Now that the western versions first closed beta has its first day of operation under its belt, I’m doing my initial quick impression. Unsurprisingly, no technical issues were encountered since Barunson E&A were able to properly provision the necessary resources based on pack pre-orders and their total allotment of code giveaways. They also launched with two servers (both based in North America just for the closed betas).
The biggest initial negative I could see off the bat was the choice of font used for text. This may seem like nitpicking but font typefaces have a way of impacting the overall visual presentation. Basically, the choice of font used gives the game a really cheap/ugly look since you see it throughout the entire game.
I get the rationale for using this particular one since it allows for easier kerning and granular adjustments to get the text aligned to fit in what amounts to constrained spaces. Plus it can also support other language types (which may include special characters or even double-byte such as the case with the Korean release) all while not having an impact on readability. But it is just not visually appealing (at least to me – and I do realize others may not feel as strongly about this).
The visual aesthetics are what one should expect from a Korean designed MMO in terms of world design, character models, armor/weapon designs. Character customization in terms of granular control is up there (for those who enjoy tweaking with tons of sliders). Customized settings can also be saved as a preset.
Character models are still genderlocked for the closed betas (several classes will have both genders available at launch). Body types are also currently locked to each class (Barunson has taken feedback on this and while there aren’t any hard promises, un-genderlocking is taking the highest priority and after that is completed, then they will evaluate body types). The above is a mage (which is currently locked to a petite female; i.e. the loli archetype) whereas the scholar (currently locked to female) has a small amount of crossover but is small to medium sized.
Yes, the game does have an underlying current (of cuteness) to it especially when you look at the chibi designs of the Astels along with the more traditional meathead male warrior, dexterious male assassin, and more filled out female archer. Basically, the average Elin playing TERA player will probably enjoy this part of the game when it comes to playing virtual dress up.
The cinematic cutscenes and actually redoing the mouth animation to match the english language voice is where part of the production budget is being spent. The rendering is also miles above a lot of other Korean MMO’s that were being developed around this timeframe. Something like that makes a difference though in terms of giving off at least some feel of quality production (from the graphical point of view) especially when the western version is being monetized as a buy-to-play one.
The initial game play is a fairly simple and straightforward tutorial covering movement (WASD and/or click to move can be enabled in the settings), combat, skills, and inventory (as well as your first mount). Once you’ve completed the tutorial on one character, you can opt to skip it for others. There is a bug I consistently encountered at the end of the tutorial where it crashes with the following.
I’m basically just running through the low level questing which is unsurprisingly unremarkable (the usual fetch/kill/gather quest chains). I guess the overarching term would be GENERIC. Like most newer MMO’s, you can have your character auto move to the next quest location (which in Astellia, is pretty much required because none of the objectives are marked on either the mini-map or main map; this was addressed in a client update where the quest number is highlighted on both maps). What is nice about Astellia’s auto pathing is the dispensing of the visual cue on the ground (those ugly arrows used in other games).
I’m not a fan of tabbed-targeting so the combat is what it is. It was passable for me in ArcheAge because there was all the world exploration activities that I could do (along with my illegal farms). What doesn’t help in Astellia is how the camera movement (via mouse) is constrained while moving (you can’t use it to simply change your field of view and continue your movement in the same direction that you now see since it attempts to snap back – unless this is a setting that can be modified) and how the keyboard equivalent doesn’t have a way to change the speed of the camera movement (it moves way too fast).
Looting is unsurprisingly “slow” in the sense that you have to hit “F” first to interact with the loot and then hit “F” again to confirm to pick it up. This design ties into the “Scroll of Exploration” which provides auto looting functionality. Basically, its an intended design meant to prod players towards a quality of life improvement item (which may be available in smaller quantities via in-game rewards but also a cash shop item).
Game client performance was decent but not surprising considering the controlled number of players taking part. There were micro stutters not related to actual player induced client FPS lag since some of them always occurred at the same spot (so it is related to how the client is loading/reloading in some assets). However, in some low level questing spots with a lot of players, there were some FPS freezes. Overall though, frame rates were steady. If this were a free-for-all beta with a much higher concurrency, I would expect to see the same client FPS freezes that exists in the Korean version (during its soft launch period).
My new system is overkill for UE3 games though. Using unmodified UE3 ini configurations, I turned up all of the in-game graphic settings and it had no negative impact on frame rates (running at 1440p). I encountered no texture loading prioritization issues either. Unlike Ascent: Infinite Realm where Krafton was able to make the transition from open world to single player instance extremely seamless (including no client FPS drop), Astellia still has some minor stutter when transitioning between the two.
The games “main unique” feature is the Astel pet/companion system (aka battle/combat pets). They are tied into a collectible card system where you can encounter them throughout the game world (representing a mini-game). Their designs are fairly nice and they offer a bit of in-game banter as you quest. Part of their design is meant to be tactical where you can summon the ones you need based on situational awareness (like do you need more DPS, tanking or healing). At the questing levels, these Astels can be somewhat overpowered at their base levels. At end game, their power will be more incremental/supplemental; their level, rating and associated stats will be important in terms of just how much more helpful they will be during combat. Overall, I do like how they are impactful/useful at lower levels and not just an endgame grind ala TERA’s companion system.
There are some things that Barunson will need to look at and adjust though. If you only do the main quests, your character will be underleveled and won’t be able to accept the next quest in the chain (I experienced this at around level 7 on my archer where I needed to grind some area mobs to hit level 8) until you grind some mobs or go back to do some of the side quests that were ignored. Also, resource consumption and/or regen needs to be reconsidered since often times, your character is out of mana and its regeneration/recovery rate is extremely slow requiring using a simple auto attack (and inability to use those higher power skilled until you have enough mana again). Then not enough mana potions are rewarded while leveling to help offset this meaning you need to spend gold on overpriced potions from an NPC.
Where the game will offer some character specific customization is in how you determine what skills to advance (and what bonuses they provide). That part comes into play with higher character levels though and not at these lower level questing (and is therefore something I have not looked heavily into). Basically, this initial impression is mostly all low level stuff where mechanics aren’t really a thing (I mean there are telegraphs from both open world mobs and dungeon bosses BUT aren’t tuned up like in the end game context). My main objective is to get the classes at least to level 10 (and maybe play one of them past that as much as possible) so that they are available to use the level up NPC (being unlocked on Saturday) to test out level 50 legendary content over the last few days of the first CBT.
So based on my own initial/quick impressions, is this western version of Astellia worth the buy-to-play price of around $30? My opinion that I provided before still stands where I feel the base game is a bit overpriced. The cash shop unveil in the second CBT will answer more specific questions as to the approximate cost of the value added items in the mid and high tier packs (like I am curious how much Beeswax Tokens will cost; this item allows un-soulbinding Heroic grade equipment for trading/selling) but seeing the work done for this western version compared to the Korean release, the base cost of the game would make more sense at the $10 range (not even the $20 range I previously mentioned). I suppose what will impact things is how the feedback is digested and how it shapes the game where I may reconsider the value proposition of the pre-order pricing for the game once the second CBT is completed and how the feedback from both CBT’s are dealt with.
UPDATE: ok, I am somewhat impressed with the responsiveness and speed at which they are addressing some of the feedback when it comes to minor bugs/issues that have been reported. The lack of quest objectives located on the map was dealt with quickly as was how terrible the launcher looked prior to launch during the pre-load period (albeit both weren’t that difficult to deal with). I’ll be keeping tabs on this as Astellia progresses through the beta tests towards actual release.
