looks smashing though, design wise.
Good stuff: Character creation. Its almost a game unto its self, and as a result, ive got more characters in the CoX games than in all the other MMO's i have ever played put together. Its a lot of silly fun. Theres no need for planning, or schemes that last longer than an hour or so. Jumping/flying about/running at 200mph are rediculously good fun (I have yet to see anyone get Flying for the first time and *not* spend the next 30mins just swooping about the place). Theres a lot of space for pissing about in the game, so its more social (when you have a group of friends) than most other MMO's.
Bad Stuff: The temptation to just make a squillion alt's does make it hard to reach high level stuff. The other effect of this is you tend to do the same missions over and over, which can be irritating. Finally, one of the aformentioned strong points is also its weak point: its not very deep. Yes, you can dip in for some casual gaming, or you can spend hours on end flying about the place lycra clad, but it doesnt have involved, complec tasts to complete like EVE does. I know, im comparing everything to EVE.
8/10
Star Wars Galaxies
The star wars setting as an MMO. Be a wookie, go to tatoine and blast things. Or build houses. meh.
Graphics: Alright, but nothing special. Not totally awfull, but certainly dated.
Good points: Its star wars.
Bad points: Its actually everquest. It just *looks* like starwars. Plus, its a hell of a lot of work to become a jedi, so dont let that tempt you. I fear it is beyond the reach of any 5punkers.
3/10 (2 of which is purely because its star wars.
Anarchy Online
Sci fi setting for an otherwise faily bog standard MMONG.
Graphics: Make no mistake, this is old. If graphics are what floats your boat, avoid this like the plague. In fact, unless you can happily play retro games, avoid this.
Good Points: its free. Well, the core game is. All the expansion packs (which i believe make the game somewhat better, but ive not tried them) are paid for, but the main game you can have for free.
Bad points: You get what you pay for.
Matrix Online
A seemingly obvious choice for a game of this particular film licence, its all based around the matrix films. Storline wise, its set shortly after the last film. Be a digitised computer geek, just like the people in the film. Theres apparently a lot of storyline going on (following events from the films) but I only had a week trial, and didnt realy notice.
A lot of people (myself included) were put off this game by the beta test. Even by beta test standards, the game was baaaaaad. Buggy as hell, looked horrible, and it was kinda boring. They have since improved it a lot, but its still not smashing.
Graphics: Meh. Another not great/not terrible one, although it seemed to make my machine chuggy considering the level of detail it was on (not very high).
Good points: Its the matrix! Wear leather coats! wear sunglasses indoors! do kungfu! Actually, the fight system is kinda cool, with some nice film style kung-fuing going on.
Bad points: Its a bit dull, and although you can get cool outfits, you soon realise that everyone else is wearing almost identical cool outfits. And although the fights look good one on one, the system doesnt do multiple opponents, leading to some rediculous situations where you have bad guys lining up for you to punch them in the face. And the inteface is awfull.
2/10
Dungeons and Dragons Online
A reasonable attempt to turn the old pen and paper game into an RPG. Set in the new campain setting of Eberron, this adherance to the p&p game means things work in a very different way. Most of the classes just cant do solo adventuring, because D&D doesnt work like that. Theifs are for picking locks and disarming traps, fighters are for hitting things. If you are a solo thief, you cant kill things, and if you are a solo fighter, you cant get past locked doors. Also, XP is worked out for quest objectives that you achieve, rather than just who you kill.
Graphics: Im getting kinda bored of saying this, but its destinctly so so. Better than crap, but not so amazing you will cry.
Good stuff: If you are a D&D geek (like me) and have a group of similarly minded friends, i can imagine this being a lot of fun. It basically *is* the p&p game with a 3D interface. Also, a lot of the things it does to break away from the standard MMO model work really well...
Bad stuff:...but a few dont. Like the need to be in a group. Its great if you have friends who play the game, but if you dont its a nightmare. You cant solo and by and large, the "grouping with randoms" gives baaad experiences. Plus, the community on the whole are elitist bastards, so if you are not already a D&D fan, they will shun you, hard.
RF Online
Wierd Korean MMO. I heard lots of hype about it being different and cool, but the couple of days play i gave it before getting pissed off does not show this at all. Its just another generic MMO with a mildly different setting trying to do the job of original thought.
Graphics:nice enough, but again, not great. Also, everyone looks exactly the same. The fucking Cybermen had more individuality.
Good points:....erm...theres stompy robots....
Bad points: ...but apart from the fact that they look stompy, they are just another generic MMO race. Look at the bad points for most of the above games, pretend they are all about this one. Pretty much sums it up.
EVE
Most of you know it, but for those that dont, think updated ELITE, but MMOised. For those shocking few who might not know what elite is: Trading/mining/flying about shooting things in space. Also some other stuff, like researching and manufacture. All based around corporations and buisness, set in a very Iain M Banks style fairly believable future-world.
Graphics: Shiney, but can be scaled down to run on practically anything. Updated graphics soon promise to make it even shinier.
Good things: Sense of community, sense of achievement when you get stuff (as its harder than most MMO's to get things, and easier to lose them), flexibility with characters, reasonably good dev support, very different "feel" to other MMO's, will last you a long time (if you like it). Skills carry on training when you are not logged in. Really, really complex.
Bad things: Sucks time from you like a big temporal hoover. You cant really play this casually and get enough from it. Can be crushingly bad when you lose something thats taken you months to achieve because some wanker of a space-pirate. Really, really complex.
9/10
WoW
Any gamer who doesnt know what WoW is needs to see a brain doctor. Just in case, its the MMONG version of the classic RTS warcraft. Two sides split into several races, all with a classic fantasy theme (elves, orks etc). Pretty damn big, and undoubtably the most successful MMO out there (financially at least)
Graphics: They went for a cartoon feel with this, and it works well. Beginning to get a little long in the tooth (no fancy bump-mapping or anything like that) but that just means you can now set most of the options way high, and see the lovely design in crispy-clear-o-vision. Looks stylistically the same as the RTS, just bigger. Works well, if you ask me, but its very much a personal taste thing.
Good bits: Easy to get into, you can dabble with it a bit more than EVE, severs are always busy so theres plenty of randoms to team up with if you so wish. Although it does nothing new, as such, what it does do it does very well. The balencing of things like leveling up to time spent playing seems right, the quests etc are not too hard but not too easy. Dancing animations.
Bad Bits: The servers are always *very* busy, so it can sometimes be a chore to find one that isnt groaning under the strain. Due to its popularity, theres a hell of a lot of annoying bastards whinging on the open channels, even by MMO standards (although that can always be fixed by just not watching the local channels.) There really is nothing new in there, so if you're bored of the fantasy thing, look elsewhere.
8/10
EQ2
As standard a RPG fare as you can get really. The sequal to one of the grandaddies of MMO's, and to be honest, its basically the same game with a shiny makeover.
Graphics: Technically very good. They shine in the right places, everything looks sufficiently bumpy and realistic (in stark contrast to WoW). However, its all a bit paint-by-numbers, and lacks soul. Its kinda wierd to describe, as all the component parts are there, and very nice, but the whole looks fucking horrible.
Good bits: To be honest, I have no clue. I played a week long trial, and at not one moment did i see anything that isnt done just as well, if not better by other games.
Bad bits: Its very generic, the graphics are both horrible to look at and hard on your system, its just not very interesting. Having said that, they are the only major complaints about it too. Its just too...bland.
5/10
Saga of Ryzom
A french developed title, I believe, and you can tell. Its all so undefinably continental. One of the rare MMO's that tries to break from the standard "heres a world, theres magic elves and orks" thing, this has some original races and a pretty original (even award winning) storyline. Also features some interesting technology such as realistic modeling of herding behavour in animals and a rather nice skills system.
Graphics: Nice, but fairly bog standard. Not so bad it makes you cry, but nothing that'll make you go "oooh". Some of the creature design is rather lubberly though.
Good things: The storyline is both original and good, it tries (and mostly suceeds) to do new things without breaking stuff thats tried and tested.
Bad stuff: Nothing specific, unless you have a particular hatred for french things.
7/10
Auto Assult
Another brave attempt to break away from the MMO cliches, this is all set in a mad max style post apocalptic world, and pretty much all the action is from wheeled beasties of the road. Much more action orientated than your average MMO.
Graphics: Not bad on my poor system, and apparently quite shiny on higher end stuff.
Good points: Its quite fun belting it about in the desert in a suped up van firing rockets at people. Nearly all of the world is destructable, which is nice.
Bad points: It doesnt really work, somehow. Fun as it is initially, you soon get past the fact that "OMFG im in a CAR!" and realise that its basically just another generic MMO, doing the same old stuff. Also, the bits in the cities where you get out of your car are truly horendous.
4/10
City of Heros/Villains
Is is two games, or one game, or what? Good question, and im not entirely sure. The mechanics of the two are basically the same, they interact with each other, they are launched from the same shortcut, and if you have both you still only pay one monthly fee. However, they can be got seperately, so you can have either/or. Also, the *feel* of the two games is very different, despite the fact they are basically the same. So I dunno.
However, in a basic summary of both: Its an MMO based around comic books, such as the X-Men and Batman and the like. CoH deals with the good guys, and tends to be a little more camp, wheras CoV you play as a bad guy, and its a little more gothic. Both never really take themselves too seriously, though. The options for making your character (even though most of them are purely cosmetic) are stupidly many, enabling you to make pretty much any theme of character you can think of (although copying Marvel characters is a big no-no, due to a bad case of Lawyers).
Graphics: Looks ok, if a little dated, on my rig. Faster machines can make it look very shiney indeed, with depth of field and all sorts. Stylistically, the CoH levels are mostly rather bright and cheery, wheras pretty much all of CoV is grungy and run down. All looks smashing though, design wise.
Good stuff: Character creation. Its almost a game unto its self, and as a result, ive got more characters in the CoX games than in all the other MMO's i have ever played put together. Its a lot of silly fun. Theres no need for planning, or schemes that last longer than an hour or so. Jumping/flying about/running at 200mph are rediculously good fun (I have yet to see anyone get Flying for the first time and *not* spend the next 30mins just swooping about the place). Theres a lot of space for pissing about in the game, so its more social (when you have a group of friends) than most other MMO's.
Bad Stuff: The temptation to just make a squillion alt's does make it hard to reach high level stuff. The other effect of this is you tend to do the same missions over and over, which can be irritating. Finally, one of the aformentioned strong points is also its weak point: its not very deep. Yes, you can dip in for some casual gaming, or you can spend hours on end flying about the place lycra clad, but it doesnt have involved, complec tasts to complete like EVE does. I know, im comparing everything to EVE.
8/10
Star Wars Galaxies
The star wars setting as an MMO. Be a wookie, go to tatoine and blast things. Or build houses. meh.
Graphics: Alright, but nothing special. Not totally awfull, but certainly dated.
Good points: Its star wars.
Bad points: Its actually everquest. It just *looks* like starwars. Plus, its a hell of a lot of work to become a jedi, so dont let that tempt you. I fear it is beyond the reach of any 5punkers.
3/10 (2 of which is purely because its star wars.
Anarchy Online
Sci fi setting for an otherwise faily bog standard MMONG.
Graphics: Make no mistake, this is old. If graphics are what floats your boat, avoid this like the plague. In fact, unless you can happily play retro games, avoid this.
Good Points: its free. Well, the core game is. All the expansion packs (which i believe make the game somewhat better, but ive not tried them) are paid for, but the main game you can have for free.
Bad points: You get what you pay for.
Matrix Online
A seemingly obvious choice for a game of this particular film licence, its all based around the matrix films. Storline wise, its set shortly after the last film. Be a digitised computer geek, just like the people in the film. Theres apparently a lot of storyline going on (following events from the films) but I only had a week trial, and didnt realy notice.
A lot of people (myself included) were put off this game by the beta test. Even by beta test standards, the game was baaaaaad. Buggy as hell, looked horrible, and it was kinda boring. They have since improved it a lot, but its still not smashing.
Graphics: Meh. Another not great/not terrible one, although it seemed to make my machine chuggy considering the level of detail it was on (not very high).
Good points: Its the matrix! Wear leather coats! wear sunglasses indoors! do kungfu! Actually, the fight system is kinda cool, with some nice film style kung-fuing going on.
Bad points: Its a bit dull, and although you can get cool outfits, you soon realise that everyone else is wearing almost identical cool outfits. And although the fights look good one on one, the system doesnt do multiple opponents, leading to some rediculous situations where you have bad guys lining up for you to punch them in the face. And the inteface is awfull.
2/10
Dungeons and Dragons Online
A reasonable attempt to turn the old pen and paper game into an RPG. Set in the new campain setting of Eberron, this adherance to the p&p game means things work in a very different way. Most of the classes just cant do solo adventuring, because D&D doesnt work like that. Theifs are for picking locks and disarming traps, fighters are for hitting things. If you are a solo thief, you cant kill things, and if you are a solo fighter, you cant get past locked doors. Also, XP is worked out for quest objectives that you achieve, rather than just who you kill.
Graphics: Im getting kinda bored of saying this, but its destinctly so so. Better than crap, but not so amazing you will cry.
Good stuff: If you are a D&D geek (like me) and have a group of similarly minded friends, i can imagine this being a lot of fun. It basically *is* the p&p game with a 3D interface. Also, a lot of the things it does to break away from the standard MMO model work really well...
Bad stuff:...but a few dont. Like the need to be in a group. Its great if you have friends who play the game, but if you dont its a nightmare. You cant solo and by and large, the "grouping with randoms" gives baaad experiences. Plus, the community on the whole are elitist bastards, so if you are not already a D&D fan, they will shun you, hard.
RF Online
Wierd Korean MMO. I heard lots of hype about it being different and cool, but the couple of days play i gave it before getting pissed off does not show this at all. Its just another generic MMO with a mildly different setting trying to do the job of original thought.
Graphics:nice enough, but again, not great. Also, everyone looks exactly the same. The fucking Cybermen had more individuality.
Good points:....erm...theres stompy robots....
Bad points: ...but apart from the fact that they look stompy, they are just another generic MMO race. Look at the bad points for most of the above games, pretend they are all about this one. Pretty much sums it up.
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