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I'm back!
I was very much into a game called Ultima Online a few years ago. Most people that don't play them (heck, some that do) tend to have a negative opinion of MMORPGs, with the biggest complaint usually being how much time is needed to sink into one of them. Maybe the monthly fees bother some also. I find them to be a rather good trade for my time and money. For less than the price of a cup of coffee every day, you get a relatively unlimited source of entertainment, and this is entertainment that is far more interactive than other media like TV watching or reading. It actually turns out to be a money saver when you do the math, as long as you don't let it interfere with the aspects of your life that actually need to be dealt with.
I digress... Ultima Online was a fun game. I could have been an EQ player, but my wife's computer wouldn't run it, and I wanted something that we could play together. I was always looking for newer and better games, though (especially after I bought her a new computer), and through the reference of a friend, I came across a game that showed an incredible amount of potential. The developers had a message board set up where players could discuss various aspects of the game-to-be with them, and amazingly enough, they really seemed to listen to the input of the people on the boards. The concept stories and artwork were excellent, the limited amount of screenshots looked incredible. Every clue indicated that it was going to be an excellent game.
It was called Horizons.
Years later, with some major changes in the production and mechanics, the game was finally released. I had given up on it about a year and a half ago, figuring that the name Horizons was certainly an apt one -- it really was like a Horizon... somewhere that you and run and run towards but never reach. I was pretty surprised when I found out about its imminent release. I picked it up just after the release, but I didn't really play it for a bit. The new Neverwinter release demanded my attention, and they didn't dash my hopes with constantly delayed releases.
My wife, who was upset about the lack of inclusion of the race that she wanted to play (from back in the concept days), actually ended up playing it first. So when I did eventually get it, it was the second copy that I had bought.
My first thoughts were "Wow! This game looks awesome!" and "Wow! I'm amazed that they released this game when they did." It's now a couple of months later and I have alot more memory in my computer, and the game has somewhat lost its paid-beta feel. I think it's time for a review.
I feel the need to mention the eye-candy before I even speak of the game itself. Normally I'm not one to put much stock into graphics. They certainly make a good game better, but I'd take a more fun game with worse graphics than a better looking game that didn't make me involved as much. That's not to say that I'm not impressed with the craftsmanship that the artists put into it, regardless of how I feel about the game. The graphics in Horizons are exceedingly well done on a larger scale and even a more minute one. The clouds move through the sky, the sun and moon rise and set, and when you enter blighted regions (more on that later) a creepy greenish haze obscures the sun and brief flashes of lightning can be seen striking in the distance (the first time I heard the thunder there, it definitely made me jump). The trees and leaves are three dimensional, and the water is very beautiful, some places even having a visible current.
That being said, let me describe a bit about the game itself. Each of the different servers are called shards. Some of the servers are standard shards, some are roleplay shards, and there's a test shard as well. The roleplay shards are supposed to be roleplaying enforced. I haven't really seen this (I play on one) any more than making people change their names if the name is not appropriate to the genre or copyrighted. Some of the players are excellent roleplayers, some have absolutely no idea, and some (like myself) are somewhere in the middle... trying to figure out how to balance roleplaying with people that don't, and with various message windows and chats that are included in the game. I'm guessing that they enforce the roleplaying on a complaint by complaint basis, but I really have no idea.
The really basic story behind the game is that the known world is under attack by undead under the banner of the Withered Aegis. The goal of the characters is obviously to defeat the undead, with perhaps a little personal fortune increasing along the way.. The player characters are known as the Gifted. They have a magical, not-yet-understood ability to come back from the dead as living people -- although not without a cost to them. Dying once is fine, dying successively makes the character weaker for a while until they recover. Hey, it's nice that they put the effort into giving an RP based reason for PC rebirth, and it's certainly better than SWG's.
Character creation is a blast. You begin by choosing your race. Each race has very specific advantages and disadvantages, and some races are very different than others (the Dragons use their own class and outfitting system). Each race is also very customizable, with enough options to ensure that just about every character is unique. You can vary the head shape, facial features, body markings (if applicable to the race), build, girth, height, and even eye and hair color and styles. An interesting thing to note is that all members of the same race start with the same basic attributes. Those change based on the choice of equipment and class. Class isn't chosen at character creation, when you begin, you're a level 0 character of your race tossed into the tutorial island.
The tutorial is actually rather effective and somewhat fits within the bounds of the roleplaying aspect of the game (as much as something that tells you how the game mechanics work can). It's an excellent idea to run through the tutorial at least once when you make a new character. It goes over some of the background of the world, but most importantly, it teaches you how to do things in game. This is a very good thing... because the instruction manual is COMPLETELY USELESS. You won't find any information about anything in the instruction manual, not about skills, not about classes, or anything useful after the actual act of installing the game. I was a bit annoyed about this at first, but eventually it kind of charmed me. I like the idea of running into some backwater corner of the game to find the trainer to teach me a class that almost no one else is because they haven't yet found said trainer. If you don't like figuring things out on your own, people are pretty free with information on the message.
Advancement in the game works pretty well. I usually lean more towards skill oriented games than class games, and especially skill games where the skills go up through usage. They balanced those two aspects really well, though, coming out with a game (somewhat like EQ) that has both classes/levels and direct skill advancement. The class system itself is fairly simple to begin. Each character is allowed one adventure (think combat) class, and one crafting class at a time. Dragons don't get a class choice, but have greater flexibilty than the other races. Choosing a class is both easy and complicated. All you need to do is find an NPC willing to train you in it. Some classes require you to have certain skills at certain levels to join, though, and it can be something of a challenge to piece together an adventuring or crafting path to get to the eventual desired class.
Each class gives you certain skills. Once you have a skill, it goes up through use, by gaining a level in a class that uses that skill, or by visiting an npc trainer for that particular skill. Every item (spells count as items, somewhat) in the game has requirements. Oftentimes they will be a skill and level requirement, and you have to meet both to use it. Each item also has a list of classes that can use it. If you're a paladin that suddenly decides to become a mage, you might have enough of the armor use skill to continue wearing your chest plate, but your new profession doesn't allow it.
That's the final fun thing about classes. Multiclassing allows players to build a somewhat unique character by balancing out the abilities of two classes. It's somewhat of an artform, as many classes don't have any synergy whatsoever with each others. Sometimes, though, you'll come across a combination that's really fun to play. Some combinations are necessary to become certain classes. Reavers need to learn the paths of Spiritists and Warriors before the trainer will accept them. Knights of Creation are Warriors that have spent a little time learning as a Conjurer and so on. Some multiclassing options don't give the ability to become a prestige class, but add extra abilities to a character's repetoire. Druids can also study as a cleric to learn Life magic (something that they lack themselves). They can cast healing spells with that life magic, but they wouldn't be able to if they hadn't spent time as a cleric.
The penalty for multiclassing comes with the character's rating. Each monster has a different level, and the PC's rating gives a rough estimate of what level monster they can take down. It also affects experience gain, as that gets based partially on the rating of the character rather than the current class level. Multiclassing a little bit for an edge doesn't increase the rating dramatically, but it can certainly bite a player that takes too much advantage of the multiclassing system.
Crafting classes work much the same way as adventuring classes. In fact, crafting is extremely well developed in this
game, and certainly as much fun as adventuring is. The game designers pay equal attention to crafters, just about every
major storyline requires crafters there to clean out a collapsed tunnel or build a machine to force substance into the
enemy before the adventurers can roll in finish the bad guys off. The complexity of crafting is added to with the use of
techniques and formulas. A blacksmith of a certain level can't just start making bastard swords. First they need to learn
the formula for making such a sword. After that they can craft it. Each item in the game has a formula. Each formula has a
crafter skill and level requirement to learn, and a list of classes that can learn it. Both a blacksmith and weaponsmith can
make daggers, but a jeweler couldn't. Techniques are added special abilities to items. A crafter can apply a technique to
an item or spell to make it do special things, like increase the player's armor rating, or make the spell recycle more
quickly. The balance with this is that they often need special components for a technique that only an adventurer can
provide.
The crafting system itself is very intuitive and easy to use. Buttons can engage the machine required for the task, or equip whichever piece of equipment is necessary, and a handy display shows what the resulting item will act like, who all can use it, and there are options to adjust amount and quality.
Combat in the game is fairly straightforward regardless of the character's method of attack. Each character gets abilities based on their class level to use in addition to their standard attacks. All abilities and spells work off of a timer, so one ability might recycle in 30 seconds, while another recycles in 5 minutes. The icon for it grays out on the hotbar, which gives a handy visual reference for when it can be used again. I haven't come across nearly all of the monsters in the game, but I can say that they're all varied in how they fight, react to players, and react to each other.
The AI in the game is fairly decent. A zombie will run straight for the character and mostly mindlessly swing away. A party of mummies, however, will react differently. When one spots the character, the fighters will charge forward, while the mage provides ranged fire, and the mummy healer and cleric will buff the fighers and keep them healed. Some monsters will form and travel in packs and defend each other when a player attacks. Some (golems in particular come to mind) will walk right by a player fighting another of its kind. Monsters tend to know who their enemies are and will even attack NPCs when they come across them. They can also cause property damage, especially to unchecked machines out in the wilderness.
On the downside, non-raiding monsters have very visible path lines, they don't tend to wander freely through their area. This will sometimes cause situations where monsters end up stacking with each other on the exact same spot. Another bug with monsters is that they seem to be able to defy any laws of physics that suit them. They can walk through walls (either on their predetermined path, or when chasing a PC) and climb unclimbable mountains.
The sound front is a bit iffy. The music for the various cities and environs is rather good. Tazoon has an excellent song bringing to mind the capital city of such a place, while the snowy wilderness outside of Mahagra has a bleak tune. The effects can use a little work. The spell and attack effects aren't really bad, but not really great either. Some sound effects are downright silly. Since when did both Dragons and skeletons sound like eagles? Machinery effects tend to be good. The atmospheric effects can be awesome, especially the sound of thunder.
The world itself is huge, I've run from city to city, and there's alot of landscape in between. There are no "zones" or visible server switching areas. You can literally run from one side of the world to the other without any load times. Quite a few areas are very sparse in their interactive content, but even the most remote uninhabited area is extremely beautiful to look at. I could take up as much space as I have to get to this point and just go over the areas that are worth seeing. I'll save your eyes (and my fingers) though, and just go over a few major ones.
There is a lighthouse in Dalimond that is awesome. You can climb up it and see off into the distance over the town itself or to the rocks jutting out of the water. Kirasanct city itself is an awesome sight, a large black iron gothic keep rising up from the snowy mountain area. Outside of Kirasanct, too, there are natural ice bridges and snow drifts to wade through. Well outside of Tazoon in the desert, there's an abandoned pueblo city built into some sandstone mountains. On the island of New Brommel, a long passage under a mountain leads to a blighted area full of twisted trees and undead. One can visit the ruined city of Feladan, also, a city that was destroyed by actions of the undead.
The presence of the undead causes some parts of the land to twist and distort, becoming some gothic mockery of normal areas reminiscent of a Nightmare Before Christmas. Trees become twisted and gnarled with huge spikes growing out of them, and coccooned masses in their limbs. As mentioned above, a green haze clouds the sky, and the ground is darkened and broken.
They make good use of the environment in their dynamic events and quests. This is perhaps one of the best parts about Horizons. They don't just release a new cd that opens up a new continent and the Satyr race. Players encountered the Satyr by turning back an undead raid on a city, discovering the new race fighting alongside of the undead, then discovering that they were under control of the undead. Items need to be created while artifacts and monsters are destroyed before the race is freed and playable (and without a new cd required). Also, the quest is specific to the shard. Just because one shard frees them, doesn't mean that another shard will be able to until they free the race as well.
This isn't to say that there aren't problems with the game. It is new, things aren't completely balanced yet, and they do occassionally break out the nerf stick to beat down uppity classes. There are numerous not-yet-complete aspects of the game, including the lack of a swimming system (players kind of walk on the ground under the water, at least until they run out of breath and die), the lack of a flying system (which is keeping dragons from becoming adults), and various other z-axis issues, like the lack of damage from falling great distances or not drowning in pools on floating islands.
Despite the bugs, however, I think this is a great game and that it shows alot of promise. It's certainly not the same game that it was going to become four years ago, but it is playable and fun. If you're thinking of picking up a new game, I certainly suggest checking it out. If you play Everquest or Ultima Online, then definitely give it a shot.
| Graphics: | *drool* |
| Sound: | Eh... |
| Playability: | Awesome-ish |
| Fun-factor: | Heck yeah |
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| Overall rating: | Mildly addicted. |
Three-handed Cactus-factor: http://thesurrealist.co.uk/monkey.cgi?att=Horizons&def=Ultima+Online
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