Friday, April 27, 2012

Quick First Impressions

The fabulous Spiral is back!
Okay, game crashed so taking a quick break to give you my first impressions. They are both good and bad, of course!

Couldn't log into my pre-chosen server, Yak's Bend. It was listed as High volume, so after getting tired of hearing the first 7 notes of theme music over and over (duh-dah-dah-daaaah-dah-dah-duhh...) as I clicked and reclicked, I tried a new server. Voila! In I go to make a toon on Scavenger's Causeway.

Creating a character: spent way too much time on this, seeing as how they'll all be wiped once beta is done. But I can't help it!
Was disappointed there weren't body sliders.
Also no option for purple hair. :(
Can't have a tilted nose. Strange that I want one, isn't it?
Created Spiral (human), plus Mousekin (a Charr-kitty! so much fun to make!) and Vixyn (a Norn, basically tattooed human).

Got to choose neat toon story/background options. I won't spoil them all, but I will say Spiral regrets not following her dream of being a trapeze artiste!
There is an opening movie for your character that is kinda inspiring. "This is my story." Made me feel like I was starring in my own feature film. I liked it. But I found after watching the three different ones -- human, norn, charr -- that I felt the female attitudes were all kinda manly. I mean, can't I be pretty and an ass-kicking hero?

Gameplay was both familiar and confusing. Lots going on. Spell effects flying everywhere! New spells show up at the bottom as you unlock them. Heaven forbid you pick up and equip a new weapon...whole different set of spells come up!
No tutorial stuff, so you'd better know how to WASD.
Yay, jumping!!! JUMP JUMP JUMP! No longer will small inclines foil my attempts to conquer evil!
Bit of lag made the first group event kinda jumpy.
Cut scenes are stunning, but then if you walk near them again, the video repeats. Not sure how to skip those. Or maybe it was just cuz I failed the event the first time?

AWFUL neon-coloured outlines around characters when you mouse-over them. I went almost immediately to the beta forums to complain. Hate them. Want them gone.

I felt a bit overwhelmed learning the ropes but I'm sure I'll get more comfortable as I play more. Little things kinda threw me off. No mana?? WTF?? That's different. Where did my loot go? What are all the map symbols? That big red circle is my health, but what is endurance? Oh, for evading. Damn, I've got to manually dodge? Does tripping count?  ;)

The game style looks very similar to GW1. That might make legacy players happy. I'm not sure what it is about the landscape that makes it so familar. The flowers? Hmmm...it just feels like I'm back in GW1, which is a tad disappointing in a way because it's not so fresh and new as I was expecting. But I haven't traveled far yet, so we'll see.

But overall, I'm having fun! The quests are confusing, not as hold-your-hand as other MMOs. It's like...okay, now I've picked up a bucket of water, what do I do with it? Or...oh shit, bandits! I guess I will fight. You want to give me a reward now? Cool. Thanks much!  :)

Gotta get back. I'll write more later. I'm taking screenshots too, although my graphics aren't turned up high. Trying to beat the lagmonster.
See you in Tyria, my friends!


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