Graphics
Its pretty much the first thing most people notice/comment on. With a budget of 12 million dollars it appears that they have put a lot of time and effort into making Allods one of the best looking MMOs around (Certainly the best looking F2P MMO I have played) I do, however, feel that some of the zones feel very large and thus the textures and surroundings began to wear on me. This likely will be fixed after Closed Beta finishes and the developers speed up combat and/or experience gain, thus making it easier to progress through the zones.
TreesNot much to say here. In the tutorial you are treated to some pretty nice voice-over work which was nice to hear seing as it has come from a Russian background. The music is fine but I expect to end up providing my own soundtrack fairly quickly. :) Combat sounds to me were fairly annoying, with much of it seemingly sounding disconnected. How can I say this...the combat sounds didn't make it sound like an actual fight, rather then a chain of whooshes and clangs. (Well that made a whole lot of sense.) Overall it certainly isn't a big issue and won't really be effecting the way I play my MMOs.
This has no relevance to anything expressed in the post...
...it was just a happy momentWas going to do a section on the combat, but its hard to comment seeing as the developers have messed around with it just for the beta and it looks like every thing is going to be sped up a notch come release. There is a nice variety in classes so far, however I'm not sure how an Orc Scout is going to differ in contrast to a Human Scout. I have tried out a whole bunch of classes so far, but haven't really settled on a single one. (However, I am definitely going to roll an Orc-Something) It doesn't make it easier when Youtube videos come out showing a warrior absolutely destroying everything in PvP, while the forums are alive with how strong Wardens/Mages/Psiconists/Chuck Norris-s are, and the two completely conflict. In the end, I'll shut it all out and play the class that most appeals to me. At this point in time it looks like I'm going to be settling on an Orc Scout, keeping in line with my love of the ranged dps.
And suddenly the giant blueberry exploded!Its good to see free MMos taking a major step up, hopefully this forces AAA developers with their $15/month MMOs to really begin thinking about why people are actually paying to play their game. The game itself certainly looks very polished, and plays very well. Not a huge amount has been released in terms of information in regards to the endgame, but PvP looks to be very high on the list with all sorts of space ship wars and the like. Class balance is an issue that will inevitably come up as classes are nerfed into oblivion while others remain stuck in a quagmire of fail. Or even worse, OP classes get boosted into oblivion while wimpish classes get smacked in the teef with a big old nerf bat.
Lastly, I didn't mention the cash shop because it hasn't been implemented yet, so nobody knows what is going to be in it and how big a role it will play. However, the developer shave apparantly said that it will not give paying players advantages over anyone, instead being fluff items such as xp pots, mounts, fancy dress, not combat pets etc. So it will be interesting to see how that develops.
Looking into the sunset and contemplating what would happen if Pinocchio said "My nose is about to grow." (Think about it)
Well this old structured thing didn't go too badly, might try it out again some time! Once again I am planning on making a bunch of videos tracking my progress through the game as I did with Runes of Magic. If you would be interested in watching those videos then just subscribe on my Youtube channel which only costs $19.45 (AUD) and you will never look back. :)
Disclaimer: you may look back
Disclaimer #2: you may not have to pay $19.45 (AUD)...but you do
