Project Gorgon
I picked this up during the Steam Summer Sale, and currently have 35 hours played; this is already more hours than the dollars I paid for the game, and I feel like I've barely scratched the surface.
Project Gorgon is an MMORPG Sandbox, currently in Early Access, developed by a very small but dedicated team.
Let me start with the bad. Graphics are very primitive, reminiscent of early Everquest 1 with low-polygon models and low-resolution textures. There are a few examples of more modern graphics, such as nice lightning effects and some weapons with pretty particles, but these are very much exceptions to the norm. Sadly, despite these simple graphics, performance is also an issue. FPS frequently drops painfully low, mainly in heavily populated cities. The GUI is also extremely primitive, though also customizable, which helps somewhat. And being in early access, certain sections of the game are unfinished.
Now the good.
Lore. There is an interesting story line surrounding your own character, who has amnesia and must discover their own past while simultaneously moving towards their own future. What I appreciate most about this is the sandbox format, where your story is not shoved down your throat but rather it's completely optional and something that is genuinely interesting to pursue in a freeform format.
Aside from your own character, there are many NPC's, each possessing unique and often quirky personalities that are fun to discover. There are of course NPC's you can interact with an ask for quests, but also NPC's who just hang around towns and chat with each other, revealing amusing insight into the nature of the world around you. This is definitely a game that will make you want to stop your fighting and take a few minutes at a time to read.
Combat. Players have health, armor, and energy bars. Monsters have Health, armor, and rage bars. For both players and monsters, some attacks do bonus damage to armor, some attacks bypass armor and damage health directly, some attacks increase the rage bar more, some do not affect rage or actually reduce it, some attacks heal you or regenerate armor, some attacks do not consume energy or regenerate energy or consume extra energy to do great damage. Attacks also have damage types, piercing slashing crushing or various elemental types. Some enemies have huge armor and low health, or lots of health and low armor, or resistance or weakness to specific damage types. Some enemies attack in swarms, some alone, some can be carefully pulled to minimize the number of enemies you need to fight. Bottom line, there are lots of variables, and you are actually incentivised to use them in a tactical manner. This is a great example of the old-fashioned hotbar combat done right.
Skills. There is no main player level, only skill levels. When you go to skin or butcher an animal, it uses both your skinning/butching skill along with your anatomy skill for that creature type. When you cook, it uses your cooking and knife fighting skills. When you eat, your gourmand skill is used. There are all the usual tradeskills you would expect, along with a ton of lifestyle skills, and lots of combat skills. Most activities you can do in the game will utilize one or more of your skills. Learning the skills involves exploring to find NPC's who can teach you, and leveling your skills often involves cooperating with other skills. Starting out a new skill is usually easy enough, but grinding to higher levels is generally impractical unless you learn to work with other players and buy/trade for components you need.
Combat skills are particularly interesting. You can use two combat skills at a time, and switch between them freely outside of combat. You've got swords, daggers, staves, hammers, all the usual weapon types. But also some more exotic options...have you ever wanted to be a combat-cow who stampedes enemies and then finishes them off with a string of literally deadly insults? Yeah, that's totally possible in Project Gorgon. And since different enemies have different weaknesses, it's handy to have access to different combat types so that you can counter enemies effectively.
Community. There are no spam-bots in chat. I'm sure this will change if the game becomes popular enough...but for now, global and local chats are full of friendly and helpful people, which is refreshing after the mess seen in some other MMO's recently.
Overall I am very happy with this purchase and would strongly recommend it for anyone who feels like they can overlook the bad parts.
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