Reviews

[Konaku-Rasenore]

Thought I'd find somewhere to post them, so here will do. I had to make three reviews of three different MMO's and send them away for the second stage of a job application to be a game tester/reviewer; just to explain the situation. So here's the first one - FlyFF:

FlyFF:

I happen to be a gamer with little interest in MMO's; however, I have had my share of experience too although I didn't expect this to be of as great benefit as it was when playing FlyFF for the first time.

When I first registered and created my character I had found that the character creation was pretty average, with just three physical traits that the player can modify. The overall style of the character designs also seems pretty generic and bland - due to the designs seemingly based on japanese anime designs like most modern role-playing games.

I logged in, only to find myself greeted by a large number of menus and text boxes from the help screen, status screens, players talking, typing menu etc. For players new players this can be rather unappealing as the screen seems incredibly busy and confusing. Despite this, I noticed that the graphics were plenty colourful and the generic designs only helped to compliment the more pleasant "fun" atmostphere that the game seems to deliver.

From the short time I got to experience the gameplay (given that I have a deadline for three reviews) I found that it was very easy to get used to after experiencing the quick tutorial. It was simple enough for me; but, for new players inexperienced in MMO's there may have been too much information all coming at one time. I feel it would have probably been better if it eased the player into it more - like through a quest where each piece of information would be the focus of an an objective and lead to something. I also felt that drag and dropping items to purchase or equip felt unnecessary, as clicking should be enough for such a task. Although it is a rather menial complaint, most players feel the need to be faster and do things quicker, dragging of which only becomes a nuisance.

The first quest was simple and a nice easy way to introduce the player to test out the gameplay elements that they had just learned from the short tutorial. I had found that pointer displayed above the characters' head was a rather useful tool - complete with the distance to the target.

It didn't take long before I reached one of the main game component of any MMORPG - the battle system! Unlike my previous experience with MMORPG's (ranging from web browser game RuneScape to SquareEnix's Final Fantasy XI) I was pleased to see that the battles were more eventful and alot faster than normal. A big turnoff from MMORPG's is the grinding aspect, where players must fight a large number of enemies to level up so they can do other new things or gain the ability to survive in a new location; however, with FlyFF I believe that grinding probably wouldn't be as tedious as it was in most other games of its genre giving a much more enjoyable experience - especially for new players.

The soundtrack wasn't anything outstanding; but, I feel that it only helped to enhance the fun atmostphere that the game had going. I will admit; however, that within fifteen minutes of playing I had changed over to my own music in the background; afterall, nothing beats metal for slaying a number of monsters.

Although I didn't get to experience the most emphasised game mechanic of FlyFF, the free flying game mechanic, I felt that FlyFF appeared to be a rather enjoyable game that would probably be rather difficult for newcomers to MMO's to grasp, but once they did they'd have a much more pleasurable experience. The game didn't seem to have anything that would make it stand out against the competition, meaning that the more experienced MMO players that are, of course, the main target audience; however, I say that in my ignorance of the flying game mechanic which the games title even promotes - "Fly For Fun," which I believe fits rather appropriately due to the more fun atmostphere the game delivers.[B][/B]

[Konaku-Rasenore]

GodsWar:
When I first created my character, I was met with a very typical 2D avatar design similar to those found on various website ads. I know all too well that anime styles are fairly popular recently; being an anime fan myself I've talked with several people who love the new modern unoriginal designs. The designs of this particular game remind me particularly of gaia online; which, for me personally, is only a negative thing. Of course this has no effect on the actual gameplay itself.

One of the first things I noticed when I started to do quests or play the game was the simplicity of the game; Godswar was obviously created with casual gamers and newcomers in mind, but I still find myself asking, "is this too simple?"

A key feature in GodsWar is the AFK Mode which is when the character fights enemies for you. This may sound like a good idea for people who play the game casually - people who are usually busy with other things; but, levelling up becomes something you simply press the F12 key for (F12 toggles AFK Mode on and off) and leave the character to fight for themselves. This may solve the frustration and boredom found in grinding, but also reduces the level of player interactivity in the game which just makes the game easier and effortless. There's not even a shred of enjoyment or fun in this, as the player doesn't do anything at all, and yet it's all too tempting to press that easy mode key. To further my belief that the AFK Mode is a bit too useless for a computer game; the AFK Mode feature is rather glitchy, where the player can come back to the computer and find his character walking into trees and refusing to fight.

AFK Mode isn't the only feature simplifying this game for newcomers and casual gamers; there is also a search mode. Search mode is when you select an NPC name or an enemy monster (which the game refers to as mobs based on the gamer terminology) on the Quest book or clicking an area on the radar displayed at the top right segment of the screen, and the character automatically goes towards that NPC/enemy/location. This may make searching for whatever you're looking for a whole lot easier (and believe me; finding the occasional NPC or enemy can be difficult when you're new to the game) but the game simply becomes one in which very little player interaction is necessary. I rarely ever had problems finding what I wanted in most other MMO's that I had experienced thanks to the great map designs; which I feel this game is lacking.

In GodsWar the map designs suffer from too much wide open space. In a game where you have no control over your camera (making it rather pseudo 3D to be honest), wide, empty spaces can quite easily become the players enemy. Having experience in designing a 2D game myself, an RPG at that, I know that such spaces can only cause confusion or make the locations seem bland and boring.

The simplicity of the game isn't helped by it's World of Warcraft styled quests; although, I will add in the games' defence, that I had only managed to try nine levels of the tutorial quest. My impressions of the quests - supported by the search function which is in use to help support players on quests - is that all they are just boils down to simple objectives such as "kill x number of enemies" or "talk to y NPC." The player can literally just ignore the text and use the search function to find their objective and accomplish it easily.

I will admit that the game does have its redeeming qualities such as the nice user interface; but, again something that is very similar to World of Warcraft. The game is also alot easier to get used to than FlyFF, being that it's target audience seems to be casual gamers.

Through my short experience with GodWars, I have been unable to see past the simple fact that GodWars is just a simplified version of World of Warcraft to give casual gamers something to do to kill time; which is not a bad thing considering it's target audience is casual gamers. For the more experienced or hardcore gamers however, this game is a miss.

[Konaku-Rasenore]

Tales of Pirates:
Much to my surprise; Tales of Pirates was yet another game with anime styled graphics. With my sarcasm aside, I created my character with the usual same three physical traits for appearance of hair style, face style and hair colour.

The game begins based on one of three locations that you get to select from; being that I'm playing a pirate I decided the small island as the best location to begin my adventure.

Lately I've been into the pirate theme as I read comics such as Vinland Saga (it's actually Vikings, but they're essentially the same thing when ignoring stereotypes) and One Piece as a couple of quick examples. The two comics I mentioned are particularly good examples with a strong contrast. In one hand you have Vinland Saga; a dark and gritty series with alot of blood and gore, and One Piece; a series about fun and adventure as the cast traverse the ocean searching for a particular treasure. If I'm to compare Tales of Pirates to either of the two then it's definerly more like One Piece.

Tales of Pirates runs pretty much the same as GodsWar however it looks alot more bright and colourful, and the game mechanics have been significantly improved and enhanced. Also, can I add prematurely that Tales of Pirates is definetly superior to GodsWar? Too late, I already have.

Tales of Pirates is aimed at the same audience as GodsWar. Casual gamers. However, Tales of Pirates is alot more successful at being an actual computer game than GodsWar was as it forces more player - game interaction than its predecessor. After accepting the first quest I had quickly realised that the search feature from GodsWar had been removed; leaving the player to actually walk to the destination themselves. A similar system had been put in place instead; however, as you could input the coordinates of the NPC you must talk to and arrow would appear above the players' head to inform them of which direction to go. This small improvement made a vast difference, enhancing the game experience significantly, as I no longer had that temptation to easily skip ahead.

With that being said; the quests still have that World of Warcraft flaw in that they're simple search and find or slaying quests. With the support of the new system for finding NPC's, quests hardly involve that much thought.

Fighting in the game is pretty much the same as Worlf of Warcraft as well. You just point and click, and then select the key for your skill that you wish to use. There is very little to do here otherwise. With the lack of the AFK feature; however, it definetly requires more interaction than GodsWar does.

Tales of Pirates doesn't just improve player and game interaction; as the wide, empty space problem from before has been solved. Yes, Tales of Pirates has good map designs. A nice added bonus to this is that the graphics certaintly do look nice and beautiful. Like GodsWar, Tales of Pirates is pseudo-3D, which basically means that you can't control the camera work and it pretty much might as well be 2D. Thanks to the superior map designs this can actually be enjoyed and actually add to the game experience, much unlike GodsWar.

Like GodsWar; Tales of Pirates is essentially just a simplified World of Warcraft aimed at casuals. There is one particular difference though, where GodsWar actually fails at becoming an actual computer game, Tales of Pirates succeeds. As an experienced and "hardcore" gamer, I'd personally give Tales of Pirates a miss, but that isn't to say that it has its redeeming qualities. If you find yourself bored with nothing to do and want to use as little brainpower as possible, or are too busy to play games that require most of your focus then Tales of Pirates would be a great way to kill time for you. Otherwise; this game isn't for you.

[Konaku-Dralel]

Awesome reviews, good use of English too, but cut down on the ";". =P

[Konaku-Rasenore]

I'd just learned how to actually use it, couldn't help myself. Lol.