Category Archives: Reviews

Review: Eden Eternal

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**This review was originally published on MMORPG Center.  To read it in its entirety, go here**

Trying to go into a game without pre thought out notions regarding its quality is difficult.  As games journalists we generally cover a game, in particular the titles by larger publishers, from the earliest stages.  In doing so we inevitably get a feel for the type of game it is going to be and in most cases come to some level of expectation before we even begin to review it.  This level is determined by many different factors, not the least of which being the part of the world in which the title is made, and the developer and publisher who are making it.  It’s simply the nature of the beast.  Many times, especially over the last few years, I have played a game for the first time with a huge level of expectation and only ended up massively disappointed (see Final Fantasy XIV).  Other times, I have begun to play a game with a pre-conceived sense that this game is not going to be very well done, and those pre-conceptions are summarily dismissed.  What I am getting at is: sometimes a game surprises me.  Eden Eternal, developed by Taiwanese studio X-Legend and published by Aeria Games, has a rewarding class system, fun combat, alternate types of advancement, and the guild town system which together make this title stand out as easily the best in an ever improving crop of free-to-play Asian MMO’s.

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Review: RIFT

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**This review was originally posted at MMORPG Center, you can read the entire review here**

I generally struggle with the first paragraph of a review. In fact I have delayed writing many reviews as I write and re-write the opening salvo many times over in my head trying to find the right words. The opening paragraph of a review needs some obvious elements, but most importantly the writer needs to give the reader a very small glimpse of what they think of the game, without letting the cat out of the bag entirely. Too much information and the reader may just read the first paragraph and move to the bottom, check out the score and move on. Too little information and the reader may not read the review at all. I have played this first paragraph over and over in my head for almost 2 weeks. Since I have almost reached the level cap in Rift (currently 42) and my guild has already downed a number of the bosses in the game’s first raid instance I, by proxy in some cases, have experienced quite a bit of what Trion Worlds is dishing out in this title. I have also obtained quite a good idea of what we can expect from Trion going forward, since of course we all know that simply launching a game is never enough for a AAA MMO to be successful in this market. At the time of this writing, Trion has already released a 1.1 content update and the patch notes for its 1.2 update. Because of this experience I feel very strongly that Rift: Planes of Telarahas catapulted itself very decisively into the top 3 MMO’s in the marketright from day one, and is poised to be a market share behemoth going forward. I think I failed at that “too much information in the first paragraph” thing. But please read on and I will give you three reasons why Rift is myMMO of choice and why you should play this game.

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Review: Stronghold Kingdoms

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**This review was originally published at www.mmorpg-center.com You can view the complete review here**

It’s clear we have come through yet another transitional phase in gaming. Transitions are not wholly unfamiliar to gamers, since as it is with most technology products, the tastes and demands of the player change as the technology changes. While browser based games have been around for some time, they were mostly a fringe development, relegated to indie studios or dudes in their basement with java or shockwave training certificates who need to find a way to make a couple of bucks. The transition is in the change from these browser based games being on the periphery of gaming to the mainstream. Even the traditional sources of the old-school browser based games such as Kongregate have gone mainstream – recently being bought up by GameStop. As browser technology has changed, so too has the opportunity to develop profitable, fun, immersive, exciting and graphically rich gaming experiences. Free Realms and the recently released Battlestar Galactica Online are but two examples of browser based experiences that potentially rival any AAA disc offering. Stronghold Kingdoms is a browser based MMO from Firefly Studios, the same studio that developed the popular Stronghold series from which Kingdoms earns its namesake – and upcoming, highly anticipated Stronghold 3, which has been recently delayed. Does Stronghold Kingdoms live up to the Stronghold name? Is it another breakout browser based experience? Or is this yet another of a long line of mediocre browser games of the past? Let’s find out!

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Review: Perpetuum

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**This review was originally published at www.mmorpg-center.com You can view the complete review here**

Over the last ten years we have seen the dawning of the modern MMO. While Everquest, Anarchy Online, and others even before them, were popular in the late 90’s early 2000’s, games such as Final Fantasy XI (FFXI) and World of Warcraft (WOW) really pushed MMO’s into the mainstream. Gaming at the turn of the century was dominated by Counter-Strike, Quake and the like. WOW made it cool for any gamer to play a game featuring elves and warlocks. Inevitably, a pattern for a commercially viable MMO emerged – in particular in the fantasy MMORPG realm. World of Warcraft owes much of its inspiration to Everquest. In turn, almost every MMORPG since has been modelled after WOW hoping to capture even a small portion of the behemoths market base. As with almost any product, once a model has proven to be a success, the inevitable replication, with slight changes, occurs. Eve Online is one such game, with a model not taken from the WOW playbook interestingly enough, which has been a massive success. Perpetuum is a Sci-Fi MMO from European independent developer Avatar Creations. While obviously owing a lot of its inspiration to EVE – which I will cover, I sat down to take a look at what players can look forward to that makes this title stand out, and not merely – to borrow from the popular term for fantasy MMORPG’s – an “EVE clone”.

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Review: Vindictus

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**This review was originally published at www.mmorpg-center.com You can view the complete review here**

An element that most of the popular MMO’s are lacking is an active, player centric, combat system. Pressing attack, cycling though a few abilities, typically in a set “rotation” until the target is dead, is standard fare for a majority your favourite MMO’s. Games such as Age of Conan have made attempts to have the player more directly involved in the combat, with directional controls that lead the character to attack from a specific direction which you control based on being aware of the targets directional weaknesses. Yet even some of the newest MMO’s still take this mostly non-active approach to combat (Aion being an example). It was only a matter of time before we saw MMO’s adopt a more exciting combat system, similar to some of our favourite console games, which allowed the speed and precision of a player to directly translate to the speed and precision of the character the player controlled. Vindictus, developed by devCAT – an internal studio of popular free to play publisher Nexon – is possibly just the solution we are looking for. During the week of their latest content update, Episode 5: The Lost Artifact, and just over 3 months into release, I sat down to take a closer look.

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