A Steam user has nearly 8000 hours of playtime in the Free2Play MMORPG Riders of Icarus and then decides to write a review: It is devastating. He accuses the developers of the online role-playing game of placing too much emphasis on Pay2Win. This has destroyed the balance in the MMORPG and ultimately the joy of playing.
This MMORPG is about: Riders of Icarus is a Free2Play MMORPG that has been on Steam since 2016 and features an elaborate mount system. There are hundreds of ground and flying mounts in Riders of Icarus. MeinMMO author Jürgen Horn enthused in 2016 about the selection of mounts in the Asian MMORPG and described aerial combat in the game as ‘the royal discipline’.
The MMORPG, however, had a strange development curve after 2016:
- It was a year in an open beta and peaked at 6000 concurrent players.
- Riders of Icarus officially launched on Steam in 2017.
- But it fell into a sort of coma. From 2017 to 2018, practically nothing happened in Riders of Icarus, during which time most lost sight of the game completely.
Development picked up again when Nexon relinquished the MMORPG in 2019 and the publisher, Valofe Globals, took over. However, from the perspective of the mainstream and gaming press, the game had long since disappeared. After a good start, player numbers fell below 1000 starting in 2018 and remained there. Recently, there were about 307 concurrent players found in Riders of Icarus.
The trailers for Riders of Icarus particularly highlight the mount system as a unique feature.
7920 Hours in MMORPG and Negative Steam Review
This is the Steam review: The Steam user “GobyScout” has accumulated 7928.6 hours in “Riders of Icarus.” He does say that some time is also spent in the launcher, but he has played the MMORPG for years and can be seen as an expert in the game.
In his review, he does highlight the good aspects of the game:
- it’s cool to tame, collect, and ride creatures
- the various zones of the game with different armor sets felt good
- there is a large variety of classes with unique play styles
But then he moves on to a long paragraph about his criticism of Riders of Icarus.
To progress in “taming,” the central concept, you need “seals” from the creatures that you tame. However, the developers began introducing creatures into the game that could be purchased with real money. This completely ruined the balance and made the creatures in the game entirely irrelevant. None of the “normal creatures” could compete with the cash shop items.
From this point on, the player who spent the most money dominated the server.
This overly strong gear also ruined the balance of Riders of Icarus in the dungeons: The hardest dungeons in the game were actually designed for larger groups, but with the “Pay2Win” items, players could now sweep through solo or in small groups.
The author of the review, with his 8000 hours of playtime, had long resisted buying in the cash shop, but in the end, he explains that you can’t do everything in the game without spending money, and those who do spend money quickly find themselves at the top. Because he wanted to keep up with the others at least a bit, he then ended up spending money in the cash shop.
Another criticism he has is about the classes: The balance is broken. At a high level, it is clear that some classes have a strong advantage, while others are hardly used at all.
What do the other Steam reviews say? Riders of Icarus has “balanced Steam reviews” with 66% positive reviews.
Many highlight the “collecting of mounts” as a positive, it apparently has something of Pokémon. Technical shortcomings of the game are often criticized. There also appeared to be a problem during the publisher transition. Some negative reviews recount that accounts were deleted and that players no longer had access to the game and their accounts.
A frequent player who has not spent 8000 hours in Riders of Icarus but at least 450 hours criticizes the “random” factor and the heavy grinding in the game.
Pay2Win – The Curse of Free2Play MMORPGs
This is what it’s about: Riders of Icarus can serve as a representative example for many Free2Play MMORPGs from the second tier that are played away from the mainstream.
There is always the risk with these games that they will eventually lean towards “Pay2Win” and players who have already invested a lot of time may feel almost forced to either spend money or fall behind:
- It can already be the case from the beginning that at a certain level, you hit a Pay-Wall and then after hours in the game realize: I must pay, otherwise it is pointless to continue playing.
- Or it may only come over time that a game shifts more and more towards “cash shop” and players then feel “driven” into the cash shop – just as the user apparently did with Riders of Icarus.
The tricky thing is: It is very difficult to judge from the outside when the “grinding” of a game is still fair and when it becomes so unfair that players feel coerced. Because these MMORPGs rely on players grinding hard and for a long time for the best items – which players want as well. But this is only okay as long as they can keep up with a lot of time investment.
If that is no longer the case, the mood flips negatively, even if one has spent as much time with a game as the author of the Steam review.
When this point is reached can often only be judged if one is already deeply involved in the MMORPG and has invested a lot of time and energy into the game:
Pay2Win – the black mark: Why cash shops are so rarely discussed
