First impressions & thoughts

[Novatek]

Hey everyone,

Was roughly 1500 Prestige when I called it quits in the beta, so I didn't want to burn out or spoil the game further. As you can see, I didn't get very far and barely scratched the surface of the game. Here is quick list of thoughts while playing, or what's to come.

PROS
- Grouping, you'll find grouping is a lot better then soloing, even with pugs if you so choose
- Combat
- Graphics
- Dungeons, raids and smaller 1-3 player groups
- One character to rule them all. You only need one character (like FFXIV) as you can unlock all the classes, easily swappable.
- Costumes. Can change them anytime and unlock the other classes' costume, some on the market too
- Character creation
- Companions like SWTOR and send them on missions

CONS
- Weekly currency caps
- Intense clicking, moving and kiting. I can easily see people hands/wrists hurting
- No healers for those that like to play one. Support classes with shields and short term buffs
- Grinding for those Sparks and cash
- The story. Was there one? I wasn't paying attention to it (may get more involved with it with release)
- No crafting or resource gathering. I'm a crafter!
- Combos. I didn't experience this with my class, but I heard it was tough.
- Economy. Is there one? I was only able to sell Enhancement Stones and Valuables. I like making money.
- Heavy instancing
- Repetitive content, zones, instances, regions, group stuff etc
- No exploration!

Final Thoughts

It's a pretty decent game to kill some time with since there really isn't any MMOs coming out this year. Grouping is where this game will shine and soloing can be very boring and tedious (ex, boss fights). I can see the grind turning some folks away because there is so much to unlock. Has anyone tried the PvP?

I'll be playing this game, so I will be looking forward to playing with all of you!

Please share some of your thoughts from the beta.

[Sharess]

I wasn't overly impressed with the game, combat felt twitchy clunky and overly clicky.
I sadly took this game off my radar today.

Bright side, I ended up buying FFXIV to play with Grievance, wish I coulda done it without the 60$ bill but

[ChezKurg]

I am thoroughly enjoying myself (as a Paladin) so far. I like the Atlas and "all class (eventually)" system, I am enjoying the combat (not quite action, but close enough balance between pure action and tab targeting). I usually like crafting, but I find myself feeling ok without it.

As far as limited content (I have only played 10h in CBT4), I agree, but from what I have seen from the Russian OBT from twitch streamers, there is a lot more that will open up, plus the developers have stated that even more content is in the works. Looking forward to "godhood" and getting my order and worshipers started once release hits.

So, bottom line, this game is making me wish it was already released so I can keep playing and not have to stop on Monday. That right there tells me all I need to know about whether this game is for me (at least for the next few months lol). It is definitely beating the pants off of The Repopulation for me as of now. Two different MMOs, but two I have been keeping my eyes on. Skyforge wins!

[Darkraven]

I'm sure I'll forget a few things but here we go...
I started off playing solo, tricky but it's doable. Once my husband fired up the game a few days later MUCH easier!

I play a Gunner, only messed around with Necro in the training area. LOVE the combat functions as they make me think and pay attention.

There is a sense of button mashing but the combos and "running out" of "_____" makes it less.

Story is there but to start but now I feel like a gun for hire, I've lost the story somewhere!

Its beautiful!

I don't care for the abundance of clicky sounds for everything. I mean I get it, you can't do that so CLICK CLICK CLICK!

I think it's dumb that you have to leave group, then regroup once you are in the zone then leave group again so you can leave the zone. *sigh*

Over all still really liking the game, it's buggy but I expected that no biggy. Most likely it will end up like Archeage for me. I'll play a few months at release and move on.

[Novatek]

Yeah Dark, think I'm gonna play a Gunner or Necro for my tertiary class.

[Lotharen]

Thanks for posting this....I can say I will NOT be playing this. After only a few hours of playing both my wrists were killing me. I also got motion sickness from the movement. I will say I LOVED the graphics, the game was character were amazing.

Thanks for the Key so I could at least try it out before dropping money on it.

[Talore]

The story is alright, the graphics are gorgeous, I love the fantasy/future theme. I am used to action combat from ESO and Tera but I just found it a little too easy in this game. No gathering, crafting or exploration is a little disappointing. I thank my Grievance family for the oportunity to try this game but even if it realeases F2P I probably would never play it.

[Streeg]

My first impressions:

Let me start by saying that I only played for a few days so I have limited experience in the game. Also, I have learned over the years that no matter how good or bad a game looks on paper, keeping the player base and having a fun end game and a smooth release will determine its success or failure. That all said, here are my initial thoughts.

-No trinity. This concerned me a lot at first but they do have a version of the trinity. They have tank classes that hold agro, dps classes to burn mobs down, and support classes. The support classes arenÔÇÖt healers, but they do defensive and offensive buffs so I think itÔÇÖs close enough to the trinity that it might work.

-Graphics. ItÔÇÖs a very pretty and polished looking game.

-Release. The game has already released in RU. From what I saw in game combined with this being a second release, IÔÇÖm betting it will be a pretty smooth release. (Aside from login server overload).

-Combat. Action style combat similar to Neverwinter. Can be hard on mouse, keyboard, and hands but if your used to Neverwinter or FPSs and the such then not much different. Lots of combos, smooth action, and nice graphics make combat enjoyable. One toon All classes similar to FF so no need for alts.

-Gameplay. A little concerned here. It opens well with a cool new way to introduce you to the world. However, for the first 4-6hrs (guessing on time) you have very few zones to play and play several of them twice. This makes the game feel very grindy and repetitive right off the bat. It is also very instanced so if youÔÇÖre playing solo then it feels more like a single player rpg. I fear many people will give up on the game at this point thinking this is the way the whole game will be. It actually opens up a lot if you can stick with it past those first several hours and at 2k prestige you open the Order quest which people build a statue of you and you get followers/adepts. This works a lot like SWTOR where you send your adepts out on quests and work at building your reputation. Kind of a type of crafting system but your building a cult of followers instead of unwanted gear.

-End game. No clue. Supposed to be Pantheon (guild) wars, 5 man dungeons, and raids. Only time will tell how these play out.

All in all it seems like a fun game that IÔÇÖll play. How long will depend on end game but nothing else is out until the end of the year so at least a few months and take it from there. I was concerned a little about all the instancing but it kind of works. The mobs scale to the group so if you go in solo then you can play at your speed, if you go in with a group then itÔÇÖs like a 2-3 man dungeon which is kind of cool. Add in the open world zones that are more normal mmorpg looking and it ÔÇ£mayÔÇØ be a good mix.

[Zippity]

Most of my experience in the game came from CB2, and I haven't had the time to play in any of the others... I really felt drawn in and liked how the story was progressing... I did find it weird that at the end of my 2nd day of gaming, that suddenly the main story line of quests just seemed to abruptly end... I chopped it up to them only allowing so much content to be available for that test run... But if that is all there is, and all that is left is the random planet side repeatable instanced missions coupled with the occasional zone questing areas, then I may not be playing at release...

The concepts behind their version of the talent trees is interesting and newish, but man-o-man will it take an eternity of grinding (without a continuing main story line) to get beyond those few starting character classes to earn more of them... Don't get me wrong, the few out-the-gate classes are fun, but with so many other classes available, but only if you invest the intense amount of game play time required just to get to one of them, let along all of them, will drive a lot of new folks (the ones who didn't buy into the early access packages) away from the game, once they realize how much effort it will actually take... I love the concept, but when you look at those trees and what is needed to progress through them to get to the class you really want to play, it can seem a bit daunting...

I'm an Altaholic, and proud of it... So the concept of only having one character, is a bit underwhelming for me... But I can deal with it as long as the game is fun and engaging, and I feel like the character is meeting all my fun needs over time... We'll have to wait and see...

As to the game play and the Zone Quests, I really liked them for the most part... I don't really mind instanced game play, as my first MMORPG love was City of Heroes, and a majority of it's missions were instanced... I actually prefer a healthy mixture of both instanced and open world questing/missions and wish more games mixed it up, rather then swaying more one way then the other... Even though the few Quest Zones they have in this game are instanced, they still feel sort of open world-like as you progress from one to the next, with other players also running around questing, and they get bigger and have more quests as you progress...

Now, a lot of games these days are trying to proclaim that there are no "levels"... But it's mostly a façade... This game has Prestige, which for all intensive purposes is levels no matter how they try to package it... It pretty much represents your basic level or difficulty rating when compared to someone with less or more prestige than yourself... And it also restricts how quickly you can progress to more difficult content, and sometimes even the main story line...

As far as the skills and abilities for gameplay, I don't mind them really... I personally do not care most of the time about how the combat works, so long as it's not to difficult to do with a mouse and keyboard, and is easy to understand and implement... If I have to go out and buy a game controller for my PC just to play a combat system decently then I usually say the game isn't for me (like with some of the weapon combos for DC Universe Online)... In this game, the controls seem fine to me... I don't mind clicky type games as long as it's not so intense that I feel i'll burn up the button due to clicking friction...

The graphics were fine for me, and my system handled settings on max just fine...

I had hoped, during the test I participated in, that their guild system had been implemented, but it hadn't at that time... It does sound interesting, and it will be interesting to see how Grievance plans to handle it... Especially with the limit of how many folks can initially join the guild in-game... And how large the number of folks who initially begin playing at launch might be in comparision... At least until some time has passed, and more slots are earned or purchased... I really hate it when these games place such harsh restrictions on guild sizes in their games, even if it can be expanded over time... And their squad type infrastructure will be interesting to deal with as well, with all the limits to max player sizes per squad, and equal squad leadership powers to that of the over all leader... Of course that all depends on what abilities those leadership roles in-game have available to them...

Overall, I'm looking forward to seeing how things progress and hope that in the end, the expected grind will not be as bad as it seems it might be... As long as it doesn't become a highly repetitive game early in, I can see myself playing it for a while... Of course, that also depends on how strong our participation is as well, because playing by myself a month or two in, would be a royal drag...

Zip