Are there any post-launch reviews/news stories?

Maybe it's my limited Google skills...
Maybe it's too soon still after launch...

But are there no reviews/news stories about SotA launch?

Is that odd? (I really don't know)

If there are some, please link them here ...

 

There's a few floating around. I'll try and list the ones I've seen, but they are not the most glowing reviews so I might be moderated for 'being negative' again. If so, feel free to PM me and I'll send you the list.

Written review on a blog of a guy from MassivelyOP
https://biobreak.wordpress.com/2018/04/06/shroud-of-the-avatar-a-good-example-of-a-bad-beginning/

First Impressions video from a youtuber


Written review in progress from MMORPG
https://www.mmorpg.com/shroud-of-th...ess-1-first-steps-in-new-britannia-1000012578

Written review from PCGamesn
https://www.pcgamesn.com/shroud-of-the-avatar-forsaken-virtues/shroud-of-the-avatar-review

Written Review from MMOhut
https://mmohuts.com/news/shroud-of-the-avatar-forsaken-virtues-review/

First impressions video from a youtuber


Review from Kotaku
https://kotaku.com/im-still-looking-for-an-mmo-that-feels-reminds-me-of-th-1824179891

User Feedback
Kickstarter Comments - https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/portalarium/shroud-of-the-avatar-forsaken-virtues-0/comments
Steam Reviews sorted by most recent - https://steamcommunity.com/app/326160/reviews/?p=1&browsefilter=mostrecent


That's all I got so far, enjoy!

 

Thank you for posting this.

 

@Vyrin It seems like no one else is really posting any of the reviews that have come up, not that there is a lot, but I've seen a few more and figured i'd update here for you incase you are still looking for them.

From a blog post
http://bhagpuss.blogspot.com/2018/04/got-live-if-you-want-it-im-not-sure-i.html

Review from Eurogamer.de (with google translate applied)

Review from Les Players Du Dimanche (with google translate applied)

Review from Gamestar.de (again with google translate)

Enjoy

 

Don't expect many, probably for the better.

 

I really agree with the first review. The world is beautifully done, but the combat and overland map I dislike. Combat mainly for me.

 

The overland map is actually one of my favorite aspects of the game. I much prefer it over other mmorpgs where you burn hours and hours by simply having to run vast distances across a lot of nothing to get to something.

 

That massively article is a bit harsh I think; there are some honest points and some exaggerated points. One being you can attack by double clicking, you don't need to use a key to start combat at least. Our jump is very counter intuitive and not very reliable. I do agree that if you haven't already played and read release notes (heck even if you have and can't remember what you read months ago) finding specific hotkeys and style of play here is not very intuitive. I actually have grown to like the deck system, for the variety, and I do like the overland map, but it was odd and took some serious getting used to when I started. I will agree that things in the world lead to a jumbled quest/progression system and I almost cared about the characters when I re-started the main story line on Courage, but not quite there. My husband put it best by saying the text based speech just leads in too many directions and it is hard to get engaged in the current task without being pulled into something else.

 

Gamestar did a review, but its in German language.

https://www.gamestar.de/artikel/shr...e-genres-verderben-den-spass,3328221.html#top


Here is a translation of the résumé:

PRESENTATION 2/5
+ beautiful designed landscapes
+ atmospheric lightening
- Characters do lack of details
- Characters have bad/wooden animations
- Bad teletubby-style sound effects

GAMEDESIGN 2/5
+ complex skillsystem
+ the sandbox aspects with player driven economy
- mix of mmorpg and singleplayer rpg doesn't work
- akward controls
- ugly and uncomfortable UI

BALANCE 2/5
+ no handholding, the players have to find things out on their own
+ challenging when teamed up
- in some ways too hard when playing alone
- too much grind
- very few opportunities to solve quests without fighting

STORY / ATMOSPHERE 2/5
+ World with interesting back-story
+ A story, where the player is not the one and only super duper chosen one
- Decisions without consequences
- World is a lifeless scenery with questionable cosmetic items
- Quests without real peaks

CONTENT 5/5
+ very long playing time
+ many Quests
+ Group scenarios (Defense of passes)
+ SP content with about 40 hours of playtime
+ Big world

TOTAL 69%

FAZIT
"One thing in advance: Despite all the criticism in the run-up and despite much that should have been different and better during the development from the perspective of the fans as well as from the perspective of the developers, SOTA is not a bad game. But as an old Ultima fan my heart is bleading anyway. The Ultima games always offered exciting quests, interesting NPCs that would be remembered and a highly interactive, simulated game world, that made you feel right at home. But just these aspects cannot convince me at SotA, which wants to be the spiritual successor of Ultima. Here, so much potential was given away. The game feels - especially in offline mode - more like hard work than fun, especially in the quests with long texts, the grinding and dealing with the user interface and the awkward controls. It is the lack of consequences in the storyline, the world being a pretty but lifeless backdrop - and the sound effects from Teletubbie hell that makes SotA unattractive to those who want to experience an atmospheric whole.

On the other hand, if you're looking for a fantasy sandbox where you can participate in an economy, set up a home, and interact socially with other players, then you should have fun with Lord British's new work. Even if SotA is not perfect and troubled by problems, the potential for a really good role-playing game shimmers through, which may eventually be linked to Ultima later on. Currently, however, it remains a game that does not really manage the balancing act between single player and MMO and only serves a niche, but in many cases quickly forgotten."

 

I am going to say something like a broken record here... Episode 2 has to focus on storyline/quests and the mechanics that support these. That is, unless they jettison the whole thing and just move towards sandbox MMO, which has been the drift for the whole of development.

So many priorities that people actually care about and they keep getting distracted. For example, Darkstarr just mentioned they are including a "pattern removal" feature because players asked for it. What about the Q2 priorities and the things that reviewers are actually commenting on?

 

Most of that is pretty accurate but I completely disagree with this:

That is actually one of the best features of SotA.

 

It also seemed to work pretty well with SWTOR, iirc.

 

IGN Italy posted a review as well.

http://it.ign.com/shroud-of-the-avatar-pc/138624/review/shroud-of-the-avatar-la-recensione

spoiler: it isn't great

 

"The graphics, however, is a pure and simple disaster. The engine that moves the gaming world is old, unpleasant to see and at the same time succeeds in the enviable goal of being heavy like a boulder, so much so that with a Geforce 1070 it happened to have drops below 20 frames per second, that for a game with this graphic is simply unacceptable."


.... Ouch.

 

PC Gamer article:

Shroud of the Avatar's player-made towns are already thriving, and full of weirdness
https://www.pcgamer.com/shroud-of-t...ns-are-already-thriving-and-full-of-weirdness

 

No, it doesn't work.

If you kill an NPC (even in offline mode) and he still stands around and is just not talking to you then the single-player aspect of the game is suffering greatly from the MMO-part. The MMO-part being the game mechanic which has to show the (killed) NPC for other players to be able to kill him, too.

If you infiltrate a camp and poison the people there and nothing happens then the single-player aspect doesn't work.

 

It does also work in ESO, but i think his statement was focused on SotA. Because they are not rly great with phasing

 

I found a couple more....

https://www.forbes.com/sites/kevinm...so-good-in-almost-equal-measure/#71f8f0ba6f92

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2018/03/27/shroud-of-the-avatar-leaves-early-access/#more-530267

 

So many people regurgitating the "cash store with $3000 items must mean it's play to win!" strawman mantra. And a lot of opinions in comments from people who apparently haven't played the game in months or years, or even at all, of the "I backed the kickstarter but I don't think I will play it now" flavor. What, you're already paid up and you won't even try it for a few hours? But you can still find the time to chase around reviews to complain about it in the comments?

It's gonna take time for comments from the people who have started playing recently to slowly drown those out. As far as I know, there still hasn't been an advertising push yet. I trust them to know when to start, but that may be why we haven't seen more than a minor bump in the steamcharts numbers so far.

 

Which is really strange. Normally advertising begins before launch to generate hype for a game. At least AT launch there should be some advertisment.
For many fans of onlinegames it is important to start at launch. Take a look at MMOs who fire up new servers regulary. People are fighting to be the first ones to start on those new servers.
And SotA? It is launched and there is next to no advertisment. Who cares about a game that has launched some time ago and no one noticed?
People might even get suspicious. No advertisment at launch? What are they trying to hide?

At least I want to build up anticipation for a new game, plan my moves in advance, follow every article about it and then jump into the game as soon as it is released. With SotA I get a game that has been released for some time before advertisment starts. "Oh by the way we started a new game some time ago - care to take a look?" - "Errr, no?"
Strange...