I’ve been wanting to post my feelings about ArcheAge which just recently went live here in the US thanks to Trion Worlds efforts to port the Asian game to something the US would play. I was wanting to spend a little more time in the game before making this post. Alas, things have been a little busy for me and nearly every time I make an effort to get into the game, I find that right now it is taking too much of my limited time just to get into the game. So I haven’t been able to get a good impression of the game now that it is live. Unfortunately, because of this, I find my enthusiasm for ArcheAge just isn’t there.
I did play for a few hours during the open beta weekend. I was able to log into a server with little to no trouble. I created a character and got started. I did manage to make it far enough along to obtain my first mount so I didn’t have to walk everywhere. I found many of the early level mobs even easier than some other games I’ve played so I didn’t spend any time figuring out how to heal myself, though I did have to repair some armor.
To be fair to the game, there are a lot of things that it is offering that look really fun and that is what even interested me in it in the first place. When I got into the game and started working through it, well I was not as excited. The graphics are fine and I don’t even mind all the cut scenes. I don’t particularly like that it takes a significant time to load. And I am not too keen on server queues in the 3500 to 4500 range. The nights I tried to get on that the queues were like that, I just abandoned things.
There is one other thing I do not like. When the software installed it installed something called HackShield Pro for Online Game. Really? I didn’t even get a choice in installing this stuff. I find it suspicious. I went looking for a readme file on it as I was writing this and I could not find one. And I have noticed, since installing the live version of ArcheAge, instead of the Beta, that the Glyph launcher keeps forgetting that I am still accessing my Trion account from the same computer I have been using for the last 2 years. Yes, I recognize I can check the little box that says remember me. Again, really?
But these are not complaints about game play.
Regarding the game play of ArcheAge, it was ok. There was nothing about it that I found frustrating. And there was nothing about it that I thought was just really great. It was much like so many other games out there. It seems like it might be a bit on the grindy side. Which is saying something since I’ve been playing Guild Wars 2 more recently and that is the complaint a lot of people have about that game. That assessment comes before I’ve even reached level 20. So, you can be the judge as to what that means for game play.
Obviously, my opinion is not shared by everyone. There are a lot of people enjoying ArcheAge as I type this. I just tried to log on and all but one server is sitting in queue status and the one that isn’t is at high. So there are a lot of people playing it, having fun, and exploring the game. And I won’t uninstall it yet. I will give it a little time for the queues to level off and Trion the decide how many servers they need and all that. Then I may give it another try. And hopefully be able to write a more analytical post about it.
For right now though, I’m not feeling it when it comes to ArcheAge.
