Albion Online

It won't.

It's built upon a foundation of the genre's worst elements: instants, cooldowns, CC and movement-affecting abilities, and AoE. You're limited to 6 abilities in a fight (tied to the equipment you're wearing, so can't be changed while in combat), and all "balancing" is done with only the instanced 5v5 battles that decide territory control in mind. Combat encounters outside those parameters are fucked, small fights are totally dependent on what you happened to be wearing before they even begin and large fights are the typical AoE blobbing clusterfucks.

You might think that doesn't sound much different than most MMOs, but since Albion is a glorified mobile game it's been simplified and diluted to the point where it all feels fatalistic and that player skill makes little difference.

Yeah I concur with the above saltiness. Was really hyped with the idea of the game but actually playing the game was boring.

Mobile was a horrible idea.

I put a solid two months of hardcore playing in and I still disagree with the above saltiness. I'm on mobile so I'm not going to write a long review but the combat is like a slightly clunky moba. Given the genre this is ok with me. The skills being tied to equipment is, imo, one of the better features. Don't have your pvp skills on and you get jumped? Well you're fucked, and you should be.

Zerg fights are a clusterfuck, not my cup of tea personally, but there are exactly what a zerg fight using moba combat would be.

The game is far from perfect but don't listen to these salty fuckers. If a darkfall-esque game with moba combat sounds appealing to you then try it. Worst case you are out $30. Be prepared to find a guild and be social though, if you try to play solo you're going to be a salty fucker too

Apologists supporting shitty conventions are why we can't have nice things.

uniqueuser said:

Apologists supporting shitty conventions are why we can't have nice things.

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And whingeing little shits are why no one can seem to appreciate things for what they are.

So, the game is clunky, unbalanced and shitty for Mass pvp and the only cost is $30 but it's a great game because it's a clunky moba and should be expected!

Albion online is just a shit version of magicka marketed as the successor to Ultima online and failed in both aspects.

Zog said:

So, the game is clunky, unbalanced and shitty for Mass pvp and the only cost is $30 but it's a great game because it's a clunky moba and should be expected!

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Who said it was great? I said I like it and others might like it to. It's a mobile capable mmo you goobers, what the fuck do you expect?

I'm not the one trying to tell others what to think. If you're interested in what I've said the game is in this thread then try it, if not don't. No sense in trying to set me up to burn on the cross for this game. I like it, you don't, I get it

Anytime I can save people $30, I will.

They knew the game was going to fail soon as they changed it to buy to play. Shit this turd out as fast as possible and run it on life support to jump ship to a different company for the +1 to resume.

Well, we're in agreement about one thing at least. The game as it stands wont last more than 6 months. This style of game almost never does and they aren't showing anything to convince me otherwise. That being said I'll prolly have a good time for a few months killing kids and taking their stuff so that's worth the price tag to me. YMMV

Flobee said:

I'm not the one trying to tell others what to think.

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Flobee said:

The game is far from perfect but don't listen to these salty fuckers.

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This isn't surprising from a guy who mistakes criticism for whining.

Meh, that's fair. Maybe I was being a bit overly defensive. The game for sure deserves criticism, it could be so much better. I think the problem here is the game has flashes of brilliance buried in there. You may be right that the team behind it can't, or won't do anything about it though. I really don't know much about them.

I stand by the fact that the game does this formula better than anything that's come out since Eve (that I have played). I think it's hard to argue against that considering how shit this particular sub-genre has been historically.

The problem is it's pretty much the only game that scratches that proper sandbox MMO itch (outside of Eve but I haven't touched that in ten years). There's so much wrong with the game, and the developers don't seem to really be on top of things, but because there's nothing else really like it, it grabs a decently big playerbase. When will a good studio come along and make something like this with a bit of actual polish and fun gameplay?

From playing on/off since the pre-alpha weeks, the big problem I have with the game is that despite all its sandboxy, player-driven-economy focus, the actual gameplay for most pvp-oriented players is just grinding fame in order to grind hellgates, and then grinding money when you have a bad run of hellgates and need to resupply. So it's all these interesting systems that basically come down to fueling instanced 5v5 teamfights, which translates into 5v5 teamfights that you need to grind a lot for in order to access. At which point you realize you may as well be playing a game that's completely focused on teamfighting, like Battlerite or some standard moba, where combat is satisfying and there's a lot more focus on balance (and you can just jump in to play without a time sink barrier).

The devs need to do more to make pvp feel organic. when the vast majority of pvpers are pretty much only running hellgates, the only consequence is to your individual bank balance. GVG can have consequences, but 99% of the time it's just about controlling some random zone that makes gathering a bit easier - the actual city plots seem to rarely change hands, and you're unlikely to be involved in the gvg for those unless you're part of the inner circle of one of the big zerg guilds.

You can't play this game solo. I thought I would hate the top down clock to move but it grew on me.

Open world PvP objectives are coming, think mines in shadowbane, but ya open world in the black needs some love. In my opinion players just need to get over the complete gear lose in the black.

Somewhere between the salt and the shilling is a game with overly simple combat/controls that works on a phone and supports that player-driven single server economy. Fully gear-based abilities give it more of an eve feel (ship and fitting instead of gear) which some of us like.

The game isn't some wowkiller, but its not a vanguard either. Just make the easy diagnosis of whether you like a focus on gear/prep choice rather than twitch skill (eg mobas) or pure grindy power inflation from time invested (most mmos) and if the answer is no, have a blast somewhere else?

pretty much, personally I enjoy the outlands open world group pvp. It can be a bitch to find but the spontaneous of it combined with full loot drop is appealing. Ive been in groups of six to twelve dropping double our numbers in the black zones. Those are the kind of fights, when you get them, you remember.

People keep mentioning it's a tablet / phone game, the only people logging in on their mobiles are doing so to gather, craft, basic pve, tansport shit across the lands, sell shit, play the market etc. as they lay in bed watching the tv or whateves. Everyone I know logs into their PC to play the real pve shit, raids etc or pvp / gvg.

Because tablet/phone games still play better with a mouse and keyboard.

It ain't pretty. It ain't all that much fun. But it does have a certain something.

Sadly my money cause I was a stupid fuck and tried it.

What a god damn waste of cash.

yerm said:

Just make the easy diagnosis of whether you like a focus on gear/prep choice rather than twitch skill (eg mobas) or pure grindy power inflation from time invested (most mmos) and if the answer is no, have a blast somewhere else?

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It's an easy but frustrating diagnosis. I know from experience that I will always settle for MOBAs or other short-term games when the other option is a long-term game based mostly on grinding that isn't very rewarding and offers a much worse combat experience. That doesn't mean the idea of playing a thinking game that requires long-term teamwork and macro strategy in how you build up your own character and assets, with actual carrots more meaningful than "higher MMR" at the end of the road isn't forever appealing, albeit elusive and rarely developed (I should've played EVE), and perhaps impossible to design in a way that is satisfying for a variety of lifestyles, given that hours invested is such an important variable.

Plus Ultima Online actually existed. A game where I didn't play that much, could macro grind while I slept because I had friends and assets, and had plenty of memorable, spontaneous encounters.

muiy said:

It's an easy but frustrating diagnosis. I know from experience that I will always settle for MOBAs or other short-term games when the other option is a long-term game based mostly on grinding that isn't very rewarding and offers a worse combat experience. That doesn't mean the idea of playing a long-term game that requires long-term teamwork and macro strategy in how you build up your own character and assets, with actual carrots more meaningful than "higher MMR" at the end of the road, isn't forever appealing, albeit elusive and rarely developed (I should've played EVE), and perhaps impossible to design in a way that is satisfying for a variety of lifestyles, given that hours invested is such an important variable.

Plus Ultima Online actually existed. A game where I didn't play that much, could macro grind while I slept because I had friends and assets, and had plenty of memorable, spontaneous encounters.

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My personal big one was playing Vagrants story as a kid, a fucking awesome game, and not understanding why I kept putting it down after brief play while I could final fantasy all day. I had to learn that I like puzzles and love RPGs and hate them combined.

Some aspects of this game ARE shitty. I'm just shilling because more gripes here seem towards the game at a conceptual level, which is idiotic, but also concerned that others are talking up what is a very defined game concept as sandboxy to sell it, also wrong. A game like this (or eve) is going to have a limited appeal, but be very enticing for whomever it does appeal to, like me.