The former Blizzard employee and developer of WoW Chris Kaleiki has released his new game on Steam. He originally wanted to learn from the mistakes of the MMORPG, but now he is making a typical mistake on Steam.
Who is it about? The former WoW developer Chris Kaleiki worked at Blizzard from 2007 to 2020 (via kaleiki.com). During this time, he specifically focused on class skills and designed the monk class among others. More than two dozen of the class abilities come from him. After leaving Blizzard, he founded his own development studio, Notorious Studios, where he wanted to do many things better.
On February 12, his game Legacy: Steel & Sorcery launched on Steam in Early Access. However, the PvPvE mini MMORPG is not well received by the player base. Of over 350 reviews submitted, only just over half are positive. The main problem: The Early Access does not meet the players’ expectations.
You can check out the gameplay here:
Bad reviews after the release
What bothers the gamers? Players complain about the state of the game. Legacy: Steel & Sorcery is seen as far too unfinished, underdeveloped, and filled with bugs, crashes, and performance issues.
Although the community finds the concept inspired by Dark & Darker solid, the positive aspects are overshadowed by the numerous flaws of the early version. Here, the former WoW developer and his team are making a typical mistake. They have a different understanding of Early Access as developers than their players, and they are bearing the consequences for it.
What do players expect from Early Access? Early Access on Steam has changed over the years. Many players today expect a well-playable product from Early Access, although it may still lack content, which can then be gradually added.
Technical issues, on the other hand, are also not well received by players in Early Access and quickly become a reason for negative reviews for many. This is also reflected in community reviews.
Maze writes on Steam: “I have a powerful computer, and yet I crashed while starting, extracting, and switching between screens. […] In the six matches I’ve played, I’ve encountered an audio loop bug in four of them. […]”
EDGY also has technical difficulties on Steam: “Poor optimization with frustratingly slow rendering in-game (even on SSD). Animations are fuzzy, if not outright buggy. I also encountered bugs like getting stuck infinitely in the matchmaking UI in the menu, as well as audio crackling that lasted throughout the first 30 minutes. Cool game concept, but it should be free to play.”
Despite the negative criticism, the experienced developers around Chris Kaleiki will likely continue to work on their game and learn from this mistake that WoW never made. In another MMORPG, players could even earn money: A free MMORPG on Steam wanted to pay players to play, now they are unemployed
