Last weekend, our tester Schuhmann had the opportunity to try out the sandbox MMO “ArcheAge” in beta.
Warning, opinion: This report reflects the subjective impressions of our tester Schuhmann from the first 23 levels in ArcheAge. This is neither a review nor any objective report. We are aware that it is too early for general statements about the game. The text refers only to the first 10-15 hours in the game, the so-called “Early Game”, specifically in the Free2Play experience, without spending money on the game, without a “Founder” or “Patron” status.
Negatives upfront: ArcheAge is not much of a theme park
The early game in ArcheAge is nothing special, at least. It has to be put bluntly. After many previews of the game, you expect “something different”, a new flavor, something that excites you. But you get “exactly the same thing”.
The combat system is a decent tab+hotkey affair. I haven’t spotted any telegraphs, and the mobs in the early game had no abilities (at least none notable, one spat poison and one was a ranged fighter… but, coming straight from WildStar, that’s not worth mentioning). This means you fight through the kill quests with the same key combinations, play your course, and don’t need to pay attention to your surroundings or the enemies. The quests are, to put it bluntly, uninspired.
World and storyline have some quirky elements: were-sharks or a few sunbathing tourists in a hot spring. That’s well done and has a certain irritation effect. The presentation of the game is otherwise “solid” to “okay”, I would say, rather subdued and unobtrusive; functional and nice.
The much-praised class system did not convince me during the first 23 levels (that’s how far I got over the weekend). While you can assemble your class and choose 3 from 10 skill lines and the combination class has its own name, I had so few skill points in beta that very little was possible. Maybe it will open up later.
The item system is poorly designed. Sometimes you get 3 items to choose from in quests and pick what fits your playstyle, while in other quests you immediately receive 3 armor pieces at once. I didn’t notice random drops or any selection in the first 23 levels. The weight of items is supposed to shift to crafting, or so they say. Good and well, but as a Free2Play player, you unfortunately have no proper access to that.
Glimmer of hope: Innovations and good ideas
Some things ArcheAge does differently, and that is commendable. In quests, you have the option to hand them in early for less reward. However, you can also “overachieve” them and receive a bit more experience for it. I thought that was a nice idea.
Also, that you can “breed” the mount yourself, gaining experience over time and having armor slots available, is one of the few early “aha, this might be good” experiences during my weekend excursion.
A nice moment as well: the glider, the flying mount of ArcheAge, and when you first swing off a mountain with it for paragliding.
Big problems: Griefplay, the chat, the atmosphere
What becomes apparent early on in ArcheAge: the game attracts a certain clientele of players – at least it did in beta. There were already reports in forums where the “special” beta community was discussed and ridiculed. On Massively, they even created a thread to discuss whether the community is really as horrible as they hear. Sort of. The barren land chat in WoW was worse, but not by much.
The game shows that not the same players gather here as in The Elder Scrolls Online or WildStar, in their betas. The tone is rough. I have found for myself: When I enter a game and the first thing I read are any “Alt+F4” “tips” or – … let’s say – a slang that you wouldn’t exactly want to use in public, I find it difficult. If players behave like that with their guilds, that’s their business. In a public chat, I find it inappropriate – somewhat like public urination or when a guy sits next to me on the subway and rests his head on my shoulder. Since I have read about this phenomenon everywhere, I assume it is not restricted to the server and the area where I played.
What do people talk about in an MMO chat? About all other MMOs
It’s not constantly the case that people are shouting at each other, putting each other down, or showing off. But it probably stands out more in ArcheAge because of the faction-wide chat when they do. In the last MMOs I’ve played, it was different. Particularly in Final Fantasy XIV, I always feel I have to be ashamed when I enter a room without showering the other players with three lines of polite phrases. In ArcheAge, bots are discussed (which will surely ruin ArcheAge, as heard in chat). They’re talking about Asia F2P, which must be quite unknown here. Hacker forums are recommended; everyone apparently has played 15 “failed” F2P games in the last year and comments on them extensively. The majority loudly dreams of becoming a great pirate to crush and subjugate everyone else. Guild recruiters lure with a free round at the guild hall… (that’s exactly the slang I mean).
About events and the good sides of griefplay
The possibilities for griefplay are already evident in the early phase. With the bulky pets and mounts, you can block access (Yay! Collision detection!), which will surely cause trouble. There is – as before – a day system: You can snatch the “mob” from another player. The most annoying part was a type of “event” where you had to kill 25 creatures as a raid group. However, two groups were simultaneously involved, stealing each other’s mobs, so no one could complete the event. And since the event was time-dependent, it meant that several hours would pass until the next attempt. You can imagine how well that goes over. What shocked me in this regard: When the event ended, half of all players murmured “Oh God, again” – that seems to happen more often – not a good sign.
The “griefplay”, or whatever you want to call it, is an important part of a sandbox. That’s clear. You can steal opponents’ painstakingly grown trees and plants, milk the livestock of strangers, and later you wait for others to ambush them. In a sandbox, it’s about lying, cheating, and messing around. Totally clear. But it also attracts a certain clientele of players, at least in beta. That’s actually logical. I must have forgotten that for a moment.
And what’s now with the sandbox?
This may be my biggest disappointment of recent days: Everything that would make ArcheAge special lies behind a paygate and is associated with “Patron” status. For all the “interesting” things in the game, you need labor points and a “Patron” status, which you have to buy for real money already in beta.
Only then can you properly grow anything and buy access to the sandbox elements of the game. Otherwise, it often means “That’s not possible for free accounts” or the labor points are simply used up. You only regenerate those as a “freebie” when you are in the game and then at a rather slow and constant rate, while the consumption increases with each level. Without labor points, you cannot disassemble items; you cannot harvest resources; you can’t even open the small cash boxes that mobs sometimes drop. Time and again, I found myself pausing in the game, going to the desktop to do something else while ArcheAge kept running in the background, spitting out the damn labor points until I could continue with what I actually wanted to do. I know a system like that from browser games and… well, if I liked those, I’d probably write for my-browsergame.de.
This clearly means for me: “Pay – even in beta – your money, otherwise you will see a maximum of 50% of the game here”. My problem is: These 50% that I see, the theme park elements, simply do not justify, especially in a beta, the price for the rest. It’s like someone gives me a rotten bun and says: “Well, was it tasty, or? If you pay me something, you’ll also get the meat with it.” Wouldn’t it be smarter to show me the tasty burger first and have me pay for a crispy bun? Or even better: Just let me take a bite and then decide if I like it?
The game’s attractions, the sandbox elements, the crafting system are clear to me because I’ve read about them. But I can’t experience them in beta. Nothing in the first levels indicates that this will ever come. Instead, it’s just reports from the late game and from Korea as a promise that “it will be different and good”.
Conclusion: Beta weekend in ArcheAge to level 23 and left disappointed
What’s left is a sobering experience with ArcheAge – at least in the early game. If I hadn’t heard about the game, I would hardly see why I should continue playing the MMO and not some other.
However, since I have heard of ArcheAge and know the advantages of the game, I will continue playing the beta and hope that it picks up in the mid-game and end-game. But I think: Trion Worlds is not doing itself any favors with this type of beta.
[pullquote]With the Free2Play experience, I think you spoil the appetite for the game.[/pullquote]
Those who wanted to enter the game before had to do so through founder packages and had the “Patron” status. They could get an early glimpse into the crafting, farming, trading, and housing aspects of the game. That’s surely a completely different experience. As a Free2Play “theme park” game, ArcheAge is, in my eyes, nothing, at least in the early game.
Anyone who intends to familiarize themselves with the game should probably consider getting a founder account. With the Free2Play experience, they spoil their appetite for the game, in my eyes.
