Paragus' Darkfall beta review: Not your grandma's MMORPG

by Brooke Pilley Feb 19th 2009 at 4:00PM

Filed under: Betas, Fantasy, Darkfall, Game mechanics, PvP, Hands-on

One of the very first Darkfall beta reviews we found came up only moments after the NDA dropped. Paragus, co-leader of the Inquisition guild and longtime MMORPG fanatic, shared his thoughts on the game over at MMOCrunch.com. It's quite a lengthy read and covers areas of the game such as character creation, user interface, the world, characters and animations, combat, quests, PvE, the alignment system, and corpse-looting.

One commentor pointed out a few things the review was missing, including mounts, ships, mount and ship combat, class/skill balance, bugs, missing features, and the player-run economy. Still, we found it to be a very good overview of the game. Paragus suggests that Darkfall is not going to have mass market appeal, however, fans of old-school PvP MMOs like Ultima Online and Asheron's Call should find the game quite entertaining. Overall, he feels that while Darkfall may be a little rough around the edges, it features enough of a unique experience to be worth it. Paragus is also taking questions, so feel free to leave comments on his review.

If you'd like a second opinion, why not check out what Massively's very own Colin Brennan has to say about his hands-on Darkfall experience? Also, share your thoughts on whether or not you plan to purchase Darkfall in our Daily Grind.

Tags: adventurine, beta, darkfall, paragus, polish, review

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Jund said on 4:55PM 2-19-2009

Nice review. Reminds me a lot of Shadowbane and Asheron's Call (Darktide server). This will be a niche game as I don't think most will be able to handle it because of the corpse looting (and failing to recongnize that this actually helps police the bad behavior you see in other games).

That said, the alignment system seems ripe for exploitation.

Wjowski said on 6:15PM 2-19-2009

If games like Darkfall police bad behavior why do they seem to draw so many career griefers?

Jund said on 5:57AM 2-20-2009

Because of the opportunity to loot others - which is really just a euphemism for depriving others of something they value. The thing is, when you resort to griefing tactics, the players tend to police their own - particularly in games where the politics are highly developed (as will be the case in this game). Also, the one character per server mechanic helps as well - you can't log off and log on to the safety of another anonymous toon.

Slacker said on 11:42AM 2-20-2009

It seems like it would police it, but it does not.
No matter what you do with the alignment system people will find a way to abuse it.

Then they will go out gank a few people, go back to town and bank most of the loot. They will do this over and over until someone kills them.

And you are right they will get looted, but so what? They stashed all their real loot in the bank before heading out to gank others. Big whoop you got enough loot that they may have to loot 2 whole other people before they are back to even.

Back in UO, people realized the best and quickest route to riches and power was to gank other people. As soon as people started hunting them, they just moved off to another area and started up there. Or heck just logged off for 20min.

If people in the real world were punished by the police for killing someone by having them take all the stuff on them, we would have non-stop murders and theft. What keeps them from doing that is not the loss of a tiny % of their stuff, it is the chance that they are going to be locked in a small room for a LONG time with someone who thinks they are pretty.

Until a MMO finds a way to allow real punishment, then open PvP worlds are just a place to see who can abuse the systems the best. Yall have fun.

jkjudgex said on 4:19PM 4-21-2009

I think a lot of the replies to your comment are erroneous in tone and understanding.

It is a correct notion that corpse-looting produces a better environment. People DO police their own. People may have a bad streak, and prove that they can be hooligans, robbing and looting, and trash-talking, but, it won't last forever. These kinds of people eventually meet their downfall, unless they are of ridiculous skill and intelligence.

Look to EVE online for examples of this. Becoming a career pirate is very difficult to do successfully in that game. You literally have to put everything on the line, and then will likely end up spending the majority of your time afterwards trying to recoup your losses rather than find new sources of income.

That's because people don't like to be messed with... and while you might be a power-griefer, you won't be likely able to hound individual players into nothingness, but, as your rating decreases and people see that you are a KOS-monster, the community at large most certainly WILL hound you into nothingness, taking everything you have at every turn.

The impact of the cruel, unreasonable, griefing individual can be easily kept in check with realistic game mechanics. WOW fails at this, and that's why the PVP servers in WOW are pointless to play on. DAOC was a little better, but changing the rates and the way teleporters were laid out made it very conducive to perma-gank squads... even still though, too bad of a reputation would get you crushed on the PVP servers (See: Slayers guild).

Most people recoil from the thought of having their loot taken off of their corpse... but, in reality, your gear should never be that important. Realistically, a sword is a sword... some swords better than others, but, by how much? A gun is a gun, some better than others, but really by how much? If you think that the differences scale from one .45 caliber pistol doing 20 damage, and another doing 500, as would be the case in World of Warcraft or Everquest, you're mistaken...

That is a fantasy loot abstraction technique, and, it holds no place in realistic games where you can be looted. You also won't have to raid for 50+ hours to complete a suit just to have it taken away from you... as the focus will not be therein.

Anyway, I'm not saying the game will be the best ever or even good... just that the notions of realism that are trying to be preserved are in the correct vein of how games SHOULD be made... while EVERQUEST cloning is over... no matter how many "Arthas" storylines you want to make up, to entice your rabid legion of fanboys... the mechanics of modern MMOs are old, and, this is something at least slightly fresh.

Try it, or remain ignorant... the choice is yours, I've played every major MMO, and as a gamer of over 24 years, I have to say, the current format is now as old and overdone as the standard side-scrolling platformer was in 1995.

http://www.judgex.com/

Paragus said on 5:53PM 2-19-2009

There was a post on the beta forums today regarding the alignment being reworked a bit to address some of the issues I brought up.

Wickidd said on 7:25PM 2-19-2009

I enjoyed reading your review Paragus. I am really hoping to get my hands on a Darkfall Pre-order. I am hearing that there is so much traffic on the registration site that it is taking upwards of 4 hours of refreshing the web page just to get a pre-order. Nuts.

Nadril said on 2:00AM 2-20-2009

Its a pretty decent preview I think. However I still think this may go the way of Dark and Light, it's starting to sound a lot like it now that the NDA has dropped. (A huge world that ends up virtually empty and a small, crazy fanboyish fanbase).

And before you jump on my throat I am all for a full loot hardcore PvP experience. I would like non other than to get back into that experience (last I played was Lineage II which was a bit in the middle, still incredible PvP game though). However Darkfall does not look like that game to me.

Dread said on 5:59AM 2-20-2009

"Wjowski said...

If games like Darkfall police bad behavior why do they seem to draw so many career griefers?"

Well said! Appropriate and apt.

-Drexel- said on 6:06AM 2-20-2009

Reading that review I had UO flashbacks...the good old days on the Great Lakes Server. Although I wonder if the "good old days" are as good as I remember them? My life is so different than it was back then as far as free time, system specs and attitudes go...I wonder if it would feel the same when I'm the 3 day a week guy instead of the 50+ hour a week guy I could be back then?

tbone said on 10:20AM 2-20-2009

Time have changed, this aint 1999. Gold farmers will have a great time with this game. With the huge time requirements needed for resources gatering, taht will create a real market to sell resources for real money.

Plus gold afrmers can just cretae their own professional gank squads to kill players and loot em. Players then have to start over again.

What a great commercial environment, you get to sell somebody something, and then you can gank em and take it away form them.

Dont think it will happen? why not, in this economy? this si real money that we are talking about. Gold farming is a multi million dollar business.

Darkfall is a godsend for them.

Theadrick said on 4:05PM 2-20-2009

Shadowbane... play to crush! This game has no real future imho.

Vodnik said on 12:17AM 2-21-2009

I'm sorry, but the review is simply wrong. Mounts are in and ships are in. Why they might be quite rare at the moment, they are in.

Wjowski said on 11:29AM 2-21-2009

The problem with most FFA pvp games is the lack of serious, long-term for serial ganking. Sure the ganker might get killed himself, but he's already done what he set out to do in costing you your time and generally making your gameplay experience that much lousier.