The Open Wilderness is Not Really Free, More Like a Tunnel
After the tutorial, it goes into normal adventure life. The gameplay is linear: You go through the main story, do side quests, it’s nothing wild. Only that there are no question marks, but stars that somehow never seem to be properly localized with the mini-map is different here.
The story takes a backseat, there are kill quests, and there are collection quests. You punch your way up to about level 20 and get into a pretty good groove. With levels, new combat skills are unlocked.
Strengths of Blade and Soul: Combat System, Equipment
The combat system is, of course, the clear strength of the game. There are different abilities for various combat situations, which can be refined and balanced later in the “skill tree”. When you push an enemy to the ground with a skill, the new combat situation becomes “enemy lying on the ground”, then the keys are assigned differently so that you can “grab” the enemy as a Destroyer and lift them into the air. Again, a new combat situation, again new abilities possible. It’s really fun, which makes standard kill quests quite entertaining.
The dreaded “Combat Fatigue” did not set in for me, at least.
As in Guild Wars 2, you can pick up items lying around and use them to fight enemies; you throw a bomb at a rogue or a mutated giant lizard. Overall, you should feel in Blade & Soul like you are in a Kung-Fu movie, in an Eastern. And Blade and Soul really achieves this well with its archetypal characters, enemies, and combat style animations. It’s just fun to smash someone’s head with a huge axe or to lift an enemy over your head and then let them crash to the ground.
Another interesting element is the item system. The special weapons and jewelry can be upgraded further with “standard loot”. This makes you feel a constant sense of progress.
It’s not like in other games, “I have my killer axe and I don’t need another one except for that from so-and-so boss,” but you can also use weak items by feeding them to the axe. But this only goes up to the “breakthrough,” then the axe says, “Hey, I need that specific axe from the boss up there as food to continue.”
The “soul shields” are interesting too. These are sets of 8 shards. If you wear 3, 5, or all 8 of a kind, you benefit from a set bonus. The sets are displayed in a nice interface that appeals to the collecting passion: And so, I tried for a while at level 18 to get the level 7 set completely. Of course, that’s complete nonsense, but you just can’t help it.
The Negative Aspects of Blade and Soul: The Free2Play Elements
As MMORPG players, we are funny. For years we search for something “new,” new elements. You play something like WildStar or TESO and think, “Well, there’s not much new here, I already know everything.” The good thing in this situation, which is often overlooked: You feel right at home and know your way around, can get started.
In Blade and Soul, there are some elements that are foreign. And I’m not yet sure how I feel about it all. Because they are typical “Free2Play” elements that awkwardly force me to spend resources.
When you find an item, it is sealed. You can use it unsealed to feed your weapon, but if you want to equip it, you have to unseal it. As a reward, there are chests that need to be opened first with keys.
In dungeons, the auction method is standard for loot: you bid with in-game money against your fellow players for an item – they then share the winner’s money with each other. You’re spending money in a place where you normally wouldn’t – and are in direct competition with others and their virtual (or maybe real) wallets.
Now, in the first 20 levels that was not so wild; there were plenty of keys and “unlocking things” available, but with these systems, I can easily imagine how it leads to “Well, do you want this item you earned too? Then check out our cash shop” actions. That doesn’t have to mean that this will happen; NCSoft also doesn’t have a bad reputation in that regard, but the danger is there. The uneasy feeling persists. It may be different in Korea, but most of us here in the West are very sensitive about the topic of “cash shop.”
I particularly dislike the auction in dungeons – and in a game where you can directly buy gold from the shop. This means: With this method, players who want to can “buy fat” – the others go empty-handed or get their share of the money spent by the “rich player”.
And since basically everyone needs similar items to upgrade their equipment, I see a potential for conflict here. But it just has to show through practice whether other loot systems will be utilized, whether the big shit will be internally done with the guild and communicated. But the potential for trouble is simply there.
On the next page: How are the dungeons? How is it organized with the zones?
