I thought I would mention a few things:
Playability:
Currently there is a memory leak, I have 256Mb RAM and a 700Mb swap file, after my 2nd visit to a city I need to restart AO. If you're running on Windows 2000 you can simply logout and log back in to get your memory and performance back, if you are running on Windows 95/98/ME you will either need to use a memory cleanup tool or simply reboot. They are working on the memory leak still, so hopefully it will be fixed soon (my personal theory is that DirectX 8.0a is partly to blame, some have removed and re-installed DX and found it to no longer be an issue).
There is a huge problem with lots of people, there's just too many textures for all the armor, weapons, skin, faces... until they resolve this I recommend avoiding the towns at all costs, and when you do go near large groups of people use the mouse-look ability in 1st person view and look at either the ground or the sky (with enough to still see where you are going) as if the other players are not in your "view" area it's not as bad, I can get upto 20 fps instead of 0.3 fps from just looking at the ground as I walk around in towns.
Lag and fights, it can be annoying, but one thing I do that seems to help is to jump every now and then, since when you jump the server double-checks your location and checks for fall damage, also while fighting take little steps back and forward, just in case the server doesn't think you are where the client thinks you are. I have noticed that speed buffs and debuffs have a drastic effect on the updating of where other people are, so if you are going to be fighting a lot you might want to try removing any speed buffs (as long as you're sure you wont need to make a run for it) as I think the server currently isn't taking them into consideration when it estimates your location based on your current movement.
Graphics and Sound:
I really enjoy exploring and at first I was very dismayed at the lack of variation in the playfields... I have since discovered many baren deserts, a few lush forests, some swamps, and some toxic wastelands... when I get bigger and stronger I want to explore the Artery valley as it looks like it will be rather rich with life, both plants and animals (and lots of mutants!).
It doesn't quite have the variation that EQ does, but it's all in-theme with the planet and story... if you've played EQ you'll feel like there is something missing at first, if you haven't you'll probably wonder what all the EQ people are complaining about :)
As for the sound and music, I love it... in EQ I would always disable the music, some places had OK music, but many places it was a very short tune which repeated and got really annoying really fast! In AO the music seems to be dynamically created on the fly depending on where you are, what time of day it is, or in the case of combat how well the battle is going.
Soloing and Grouping:
Funcom stated they have designed the level 1-75/100 level range to be well suited to the casual gamer, most classes *can* solo up to this point if they want to, and all the gear you need up to this point can be obtained from the shops.
You can easily roleplay in this environment, much of the mobs wont aggro on you until you attack them (or their friends) so you can choose your fights without suffering a lack of exp to some degree... you wont get to level 200 real quick this way, but you will probably enjoy it a lot more!
Once you hit the 100 mark the game has changed somewhat... the items in the shops stop at a quality level of 125 (except nano formula), so you have to hunt/quest/trade for what you want... solo play becomes harder, and the professions become more specialised so grouping will become more important.
I've also found that joining a guild/clan improves the game immensely. At higher levels you start to rely on other professions for certain things... the doctors for your implants, the engineers/traders for your custom made weapons, a combination of meta-physacists/traders/engineers and others to 'buff' your abilities and skills so you can equip some higher level gear to give you that added edge for a level or two.
Guilds also give you a guild chat channel, ahh the sweet bright green text! Much of the organisation commands still don't work (next client patch apparently will have them all working) but enough works to give you the 'community' feeling that is lacking at first.
Classes/Professions:
Upto about level 50 I would say most professions are very simmilar (I dissagree about the doctor not being an attack class at this level also, my Martial Artist groups with a doctor and she outdamages me sometimes :)
* every profession can attack and do good damage (some more than others)
* every profession has 'buffs' they can use on themselves or on their team
* almost every profession has some combat nano (some classes seem lacking here, but there's general use-by-all nano they can use)
As you get higher in level, each profession has started to specialise in certain stats and skills, as your IP you get wont allow you to max everything anymore, this will affect the armor you can use, the weapons, and your style of play.
I would like to point out that it is possible to play something like an Atrox Doctor (the equivalent to a Troll Cleric in EQ)... I've seen a level 55+ one wandering around and had a bit of a chat with 'it' (Atrox aren't really male or female, they have male faces tho)... very much of a combat class, doing some severe melee damage yet still able to use some pistols when the range is needed, great heals, great damage-over-time nano... it claimed to never have problems finding a group (Doc's have some GREAT group nano) yet could still easily solo. Of course the Atrox doctor definately suffers with Nano ability, being able to heal less before running out of nano, and possibly having to wait a few extra levels before using the newer nanos, but has the advantage of being able to really get into the middle of the fight... no more sitting on your butt the whole fight, getting up every now and then to cast the odd heal, then begging for your clarity and mana dumps... after fight recovery takes a few seconds to a minute or so, depending how good your kits are.
Items and Quests:
Anarchy Online really does shine in this area, and once you work out how to get around a few little annoying things with the missions they really do work well.
Some tips: If you want to get a mission with good reward and money, set it to "bad" and "money", optionally also set "order" to make it slightly easier... this will give you 3 'locate the item' missions, effectively giving you 2 rewards. When you do find the item in the mission, don't pick it up straight away as sometimes this is bugged (not always, but sometimes)... stand next to the item for 30 seconds or so until it says mission complete then pick it up, if you dont get the mission complete message your location may be lagged, run off a few rooms and run back, or sometimes log off and back on quickly to fix it.
At higher levels you start to get more unique items, and nicer looking armor... it has also been mentioned that there are 'special' or rare items that can be obtained at higher levels... once again the 100+ game starts to define itself (level 100 is very much like level 50 in EQ, in EQ it's really only in the 50+ area that the game takes on it's true raid style).
I'll state again, after level 100 you WILL need to start trading and working hard to get the items you want, you wont be able to just go into a store anymore.
Overall Game Play:
I still am not quite ready to try and convince all my EQ friends to come play, not until the memory leak is solved, and the incredible city lag at least.
Still, I have found it to be a great fun game, and as long as you can avoid the cities and other heavily populated areas it's extremely playable, I got an 8 hour session in before needing to restart AO on a few occasions by just staying out in the wilderness.
Once they fix the main issues I will be recommending it to all my EQ/UO friends, as it truly has the potential to be wonderful.
Well, that's my rant for now, hopefully this is of use to you all.
Everquest versus Anarchy Online (A Review)
Anarchy Online has been out almost a month now. I know there have to be some Everquest players out there wondering about Anarchy Online and how it compares to EQ. I beta tested Everquest and have been playing it ever since. I also beta tested Anarchy Online and have been playing it since it was released a few weeks ago. Of course, I have seen a lot more of EQ than AO, so there are things that I can’t compare quite yet, but I still thought I would give you my initial impressions to help you decide if AO is a game you might want to try. So here is my comparison and review.
Playability
This is something I feel needs to be stated right up front, because I am going to try to ignore it for the rest of the review. At the moment, Anarchy Online is not a quality, playable game. The game was released with Funcom fully knowing that it was bugged, incomplete and unplayable. I was a beta tester and I was astounded when I discovered that the version we were playing those last weeks of beta was truly just a step from the release version. Frankly, I believe that any legitimate company should hang their heads in shame after releasing a game in this bad a shape. Funcom then rubbed salt into the wounds of even their most loyal customers by announcing that the game was “110%” playable two weeks after release, setting off the clock on the 30 days you get with your purchase and assuring that they will start charging people for a game many cannot yet play.
The lag in the game is horrendous. Anytime you get close to more than a handful of other players, your frame rate drops to almost nothing and you find yourself standing in place. What’s worse about this is that you can’t sit or move your curser enough to even log out of the game, and you are often forced to stand there for five minutes or more hoping to just get out of the game. Of course, you can always alt-tab to windows and control-alt-delete the game closed, but that seems like a pretty extreme measure. Basically, this means that you are better off just not trying to play during the typical prime time hours.
The pathing in the game is so bad that when you are in a mission your best chance is to move to a room, stand still and wait to see what starts to shoot at you. Of course, then it is often in another room and shooting through the walls, but at least you can shoot it back that way. Mobs can attack you through walls and across the playing field without you even seeing them or knowing where to go to fight back. Quite often you will lag out during a fight, which makes it impossible to use your special attacks, and then come back in and find out that you died.
High patience and a low frustration level are required to play this game right now. A high performance machine and high speed internet connection are also a lot of help. If you go in expecting a beta quality game, you will probably still be amazed at the problems. Still, many people are able to play the game, so for those of you who are willing to overlook the obvious problems and want to delve into the actual game lurking behind the bugs, I’ll try to give you my view of how it plays.
Graphics and Sound
The graphics of Anarchy Online are crisper and more realistic than those of Everquest. There are nice little touches that really add to the feel of the world. The sky effects are pretty amazing and there are things like little robots and flying birds that add a touch of realism to the game. The player models are stunning and the number of outfits you can wear are astonishing. I created a female character just to experiment with the rather racy outfits you can buy at the store. This is definitely a PG game. With all the variety, I don’t doubt that you could really get to the point where you can recognize a person just by his or her looks. They also programmed some fun emotes into the game, letting you really express yourself. I know I got a lot of work out of the /anger command when the zones weren’t working right after release.
Still, even with such crisp graphics, I find the world to be a little drab. I am sure it is by design, since Rubi-Ka is defined as a dead world that is slowly being terraformed, but there is very little color and variety amongst the cities and zones. Part of the fun in Everquest is zoning into a new zone and seeing how different it is from the rest of the world. Everquest has forests, plains, jungles, oceans, lakes, mountains and a whole variety of other types of terrain. From what I have seen so far, much of Anarchy Online is the same. So, while I like the individual graphics in AO better then EQ, overall I think I prefer the look of Norrath to the look of Rubi-Ka.
When it comes to the sound track and sound effects, AO has EQ beat by a mile. I always thought that the music in Everquest was almost an afterthought by the developers. If I recall correctly, music was not even introduced into the game until several months after its release. A good soundtrack can help get the heart thumping and add to the excitement of a battle. AO has this and EQ doesn’t. When I play EQ, I find myself turning down the sound, but when I play AO I like to really crank it.
Soloing and Grouping
This is an area where these two games differ significantly. Everquest is strictly a group game. While soloing is possible, it is difficult to do and time consuming. In general, groups are easy to form and, because the classes are so well defined, you can form a group of total strangers and fairly quickly figure out everyone’s role in the fights to come.
Anarchy Online is just the opposite. It is very easy to solo, and in many ways it is preferable. I have found it very difficult to find a group because most people have quickly discovered that you can get higher experience and better rewards by soloing. Moreover, when you do get into a group most people are confused about what they are supposed to do and in the end everyone basically just blasts away at the mob until it is dead. I assume as people get higher in levels and more specialized that things will change, but groups will never be as easy to define as in Everquest simply because the professions in AO are not so easily pigeonholed into defined roles.
This has led to an interesting development in the game. Anarchy Online is simply not as social a game as Everquest. There is no general chat like the zone chat of Everquest and with fewer groups and faster leveling, it is much harder to meet people and make friends. It is more like a bunch of single player games being played simultaneously on the same server. Some of this is due to the lag, which causes most people to do everything they can to avoid other players, but even without the lag, I doubt this will ever be much of a group game.
The advantage of this soloability is that Anarchy Online is able to be played in short bursts. If you only have an hour or two to play Everquest, it is almost not worth playing. By the time you log in, get to a zone, find a group and get into a rhythm it is time to log back out. However, with Anarchy Online, you can grab a mission, play it through and gain a half a level’s worth of experience and a nice reward all within about a hours playing time. This alone makes it a far better game for the casual gamer than Everquest.
Still, I like the social aspects of Everquest and find Anarchy Online really lacking in that regard. Without more chat features and more incentive to group up with other players, the game will never really seem like a MMORPG to me. What I have discovered is that when I have an hour to play and just want to play a quick solo game, I log onto Anarchy Online. But when I know I can really sit down and immerse myself into the game, a find myself going back to. So far, I don’t think AO has the same addictive hook that EQ can exert on you.
Classes/Professions
In my opinion, Anarchy Online went the wrong way with their profession system. I don’t doubt that there will be some significant changes as they start to see how the players deal with it. Anarchy Online tried to overlap the professions and also, through a skill system encourage diversity even within the professions. In and of itself, this is not a bad thing. This supposedly lets the players determine their own destiny rather than be pigeonholed into a role determined by the game designer. Unfortunately, from what I can see, it has had the opposite effect. First, the professions don’t vary that much from each other at the start. Because of the easy availability of healing and nano restoring devices, everyone in the game can heal themselves and cast multiple spells. Plus, everyone can wear the same armor and use the same weapons. Naturally, everyone is going to start to figure out the best weapons, armor, nanos, etc and use their skills accordingly. This is especially true because you get so few improvement points that you feel you can’t waste any on any skill that is not strictly necessary. So what you get are few actual variations in classes. Maybe they will vary more in later levels.
Also, with the sole exception of the doctor, all of the AO classes are attack classes. With the exception of the doctor class, there are no true support classes. There are classes that could be used in support roles, but because most players will spend a lot of time soloing, players who choose those classes will inevitably end up spending their improvement points on attack skills rather than support skills. This really hurts the grouping process and also reduces the variety in the game.
In contrast, Everquest’s class system is very well defined, with each class getting their own specialties, armor, weapons, spells, etc. This can sometimes be frustrating, but it builds up a very well developed reliance upon other players and encourages grouping and interaction. It also makes it easier to know who and what you are dealing with. When you meet a level 25 barbarian shaman, you pretty much know what he can and can’t do. That certainty is not present in AO.
On top of that, EQ’s variety increases replay value. The class and race you choose in EQ will significantly effect how and where you play the game. Play an Ogre Warrior and then play a High Elf Wizard, and you will find your aproach to the game to be completely different right from the start. In AO, the breed and profession seem to have little effect on how you play the game. Everyone gets weapons and spells. They may vary in name, but they all work pretty much the same. Are you really going to stop playing your level 150 character and start over with another profession that does much the same thing, only shoots pistols instead of machine guns?
So I have to give Everquest’s system the nod over Anarchy Online. I have a feeling others may disagree on this. There is something to be said about having the ability to diversify your character. Still I know that when I switch from a Rogue to a Warrior in Everquest, I will get a completely different game experience, whereas in AO switching from a fixer to a soldier will not really change your style a whole lot.
Items and Quests
This is an area where Anarchy Online has really improved over Everquest. I love the generated mission system. You go up to a mission generator, put in your parameters and request a mission. You will then be sent to an area to perform a duty, whether it is fixing a machine, killing a traitor, finding a lost item, or some other similar quest. When you get there, your own private dungeon is created. It generally takes an hour to finish and at the end, you usually get a nice reward. You can do missions privately or in a group. This sure beats Everquest’s go camp 10 monsters for a cheesy reward quest system.
However, the missions are better in concept in execution, which is a general theme running through much of Anarchy Online. I know I promised not to mention this again, but right now AO is a truly flawed game. Missions are often broken and can’t be finished. The pathing is so bad that you have no idea which Mob will start to shoot at you and you can often find yourself firing at a Mob through a wall while another one stand right in front of you oblivious to your presence. When you lag, the doorways disappear and can’t be crossed, stranding you in the middle of the mission. Still, assuming all of this gets fixed, the missions may well be the best part of Anarchy Online.
Anarchy Online also gets a huge thumbs up for making their equipment level sensitive (well actually skill level sensitive, but it works the same way). There will be no twinking in AO, so a newcomer will not find himself wondering why everyone else in the game his level seems to be decked out in great gear while he’s scrounging for enough credits to buy the basics. Plus, equipment drops randomly in accordance with the level of the mob, so there is no camping in AO either. And on top of that, just about everything can be bought in the stores. You are not going to be forced to sit in one place for 15 hours just to get that Phat Lewt. These are huge plusses in Anarchy Online’s favor.
There is a negative side to this though. Because it is so easy to get the items you want by yourself, there is little trade going on. Also, there seem to be few, if any, unique or rare items. I always thought items in EQ should drop more randomly, but that doesn’t mean they should become more common. I think that the lack of rare items in AO will somewhat take away from the competition that a true game player likes to feel. While a game should not be all about Phat Lewt, that is still a fun element of EQ that seems to be missing from AO. Still, overall I like the way AO handles quests and items better than the way EQ handles them.
Overall Game Play
So which game is more fun to play? That’s really the bottom line in evaluating a game. When you are sitting at the computer looking at the AO and EQ icons side by side, which one are you more likely going to click?
Well, that’s a complex question.
They are both fun games. If you can afford both, I recommend you play both. Why? Because of the differences. While they are supposedly of the same genre, in many ways these are completely different games. AO is a nice solo game that has the added advantage of having other people around to occasionally chat with and interact with and even group with. You can play it for an hour and actually accomplish something. Plus, I haven’t even mentioned the pvp aspects, mainly because I have not tried that yet. EQ is a great group game where you can really lose yourself in a group experience. When you have enough time to truly immerse yourself, this is the game to play.
In all, even after setting aside the bugs and lag and lack of playability of AO at this time, I definitely prefer Everquest over Anarchy Online. Of course, EQ’s had more than two years to polish and hone itself to relative perfection, and I’ve also played EQ a lot more than I have played AO, but I doubt that even in four months or so when Anarchy Online finally reaches its potential and becomes a truly final product it will surpass Everquest. This does not mean Anarchy Online is a bust. If you can get past the bugs and the lag there is a pretty nice game in there. If you only have the ability to purchase one more game this year, then by all means save your money and wait for The Shadows of Luclin expansion or perhaps Dark Age of Camelot. If you don’t mind paying $50 for something that is flawed but still kind of fun, then this game is worth a try. Whatever you do, don’t cancel your EQ account though, because you may find yourself wanting to come back in a month or two and you will want that level 60 warrior still sitting there when you return.
Tags: AnarchyOnline, News