Archeage Review

[Holy Athena]

Note: This review was locked awhile ago due to people causing unneeded drama. Please lets not let that happen again.

C'mon guys keep it clean. Everyone's entitled to their own opinions, but not entitled to shoving those opinions down others throats, so long as we all understand this, everything should be ok.

Let me know what you think of this review. I did attempt to be as unbiased as possible and just say exactly how the game-play is At the present moment.

Though I did add a few "I do like this or that" I didn't say "THIS GAME IS AWESOME CUZ OF THIS!"! that's an opinion..

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I wanted to write a review on ArcheAge. I have the game but bought it on their site, so I can't get a steam key yet it seems, therefore can't write a proper review on steam (yet).

There's been alot of mis conceptions about ArcheAge, and some people just "not getting it." Even after playing the game for 8 months in Alpha. (Which is pretty astounding to me.)

First I'll go through the mis-conceptions.

"This is not a sand-box or an open world" Mis conception.

This game actually is a sand-box. While a few things are limited, that is done simply to keep things in balance, or immersive. (Like only being able to build in housing area's). Although these housing area's are in the actual world, and you can build anywhere inside those area's.

I can be questing one moment. Stop what I'm doing, travel to my ship at sea, jump on it, and help a guildmate cross the ocean for a trade run. On the way, get attacked by a player, have to defend ourselves, and make it to the other continent. Once he sells his goods. We travel back, I head to my house, drop a few things off, check on my crops, then back to questing again.. All with 0 loading screens... Yes.. zero.. loading screens..

Idk about you, but that sure sounds like open world, sand-box.. you can do what you want, when you want, where you want.. period... (Yes you can even setup a farm outside of those designated zones, however they won't be "protected".)

Yes you can just do the quests, and play it like its on rails.. but.. well you'll be missing out on 70% of the point of this game, and ruining your experience. It's there for when you want to chill out and do a few quests, but is not the point of the game.

This is a pay to win

Another mis conception. While there are things which paying people get (like patron status), and there are cosmetics you can buy, there is nothing which gives the player a complete one up on anyone else.

A level 30 can beat a level 45.. If you know what you're doing. There's NOTHING in the store that level 45 could buy to stop that from happening, if he doesn't know what he's doing.

Note: The game is ,sadly -starting- to step towards Pay2Win. However, they have also just removed P2W like items. For the mean time, it's still not a P2W in the sense that a player will have epic gear over you and face roll because they spent 900$ on the shop.

You can still get everything yourself, and atm, is simply a "Pay to do more, but not necessarily gaurenteed farther".


There is no open PvP 24/7
Note: Some "Safe" Area's are PvP locked completely.
Another mis conception. While you have to set yourself to allow YOU to attack another player, you can do it. It's set to "off" to not allow you to accidentally click others when you don't want too, so long as you flip that switch, everyone is free game to you.

However that has serious back lashes, and you will create serious infamy points very quickly, which will net you as a "pirate" by the server.. When this happens, you're now an enemy to the entire continent 24/7. So it doesn't happen often.

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Now that I've got that out of the way, lets start with the actual review.

The game itself is setup to force you to rely and depend on other players. The economy and world is player driven in large margins even if it's not noticeable, or obvious at the start. You cannot, and will not be totally self dependant without huge costs to you both in time, and money wasted trying it.

Because of this, the game isn't entirely friendly to totally "casual" or lazy players who want everything with little to no effort. I myself am a casual player, but I'm not lazy. I am perfectly fine working for what I need.

If you're fine knowing that by the time you hit level 50, you'll probably still be running around with level 30-40 equipment, and need time to really get money towards that better stuff, and are ok with working towards it.. You'll fit right in.

The World itself is setup with 2 main continents, and other Islands. It's basically West vs East.

the 2 factions on the west are allied, while the 2 factions on the East are allied. Both sides are always hostile to the other. (Although as I'll go into more below, you can still attack your own faction, the PvP is open 24/7 anyone, anytime).

Each race and continent has its own language.(you can learn other races languages with books). Each continent has its own "shared" language as well.

Meaning if you try to talk to someone from another continent, you won't understand what they're saying.. literally... It'll come up in chat like werweqreq;feqfqefw....... Until you learn their language...

Continent shared language is a language both races native to that continent understand, and this is the language most people speak in, However, I can also talk in my "native language" and the other race on my continent won't be able to read what I said.

Class System

The Class system is absolutely amazing in my opinion. Something no review, or player has really given it the credit it fully deserves.

The Class System is setup so that the class you choose, and your playstyle really show in how you setup your character. There virtually is no limitation.

Level 1: You choose your first skillset
Level 5: You choose your second
Level 10: You choose your third skillset, and are then given your "class"

The "Class" is given to you from what you choose. It does nothing but simply tells another player what of the 3 and which combination you chose for skillsets. The class is nothing more than a title.

Each skill you choose is IMPORTANT... Very... Important... making no skill useless. I'll get back to this in a second however and explain further.

Every class can wear any armor.. use any weapon.... Each give specific bonus's.

For instance..

Heavy armor is focused on mainly Physical resistance but weakest against magical.

Leather Armor is a balance

Cloth Armor huge magic resists, but bad on physical.

Ontop of that you also get bonuses for wearing a full suit. So if you have a full suit of Heavy Armor, you get bonus defense on physical, and other little bonus's.

So let me give an explanation of how this may work.

http://archeagedatabase.net/us/calc/

The link is a calculator tool which shows you the 10 skill sets. Pressing the "Possible Classes" button shows you all of the 120 some classes that are possible to be created from choosing combinations of these skillsets.

Alright, so lets try making a tank like character.. Lets make the first skillset Vitalism, Second Defense, and third Battlerage.

This will give you the class "Paladin".

You don't have to go in order for skills, as the skills unlock at a specific level. The passives unlock depending on how many skills you've unlocked in that category.

Play around with this a little and then continue reading.

As you can see, you're very limited on points. It's a system which makes you really pick and choose what you want your Paladin to do. You could have 15 Paladins and not a single one fights the same.

So in reality, there are more than just 120 classes, but virtually unlimited classes, as even 15 players in any of those classes, are not necessarily going to be fighting the same.

I could have a Paladin in Leather armor, using most of my passives, and active buffs to keep my defenses high, while wielding dual blades.

I could have a Paladin sporting a spear/shield combo, and focusing mainly on defense, and "hold the line" tactics..

I could have a Paladin sporting cloth armor for high magic resist, and sporting full defense marks in the defense skillset for physical resistance, while sporting a staff or halberd too increase my healing potential....

and many more possible ways to play that 1 out of 120+ skillsets.... whew.... that's alot!

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Labor Point System

Oi.. yes I have to review the LP system. Many headaches and crying over this, however I will dispell all the blind rage, and help keep things into perspective before I go into the crafting.

Everyone has labor points. Free players regen LP at 5 per 5 minutes. While Patrons get 10 per 5 minutes.

Note: Non patrons also do not regen labor points while offline. However, you can get patron status by buying APEX from other players with in-game currency. Exactly like EVE's setup.

Non patrons, also cannot sell anything on the market, until they pay some gilda stars (one time payment).

Gathering, crafting uses up Labor Points, as well as opening coin purses from mobs, and identifying items.

(I agree opening coin purses is rediculous and shouldn't cost LP).

Before you go "omg somethings limiting me af;oeihw;oiahfioaw" Keep Cool. It's for a very legit reason.

As I pointed out already, this is not a themepark on rails MMO like WoW, FFXIV, Aion, etc.

The economy is very player driven, therefore it needs a way to keep the market in check. Anyone who's played other MMO's knows that just a few months in the markets are flooded with stuff by crafters, and generally the market costs sink so low that money is really.. well worthless, because everything is so cheap its a joke, and everybody apart from the serious casuals are rich up to their ears in gold.

This is extremely bad in a game like ArcheAge. Therefore the Labor Point system is setup to not only keep the market in check by limiting a players daily output, but also forcing players to communicate and interact.

As I said already, you cannot be self sufficient without a serious time sink, this is why. You're limited on LP. Therefore if you want to gather everything you need, you'll be killing your final product output. Whereas, if you buy some of the materials, or trade/work with a guild, you'll be able to overcome that.

It also as a bonus, combats gold sellers, as they can't just bot forever.

Crafting

For those who like crafting, the crafting system is rather in depth. However I've not delved too much into it, I can give you the basis.

The LP system is again, a huge complaint by crafters, (but that's mostly because they want to be self sufficient and "oh no I have to trade, and work with others to get what I want? This is preposterous in an MMO!") type of mentality. Which is... well.. silly..

Using this link: http://archeagedatabase.net/us/recipes/

You can see all the crafts: Weaponry, Carpentry, Tailoring, Leathwork, Metalwork, Handicrafts, Alchemcy, Cooking, Machinery, Husbandry, Gathering, Farming, Masonry, Printing, and finally Commerce.

Sweet Jesus, tha'ts alot.

When you reach max experience in a craft, you can "upgrade" it. There are 9 levels of a craft.

However, again, as the game promotes, and which the game is ruling on.. You cannot be self sufficient, or do it all.

As you rank up in the class, the LP costs lower, and more blueprints, or designs become available for you to make.. However on the flip side..

You can only have 3 crafts at rank 9... 4 at rank 8, 5 at rank 7, etc. etc. etc.

So you need to choose again.. what are you going to REALLY focus on?

I've come up with a system myself to get around the labor points as a crafter. This is something I am willing to share with others. As a Guild Leader, I will be setting up a medieval style of "Apprenticeship".

Any player who has reached at least rank 4-5 in a craft can take another player who wishes as their "Apprentice". The "Master" gives the apprentice things like Iron Ore, or Logs to make into materials he needs. The Apprentice then uses his labor points to craft these materials, which usually does eat up a good chunk of LP. The master then takes the final materials, and makes the final product, a product which sells for alot, and is probably something the Apprentice couldn't make on his own with his current level.

The Master then sells the final product and gives the Apprentice a portion of the income.

So what is exactly happening in my setup?

The Master is getting to create more final products with his LP than he could alone, while the Apprentice is learning valuable things from the master, and getting his exp risen in the craft while doing so.

Alone lets say the Master could only make 5 of these items, but with the Apprentices help he can slam out 10-15 of these items. This has a larger profit gain for both the Master, and the Apprentice who alone could probably only make a fraction of what these sell for as is.

It's a win/win.

using the LP system to encourage, and promote player interaction, and using it to actually get you farther.

Trading

I was going to put this in with Crafting, but it really is a whole different can of worms.

Trading in this game is not just limited too selling what you make on the AH. You can also make "Specialty" goods. These are goods that can only be made in a specific territory and or continent.

When you make these goods you get what is called a "trade pack". The farther away on the continent you trade this trade pack, the bigger your payout.

Like-wise, if you trade the pack to a whole different continent, you get gilda stars instead. Which you use to buy houses, blue prints, ships, and patron status.

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PvP-Pirating, and thievery

I mentioned before the PvP really is 24/7 anywhere, but with big negatives. Here I'll go more in depth on that.

Lets start with Pirating.

To become a pirate you need to get your infamy to a specific height. Once done, you are labeled a "pirate" by the server. At this point in time, both continents are now hostile to you, including all players not a pirate.

This means several things.

1) You cannot make specialty goods anymore, you must steal them by attacking players transferring goods from 1 continent to another. (You can still make things as a crafter, just not specialty goods, unless you somehow sneak onto the continent to the specialty crafting table, which is risky).

2) The Pirate haven/island is now not hostile to you, giving you all the basics you need to survive.

3) All other pirate players are now non-hostile to you.

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West and East Continents are always hostile too each other. There are several "open PvP" area's and I use the term "open" loosely because all territories are technically open, however these specific territories can be captured by the opposite faction/continent. Wars, and battles will brew up daily here.

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Thievery

If you wish to be a thief, its as simple as simply stealing what you want to take from a player. Whether it be a trade pack, or something from their farm. However, you do need to raise your larceny skill. Higher larceny lets you steal higher grade items.

You can be reported, and if you have a certain amount of infamy, if you're killed in PvP, you will be arrested.

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The world itself

The world itself can be hard for people to get into, but only because they are used to the "on-rails MMO" style of play, where you go here at this level, then go there at this level, then grind for this armor at this level style of play.

ArcheAge is much like EVE, in the sense that.. what you do is totally up to you at any given time.

Sail to another continent and do trade runs, or just to see it...

Go diving in the ocean, or near land and search for ship wrecks, and sunken treasure.(yes you can actually search for sunken treasure)..

Be a total ♥♥♥ and steal 40 hens from a farmer...

Ride the Airship and then jump off using your glider, to reach the top of a mountain with your girl(or boy), and have a romantic time watching the sunset (the graphics are beautiful in this game).

Be a mercenary and sell yourself out to help fight a siege battle, or protect a crafter who is trying to safely transport his goods to a city or across the sea.

Try your hand at crafting if you want.

Sell out your services to merchants as a Ferry across the ocean for those who don't have it.

The possibilities are endless. It's simply your mind that is stopping you.

This IS is an open world, no loading screens, do what you want, when you want, where you want. It really is that simple.

(If I've forgotten to add anything, or want me to expand on anything let me know).

Here is a video of me traveling to 3 cities on the Western continent. While I've cut the video down (It would of been close to 30 minutes had I run it through without shortening it), it does show you the open world. (Yes you can even get up onto the mountains you see in the distance). There were zero loading screens in this entire travel.

Pleaste Note, the games engine wasn't liking my fraps much, thereofre the graphics got slightly jittery because of it, but has only ever happened during the recording of this video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5CoqkSobxVE&list=UUkT38PllMDLsAybScwiz8mg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DD8krUqByc&list=UUkT38PllMDLsAybScwiz8mg

[Tytos]

“Note: This review was locked awhile ago due to people causing unneeded drama. Please lets not let that happen again.” Why, because people disagreed with you? People are entitled to disagree.

[flow]

Not because people disagreed. The steam-forum is full of trolls, that's why it got locked.

[Holy Athena]

C'mon guys keep it clean. Everyone's entitled to their own opinions, but not entitled to shoving those opinions down others throats, so long as we all understand this, everything should be ok.

[Tytos]

Originally posted by flow:

Not because people disagreed. The steam-forum is full of trolls, that's why it got locked.

The problem: the minority disagree; the majority label them as trolls.

[PhoenixOmen]

The post was not locked because of above stated. It was Closed because you kept bumping the thread.

And you just violated another of Steams rules: Post spam (i.e. +1, 10char, rickrolls) or Re-post Closed, Modified, Deleted Content.

[flow]

Originally posted by ReVoke:

Originally posted by flow:

Not because people disagreed. The steam-forum is full of trolls, that's why it got locked.

The problem: the minority disagree; the majority label them as trolls.

That's what a troll will say. I saw you other comments. You are definitely a troll, sir.

[PhoenixOmen]

Originally posted by flow:

That's what a troll will say. I saw you other comments. You are definitely a troll, sir.

Actually what you are stating is what a Troll would say.

[Max]

Please refrain from reposting previously locked content.