The first impressions and reviews of Bless Online can already be found online. Opinions are currently divided. Many players struggle with the poor performance. However, those who could play relatively smoothly are pleased with the gameplay and combat system.
Buyers of a Founder’s Pack can play Bless now through a head start. On community portals like Reddit, Steam or Discord, early players report on their first hours in Bless. We summarize the opinions here on Mein MMO.
Players get stuck on the start screen and have low FPS
Especially the reports about the poor performance are currently overwhelming and dominate the first user experiences.
Even high-end computers have issues: Players who own high-performance computers also complain about heavy stuttering and low FPS. Others report that they cannot play Bless at maximum resolution. Many find the technical and graphical implementation rather disappointing for an AAA MMORPG.
Players cannot get into the game: The most common problem has been that players got stuck on the start screen and could not log in at all.
The first early starters are therefore demanding their money back: Bless had its official launch on May 30. Players who bought a Founder’s Pack paid for a two-day head start. However, these players are upset about the severe performance issues, as they have gained little from their early access. Those who want a refund can request it from Steam and state the performance as the reason. Players who did this report that there were no issues with the exchange.
Are you also having performance issues? We have a guide for that:
Translations are inadequate or missing altogether
The original launch of Bless was in January 2016 in South Korea. For the release in the West, the game was supposed to be localized and revised. However, the translations are sharply criticized.
Players report about the English voice-over, stating it sounds as if someone ran the texts through “Google Translate”. The grammar is incorrect and some parts are erroneous.
The German translations are partly non-existent. Our reader Werner writes under one of our Bless articles: “[…] There is no German interface, everything is in English even though it is set to German in the launcher. […] However, there are German subtitles in the cutscenes. […] The Steam page states that the interface language is German. This is simply incorrect.”
The players hope that Neowiz will work on this again and provide (correct) translations.
Combat system is praised and feels good
As players are currently struggling with the severe performance issues, there is little discussion about the game and the gameplay itself. However, those who could play relatively smoothly express positive remarks.
The fast combat system feels good: Bless has a classic tab-target system, which is praised by the players. It is said to feel rhythmic and fluid. There are a total of seven skill slots with a combo system. Overall, Bless is said to feel fast and action-packed.
There is limited “action combat”: Some players were confused that Bless does not have action combat. In the Japanese version, there was an option to switch between action combat and tab-target. This function is not available in the western version. The only class that has action combat is the Berserker.
Although Neowiz never claimed that Bless would have action combat for the West, many assumed this and are now disappointed accordingly. The studio is accused of not having communicated this clearly enough. There was only talk of an action-rich combat system.
Community seems divided into two factions
Interestingly, the following two posts are the strongest on the Bless subreddit:
The negative criticism mainly revolves around the poor performance of the game: As players are partly unable to play, they now want their money back. Bless has reached certain technical limits with its outdated Unreal Engine 3. The poor performance has already caused negative headlines in the Asian region. There are concerns that Neowiz might not be able to manage this problem in the West either.
The positive voices are satisfied with the gameplay implementation: This faction points out to the other players that no Steam MMORPG release has gone smoothly so far. They suggest exercising a bit of patience. Once the game is running, it is said to be a lot of fun and immersive. Especially fans of the classic MMORPG genre express satisfaction here.
What are your impressions of Bless Online so far?
