Wurm Unlimited [Steam] is the standalone version of the MMO Wurm Online. It recently had a big update and we were sent keys to check it out.
Just to be clear, I really like my MMOs and try to play any I can get my hands on. This attempt at a review isn't from someone new to them, but someone who loves them.
First of all, I know graphics don't make a game, but in this case they really aren't very pleasing at all. I found practically all of the game to be bland and boring visually, just no life to the graphical style here.
Here's what it looks like on max settings:
Not pleasing on the eyes.
I've played a lot of games over the years with varying styles, but Wurm Unlimited seems to have no real style to it. The textures are bland, the lighting is terrible and I just couldn't find anything to redeem the look of it.
I was specifically told by the developer to pick a server with higher than normal gains for everything. As the normal amounts are a massive grind and this is part of the problem; there's quite a few servers, but not many players. The most I ever saw on one server was about 50 people at a time, for an online game that's a lot smaller than I would have hoped. On top of that, each one seems to have completely different combinations of mods, different maps, different skill gains and so on. Some servers refused the connection, some took forever, but some did eventually work. The login server just doesn't seem to like me much at all.
There's a lot to take in right away, but it does give you some starting help prompts. The problem is, they appear at random times and often vanish with the next one too quickly so I couldn't actually read what they said. That was really bad and didn't help me, nor did it impress me at all. I was often lost without a clue what I could do and I just spent my entire time in it frustrated to hell.
You're not allowed to run in the game, at all. Your speed is dependent on what you're carrying or if you're mounted on an animal or vehicle. This makes the start of the game for everyone painfully slow to get anywhere or do anything. You can't jump either, so everything involves moving slowing around even small objects I would expect to be able to simply just jump over.
Doing anything in the game is boring too, right click this, go through some options, now click that. For a fully 3D game I expect to do more than right click everything and read through different menus, it's just so incredibly tedious and boring. It's a bit silly too, when moving the mouse around to interact with various objects, you will often see a useless "Tile Border" which you can bring up a menu on, but it obviously does nothing. The default camera option is pants too, with you needing to hold down the left mouse button to look around. You can bind a button to unlock the free camera mode, but when in that mode you can't interact with anything — just terrible.
Issues
The game is junk with multiple monitors, forcing me into windowed mode. I set my resolution to 1920x1080 and I expected to get that resolution. The windowed fullscreen mode took over both monitors and spread it across them, while the normal fullscreen mode turns off my other monitor. I was forced to play it in windowed mode which wasn't pleasing.
Their fullscreen issues also seemed to mess with my Composition Pipeline setting from NVIDIA with it getting turned off, giving me screen-tearing.
Oh, it also didn't seem to save my resolution settings — annoying when booting it up a second time to see it in some really low resolution. I went to change it back and...the 1080p option has suddenly vanished.
If you run it in Windowed mode and select to have the screen resizable, the UI does not move with the Window, it stays at whatever position it was in originally, so it ends up like this:
Half the time I tried to join a server, it gave me an error of "you need to connect to the login server". I got really aggravated trying to make this review more in-depth, but after seeing that happen along with the fullscreen issues with multiple monitors, I gave up trying, it's just not worth the effort.
It really wasn't a good experience, at all. An incredibly unpolished experience riddled with issues that just shouldn't be there. Annoying fullscreen issues, bland graphics, gameplay that just isn't fun. Honestly, there was nothing I liked in Wurm Unlimited. It made me glad we have Albion Online (thoughts on Albion here) and to some extend Shroud of the Avatar (which seems promising), each of those give a much nicer experience overall.
It's essentially a spin-off of a dated game, with elements that just haven't aged well at all. I don't ever want to load it again. I'm sure there's people it's made for, but I sure as hell aren't one of them. It currently has around 500 people online according to Steam with an all time of peak of under two thousand, so yeah, it's a very acquired taste.
I sat on this for a while, desperately trying to find something about it I liked. Really tried to turn this around from a short article blasting it into an article showing something cool, but it just wasn't possible. A high learning curve, with a terrible introduction and it's too painfully slow to be enjoyable. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Just to be clear, I really like my MMOs and try to play any I can get my hands on. This attempt at a review isn't from someone new to them, but someone who loves them.
First of all, I know graphics don't make a game, but in this case they really aren't very pleasing at all. I found practically all of the game to be bland and boring visually, just no life to the graphical style here.
Here's what it looks like on max settings:
Not pleasing on the eyes.
I've played a lot of games over the years with varying styles, but Wurm Unlimited seems to have no real style to it. The textures are bland, the lighting is terrible and I just couldn't find anything to redeem the look of it.
I was specifically told by the developer to pick a server with higher than normal gains for everything. As the normal amounts are a massive grind and this is part of the problem; there's quite a few servers, but not many players. The most I ever saw on one server was about 50 people at a time, for an online game that's a lot smaller than I would have hoped. On top of that, each one seems to have completely different combinations of mods, different maps, different skill gains and so on. Some servers refused the connection, some took forever, but some did eventually work. The login server just doesn't seem to like me much at all.
There's a lot to take in right away, but it does give you some starting help prompts. The problem is, they appear at random times and often vanish with the next one too quickly so I couldn't actually read what they said. That was really bad and didn't help me, nor did it impress me at all. I was often lost without a clue what I could do and I just spent my entire time in it frustrated to hell.
You're not allowed to run in the game, at all. Your speed is dependent on what you're carrying or if you're mounted on an animal or vehicle. This makes the start of the game for everyone painfully slow to get anywhere or do anything. You can't jump either, so everything involves moving slowing around even small objects I would expect to be able to simply just jump over.
Doing anything in the game is boring too, right click this, go through some options, now click that. For a fully 3D game I expect to do more than right click everything and read through different menus, it's just so incredibly tedious and boring. It's a bit silly too, when moving the mouse around to interact with various objects, you will often see a useless "Tile Border" which you can bring up a menu on, but it obviously does nothing. The default camera option is pants too, with you needing to hold down the left mouse button to look around. You can bind a button to unlock the free camera mode, but when in that mode you can't interact with anything — just terrible.
Issues
The game is junk with multiple monitors, forcing me into windowed mode. I set my resolution to 1920x1080 and I expected to get that resolution. The windowed fullscreen mode took over both monitors and spread it across them, while the normal fullscreen mode turns off my other monitor. I was forced to play it in windowed mode which wasn't pleasing.
Their fullscreen issues also seemed to mess with my Composition Pipeline setting from NVIDIA with it getting turned off, giving me screen-tearing.
Oh, it also didn't seem to save my resolution settings — annoying when booting it up a second time to see it in some really low resolution. I went to change it back and...the 1080p option has suddenly vanished.
If you run it in Windowed mode and select to have the screen resizable, the UI does not move with the Window, it stays at whatever position it was in originally, so it ends up like this:
Half the time I tried to join a server, it gave me an error of "you need to connect to the login server". I got really aggravated trying to make this review more in-depth, but after seeing that happen along with the fullscreen issues with multiple monitors, I gave up trying, it's just not worth the effort.
It really wasn't a good experience, at all. An incredibly unpolished experience riddled with issues that just shouldn't be there. Annoying fullscreen issues, bland graphics, gameplay that just isn't fun. Honestly, there was nothing I liked in Wurm Unlimited. It made me glad we have Albion Online (thoughts on Albion here) and to some extend Shroud of the Avatar (which seems promising), each of those give a much nicer experience overall.
It's essentially a spin-off of a dated game, with elements that just haven't aged well at all. I don't ever want to load it again. I'm sure there's people it's made for, but I sure as hell aren't one of them. It currently has around 500 people online according to Steam with an all time of peak of under two thousand, so yeah, it's a very acquired taste.
I sat on this for a while, desperately trying to find something about it I liked. Really tried to turn this around from a short article blasting it into an article showing something cool, but it just wasn't possible. A high learning curve, with a terrible introduction and it's too painfully slow to be enjoyable. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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6 comments
I tried this awhile back as well, the whole idea of it seemed fun. the graphics are a bit old, somewhere around the 2001 to 2004 era graphics style. that didn't really bother me though. I liked it for the nostalgia of an older mmo.
but it is very clunky to figure out how to get things to work. a lot of left and right clicking things. It requires an incredible amount of patience to figure out. for anyone that doesn't have a load of time on their hands to simply set around and figure out all the things it can be very annoying.
although I was nicely surprised how most everything ran and It didn't crash at all. I didn't try the multiplayer though.
not a bad game, but not that great either.
Last edited by neowiz73 on 15 May 2017 at 9:03 am UTC
but it is very clunky to figure out how to get things to work. a lot of left and right clicking things. It requires an incredible amount of patience to figure out. for anyone that doesn't have a load of time on their hands to simply set around and figure out all the things it can be very annoying.
although I was nicely surprised how most everything ran and It didn't crash at all. I didn't try the multiplayer though.
not a bad game, but not that great either.
Last edited by neowiz73 on 15 May 2017 at 9:03 am UTC
0 Likes
You know , even if this isn;t so good I am glad it exists.
Why ?
Too often in our medium , we loose games. Some hardware can be emulated but for online games once the servers go down , that's it goodbye forever. Nobody will buy the IP or continue supporting it.
Even if kept alive for the few fans left or as an example in gaming history , I am glad the game lives on.
Why ?
Too often in our medium , we loose games. Some hardware can be emulated but for online games once the servers go down , that's it goodbye forever. Nobody will buy the IP or continue supporting it.
Even if kept alive for the few fans left or as an example in gaming history , I am glad the game lives on.
3 Likes, Who?
ObsidianBlk May 15, 2017
I played this for a couple weeks on a relatively active server... and by active, I mean, there were people in the game, somewhere, even if I rarely saw anyone.
Without wikis or a more experienced player to guide you, this game is nearly impossible to figure out. Best way to start? Forage the grass! Seriously? Better than punching a tree, I suppose.
IF, however, you read the wikis or find that more experienced player, then, WURM can be a relaxing game and you do get a real sense of actually accomplishing something as soon as you start building your first house (which, on the server I was playing on, I was able to start doing within about 4 hours).
My problem with the game (on a server), over all, was two fold...
1) You want much more than a simple house and a little garden, you NEED to play with others in a town. The catch 22 is, you really won't have the skills to help a village until you start building stuff. If you build stuff outside of a village, you will have to give it all up when you join a village, and, therefore, loose all your progress/stuff.
2) Combat is the worst thing I have ever seen! I suck at combat, in most games, so, I expect to loose a lot, but, in WURM, EVERYTHING can kill you out the gate. You start with a sword and shield, but that's meaningless. You're SKILLS for combat just suck. To raise them, you HAVE to fight. You fight, you die. Oh... no healing potions. You get hit, you take wounds which decrease your ability to fight. To heal wounds, you need bandages (at minimum), and they don't instantly heal the wound (beyond the fact you need to tell the system which wound to heal). OH! And when you die, you loose a little of your skills, across all of your skills. Now... you can train with dummys to raise your combat skills... but that uses up a LOT of time and a LOT of resources (the dummies break, you see, and you will either have to constantly repair or replace them).
After two weeks with the game, I loved the crafting! I built a house, a small row boat, had a decent garden, and was feeling rather accomplished... then, I pissed off a crocodile that chased me to my home. It was WAY to strong for me to kill. Worst yet? It doesn't just walk away when aggro is lost. It hangs around. After trying to fight the croc for an hour, I simply logged out for the night, thinking it'd eventually leave. Logged in the next day and IT WAS STILL THERE! When it was still there the second day (with a goblin friend, I might add), I decided that was it for me.
Long story short... LOVE the crafting... LOATH the combat!
Without wikis or a more experienced player to guide you, this game is nearly impossible to figure out. Best way to start? Forage the grass! Seriously? Better than punching a tree, I suppose.
IF, however, you read the wikis or find that more experienced player, then, WURM can be a relaxing game and you do get a real sense of actually accomplishing something as soon as you start building your first house (which, on the server I was playing on, I was able to start doing within about 4 hours).
My problem with the game (on a server), over all, was two fold...
1) You want much more than a simple house and a little garden, you NEED to play with others in a town. The catch 22 is, you really won't have the skills to help a village until you start building stuff. If you build stuff outside of a village, you will have to give it all up when you join a village, and, therefore, loose all your progress/stuff.
2) Combat is the worst thing I have ever seen! I suck at combat, in most games, so, I expect to loose a lot, but, in WURM, EVERYTHING can kill you out the gate. You start with a sword and shield, but that's meaningless. You're SKILLS for combat just suck. To raise them, you HAVE to fight. You fight, you die. Oh... no healing potions. You get hit, you take wounds which decrease your ability to fight. To heal wounds, you need bandages (at minimum), and they don't instantly heal the wound (beyond the fact you need to tell the system which wound to heal). OH! And when you die, you loose a little of your skills, across all of your skills. Now... you can train with dummys to raise your combat skills... but that uses up a LOT of time and a LOT of resources (the dummies break, you see, and you will either have to constantly repair or replace them).
After two weeks with the game, I loved the crafting! I built a house, a small row boat, had a decent garden, and was feeling rather accomplished... then, I pissed off a crocodile that chased me to my home. It was WAY to strong for me to kill. Worst yet? It doesn't just walk away when aggro is lost. It hangs around. After trying to fight the croc for an hour, I simply logged out for the night, thinking it'd eventually leave. Logged in the next day and IT WAS STILL THERE! When it was still there the second day (with a goblin friend, I might add), I decided that was it for me.
Long story short... LOVE the crafting... LOATH the combat!
2 Likes, Who?
You're not allowed to run in the game, at all .... You can't jump either.
I didn't have to read further than this. Off the wishlist it goes.
1 Likes, Who?
Tried it some time ago looking for another MMO. I think the MMO genre has a identity problem because all are doing more-of-what-already exists.
SotA is actually a bit of an old-school-breeze, but it's a lot flawed too. Could still get cool, it's not even in beta yet, and actually I don't know if it's my personal feeling but with Mesa 7.1 the loading times reduced (maybe the shader caches?).
I actually experience that I wait way longer on my GTX1050 than on my RX460.
Though, I still stick with Zezenia for now (pure-grind-and-level). Ye, I know, really old school :D. I'd love some MMO with [real] crafting for Linux, and since I didn't like Albion (which could be fitting, but I'd need a party protecting me while I get materials), I still hope that SotA will get the curve.
For crafting, SotA looks pretty okay. Getting / buying materials to support your gathering is actually pretty okay on the player market if you sell your end products well (I didn't go into mining). The death system is pretty punishing at the moment though.
Last edited by STiAT on 15 May 2017 at 4:30 pm UTC
SotA is actually a bit of an old-school-breeze, but it's a lot flawed too. Could still get cool, it's not even in beta yet, and actually I don't know if it's my personal feeling but with Mesa 7.1 the loading times reduced (maybe the shader caches?).
I actually experience that I wait way longer on my GTX1050 than on my RX460.
Though, I still stick with Zezenia for now (pure-grind-and-level). Ye, I know, really old school :D. I'd love some MMO with [real] crafting for Linux, and since I didn't like Albion (which could be fitting, but I'd need a party protecting me while I get materials), I still hope that SotA will get the curve.
For crafting, SotA looks pretty okay. Getting / buying materials to support your gathering is actually pretty okay on the player market if you sell your end products well (I didn't go into mining). The death system is pretty punishing at the moment though.
Last edited by STiAT on 15 May 2017 at 4:30 pm UTC
0 Likes
I, on the other hand, felt love in the game, although we are currently playing with wife on a local LAN server.
After reading the review first and being prepared for some fullscreen shenanigans and performance troubles I was surprised I didn't had any – I simply didn't bother even trying setting the game full scereen in client and let my WM handle it and it works really smooth with fullscreen and no UI issues.
Performance is solid 60 FPS on every option except antliasing maxed (I set it on 2) and post-process disabled (I don't like it) on my GTX 960 and Intel i5-4690k.
Also knowing I couldn't trust popping up tutorial messages I didn't trust learning my game on them, but later on I found they are accessible from a separate "Book of Wisdom" UI element at any time.
The game have a hard initial learning curve, but once you get past it and get used to controls and UI (which are actually quite customizable which I really liked!) it's really rewarding and fun. Luckily both in-game and external Wurmpedia are quite helpful.
So, if you can get past the initial few hours of learning the ropes and have someone to play, it's a really nice game under the hood and after 52 hours as of writing I'm hooked into the game :)
After reading the review first and being prepared for some fullscreen shenanigans and performance troubles I was surprised I didn't had any – I simply didn't bother even trying setting the game full scereen in client and let my WM handle it and it works really smooth with fullscreen and no UI issues.
Performance is solid 60 FPS on every option except antliasing maxed (I set it on 2) and post-process disabled (I don't like it) on my GTX 960 and Intel i5-4690k.
Also knowing I couldn't trust popping up tutorial messages I didn't trust learning my game on them, but later on I found they are accessible from a separate "Book of Wisdom" UI element at any time.
The game have a hard initial learning curve, but once you get past it and get used to controls and UI (which are actually quite customizable which I really liked!) it's really rewarding and fun. Luckily both in-game and external Wurmpedia are quite helpful.
So, if you can get past the initial few hours of learning the ropes and have someone to play, it's a really nice game under the hood and after 52 hours as of writing I'm hooked into the game :)
2 Likes, Who?
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