Recent reviews by Em3rgency

Sony has made the game unavailable in 180 countries, even if they no longer require PSN.

We dive together or not at all.

A hard-science alien invasion game with geopolitics and 4x? YES PLEASE.

This game is crack

Its ok

Work more so you don't have to work so much, so you can spend your time on working on other things like making sure you don't have to work on them anymore either.

AUTOMATE ALL THE THINGS simulator 2018.

The perfect blend of Space Engineers and Factorio. Don't let the kiddy graphics fool you, game is as complex and as hardcore as it gets. Don't listen to the haters about the controls, they MAKE SENSE, once you get used to them. Trust me, I'm an engineer.

My first session:
Had a semi pressurized room with lots of electronic logic components doing their thing.
Went on a mining trip, found a big hole. Jumped into hole and continued mining.
Accidentally used up all jetpack propellant.
Had a genius idea to use the breathing waste tank (CO2) from the suit scrubber as jetpack fuel. It worked!
Any gas will work as cold propellant.
Got home safely.
Saw that furnace I was using to smelt steel had LOTS of gas inside it. Bit on the hot side at 800 C, but I can work with that.
Refueled jetpack from furnace.
Went into base. Forgot to turn off jetpack. OH GOD THE AIR IS ON FIRE. RIP everything.

My next session:
Spent 4 days designing and implementing dedicated gas storage, recycling, cooling and mixing system with automated emergency release. I'm about 30% done with it.

Early access my ass. Playtime for weeks,

Have to buy the VR version separately AND paid mods? Yeah, ♥♥♥♥ you.

Download game, start it, launcher opens up.

Sign in with google. Enter credentials, hit allow, nothing happens.
Repeat x3. Finally works.
"Link with Hi-res account?"
What? No. Let me into the game. What, I have to make your stupid account anyway? Whats the point of the google login then?
Fine. I make an account. Username already exists.
uhhh.. Ok? I try all my password combos, doesn't work.
Hit "can't login".
Enter email. No accounts with this email.
Try again. Enter username. Username not found. WHAT?!
Try to register again.
Username already exists.
Yeah, screw you, game. Clean up your stupid login system.
Why do I even need this, I'm logged into steam, AND I gave you my google account WHAT MORE DO YOU WANT?
Can't be bothered with this noise.

TL;DR;
I have been playing Mortal Online for over a week before it came out on Steam. The short version: If you're into MMOs, this game is definitely something you should give a go, if only for its uniqueness. It plays like an Elder Scrolls game with a feudal Eve Online twist. As objectively as I can, I'd rate this game 85/100.

The Game-play
This is where Mortal Online shines. The best Genre Tag to describe the game would be Hardcore MMO RPG. You can be killed anywhere by anyone. You'll drop everything you have on you when you die. And the best part? There is almost no hand holding for the entire experience. Mortal forces players to learn everything by trial and error. And I'm not only talking about game mechanics like how to fight or gather resources. I'm talking about things like crafting recipes and interaction with the game world. For one thing, there are no crafting recipes like you would expect in other games. There is no giant icon that tells you what item you will get for what resources. Not only can you craft the same thing with different materials, but you can use different amounts of those materials. And both of those things affect the final item stats and looks. That is to say of course, if your character even has the ability to tell the quality of your craft goods... Which brings me to my next point.

Character Progression
There are no set classes or character levels in Mortal Online. The experience of your character is defined by the skills that he has learned. There are several hundred skills in the game. Skills are generally graded anywhere from 0 to 100 and they're also classified as primary and secondary. Every character has a maximum of 1100 skill points to use for primary skills. Secondary skills don't cost any points. Now the skills themselves influence everything you do. Your ability to run, to fight, to block and jump. Your ability to comprehend how good some armor or sword is. What the affects of a potion are. What nutrition a food item has. How much you can carry while swimming and still not drown. What animal you can manage to keep under control. The list goes on. There are literally HUNDREDS of skills. Your character even has a skill for breathing. No joke. And you can train all of them! If you can find a combination of skills that works for you, congratulations, you have your own "class".

World and Game Content
Mortal Online has been out and available for several years. Its only had one expansion in that time. And yet its had a consistent and solid player-base the whole time. Do you want to know why? I think one of the main reasons is because nobody has "finished" it. That's right. In the years that the game has been out, not one person has gone through all the content the game has to offer. That's a very refreshing thing to hear, considering that other MMO that shall not be named has to keep releasing expansions every year just so its players have things to do. I can guess what you're thinking. "Oh, its probably a horrible grind-fest". No. Almost any one skill can be leveled to max in a day or so. The secret is that Mortal Online relies heavily on player knowledge and skill. Your own skill, not your characters. Did you ever read or watch a show about some magician or alchemist, that spends years locked away somewhere researching potent new potions that the world has never seen? Well, now is your chance to do exactly that. And please please, if you figure out how to get mana potions that don't kill the mages, I'll pay you everything I own for the recipe.

The negatives

• Outdated payment method. The game runs on an "forever trial" with a possible monthly subscription fee. F2P is only good to check the game out. The limitation is that skills are capped at 60 instead of 100. This is a huge limitation. You hit the ceiling after about a single day, and this prevents you from playing the game competitively. Otherwise, you are completely free to see and do anything you want. Skills caps don't stop you from doing anything, it's just that other players will be better at it.
  
• Bugs. The game is too complex for its own good. The sheer amount of intricacy makes it near impossible to not have issues pop up here and there. Fear not, the bug report forums are quite active and the developers are, in general, responding to player issues.
  
• Steep learning curve. This is an enjoyable part of the game for me personally. There is something nostalgic about the game telling you very little and you having to figure stuff out by trial and error. However, the "modern player" might not see it this way, and thus the lack of things like minimaps and directional arrows on the screen will be seen as a negative for people.
  
• Slightly dated graphics. Once again, this is only from the perspective of your average current day player. Many people don't realize that when you can literally look around for miles, you can't expect to have photo realism. Having said that, the game doesn't look ugly. Its retro. Embrace it.

Not to finish on a low note, I'd just like to make it perfectly clear for everyone: given the chance, Mortal Online will raise your bar for all MMO's you play after it. It's completely unsurprising that there are people who haven't played anything else since. And I'm really upset with myself that I didn't find out about it sooner.

I love the game mechanics and the general idea. I had fun the hour or so I've played it. The main problem is that I 3 out of 4 of my games against the computer crashed to desktop, with no choice but to restart from scratch. The online lobby is also completely empty. I was the only one there. Sure, its only a couple of euros, but I'm sorry, its unplayable.

I would happily play a more fleshed out version of this.