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I can't think of a state of mind that has caused me to spend more money on games that are absolute garbage than that one. Needless to say, last Friday I was bored out of my mind. I had recently become worn out during my latest stint of World of Warcraft and was currently leveling another Rune Keeper in Lord of the Rings. After not being able to gather enough strength to log into LOTRO to grind quests again, I began looking for something else...
Enter Darkfall.
Up until last week, if you had mentioned Darkfall to me, I would have had no idea what you were talking about. Searching these forums (I couldn't find a single thread), I'd gather most of you haven't heard much about it either. After doing some research, it started looking strangely familiar. I honestly thought I was looking at the feature set of Vanguard...
- Largest Seamless/Instance-less MMOG World Ever Created
- Five Continent with Hundreds of Islands to Explore.
- Player Housing and Cities
- Mounts and Mounted Combat
- Player Ships and Navel Combat
- 10 Thousand Concurrent Player Per Server
Peel back the layers and you find that it's also very different...
- Free For All PvP
- Skill Based Character Progression (No Levels/Classes and No Skill Cap)
- Absence of No Drop, Bind to Account/Character/Pick-Up Items
- Real Time Combat
Doesn't sound bad, right? So I decided to pluck down the dough and give it a try. How bad could it be?
So How is It? (With Disclaimers)
Darkfall is brutal, frustrating, and hard. To borrow a phrase from Dmitry, this is no "easy mode cartoon." Other players will kill you and kill you often. They will loot your corpse clean without regard. Yep, that's right little Johnny... that shiny epic sword you were carrying, it’s now mine. This game is tough on the soul. Inventory management and looting is a chore, the UI is frustrating and cumbersome, skilling-up is a long uphill road, and you will start the game as the weakest living organism on the planet (the wildlife have a better chance at survival than you). It is without a doubt the worst newbie experience since Ultima Online. You will hate this game.
That’s how I start off describing Darkfall to everyone, but if you can look past its blemishes there is an incredibly refreshing, rewarding, and fun game waiting for you on the other side. For starters, I haven’t been this immersed in an MMO since the original Everquest. The game forces you into 1st person from the moment you log in and you instantly become sensitive to your environment and surroundings. “Are those footsteps a mob or an enemy player?” “Does that dragon overheard see me yet?” Those are the type of questions you’ll be asking yourself. I’ve never been this scared walk around a game before; it really gets the adrenaline rushing.
Character progression is very rewarding in the sense that you become stronger and more capable with each and every fight. Every swing of the sword or casting of a spell raises your skills/stats and thus increases your survivability. The goblins that will pummel you on your first quest won't stand a chance against you after a day or two. You also have access to everything and anything the moment you log in. Want to ride a mount? No problem. Want to wear the latest and greatest armor? Equip yourself my friend. There are no level restrictions on gear, armor, mounts, etc. It's all yours for the taking.
As I’m sure you’ve noticed above, loot is handled differently than in any MMO you’ve played recently. I’m sure you’re looking at prospect of someone looting your corpse through the eyes of someone with full epic gear in World of Warcraft. Well, that would be the case if gear was the main driver for you and your character’s progression in Darkfall but it is really only a small part of it. Regardless of whether or not someone steals your gear, you will lose it at some point. Accept it. Every piece of gear in this game has durability and every time you use that item its durability decreases to the point of breakage. There is no repair mechanism in this game. You will lose your gear.
So where do I get gear? Well, let’s start off at the beginning. You start the game with just a sword walking around in your underwear. Sounds great so far, right? Your first kill, however, will drop 4 to 5 usable items. Typically a weapon, a piece of armor or two, and some reagents/gold. All of the loot is usable! There are no useless ‘grey’ items. My first goblin kill for instance dropped a bow with 6 arrows (among other things). I instantly equipped it and used it to kill the next mob. The other thing I’m noticing is that mobs drop what they are wearing. See that kobold wielding that 2H sword? He’s going to drop it and you can equip it. Pretty neat huh? After a week of playing, I have a bank full of hundreds of weapons and staffs with probably 30 sets of armor. I’m my own personal armory. Obviously, the way the games manages inventory space needs to accommodate this game design and it does so by mirroring the inventory system found in Ultima Online. There are no predetermined ‘slots’ for inventory items as it uses an encumbrance mechanism for your avatar and limitless storage in your bank. You can organize using bags that you can purchase or craft and stack items as you see fit.
Combat is real-time. Even when I first read that in the game’s description I didn’t realize how profound that would translate into actual game play. If you’ve played Oblivion you have an idea of what to expect. The game manages the perspective of combat by switching to a limited 3rd person view in melee combat and remains in first person for spell casting and archery. There is no auto attack, every swing needs to be targeted and every arrow/spell needs to be aimed. This creates very intense combat as you can use the landscape to dodge and avoid ranged attacks. You won’t find mobs that cast the magic fire ball that goes through bushes, tree, and mountains to hit you. Oh did I forget to mention, mobs can hit other mobs with their spells? It’s rare but it can and does happen.
As for the graphics, they are what you would have expected the sequel to the original Everquest to look like. They aren’t spectacular but they are detailed, creative, and look so darn familiar. The art direction they chose is a stylized realism that is skewed more toward realism. Since providing perspective on graphics is so subjective, I’ve included some screenshots below. Take a look.
Spoiler for Darkfall:
The player models, on the other hand, range from tolerable to downright awful. The only upside to the player models is they are in the process of re-vamping all of them. That is expected to be completed in the next patch along with adding DX10 support and anti-aliasing. Additionally, there are also plenty of armor and weapon models, so if you like variety you won’t be disappointed. Finally, a note about the game world itself that I feel needs to be mentioned. They’ve invested a lot of time and energy into the feel of the world and having various points of interest. It just doesn’t feel computer generated… there aren’t random mobs spread across an auto-generated country side. Enemy mobs are where you’d expect them to be, in ancient ruins, castles, caves, and in their own settlements. They aren’t wandering around aimlessly 5m apart (I’m looking at you LOTRO). There are also a ton of special little details… like stone carvings, collapsed bridges, abandoned settlements, ruins, etc… all through-out the world. Where Vanguard had so much uninteresting space, there is a lot here to explore and uncover.
Wrap-up
Sorry about the wall of text, but there was a quite a bit to share. With that, I still left out a huge portion of the game including player cities, ships, housing, clans and seiges. Darkfall is a pretty massive, compelling sandbox game with it's core centralized around PvP with a complementary helping of PvE. It's really a fun game and something that goes in a completely different direction than where the industry has gone for the past 4 years. Please keep in mind it is rough around the edges and not for everyone, a Blizzard product this is not. This is definately a game that is targeting veteranm MMO players. If it's a game that might you think interest you I would recommend watching the four tutorial video below which will get you familiar with Darkfall. It's meant to get you to a point of being self sufficent and ready for the outside world but I think it does a good job of getting you familiar with mechanics. If you do decide to jump in, I recommend joining the clan [NEW] which was concieved by the major clans as a support system for ironically "new" players. You can only be a member for 30 days, but they help folks get accustomed to the game and their legs underneath them. Hope this review, summary, rambling, or what ever was somewhat helpful. Rarely am I surprised anymore in the MMO space and this one is taking me for a ride.
If you have any question, feel free to post them... I'd love to help. Now, back to so more Darkfall.
Accelerated Character Development Guide PT1-4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDgGgunLhmA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CrxiN4pdHU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5e19MP4AW4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uTYTpT6Sd8