The Saga of Ryzom (SoR) was released in September 2004 and developed by Nevrax, a relatively small game company based in France. It's a blend of sci-fi and fantasy, set on the devastated planet of Atys, which two rival factions are trying to claim. The world has a complex eco-system and evolving civilizations which guilds can interact with to instate their own legacy.
A great looking game by any standard, SoR employs a full complement of pixel-shaded, bump-mapped, DX9 jibber-jabbers. The particle and water effects are sufficiently dazzling, and the lush environments are equally impressive. It has seasonal cycles as well as the usual daylight and weather cycles. I've seen more dynamic shadows and such in games, but it could be that I don't have everything turned up to the maximum. In short, no one is complaining about the graphics.
The GUI is very functional and customizable. Movement can be accomplished by keyboard or by holding down mouse buttons, and camera controls follow the conventions of the current crop of MMORPGs. The camera zooms in to a position over your character's head, making it a little hard to get a good look at yourself, but it's a minor concern.
Although other players assure me that the sound has improved quite a bit since launch, it's still rather sparse. The various melee weapons all seem to sound the same, and there's very little music. The audio that has been implemented is high quality, and will make use of surround sound speaker systems. Word is the composer from Anarchy Online has been hired and more music is on the way. There is a built-in MP3 player, which is a nifty touch.
A good assortment of sliders allow you customize your appearance more than most games of this kind. Because there are no classes, you decide on a basic skill set and you're on your way in short order.
It is said that characters will age and eventually die. Having offspring is also supposed to be an option, with the ability to pass on ancestral qualities.
Rather than the common class and level system which predetermines your character's advancement in many ways, SoR uses an open skill-based system where you progress according to which skills you use. Swinging an axe will improve your melee skill, casting will improve your magic skill, and so on.
The base skills are fighting, magic, harvesting, and crafting. There is no penalty for working them all up if you so desire.
The combat system, apart from a few lingering balance issues, is everything it should be and then some. You pick a target and go into attack mode, selecting special moves from a shortcut bar in typical RPG fashion. What separates SoR from the rest of the pack, however, is the "modular action system," which allows you create your own custom special attacks made up from components of the standard attacks. It's truly ingenious and adds a significant amount of depth to what would otherwise be fairly routine skirmishing, without burying you in complicated proceedures when the fight is on. Thumbs up for this clever feature.
Death brings on a experience penality which must be cleared before further progress can be made. While it grows larger each time you die, it's not overly severe and you're not subjected to any grueling corpse recoveries.
It's nice to see that SoR has collision detection, meaning that characters can't pass through other characters and creatures the way they do in many MMORPGs. On the down side, you won't come to a premature demise by falling off a cliff or jumping off a bridge, as such movements aren't possible.
Harvesting, as you would expect, involves chopping away at resources with the appropriate tool. There are a wide range of actions associated with harvesting, such as prospecting, and it is not without risks.
On occasion a resource will explode or emit harmful gasses during the process, causing the harvester to take damage.
Resources and crafting play a meaningful role in SoR, primarily because the wild beasts in the game don't drop ready-to-use swords and spells. There is something absurd about killing a wolf and finding a magical dagger or a handful of coins on its corpse, as is often the case in this sort of game.
In SoR you will find only the raw materials needed to make such items. The economy is largely player-driven, so the vast majority of valuable gear is crafted by other players and sold through NPCs, which seems to work quite well.
It's nice to see that SoR has collision detection, meaning that characters can't pass through other characters and creatures the way they do in many MMORPGs. On the down side, you won't come to a premature demise by falling off a cliff or jumping off a bridge, as such movements aren't possible.
Harvesting, as you would expect, involves chopping away at resources with the appropriate tool. There are a wide range of actions associated with harvesting, such as prospecting, and it is not without risks.
On occasion a resource will explode or emit harmful gasses during the process, causing the harvester to take damage.
Resources and crafting play a meaningful role in SoR, primarily because the wild beasts in the game don't drop ready-to-use swords and spells. There is something absurd about killing a wolf and finding a magical dagger or a handful of coins on its corpse, as is often the case in this sort of game.
In SoR you will find only the raw materials needed to make such items. The economy is largely player-driven, so the vast majority of valuable gear is crafted by other players and sold through NPCs, which seems to work quite well.
Your introduction to Atys comes in the form of a "newbie island" not much different from those of other titles. You can adjust to game's mechanics and gain a little experience before venturing onto the relatively hostile mainland. Given the dynamic nature of the world, I presume that there will times when the cities on the mainland will be under attack by unfriendly forces, making them unsuitable starting locations for new players entering the game for the first time.
When you've got the dappers (gold), you can purchase a very cool mount to get around on. Until then you're stuck with "teleports," which are really just extremely expensive recall scrolls.
Part of the deal is that tribes of NPCs are capable of conquering land, building fortifications, harvesting resources, and engaging players in other ways, at least in theory. Guilds can (or will be able to) overcome certain outposts and lay claim to them.
When you've got the dappers (gold), you can purchase a very cool mount to get around on. Until then you're stuck with "teleports," which are really just extremely expensive recall scrolls.
Part of the deal is that tribes of NPCs are capable of conquering land, building fortifications, harvesting resources, and engaging players in other ways, at least in theory. Guilds can (or will be able to) overcome certain outposts and lay claim to them.
Civilizations are subject to changing world conditions, which is intended to instigate challenges for the community of players that will have serious consequences riding on the outcome. There are also free-for-all PvP areas where guilds can duke it out beyond the confines of consensual duels.
It all looks so good at first glance that you have to wonder what could go wrong with this game. Unfortunately, appeal dwindles at a disheartening rate once you reach the mainland after killing countless Yubos (think rats) on newbie island only to discover that you have many more game sessions of farming Yubos, or low-level creatures that might as well be Yubos, before reaching any content that is marginally compelling.
Any fascination with missions disappears as soon as you discover they are pretty much limited to "kill some of these," "fetch some of that," which is what you'd be doing by default anyway. The rewards are anything but enticing, as you can earn more dappers simply by slaughtering meanies and selling the loot to NPCs. The experienced players don't seem to bother with missions, and they regularly advise new players not to bother either. Nor are they linked to your ability level.
Another issue is that the animal population is particularly high at the moment. If my sources are correct, their numbers are up considerably compared to their state at launch last September. Most of them aren't aggressive, but those that are will make a quick meal of less advanced players with only a few hits which they often don't see coming. You can't outrun them, and there is nowhere to hide.
Your only chance is that you are near enough to the city guards for them to protect you. Subsequently you have no choice but to spend a great deal of time, likely several weeks or more of daily game sessions, just outside the city gates grinding (and I mean GRINDING) through the game's lesser creatures. It's bad enough in a group, if you can find one, and worse yet solo.
This largely precludes any chance of wandering off, even very carefully, to see the sights or prospect for resources. You can hone your harvesting skills on the resources very near the city, these are easy picking for others too, making them quite abundant. Crafting requires you to spend skill points to learn to make new items, meaning that you have to repeatedly produce some items to move on to others.
Your only chance is that you are near enough to the city guards for them to protect you. Subsequently you have no choice but to spend a great deal of time, likely several weeks or more of daily game sessions, just outside the city gates grinding (and I mean GRINDING) through the game's lesser creatures. It's bad enough in a group, if you can find one, and worse yet solo.
This largely precludes any chance of wandering off, even very carefully, to see the sights or prospect for resources. You can hone your harvesting skills on the resources very near the city, these are easy picking for others too, making them quite abundant. Crafting requires you to spend skill points to learn to make new items, meaning that you have to repeatedly produce some items to move on to others.
As a crafter, you'll likely end up bashing monsters for the raw goods or the dappers needed to buy them in any case.
I did manage to make it to a few of the closer outposts, but I couldn't find anything resembling guild activity at any of them, let alone player-built fortifications and such, despite joining a guild. There is no doubt that a lot of these features are still on the drawing board.
Although there's plenty of potential in this game, potential doesn't translate into a huge pile of fun for people playing the game right now. SoR feels like a project that was released before the most intriguing content was ready for primetime, so they opted to tie users up farming rats while they finish putting the concept together.
After enough patches, it could be a viable alternative to the much more cookie-cutter MMORPGs that everyone is raving about at the moment. If it survives, I might give it another go later on to see if any of that potential has been realized. Until then, I think I've killed my last Yubo, and I can't say I'm going to miss the relentless varmints.
I did manage to make it to a few of the closer outposts, but I couldn't find anything resembling guild activity at any of them, let alone player-built fortifications and such, despite joining a guild. There is no doubt that a lot of these features are still on the drawing board.
Although there's plenty of potential in this game, potential doesn't translate into a huge pile of fun for people playing the game right now. SoR feels like a project that was released before the most intriguing content was ready for primetime, so they opted to tie users up farming rats while they finish putting the concept together.
After enough patches, it could be a viable alternative to the much more cookie-cutter MMORPGs that everyone is raving about at the moment. If it survives, I might give it another go later on to see if any of that potential has been realized. Until then, I think I've killed my last Yubo, and I can't say I'm going to miss the relentless varmints.
Comments
Post a Comment