Had a chance to play about 3 hours last night. Beta weekend is limited to just Templars and just London and Kingsmouth Maine (USA). Below are some initial impressions … very random rambling so do NOT expect an organized review at this point - will try to add some more after the weekend is over. Some screen shots attached.
TSW surprised me a little. Based on much of what I read I actually had not expected much and had my doubts. My main interest in it, really, was the current setting mixed in with magic, mysticism, swords, mythology all during modern day earth. Just so awesome. I would LOVE to be the guy I made with magic powers in the secret world … the gates of hell opening upon the planet … not so much
Anyhow the combat is rather cool. Reminds me a little of GW2 in that you have "sets" you swap out in a way. So far I like it but I did not get to far. Fairly fast paced. It has builders that result in finishers. So do X for a bit and then you can do Y which does extra damage, heal, etc. but uses up all your built up points. You have 7 active skills and 7 passive at any one time. You get two "weapons" and they can help "build" points (resources) for their respective area or even both areas. For example you could have fist weapons and chaos magic equipped. A certain fist attack might only build a fist resource or might build both. You create sets that are synergistic so they work together. LOTS of strategy options.
At first I was sword and chaos magic all the way. But they don't seem to work well together … I mean both had direct attacks so its one dozen or another … although I suppose some mobs will be immune/resistant to magic so having a back up would be good.
Then I switched to chaos magic and fists. I really love those - fists have a lot of neat healing and "nature" themed powers (Primal). EXCEPT the fists weapons, when sheathed, are HORRIBLE. They just float on your hips, a few inches in the air, and look so moronic I find it very distracting. So while fists/chaos (similar to executioner deck) is cool … not sure I can heal with the way they did the graphics.
So right now I am doing chaos magic (thats stable at least as I love that line) and elemental magic - so a pure modern day mage. Elemental gives me some ranged attacks and then when mobs come in I have the chaos for some direct fighting. Going with that for now.
Overall I like the game. Not as much as GW2 but since GW2 is free there won't be to much conflict with playing both. A lot will depend on how well I can solo in TSW. In GW2 its a non-issue because of the dynamic events and how everything encourages you to work together and cooperate. In TSW I don't know if anything like that exists.
After the freedom of GW2, and even public events in Rift, the idea of going back to worrying about kill stealing, ninja loots, or "wait in line to kill X" is very unappealing. But I don't know enough about TSW to know if any of those issues exist.
So a lot depends on how dealing with other players is dealt with in TSW. I really like the in-game google browser and the way the game ties in real world to virtual. The quest system is refreshing if only because its a little different. The interactive world is fun - jumping on cars to set off alarms, igniting gas cans, things like that.
Overall theme, atmosphere and setting gets a 10+ from me. Game play/combat is about 8. MMO aspects (grouping) is an unknown so can't score …
PS- There is a list of known issues. So my initial complaint over lack of character creation abilities should be addressed with the live version as they said there would be more options:
http://www.darkdemonscrygaia.com/showthread.php?t=29187
EDIT: Wanted to add a link on end-game, grouping, dungeons, etc. as its a bit different in TSW. I don't really do raiding or dungeons but if I get lucky enough to meet some easy going folks to group with I might try it. Most folks tend to be to hard-core for me but who knows.
http://www.darkdemonscrygaia.com/showpost.php?p=721577&postcount=435
TSW surprised me a little. Based on much of what I read I actually had not expected much and had my doubts. My main interest in it, really, was the current setting mixed in with magic, mysticism, swords, mythology all during modern day earth. Just so awesome. I would LOVE to be the guy I made with magic powers in the secret world … the gates of hell opening upon the planet … not so much
Anyhow the combat is rather cool. Reminds me a little of GW2 in that you have "sets" you swap out in a way. So far I like it but I did not get to far. Fairly fast paced. It has builders that result in finishers. So do X for a bit and then you can do Y which does extra damage, heal, etc. but uses up all your built up points. You have 7 active skills and 7 passive at any one time. You get two "weapons" and they can help "build" points (resources) for their respective area or even both areas. For example you could have fist weapons and chaos magic equipped. A certain fist attack might only build a fist resource or might build both. You create sets that are synergistic so they work together. LOTS of strategy options.
At first I was sword and chaos magic all the way. But they don't seem to work well together … I mean both had direct attacks so its one dozen or another … although I suppose some mobs will be immune/resistant to magic so having a back up would be good.
Then I switched to chaos magic and fists. I really love those - fists have a lot of neat healing and "nature" themed powers (Primal). EXCEPT the fists weapons, when sheathed, are HORRIBLE. They just float on your hips, a few inches in the air, and look so moronic I find it very distracting. So while fists/chaos (similar to executioner deck) is cool … not sure I can heal with the way they did the graphics.
So right now I am doing chaos magic (thats stable at least as I love that line) and elemental magic - so a pure modern day mage. Elemental gives me some ranged attacks and then when mobs come in I have the chaos for some direct fighting. Going with that for now.
Overall I like the game. Not as much as GW2 but since GW2 is free there won't be to much conflict with playing both. A lot will depend on how well I can solo in TSW. In GW2 its a non-issue because of the dynamic events and how everything encourages you to work together and cooperate. In TSW I don't know if anything like that exists.
After the freedom of GW2, and even public events in Rift, the idea of going back to worrying about kill stealing, ninja loots, or "wait in line to kill X" is very unappealing. But I don't know enough about TSW to know if any of those issues exist.
So a lot depends on how dealing with other players is dealt with in TSW. I really like the in-game google browser and the way the game ties in real world to virtual. The quest system is refreshing if only because its a little different. The interactive world is fun - jumping on cars to set off alarms, igniting gas cans, things like that.
Overall theme, atmosphere and setting gets a 10+ from me. Game play/combat is about 8. MMO aspects (grouping) is an unknown so can't score …
PS- There is a list of known issues. So my initial complaint over lack of character creation abilities should be addressed with the live version as they said there would be more options:
http://www.darkdemonscrygaia.com/showthread.php?t=29187
EDIT: Wanted to add a link on end-game, grouping, dungeons, etc. as its a bit different in TSW. I don't really do raiding or dungeons but if I get lucky enough to meet some easy going folks to group with I might try it. Most folks tend to be to hard-core for me but who knows.
http://www.darkdemonscrygaia.com/showpost.php?p=721577&postcount=435
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