The new MMORPG “Ashes of Creation” has been in development since 2016 and is slowly taking shape. The developers at Intrepid Studios recently showed a fight against a world boss from the alpha version. The influential Twitch streamer Asmongold is taking a critical look at this. He does not seem thrilled, but at least hopeful.
This is the situation regarding Ashes of Creation:
- Ashes of Creation is the “passion project” of multimillionaire Steven Sharif, who wants to fulfill a dream with the game and evolve the MMORPG genre.
- He has primarily brought in people who previously worked on Everquest Next. Ashes of Creation takes over some revolutionary ideas from the failed project.
- Since 2014, hardly any MMORPGs have been developed in the West, so the “indie project” Ashes of Creation is a great hope for many fans.
Here you can see the boss fight against the giant cyclops in the developer video:
The world boss is a cyclops carrying a tree as a weapon
This is what the developers are showing now: After a long time where it only seemed like a vision and the development was slow, Ashes of Creation now looks more and more like a “real MMORPG” after 7 years in development, even though the game is still in an “early alpha stage,” as the developers repeatedly emphasize.
Ashes of Creation released a video on May 31 showing a fight against a world boss. 16 players fight against a giant cyclops carrying a tree and also using it as a weapon. The video lasts about 20 minutes:
- The cyclops trudges through the world, knocking down trees as it passes – interacting with the environment (Asmongold quips: This is how druids would see themselves in Diablo 4)
- The fight is a relatively classic “tank and spank” with some peculiarities, as the cyclops sets down its tree and the raid group must destroy it as quickly as possible
- Without its weapon, the tree, the cyclops appears more agile and angry, running around but ultimately succumbing to the overwhelming power of its opponents
What does Asmongold think of the fight? On the same day, Twitch streamer Asmongold watched the fight with his community. In search of content to entertain his MMORPG fans, Asmongold constantly reacts to videos.
His editors then analyze the Twitch streams and upload them to YouTube. These “reactions” with silly thumbnails have made Asmongold one of the most influential gaming influencers out there.
The new video of Ashes of Creation from him already has 4 times more views than the original video.
Asmongold seems overall satisfied with what he sees, although not thrilled:
- For example, he praises that the boss really looks massive and big
- He thinks it’s good that the fight was not designed to be too hard or too complex – world bosses should be straightforward. If they were too difficult, people would send extreme amounts of players against them, troll, and grief
- In general, he praises the development of the game, which he has followed for so long; it feels very “rewarding” to see how Ashes of Creation is evolving
When he considers the reactions of his viewers, he has to realize it’s very divided:
- Some fans quip: “The graphics would be okay for 2009”
- Others shout enthusiastically “Game of the Year.”
- Again, others complain that it’s at the level of a “mediocre Asian MMO.”
Asmongold says Ashes of Creation lacks a unique style, so that when anyone sees a model, they immediately say: That’s from Ashes of Creation.
The fight is “okay” for the early stage of development. But if the game is released like this, that’s too little for him.
The fans of Ashes of Creation are clearly more enthusiastic about the boss fight under the developer video. One says he is relieved that after “Throne and Liberty” was so disappointing, Ashes of Creation remains his “most promising MMO”.
