Well, what can I say. I have heard about Xsyon off and on for a number of years, but it has never interested me enough to learn more about it. It's an odd reason too. It is one of those games that I would really want to play if it were true. What do I mean by that? I heard it was a sandbox game, etc, etc. Yes, I got burned by Darkfall and to a degree, Mortal Online. MO wasn't as bad, since I only followed it for a while, but Darkfall I followed for 4 years. 4! I mean, I would check their website every week for updates...for 4 years. I woke up early the day of pre-order and hammered their site for 2 solid hours to get a preorder...all to be disappointed.
I really couldn't invest the time or the emotional stress that DFO caused, so I, like an abused child, tried to erase it from my memory...only happy thoughts. Unicorns, rainbows, and puppy dogs. I heard about their release date, and lo and behold it was a disaster. Yes, I predicted it. The reviews and posts about the game were dismal, the people were very unhappy, and there was "weeping and gnashing of teeth." Unicorns, rainbows, and puppy dogs. It was so bad that the company pushed back the release date for a few more months. I would be lying to say if I was the least bit shocked. Not that I want to say anything bad about sandbox, indi game companies, but it's just as it is.
The MMO business is a hard genre to get into, and it's a very time consuming and difficult type of game to make. It's constantly a "work in process," you have a very dedicated and needy player base. They don't stand for much, and expect the world (literally). It's hard to do all that with a small limited budget and small staff. Look at companies that throw 50-150 million dollars at it, and they even start sweating of what they got themselves into. I mean, don't get me wrong. I love the indi market, and TBH I think they are going to be/are the game changers in the market. They are the ones that will take risks and drive innovation, because they have the least to lose (not on a personal level, but on a fire 100 people and lose 50-150 million dollar level). So bravo for them to make the "game they always dreamed of making," since they don't have to fall under all the marketing and high end big wigs who know nothing about actual gaming in MMOs making the big end decisions. Enough about that, so yeah, Xsyon wasn't on my radar which is a lot to say, because I know about most MMOs...at least the ones worth knowing about.
But like the ol' adage, "bad publicity is still publicity" stands true. The reviews were so bad, I took more notice of the game. Like the young underwear adds of Calvin Klein the name of Xsyon spread further than it intended, and people talked about it to the point where I wanted to know more about how bad it really was. How bad was it? What was so bad about it? What kind of game was it that made it so bad? Like the instinctual nature of driving slow turning your head and looking at a bad car accident, you just wanted to know. So I started doing a little reading and watching videos. It sounded like what I remembered it to be. The fanboi were defending, the haters were hating, and "the stockings were hung by the chimney with care..."
So yeah, just as I figured Xsyon is one of those games "too good to be true." It gives what all the niche players of sandbox gamers want...but really is that all possible? No.
I read (ok skimmed) the review by Willbonney, and that really didn't help me. I wanted a real review, something that wasn't biased either way and comprehensive enough so I would understand the game, the state of the game, and what I would expect. I couldn't find any, so I went onto YouTube. I stumbled on some old 8 month vidoeos, which I dismissed. I wanted something current. Something that I could actually see and would give me an idea of the state of the game. I finally started to watch some of the Saintbob tutorials, and it seemed ok. The graphics are meh, but the gameplay was interesting. It reminded me a lot like Wurm, which I only briefly tried, and since it's a new MMO I am hoping a lot more indepth. I was intrigued.
I looked around the web site to see if I could apply for beta, but only pre-orders were given beta access. What? It almost killed it right there. Then...then...there was no NDA. What? Interesting. The pre-order gave 2 months free, and then then I read a statement from the main developer saying he is going to release it on March 1st, because he is tired. Hmm...not the best marketing line to sell a game. He was saying that there is a really small team, and that he fired some staff previous because they were not doing the job he thought they were doing. He was working hard, and couldn't keep working that way...hmm...you know, I have been lied to so many times as an MMO player. Just plain honestly works for me. Like Josh Lyman, it got my attention of the honesty that was being said here.
Let see, I swore I would never pre-order an MMO game again. And here is a game that isn't polished, that I don't know much about, I know it's a sandbox with a small staff and could potentially go under at any moment...let's pre-order!
Now I am not going to give a play-by-play of the game or my adventures, but let's get right into it. I mean you have suffered enough with my ramblings above:
INTRO:
Xsyon isn't a game for the feint hearted. I mean you are the motivator, and you are the instigator. The game will give you nothing if you don't work for it. It isn't "Theme Park" model. If the only game you ever experienced is a "Theme Park" game, you will be greatly disappointed (i.e. WoW). However, if you have played UO (Ultima Online), Eve, SWG Pre-CU or even D&D PnP, then you will kind of already know what to expect and adapt accordingly. I am not suggesting that WoW players will not like this game, but it's such a different game, that it will quickly fustrate the WoW-ish players to the point of /ragequit.
GRAPHICS and ANIMATION: 5/10
The animations are pretty bad, animals from what I have seen don't really do much. I saw bears just standing there doing nothing, while I saw raccoons sitting up and perhaps eating something and then going back down on all fours. The trees, water, waterfalls and the weather graphics are beautiful. I love going into the mountains on a hunt and just looking at the scenery of the nature of the game. However, I just love exploring. I haven't come by anything significant like ancient ruins, etc but who knows. I haven't traveled too much around.
Running looks really odd, like the Friend's episode where Phoebe jogs with Rachael (don't judge me, I wasn't a big fan, but I saw that episode and it reminds me of it). Everything else is basic like you bend down to gather something. Sometimes the animation bugs out and you stand up while you are still gathering.
Also, a few times after I finished gathering I stand up and do a scare crow stance. Which is what you use when you do character design. I guess it's reverting back to the default?
You can swim (not underwater yet, nor can you drown), run, walk, jog, jump, and climb up most hills...I think a climb feature will be placed to actually climb things not climbable atm. Resting regens HP (health) and energy. There is also a lying down to rest option, though I am not sure if it restores HP and energy faster.
I guess I should mention there are e-motes with sound. Never been a big emote fan, but there is enough to satisfy anyone. On aside, I think devs put way too much emphasis on emotes like dance. Sure it's fun, but perhaps work on a more important part of the game. I think they see all the great videos of WoW using their emote and think "it's free publicity if people make cool videos with our game and emotes." But really, just make a good game (i.e. I would have much rather them fix all the bugs in AoC rather than have all those amazing emotes).
GAME WORLD: 8/10
It's huge. I mean I don't have stats and graphs, etc but it's huge. It's based off of the real Lake Tahoe (like Fallen Earth with the Grand Canyon). One of my first rolled characters was missing a crafting item and I had to run 2-3 units to get it. It took me about 40 minutes (a little of getting my bearings straight, a little fighting off a bear with my fishing rod). So if that was 2-3 units the world is sizeable. Here is a map and the units with starting point locations:
The reaons I gave it an 8 is because there are lots of things that aren't in the game right now. Maybe they are and I just haven't seen it. This is one of the things that makes Xsyon unique. The dev will not tell you when they add something into the game (unless it's a fix or something really essential). It's there for you to discover or not discover!
SOUND: 7/10
Sound is ok. Basic, and nothing engrossing. There was a bug where it snowed, then rained, and snowed and the rain sound effect was still going.
Some of the background music is of bad quality. Not bad design, but it actually is really distorted. Maybe it's on my end, since I don't think anyone has reported it.
Sound is sound to me, it has the environment sound and action sounds, so it's really enough for me.
COMBAT: 4/10
Combat is basic at best. There is a lot of room for improvement, and it's something that will get a major overhaul according to the dev, but it will be down the road. It isn't a click and target, so aiming your swing (and later bow, magic?) will be necessary.
You can equip anything to use, including nothing and using your fists. Currently, there are no stats on equipment, no on really knows how strong or how much damage something does.
Dying mechanics aren't in yet, so if you die to for example a bear, you will die, appear as a ghost, and then respawn with all your stuff.
Come release, or whenever the devs decide to turn it on, it will be a full-loot system on death, as is the standard for sandbox games. It has it's roots back to D&D and trying to mimic reality, which gives another element to the game. Don't worry about losing your +384387123 Sword of Ultra Uberness, which took you 3 months of grinding in the Cave of Upper Uberness, because that shit isn't in the game.
CRAFTING: 9/10
It has a full comprehensive crafting system, and it will tickle anyone that likes crafting or even just crafts a bit. It is the sandbox model of you can craft everything. Everything. You start out with practically nil and you need to amass your uberness, which will start with crafting. I would give it a 10/10, but the starting mechanic of crafting is really frustrating. If you choose say, leathworking as a craft you could or could not get the actual tools to do leatherworking. So you could be a leatherworker who can't do any leatherworking. It's really frustrating, and hopefully it gets fixed, hence why I traveled 2-3 units in my beginning blurb. I needed a needle.
People are currently making a character, making a basket, putting their tools in it, deleting their character, creating a character, going to the basket, putting their tools in it, deleting their character, ad infinitum ad nausum till they get all the tools. Really. We really shouldn't have to do this! Oh and FYI only one character per account. But that is all you need, since this is a skill based game with leveling also in it. The leveling works to a degree because you only get 10 points to spend on your skill. For every 10 skill points in a skill it will require 1 more point. So having a skill of 10 and wanting it to go to 11 would require you to spend 2 points, 21 spend 3 points, and so on. Maybe you get more skill points the higher the level you go, so not sure about this one (I am only level 2, almost 3 :P).
Also, the starting recipes you get are also random. You don't just get it in the craft you choose, but in all the areas. You could have leatherworking but only start with the basic crafting list (5?) but then have 20 in tailoring. It's suppose to reflect a real life situation where some people might like a certain area of crafting, but their skills and knowledge are really in another area.
Skilling up is a lot of grinding of items till you learn new recipes and gain skills. You can fail, and you will lose the mats (materials), though not the tools that you used to make them. Choosing a craft at character creation will give you 25 points (out of ?) while all the other crafts you will start with 5 points. 5 points will make you fail a lot.
About every 5 or so items you will learn a new craft (auto learn), gained in skill points takes longer and is slower. There is a soft cap (harder to gain points) for each of the categories like crafting, combat, etc. Apparently, there is also an anti-macro system in place so people can't just macro grind shit (a la DFO and hello under the world macro-ing overnight).
Also, energy plays a big part in the game. Everything takes energy from crafting, combat, moving, any action. Hence, that is also another anti-macro system. When your energy hits zero you will be winded and take like 10s do anything else. Keeping well fed with food and keeping your thirst bar full will help with energy regen (regeneration).
I guess I should add that you can also make buildings and walls, and you can terraform the land. Yes, you can change the land! I think buildings and some walls are bugged or not completely in yet. I think one wall that is stone requires 80 stone of one type, but the stacks only goes to 50, and you can't click on 2 stacks (or mix and match, but that goes for all crafts) to meet the requirements...anyways, back to terraforming. You can make motes around your base, raise land, or level it. It's quite amazing and people have done some pretty interesting things with it.
Physics work, so digging by a river and making a mote will make the water go into it. You can watch the YouTube video of the tribe Apache doing it.
GATHERING: 9/10
The basic see something pick it up, etc. There a little more to this which I don't want to get into. I suggest watching saintbob's tutorials on YouTube. I think his username is saintbob001.
The types of resources are plentiful, and as I write this I want to give this a 9...hell, let's give it a 9. I bumped it up, because resources are in places where they should be. Misc is in junk piles, limestone by water, branches and twigs by trees, etc. It all makes sense.
GUILD/TRIBE: 7/10
The system itself is great and that would get a 9-10; however, the Tribe interface is just...well appalling, and this is coming from someone that has never actually written the word "appalling" before.
It gives you the basic who is in your tribe, but it doesn't tell you who is on-line, off-line. You can't invite someone to tribe unless they are standing next to the totem (hmm...not so bad, really), no idea when people in your tribe comes online or offline. It's really non-social. The only merit is it has a tribe chat...that's it. lol. But that is on the social part. The actual control of the tribe using the totem is really indepth. You can create ranks and assign different roles and rights to the specific rank. It might sound simple, but the options are quite vast and I am impressed with the level of detail involved.
Also, the quest system in done with the totem, and you can give quests out to other players to fulfill, as well as, give the reward. I think it also gives experience out, which I think is dumb. Apparently, completing quests from other tribes gives more xp, then from your current tribe. However, what is really stopping two friendly tribes to give the simplest quest and just farm xp that way. The reward system is good enough, since the person making the quest has to have the reward to give (it doesn't come from the game...I mean the game doesn't provide it automatically out of thin air).
I don't think trade is in the game yet (besides personal trade one-on-one); however, I think tribal trade will also be in via the totem system which will be cool (i.e. people outside your tribe can come and use your totem to do trades...I guess that's if they don't get attacked). However, since it's not in the game, it can't attribute to the rating for this category.
The tribe area is interesting and you start out with a set size. It will grow as you gain more members and shrink accordingly. You can build and put stuff in your tribal area and for now till after Prelude (more about this later, but it will last 6 months AFAIK), you are completely safe in your tribal area.
You can only build or terraform in your tribal area, but it's quite big. Currently, there is a bug where if someone deletes their char it says they leave the tribe but doesn't? Something like that. It happened a few times to us when people rerolled their chars to rejoin us and having ghosts. The ghosts do make a difference, and we tested by kicking one and our land claim shrank a bit.
Agriculture and husbandry are on the list as well. So it will be cool...for all your farmville players out there. I know you are out there, admit it (though not me...seriously).
CHAT: 3/10
It always surprises me how little development MMO devs put into the chat feature. I mean MMOs are known to be social games. One would think that making the social feature a high priority on the To Do list. Regardless, there is just one window for chat. Everything goes there. Thank "a dios" that it's color coded. You can't move the chat window, change it's size, scroll (arrow keys are slow, and when you go up and more chat happens it moves it down as well...grrr), change the background color (hard to see sometimes) nor make new windows.
The only saving grace is that there is a local chat (1 unit in every direction). Yes, that is a saving grace. I guess mainly cause we know the limit of the local chat and it's not so limiting that only people in the same unit will hear you. It does make for some odd conversations where one person is talking to someone one unit away, but someone a unit away in the opposite side hears you just talking to yourself. There is also a global chat currently, but it will be turned off come release which is a good thing.
I guess I should also put that names only appear when you are really close to someone. So hiding and still talking is possible. I think something is being worked on where local won't revel the name unless you MouseOver the person or you already have that person on your Friends List...not sure.
CURRENT STATE: 7/10
It's hard to rate, since so much is missing. The FPS is low (for me anyways), I still get ping spikes where I run at 16-32ms and then spike up to 300+. There isn't really much to do currently other than build up your skills, crafts, and your tribe.
The thing is, that is a large part of the game atm. I mean crafting has a lot to offer and usually requires other mats from other crafters. You have to work together, along with other projects like wall building and terraforming.
The bare bones of it really feels like starting out with nothing...well because you do. I usually solo in all MMOs or at least have a small core group of players. This game works well with that, and even though I am mainly a soloer, the game really encourages at least small group play.
So far I am enjoying the crafting and the craft and skill leveling.
GAME POTENTIAL: 8-10/10
Hah, what can I say any sandbox game really has the potential to hit 10, while "Theme Park" games have a harder time because of their inherent design. The devs are really involved with the community. A dev comes on often and asks if there are any concerns. They are also very interactive with the forums. The FAQ seems far out, but why not. Where is the ceiling when it's just a small group of devs making their dream game? Lots promised, but who knows what will actually be delivered and to what degree of quality. Though, great things have been done based on a promise...like finding a faster route to India by sea.
I like two major things about the mindset of the main devs, and it is important to have the same mindset. It means that the game won't change so drastically that you will end up in /ragequit. I mean I can't promise that, but look at Eve. People have been whining for years about the harshness of it and the full loot pvp, etc, etc. The devs have always stuck by their guns and people who love that aspect of Eve will continue to play because they know the devs are not going to change the basic gameplay of the game to a few whiners. Even with the suicide killers in Empire....but I digress.
The devs see the game as it is. Trying to be as realistic as possible with some poetic licensing. They have stated that there will be stages to the game, mainly so some people don't play this game out. What I mean by that is look at WoW. People hit max level cap in...5 hours? Xsyon will not have that problem, because the devs will not release the cap outright, but in stages. Prelude is the first stage and it will be 6 months. When they add things they will not tell us and we will have to discover it ourselves. Maybe no one ever well? Maybe someone will 2 stages later, and be like oh look! I like that, but that is the nature of a sandbox game. Gamers who do not want to be hand holded and spoonfed. It's a double-edge sword, but...I want to help out the dev and their team, so $40 isn't the end of the world.
Cheers.
