YouTube videos require cookies, you must accept their cookies to view. View cookie preferences.
Direct Link
Direct Link
We have a real empty spot when it comes to MMORPG games on Linux, and I used to love chilling out in WoW when I was a Windows minion, so finally having one comparable on Linux is great, but is it any good?
Initial thoughts
I have to say, that so far I am reasonably impressed with it. There seems to be no issues with performance, and the game actually looks reasonably nice. I do hope they beef up the graphics a little bit for PC players like us in future, but I understand why it’s missing a lot of options right now being cross-platform with mobile gamers too.
The game is more than a little daunting at the start, I found my head spinning a bit with no real welcome, and nothing really telling me what to do or where to go. It really is a sandbox style MMORPG, as you are free to do whatever you want. I really do suggest reading the beginner's guide if you plan to pick it up and play it during the closed beta. Although even after reading that, I still wasn’t prepared.
The game is a grind, and certain things will take quite a bit of time. That’s true for most MMORPG games, but Albion even more so. The good thing about Albion Online is you can switch up what you’re focusing on whenever the hell you feel like it. This is thanks to the Fame system that allows you to earn Fame doing tons of different things like farming, crafting, getting resources, fighting etc. The grind is mainly annoying due to so much manual clicking needed. If, for example, a tree you're cutting happens to have a ton of wood on it, you may end up clicking on it 6-7-8 times, and each time you click and wait. They need to tweak this behaviour if it is to keep PC players interest I think.
The fighting is a simple mechanic of click the enemy, and fight. You do have manual interaction with skills (so combat is a little MOBA like). The Player vs AI combat is perfectly fine, and seems to work okay. I’ve died from a skeleton once, as I didn’t really realise it was that much more powerful than my tier-2 gear.
It does bug me that there’s really no information on hovering your mouse over things, that’s something I would very much like to see expanded, as it reeks of mobile gaming having to click everything.
The chat box is also annoying me right now, luckily you can very easily disable the global chat tab, so you don’t have to put up with all the idiotic spam that goes on in it. I would really like to see some more anti-spam tools on it to prevent the same people spamming “JOIN MY GUILD” sort of stuff. Another annoying thing about the chat box, is that it's covered up too often. Every time you go to craft something, you have to wait, and the UI covers up the chat box.
I've spent at least five hours in the game, so I'm still very early on and there's a lot left for me to do and explore.
Just be warned, if you do plan to pick it up, all progress is reset when the closed beta finishes.
Final thoughts: It’s a big time sink, a fair amount of it is a grind, but it’s interesting to play. I've already made a few new buddies playing it after joining a guild named “Legends”, and I will probably continue playing it. I also purchased my very own island with in-game money, so that’s pretty cool.
It’s good to have a proper MMO like this on Linux. If you don’t hear from me for days, it’s probably because I’m hooked. Is it a game I can see myself still playing in a few months? I'm not entirely sure, it depends how good the later game content is like the proper PvE and guild territory wars are, but they sound fun.
Overall, I think it's a pretty great start for an indie MMO.
Check out Albion Online here. You can still buy into it right now if you so wish. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
0 Likes
Some you may have missed, popular articles from the last month:
The comments on this article are closed.
There was a time when PC gamers complained about games being console ports. Today we have to live with friggin mobile phone ports.
2 Likes, Who?
I suppose my big question about the game is, what's the variety of places you can go and things to do at any given point? One of the attractions of WoW to me, other than nostalgia of course, is that once you're done your tutorial stuff you can do all sorts of stuff. You can work your professions, you can farm, you can quest in a number of different locations, you can skip questing and do PvP or dungeons, there are seasonal events, and on and on.
So what I'd like to know is, how well does Albion stack up in terms of variety?
So what I'd like to know is, how well does Albion stack up in terms of variety?
0 Likes
I would love to see you stream this game, theboss
Last edited by sigz on 25 November 2015 at 2:39 pm UTC
Last edited by sigz on 25 November 2015 at 2:39 pm UTC
0 Likes
Quoting: BeamboomThere was a time when PC gamers complained about games being console ports. Today we have to live with friggin mobile phone ports.
That's very funny, and sadly incredibly true.
I watched Liam play and my impression was this....
Resource gather because Minecraft that's why. Craft armor and weapons because Minecraft that's why. Listen to horse hoof beat sound over and over fight once in a while to gain proficiency as a fighter.
I so want a good MMO but seriously enough with the crafting it was awful enough when EQ2 and GW2 decided that crafting should be a main focus of character development, not every game needs crafting it's what smiths and armors are for and most towns had one or two not 100% of the populous was a God damn smith. If I wanted to craft I would play a @!#!@# crafting game.
If I ain't out slaying I'm not playing.
1 Likes, Who?
Quoting: sigzI would love to see you stream this game, theboss
Same. The game reminds me alot of runescape.
I hope its just wont be pay to win, dont mind microtransactions.
0 Likes
Quoting: BeamboomThere was a time when PC gamers complained about games being console ports. Today we have to live with friggin mobile phone ports.
This is not a mobile port, it is a fully cross-platform game. They are developing on all at the same time.
Quoting: KelsI suppose my big question about the game is, what's the variety of places you can go and things to do at any given point? One of the attractions of WoW to me, other than nostalgia of course, is that once you're done your tutorial stuff you can do all sorts of stuff. You can work your professions, you can farm, you can quest in a number of different locations, you can skip questing and do PvP or dungeons, there are seasonal events, and on and on.
So what I'd like to know is, how well does Albion stack up in terms of variety?
As I noted in the article, you can focus on whatever you want, and change it up whenever you want. That includes farming and such.
Quoting: XzylQuoting: BeamboomThere was a time when PC gamers complained about games being console ports. Today we have to live with friggin mobile phone ports.
That's very funny, and sadly incredibly true.
I watched Liam play and my impression was this....
Resource gather because Minecraft that's why. Craft armor and weapons because Minecraft that's why. Listen to horse hoof beat sound over and over fight once in a while to gain proficiency as a fighter.
I so want a good MMO but seriously enough with the crafting it was awful enough when EQ2 and GW2 decided that crafting should be a main focus of character development, not every game needs crafting it's what smiths and armors are for and most towns had one or two not 100% of the populous was a God damn smith. If I wanted to craft I would play a @!#!@# crafting game.
If I ain't out slaying I'm not playing.
I had, and still have very little idea of what I'm doing. Like I said before though, you can focus on whatever you want, combat included. Combat has a whole section the the Destiny Board (fame levelling up). The only way to be able to use higher level combat equipment is to fight.
Put it this way, I've chosen now to be a bowman, and to get access to a Tier 3 bow I need to kill a certain amount of mobs with my tier 2 bow, but while killing a lot of mobs you can then harvest them (like fox hide's). You can then craft the hides into leather when you're back in a town, and this then levels up something else entirely for you.
It's a big game, lots of stuff to do, give it a chance ;)
1 Likes, Who?
Quoting: XzylResource gather because Minecraft that's why. Craft armor and weapons because Minecraft that's why.
Those things were in WoW and other games years before Minecraft existed.
Last edited by Nezchan on 25 November 2015 at 4:19 pm UTC
4 Likes, Who?
rustybroomhandle Nov 25, 2015
If you enjoy turn-based combat, Wakfu is another MMO that has been on Linux since forever. It's on Steam.
0 Likes
Quoting: TheBossQuoting: BeamboomThere was a time when PC gamers complained about games being console ports. Today we have to live with friggin mobile phone ports.
This is not a mobile port, it is a fully cross-platform game. They are developing on all at the same time.
Technically you are right, and I guess the same can be said about most of the console "ports" to PC as well - most of them were developed during the same timespan, planned for all platforms during design and development.
But the problem is that these cross-platform developments logically have to relate to the bottlenecks of the weakest platform. Like the consoles and their controllers, limiting the complexity of the interaction. Or here, with the mobile phones and the extreme limitations of their touch screens. You mention this yourself in the article. And now we've not even mentioned the limited processor and graphic capacities of the mobiles.
I mean... Look at it. Come on. It looks like something from the Playstation 2 era - and it's not even pushing the PS2. Nobody shall come here and tell me that the PC version don't suffer from having to squeeze the game to make it fit through the tiny little peghole that is the mobile phone.
Last edited by Beamboom on 25 November 2015 at 7:17 pm UTC
0 Likes
Oh I agree, but I am hoping they put in some quality of life improvements in the UI for PC players like us, I've already reported a few to them and they are gaining agreement from people on their forum, so I'm doing my part.
I don't care about graphics, I care about style. The game looks good to me, I don't need ultra lifelike stuff to enjoy myself.
I don't care about graphics, I care about style. The game looks good to me, I don't need ultra lifelike stuff to enjoy myself.
0 Likes
Patreon
PayPal
See more from me