The Korean action MMORPG Bless Unleashed has recently launched on Steam. As in the previous betas, player numbers skyrocketed once again, and the developers couldn’t contain the rush. What was done and what the mood is like at launch can be found here
What is Bless Unleashed? Bless Unleashed is a new free-to-play MMORPG set in the same world as the previously failed Bless. However, apart from the name and the world, the two games have little in common; the new game plays much faster.
The special features of the game include:
- Action-packed combat system
- Tough dungeon bosses appearing from the very start
- Challenging world bosses
How did the launch go? Bless Unleashed celebrated significant successes even in the beta and attracted over 44,000 players to the servers from May 13 to May 17. This was surpassed significantly at release. Not even a day after release (as of August 7, 2021, at 1:50 PM), the numbers are even stronger: According to SteamDB, there are currently a whopping 56,083 players on the servers
In comparison: The other major Steam MMORPGs had fewer players in the 24-hour period at the time of this news:
- ESO had 21,551 players
- FF14 is also just behind Bless Unleashed with its 52,417 players
- Black Desert Online had 22,833 players
This is the mood at release
How is the game received by the community? However, if you look at the ratings of the game, they are in a strange relation to the player count. Only 46 percent of the 916 most recent reviews are positive.
But this is partly because there were server problems and lags at launch due to the high influx. This ruined the fun for many players since the game relies on dynamic action combat.
Therefore, the developers also apologized, brought new servers online, and offered all players a colorful ostrich mount and other goodies as compensation.
However, besides the criticism of server issues, there are other negative voices:
- The in-game shop is considered very expensive, and Pay2Win is suspected in the endgame, as some items reportedly provide advantages in the game.
- The dynamic gameplay itself is criticized by some players. It feels somewhat clunky and cumbersome at times.
- The UI also receives poor feedback from various criticisms, as it is deemed too console-oriented
On the other hand, many players praise the following aspects of the game:
- The graphics and style of the game are praised
- The dynamic combat system with action elements is well received by many players
- The epic boss fights and dungeons also receive a lot of praise
Particularly the action combat system is often described as an outstanding factor of Bless Unleashed, as the developers recently revealed in an interview.
