Anyone else been playing the beta? ( the last email I received stated the NDA was over, so I guess I can make a few comments )
My impressions so far:
Combat:
The combat to me is a bit clunky and boring. As you level up, you gain more combat abilities that you can choose from to place
in combat slots. And like most modern games, you can only slot a few powers at a time to be active, which I strongly dislike.
Graphics:
I was expecting graphics somewhere on the order of what you see in Skyrim. Not even close. The graphics are dull
and what I would consider "muddy". I guess they were trying for a gritty look and feel, but I think they went overboard.
Character avatars are decent, but to play in 3rd person mode you have to zoom way back to get your character to center on the screen.
Very odd. To me, the game world felt lifeless and static.
The one thing that is done very well are water effects.
Questing:
I dont like the fact that mini-dungeons are not instanced. In most cases I would go into one and 90% of the mobs were cleared by other players.
It kind of takes away the feeling of accomplishment when there's little to do in these areas.
Quests are typical fare: go and kill something, collect stuff, etc. Nothing revolutionary there.
Mob difficulty varied significantly. Some were fairly easy, some chewed me up in just a few seconds. They really need to be more consistent.
Voice acting for NPCs that give quests is pretty decent.
NPCs/MOBs:
It is somewhat difficult to distinguish between NPCs and other players. Most games display either a circle at the base of NPCs are at least text over the head with different colors to show the difference between friend, foe, and friendly NPC. The only indication you get in this game is when you target the character, you get a faint red outline effect to indicate "foe". Not very user friendly.
Crafting:
Never did get into it much. The ones I did try almost always required components that I didnt have. So cant really comment.
Chat system:
Pretty standard fare. It was decent, although I still have to say CoH's chat system is far better than anything i've seen since.
Grouping:
There was very little grouping in beta. Most quests are soloable, and I couldnt find any lowbie dungeons to necessitate joining a group.
Leveling:
Sloooow. They need to speed it up a bit. I've been through 3 beta weekends and still am at level 8.
Individuality:
Hard to say at my low level how much variability there will be in looks. But like most games, equipment dictates appearance.
I really miss my CoH character creater.
There are still many annoying bugs with the game in terms of gameplay and interface. I'm somewhat surprised they intend to go live soon.
The game is in pretty rough shape.
Overall, i think it will be a decent game, but not great. I was really hoping for something heads and shoulders over everyting else, but I guess it wasnt meant to be. There's no way I'm paying $60 for the box, then $15 a month. I'll wait a while and see if it goes F2P.
