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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.
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I'm no graphics whore myself, but how can we feel good about this;
... knowing it could have looked like something closer to this,
... had it not been for f'ing smartphones?
It's not a fair comparison on any account of course. A tiny indie company can never produce Battlefront and we know it. But still.
To end where I began in my first post: We thought we had it bad when we felt the consoles held us back. But now we settle with games that could just as well have been played on a friggin' iPad?
These are tough times, comrades.
;)
Last edited by Beamboom on 25 November 2015 at 8:40 pm UTC
... knowing it could have looked like something closer to this,
... had it not been for f'ing smartphones?
It's not a fair comparison on any account of course. A tiny indie company can never produce Battlefront and we know it. But still.
To end where I began in my first post: We thought we had it bad when we felt the consoles held us back. But now we settle with games that could just as well have been played on a friggin' iPad?
These are tough times, comrades.
;)
Last edited by Beamboom on 25 November 2015 at 8:40 pm UTC
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Quoting: TheBossOh 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'm with you on that. Hell, I prefer art that looks more cartoony, so long as they're placed in a world that's consistent with that style. Too-realistic styles actually kinda bore me after a while.
Edited to add: I find the top screenshot provided by Beamboom MUCH more appealing to the eye, and would rather play that than the photorealistic shot. So that's a thing.
Last edited by Nezchan on 25 November 2015 at 8:42 pm UTC
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Quoting: BeamboomIt's not a fair comparison on any account of course. A tiny indie company can never produce Battlefront and we know it. But still.
To end where I began in my first post: We thought we had it bad when we felt the consoles held us back. But now we settle with games that could just as well have been played on a friggin' iPad?
These are tough times, comrades.
;)
No, it's not a fair comparison, for one they are a completely different genre of games ;)
Honestly, I think you're going way overboard on this game based on its graphics. That must keep you away from quite a number of games to try.
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Quoting: TheBossI 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 ;)
I still may play it it did look fun to a point (trying to justify spending even more at the moment when Christmas is eating my wallet like it's a snack cracker). So much hoof beats though! On a side note Liam, I enjoyed your stream especially the way you would hit a wall and ask and get random almost useful responses. Thanks for the cast.
Quoting: KelsQuoting: 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.
And those things were in warcraft before WoW ruined warcraft. I just think the popularity of Minecraft has made it so that even if a game wasn't to include crafting it's almost obligatory now to do so.
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Quoting: XzylQuoting: KelsQuoting: 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.
And those things were in warcraft before WoW ruined warcraft. I just think the popularity of Minecraft has made it so that even if a game wasn't to include crafting it's almost obligatory now to do so.
Maybe it was, but we're talking about MMOs. WoW is the one I'm familiar with but they weren't and still aren't unique in that regard. I doubt Minecraft has much to do with its inclusion here.
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well this looks like they are taking the right direction, it reminds me of how the dynamics of weapons are designed in Guild Wars 2. But this is newer and fresh and I like the overall design. this game looks impressive. hopefully I'll get to set down and play it one day. Would be nice if we could get a guild going for this :)
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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.
Every MMO since Ultima Online have all had crafting as a part of the game, crafting is what helped to set the social/community aspects of the game. It's called a MMO for that reason so crafting started to become much more of a focus. In WoW it was more social in beta and after launch, but now it's just a time sink it seems for players. with all the best gear is now raided for. just like what EQ1 had become. I actually like how GW2 made crafting an integral part of the game.
Shadowbane was an MMO, that was the most unique and didn't require crafting in the traditional sense. it was catered 100% on PvP. more or less what Albion Online seems like. But Albion Online seems to have all the right aspects of being a really good all around MMO.
To each is their own though, I'm sure more types of MMOs will be springing up in the years to come.
Last edited by neowiz73 on 25 November 2015 at 11:14 pm UTC
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Quoting: KelsQuoting: XzylQuoting: KelsQuoting: 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.
And those things were in warcraft before WoW ruined warcraft. I just think the popularity of Minecraft has made it so that even if a game wasn't to include crafting it's almost obligatory now to do so.
Maybe it was, but we're talking about MMOs. WoW is the one I'm familiar with but they weren't and still aren't unique in that regard. I doubt Minecraft has much to do with its inclusion here.
My first MMO was EQ (way back in 98 if I remember right just to show my age), that game was magic and best part is the majority of the audience wasn't <15.
edit @ neowiz, yeah there were quests in games where you could make things by collecting things but it wasn't as integral and that's the point.
Last edited by Xzyl on 25 November 2015 at 11:49 pm UTC
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Actually to take an MMO that had crafting done right was the original GW where it was about prestige as all armor maxed out really soon and it was all about looks... then if you want to spend your life farming mats through monsters or god forbid mining have at it.
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Quoting: XzylActually to take an MMO that had crafting done right was the original GW where it was about prestige as all armor maxed out really soon and it was all about looks... then if you want to spend your life farming mats through monsters or god forbid mining have at it.But not everything can be optional. Games need some things to be necessary, and different people have different ideas about what that should be the necessary points of the game and what should just be extra. So you have different MMOs that place emphasis on different things.
This game just happens to place emphasis on crafting and PvP. It's not for everyone, but some people like it this way.
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