Thursday, August 30, 2012

We Interrupt This Broadcast....

[NoCashReq has entered the room.]

It is with great regret that I inform you that Maplestory just DOES NOT WANT TO PLAY.  Regardless of what I have tried, this game refuses to load properly or play, so I will have to shelve it in the far corner of the review Queue, back behind the cobwebs and left of the moldy sandwich (at least, I think it's a sandwich) and move on to another game, Moon Breakers.  Having stumbled onto this little gem in my never ending wanders through the inter-webs, the idea of space flight combat intrigues me enough to push it straight to the front.  So expect some bad impersonations of Han, Chewie, references to Space: Above and Beyond (bonus points for knowing what I'm talking about) and Babylon 5, and lots and lots of digs on Top Gun.  Later!

[NoCashReq has left the room.]

Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Stronghold Kingdoms Review #1

[NoCashReq has entered the room.]

.....bawwitabawdebangdebangdiggydiggydiggysaid the boogie said up jump the boogie! bawwitabawdebangdebangdiggydiggydiggysaid the boogie said up jump the boogie! 
And we're off again! Welcome all you purveyors of the refined gaming experience, you hunters of the inexpensive electronic entertainment, you kings among men!  I am NoCashReq, and this is Flat Broke Gamer Review.  Let's get started.

Going for the brass ring this time is:
 Stronghold Kingdoms is a Persistent Real-Time Strategy MMO developed by Firefly Studios and released in 2010.  It is available online through a variety of sources, including their own website, Steam, and Amazon.com.

BLUF:  An interesting concept piece, and definitely helpful in interesting young people in history, this game falls short with unbelievably slow development of your castle, town, forces, architecture, etc., and is not Free-To-Play, it falls definitively in the Pay-To-Win category.

SCORES

Playability: 1/5  A poorly written tutorial that prompts you through only the bare bones of the game, little to no logic to the myriad of menus you have to use, and an unclear goal in your development starts this game off on the wrong foot.

Atmospherics: 3/5  The look of the game is neither inspiring nor hideous, but fits into the overall theme of boring and pedantic.

Learning Curve: 3/5  The fact that you should (note the hesitance in my usage of the word should) be able to win as many points in the game throwing banquets and developing priests as you would in destroying you neighbor's castle is a nice idea, but the sheer mass of choices leaves you with no real idea how to get to either endgame.

Community:  2/5  I had no interaction with the other players aside from several offers to let me become someone else's vassal, and no real clear idea why I would want to do that.  This does not seem like the game that you would have the opportunity to get online and actually interact with fellow players much.

Support:  4/5  No issues with the game's play, a regular newsletter that keeps you up to date on the game developments and other players/factions actions, the people at Firefly Studios seem to run the game well.

Cash Shop: 0/5  The only way to develop quickly enough to actually let you play for long periods of time is to buy premium tokens, unlocking queues for your research and building projects, and in-game cards that speed your production/give you resources/improve your playing make this a Definite PTW.

Overall:  13/30  This game is not worth your time.  It is boring and slow, and really, I wouldn't even expect you to finish this review, let alone try this game.  History buffs might get into it, but those are about the only people I can think of that would.


BACKSTORY AND TUTORIAL

Ever read any European history book?  Good! Then you already know the backstory to this game, as it takes place in Medieval Europe, with you as the next up and coming landowner.  You are given charge of a new town in a random parish, and are given just enough resources to start a town and castle.  From there, you are led by one of your peasants to build a woodcutter's hut, stone quarry, and apple orchard to provide for your building needs and food for the villagers.  He will walk you through one of your many options for research, show you all the menus that you'll have to get used to, and then depart as soon as a random marauder group decide to take you down a notch.  After that, you are on your own, and with NO hints or prompts, it is really up to you to figure out how to do anything else.  Want to build a bigger castle?  No problem, just go to the castle tab, and oh wait, you don't have the knowledge to build in stone, or build bigger structures, gotta go to the research page, oh wait which option lets you build more?  Architecture? Defenses?  Combat?  Wait, we'll need more wood and stone for that, how do I get more?  Oh that's right, I need more woodcutter's huts and quarries, but I don't have any more people to put to work there, how do I...?  And so on, and son on, until you are left bewildered and frustrated, which is right about when your complimentary Premium token will expire and you will only be allowed to build one building at a time, and only one research project can be set up.  I was mad before this, and that just pushed my little candy-like red button.


FURTHER ON, GOOD SQUIRE

I kept going though, convinced that the game would pick up after I got to attack someone, even if it was only the local wolf den.  But wait, you haven't developed enough to build weapons yet!  AAAAAUUUUGH! FINE! I researched and built a weapon factory, started building bows, and that's when I realized that the number of people in my village to be recruited for Archery duty was not something I could directly control, I only got new move-ins on the game's time, and there wasn't anything I could do about it.  Fine, I waited for a day to calm down, rubbed my ears and said "Woo-sah," a few thousand times, and dove back in.  Got my archers, got some scouts, got some villagers with pitchforks, and set out to kill me some wolves.  Then my neighbor set out on horseback with knights that moved twice as fast as me and killed them all before I got there.

And that was when my head exploded.

Seriously!?! I get hosed out of killing anything? Nope, that's it. research the rest of the game, write it off, and move on.  The support for this game seemed solid, the Community seemed non-existant and non-communicative, and the Cash Shop, well.....

SOUND THE DEATH KNELL

Premium tokens that speed your development up, allow queues for building and research, and generally allow you to develop five times as fast, cards that can be played for any number of advantages, and everything that someone with a lot of disposable income could buy to beat you senseless means that the final nail in this coffin was set.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Even if you wanted to drop your hard earned sawbucks on this game, I would encourage you to try any, ANY other game first, as this game will simply bore you to tears, frustrate you to violence, and then irritate you into getting the sledgehammer and "hitting any key" repeatedly.  Do not waste your time.

Like I have.

Next time on FBGR, I will tackle into Maplestory ( I found another avenue to download it that worked) and hopefully the only suffering will be the soreness of my fingertips from playing far too long.  Until then, Get in the pit and try to LOVE SOMEONE!

[NoCashReq has left the room]

Friday, August 17, 2012

Technical Difficulties... Please stand by

[NoCashReq has entered the room.]

NO GOOD STINKIN ROTTEN BLASTER TWO TOED SON OF A HAIRLESS WOMBAT!  Oh, uh, hi there.  How long have you been standing there?  No matter, things are doing their best to get in the way here.  I had reported that my next review was going to be on Maplestory, but due to some as of yet unknown reason my computer will not download it.  So, in order to try and keep you ravening hordes outside my blog at bay and satiated, I will move on to one of the other games on my list: Stronghold Kingdoms.  Expect more soon!  Now where did I put that sledge.....

{NoCashReq has left the room.]

Thursday, August 16, 2012

Forsaken World Review #3

[NoCashReq has entered the room]

And now, watch as I pull the end of a review out of this... ummm... hat! yeah, that's where I got it from!  For those of us just joining in, I've been regaling you with stories of my exploration of Forsaken World, an RPGMMO from developers Perfect World.  So far we have looked at four of the six scores, and here is what you missed:

SCORES

Playability: 4/5 A very solid tutorial system, easily used and modifiable keysettings, and a good HUD makes this game easy to learn and fun to play.

Atmospherics: 4/5 Beautiful design went into most of what you see, from the characters to the scenery, and although I think that some of the character designs are a bit too frou-frou (frou-frou: From the pig-latin freoua-freoua, meaning sissy or weak.  See also: namby-pamby and pansy-boy)  for my tastes, there can be no denying that they are visually stunning.

 Learning Curve: 3/5  Character development is smooth, even, but narrow and ultimately did not allow me to try my own style of play due to the strict adherence to class roles.  The fact that all races had only some of the classes available to them was annoying, and the amount of options within the role was not enough.

Community: 2/5  No interaction, despite attempts to reach out, ask for help, or at least talk to others.  Everyone seemed to be off doing their own thing, and with the combat system being so easy to wipe out most enemies without trying, I can see why.

And now the final two scores, Support and Cash Shop:

Support:  5/5 Not once did I have any reason to  submit a trouble ticket, and with a regularly updated game and constant attention, I don't see that you would have reason to save for Deus Ex Machina type events.

Cash Shop: 0/5  There's permanent stat boosts in them thar shops, and I ain't havin' none of it!  Huge amounts of Pay-to-Win violations put this score into the bay with cement shoes.

OVERALL:  18/30  Overall the game is solid, but not my cuppa tee in combat, style, limited development paths, and definintely this game is not a true Free To Play (FTP) game.

If you want to go back and read the reviews that led up to here, here's the links:
http://flatbrokegamerreview.blogspot.com/2012/07/forsaken-world-review-1.html
http://flatbrokegamerreview.blogspot.com/2012/08/forsaken-world-review-2.html

On with the rest!

SUPPORTING YOUR GAME

Her aim, flawless.  Her fashion sense, mmm not so much.
Perfect World does a dynamite job of keeping all of their games up to date, well supported for problems, and in general they really do care about your experience.  You may have read my earlier review of their brawler, Rusty Hearts, and there I did need to submit a trouble ticket with quick results, but this game ran like a sharp knife through hot butter.  I will definitely be reviewing more of their games in the future for this fact alone.

IS IT FTP OR PTW?

The biggest stumbling block that this game has is the fact that there are clearly permanent boosts available in the shop.  As this game is driven by your equipment, and the fact is that you can buy equipment improvement in the cash shop in ABUNDANCE means that this game gets the first goose egg in the Cash Shop category.

FINAL THOUGHTS

If you like Pina Coladas, go listen to Jimmy Buffet.  If you like a simple, easily, heavily structured game with  visually complex and brightly patterned characters, play Forsaken World.  But if you like a challenging game, where your pocketbook does not define your success, with enjoyable character depth and variety, then look elsewhere.

That's it!  I finished one of the new Reviews, and it only took me... way too long.  Seriously, thank you to all of you who keep coming back for more (you masochists) and keep your ear to the ground (or follow my missives by one of the options on the right) for my review of : Maplestory!  Till that uncertain time, Stand Up, Hook Up, and Shuffle To The Door, Jump Right Out And Shout "We Waanntt mmmoooooorrrre........"

[NoCashReq has left the room.]

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Forsaken World Review #2

[NoCashReq has entered the room.]

Here I come to save the Da-ay! Or at least interject a little mild entertainment, which for my hectic life is about the same.  It is I, NoCashReq, here with another look into the MMO Forsaken World. In our last installment, i forgot to include my BLUF (Bottom Line Up Front) and put the scores at the end of the article, two things I wanted to keep at the beginning so if you only wanted to know a 30 second shot of my opinion, you could get it, and if you wanted the full experience that is FBGR, you could happily read on.  I am returning to that format, and so you will find these parts at the beginning of each of the postings regardless of whether I am posting a full review or the new format of several posts for one review.  But enough about that, back to the game...

 When we left our story last, I had managed to create two characters for this game, a dwarf sharpshooter and a stoneman defender, and had made it through the basic levels early in the game, and headed out into the world to stake my claim to GLORY!

And then I became a florist.

 BLUF:  The games strict adherence to classes leaves you a single path for your character, and although the game mechanics do allow for choosing which skills you have on quick keys, there isn't enough room to find your own path. The community largely ignored me, and I them, as there were no real reasons to involve them in my questing.

SCORES

Learning Curve: 3/5  Character development is smooth, even, but narrow and ultimately did not allow me to try my own style of play due to the strict adherence to class roles.  The fact that all races had only some of the classes available to them was annoying, and the amount of options within the role was not enough.

Community: 2/5  No interaction, despite attempts to reach out, ask for help, or at least talk to others.  Everyone seemed to be off doing their own thing, and with the combat system being so easy to wipe out most enemies without trying, I can see why.


 BEYOND THE TRAINING

Wait, wait wait wait, did you say a florist?  Yes,this game allows your character to have multiple little side jobs like herbalist, cook, potionmaker, etc. and gives you little tasks to teach you the basics for all your jobs.  Little stuff like this allows for a more rich game experience, creates little projects for you to do while questing, and basically gets ignored as you search for monsters to kill.  Or at least it did by me.  Seriously, I wanna shoot something, not go throw stuff in a pot and go "BLAM!"

The regular story-driving quests that follow the initial training grounds involved an inordinate amount of running to and from Non-Player Characters (NPCs) to have long drawn out discussions about your quest, the meaning of life, and other stuff that I, in my infinite wisdom and extremely finite attention span, mostly glossed over once I realized that there was no important information.  Really,  why should I carry on long preset conversations with the computer unless the script is filled with useful information, or is at least entertaining with ribald chicanery and offbeat sarcasm?  The auto-direct saved me from wandering forever on these runaround quests, as finding anyone by chance seemed impossible, and skipping the dialog saved my sanity.  What's left of it, anyway.

Combat never got any more challenging than in the first few levels.  Now yes, I did add some new and exciting tricks to my character's repertoire, and yes, some of the graphics for those attacks were cool, but when I can spam every special attack on one enemy, wait for the cooldowns, and then do it again on the enemy RIGHT NEXT TO THE ONE I JUST KILLED without a major scratch in my armor, it's too easy.

COMMUNITY RELATIONS

Yes, you get to ride goats. No, you don't get to name them Mr. Fluffykinwooodlesmoochie.
My experiences with online gaming have ranged from the positive, supportive fun of finding new friends and allies, to the acidic, simpleton-level, foul mouthed wit of twelve year olds who think that a DSL line gives them enough protection to use language that I would box their ears for (and their parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and second cousins for letting them end up that way), but until I played this game, I had never experienced a solo MMO before.  Seriously, there are other people playing this game? WHERE? The few other players I ran into ignored me like I was a NPC, despite my several attempts to engage them, try to strike up a band of merry men, insult their goats (see pic), etc.  All attempts to interact were ignored, and so I continued on.  After a while though, I realized that the majority of them were ignoring me because they didn't need anyone else to help them along.  Now, maybe the PVP servers are different, maybe there people join together to keep from getting smashed flat by rival teams, but there just was no response from other players on the PVE server I was on.

There you go, a little more of my less-than-humble opinion, expect the final installment of this review soon, but please don't hold your breath.  Blue just isn't your color.  Till then, keep gaming for the stars!

[NoCashReq has left the room.]