RPG Codex Review

Ouch.

http://www.rpgcodex.net/content.php?id=10940

There are some factual problems in the article, but it is an extensive review. Also includes information from watching this forum. Also includes an update since the review was written in the comments.

If you're going to post in this thread I just ask one simple thing:

If all you're going to do is leap on the bandwagon of criticism or jump to Port's defense, think better of it. Offer something that contributes to an actual discussion please.

My comment is that because this site takes the RPG part quite seriously (and it is covered extensively in the review) it indicates a need moving forward for two things:

1) Do future plans even want to incorporate the RPG or simply go full sandbox? (Considering that there may not be capacity to really do a good RPG here) For the love of all that is holy, please put a stake in the ground somewhere.
2) If Episode 2 does intend to have RPG elements, can there be a decision that this will be considered and presented to/discussed with fans from the get go? No more hiding quest mechanics until too late/fears about spoilers/lack of sufficient design talent/overpromising please? Besides the priority of fixing the RPG aspects of Episode 1, which the reviewer has noted and I have noted, can we perhaps say that the scope of Episode 2 should be reduced a little to do a quality job this time? I think narrowing the scope to 15 hours of main storyline was an excellent suggestion in the article.

 

Now for the classic "review of the reviewer" comments ...

 

The report is spot on and it grasps why the game is a commercial desaster right now. They have a barebone crew to fix stuff now.. By the end of the year we will now how fruitful it was. Luckily me and my guildies were able to cash out and can now relax and see what happens Good luck to all and especially the devs.

 

The review is a little abrasive in the tone, but it does hit a lot of points that have been brought up previously. Hoping they will take heed of some suggestions, so newer players can be lured.

 

I particularly enjoyed the critique on the game's art direction. (Or lack thereof.) I always got moderated when I said anything about it. (We'll see if this post survives.)

Though, I also thought the complaints about how XP works to be baseless. The author claims to not know how XP is used after 100 hours in the game. I had that info figured in the first hour. Now, maybe that's because this is literally my first online gaming experience of any type, and without preconceived notions, it was easy to figure it out as a blank slate. But still. It's not that hard.

 

@taxalot

 

???

 

I was actually quite impressed with the article. The author clearly spent a lot of time playing the game and hit all the salient points. I don't fault him for not understanding the XP because to this day there are things I still don't get! He also made the effort to read through the various "forums" to educate himself on differing viewpoints and the thoughts of the player base. This was a nice touch, I thought. I don't have a Reddit or FB account so it was nice to get their perspectives through the author. More than anything, it was extremely sobering.

 

Yeah, that’s more than a bit ridiculous. Imho if you play something for four days worth of accumulated time, you should be able to grasp the fundamentals, and xp is about as fundamental as it gets.

 

I believe that's the author of the article.

 

Maybe. But his complaint seemed to be about not knowing at all how xp increases skills. That's pretty basic. He also mentions skills increasing with use. So for all that to be true, he managed to get in 100 hours with all skills set to learn and never got the low pool warning?

 

I think his point was more along the lines that how one levels skills isn't intuitive and that in order to really understand it (as a new player) you need to look online; as it is not explained well in the game.

On another note, is that a new feature? The low experience pool thing? I've never seen that before.

 

Maybe something is wrong when you find this as the first comment;

"Paying hundreds of dollars of real money to buy a virtual house you then have to spend virtual money on every month or you lose it."

Not sure how many people here knows the reputation of rpg codex, but basically they are not very "kind" with any modern rpg, I have seen people talking s*** about some of the best rpgs in last ten years (Elder Scrolls, Divinity Original Sin, Pillars of Eternity, etc).

About the review, I see some valid points but again, too much focus on store/rmt topic imho. I would like to know how much time he played, I'm sure we could teach him to get everything he wants ingame, so there are two possiblities;

1.- Lack of information ingame about how to obtain things, how the economy works, etc

2.- He played solo and barely did any research for information in forums, asking to others, etc.

90% of my guild mates managed to get their lot deeds just playing the game (igg), a real fact which some are blind to learn or discover.

 

I am not too familiar with it Rada, but I am curious when you say you saw people talking smack. Was that the writers in their articles or are you referring to the people in the comments section. I ask this because the games you listed are amazing and those person or persons clearly don't know their head from their a$$ if they think those game suck.

 

Basically the forums. I have been following rpg codex for some years, they are the most critical rpg community out there, but you can find some decent good reviews and articles.

 

No, at least as of r44/45. That was when I started, and was not aware of the value of a large pool, so I would let it deplete quite a bit. I forget what the threshold is, but when your xp pool (adventurer, at least, I don't think I ever let my producer pool go that low) drops low enough you get a low pool icon up where the damaged weapon/overencumbered icons appear.

 

There are, unfortunately, very valid points in this article, including about the art design consistency, which has been bashed by a french fanzine (with the same reputation as RPG codex, like @Rada Torment reminded us) not so long ago.

But, for exemple, I would have appreciated that the guy mentions in his article the fact that a crowdfunded development adds an additional difficulty that has already been mentioned many times here : you don't know your budget when you begin your job on the game, and you have to bring more fund constantly. That's something that I said when this game was compared to Black Desert Online, and that's a thing that was called back by Raph Koster recently in a much clearer way than I could do.

Also I was very surprised with the server congestion thing. I'm not now in the mood of defending Shroud of the Avatar, as you may know, but if there is something that I would not suspect as a problem in this game is network stability.

Other than that, to know that invariably, 9 reviews out of 10 are negative about this game show that we have a problem. And I think that an improvement would imply a radical change in the way of conceiving this game, or a different approach, at least.

I do not want to panic too much (when I have a pessimistic speech, it's because there are reasons, you can believe me), but failing to get even mixed feeling from the gamers community as a whole after 5 years of development is evocative.

 

lets see if this holds true like so many other threads with reviews in them.....

Seems like yes so far.

 

If you review something, prepare to get reviewed. Nothing new right?

 

C'mon now. I agree with much of what he said. Most all of it, in fact. But the couple things he gets wrong, feel deliberately wrong.