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| Atlantica by Zsenitan 02/15/2009, 4:28pm PST | ||||
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| I have been playing Atlantica Online for a couple of days now, and it's pretty good for a free MMORPG. Overall, the game is Guild Wars + Disgaea minus the complexities of both.
Pros: * Clearly this is a game designed by people who have played billions of hours on MMOs, and who consequently know what they are tired of. Even without any micropayments, you get a party of mercs, the ability to auto-run to NPCs or quest locations to complete or turn in quests, and not very much grindan at all. I cannot prate enough about how great auto-run is. * Towns are surreally efficient: rather than running from building to building, you're presented with a menu of buildings! And you can access everything you came to town for without walking a step. * Battle system is extremely fresh: like a cross between Disgaea and classic Final Fantasy, it is turn-based and sensitive to your decisions. there are plenty of strategical decisions to make and not a lot of auto-shotting. * (So far, though I can't believe that this would persist) no random battles, no need to avoid monsters. All battles happen at your volition. Run anywhere you like. * Rich socialization in game, including many types of PVP and group PVE, quiz rooms (!), mentoring system, and a "nub mode" tab that encourages high level players to donate to low-level players (I have received a ton of free lawts because of this.) Not Really Pros Or Cons But Worth Mentioning: * The cash shop is kind of hilarious: it sells things that you are going to miss as a competent MMO player - licenses allowing you to teleport, licenses allowing you to fight battles automatically, etc. Along with high-powered goodies, but that's not where the meat of the sales are. * Full of AZN. * Turn off "battle camera effect" as soon as you possibly can. Cons: * Can't jump, swim, fall off of ledges. I hated this in Guild Wars and I hate it here. * A shocking amount of lawts and levelling is random - you drink a potion that exchanges on-level "bonus points" for a random stat increase (of course you can pay for potions that undo an inefficient stat increase), you open trunks of equipment to receive a random piece of weapony or armor. Although the randomization sticks to what you have in your party (i.e. if you don't have anyone who uses bows, you will not get a bow on a random draw,) you may wait a long time before getting weapons for your main character. * Crafting system is stupendously involved and time-consuming. * Mandatory PVP at level 30 and over. * Game appears to attract people too stupid to play WoW. * Server lag is occasionally ugly; I have to re-log once an hour or so. * As with all Azn MMORPGs, turning the graphics up will induce excessive lag for reasons that must be mythical entirely. |
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Atlantica by 02/15/2009, 4:28pm PST  Update: am still playing with most OCD drive since WoW. by 02/18/2009, 6:28pm PST Update: still, although I have to play it while watching something on the other by 02/25/2009, 11:32am PST Ranom update by 06/14/2011, 1:40am PDT |
