First of all, it's Sony Online Entertainment. So drop your standards just a little.
PERMADEATH ACTION MMO! If you've played Vindictus, you kind of know the setting. Instead of general MMOs of standing and tapping hotkeys, it's more about moving around and striking. Unlike Vindictus, it lacks the original design. While Vindictus was essentially built from the ground up as an action game, Wizardry Online is an MMO converted to action. It lacks much action - the trailer and the intro video are phenomenal, they actually play heavy metal grunting and it fits in context. But when you get into play? It's more enthralling than your generic WoW clone, but it's not as 'riveting' as games like Planetside 2. That saying, you can play WoW-clones in your sleep and set them on hotkey macros. You essentially need your full attention to play Planetside 2 since it's an FPS. Wizardry Online needs your attention, but it doesn't require a massive amount of attention, at least not what I've seen so far.
It also falls into a lot of MMO traps. There's a fantastic intro movie, it's brutal and amazing. As soon as it ends, cheery music plays as you're put on a dock and sent through about 15 tutorial mini-quests to learn about the town. "Do you know what happens when you rest at an inn? You sleep and restore some HP!" "Did you know that you can buy things from the shop?" "Did you know that the blacksmith can forge equipment?" I went through them all, there's -nothing- unusual. You can skip them but not get the noob loot - turns out the 'noob quest loot' is a literal retard harness. Like, I want to be politically correct, but it's a leather strap that goes around the forehead and back of the head, and a secondary strap that goes under the chin. It looks like a harness you'd see someone wearing because they have a bad habit of letting their head fall on the desk and they need leather padding. It might look better on other characters, and it might be different for other starting classes, but my fighter is currently not using that 5 or so defense. There's also a LOT of NPC. None of them do anything. They're probably involved in one quest each so the writing staff could feel good, "This one is MY NPC, I made him and he was put in."
So what's good? What makes me feel like this is Bay12 worthy? The brutality. Nothing regens on its own - your HP and MP are static numbers. The ONLY way to regain points is to leave the dungeon and rest in an inn, chug a potion, or use a 'camp' that lets you restore HP/MP over time by staying inside a magic circle. You can also restore full HP by dying, or exchange MP for HP by using Self-Heal - I don't know if all classes have it, but Fighter does.
Further, gear is damaged over use. Whenever you get into combat, your gear drops in durability by degrees, able to restore at the blacksmith, and presumably better upgrades and/or skills can improve durability loss. Currently this is actually a problem for me, as my sword is broken and I can't afford to repair it, but I went to sleep without figuring out a solution because it was late. I'll figure it out later. This can make gameplay brutal, though, unlike many games that just toss gear at you, you gotta care.
Mobs rarely drop gold. In the first level sewers (the sewers under the capital city are FULL of zombies, like dozens) some mobs will drop 'shining stones' that resale for 30gp, some potions rarely, or small amounts of like 8gp. For comparison, it costs ~500 to get newer gear at low levels.
Combat can be rough as well. As a fighter, I'm specializing into shields and defense. The fun part is that when you block with a shield it gives 0 damage, but instead reduces your shield rating. When your shield rating drops to zero your guard is broken and you can't defend. Shield rating restores over time, and there's passive skills to increase the regen time and amount, although for general mobs it seems to take too long to regen - if your shield rating breaks during a zombie fight, you're gonna have to finish it. Since HP doesn't restore except by using gold, fights suddenly become a big deal. Taking damage is losing cash! Spellcasters also have a difficult time, as MP doesn't regen either and knowing when it's worth it to throw magic can be the difference between fighting the boss with nukes or just having a wooden stick.
What does it all mean? Resource Deprivation is key, at least so far, as earning gold is tricky, and the brutality of it all discourages noobs, so by the time you get halfway through the first dungeon, it's become harsh.
I'm in game as Anura Girlyhat on the US server - your last name/surname is your 'account name' and it was too short to let me put Girlinhat.
I don't know how the gold farmers survive.
Author
Topic: Wizardry Online - Permadeath Action MMO (Read 1230 times)