11/20/12

Why You Should Try Darkfall: Unholy Wars

Posted on November 20, 2012 by Chris

Darkfall is the kind of game that scares new players away, but with the upcoming launch of Unholy Wars, I want to encourage you all to give it a shot. Now I know, I haven’t always been kind to the game, but Darkfall is something I truly feel all players – PvE and PvP alike – can have fun with and, with a good clan, is one of the best MMO experiences available today.

The fact is, a lot of what you’ve heard is probably half-truth or based on assumption and fear of how “hardcore” the game is. Yes, the game is full loot. Travel takes a while and means something. Anyone can attack anyone and griefing happens. What doesn’t get the coverage in those criticisms is that they come together to make a game that feels more like a true MMO — you know, when we aspired to virtual worlds rather than quest rides — than any other game out there than maybe, I hear, EVE. But believe it or not, Darkfall is a far more accessible and much more action-driven game than EVE ever was. Get yourself used to the idea of playing with other people again and it can provide some of the most memorable, fun, and MMO-like experiences you’ve had since EQ or Ultima.

And to be clear, I’m not a hardcore PvPer, I’m not a big grouper, and I don’t like games that punish the crap out of me. I’m probably like a lot of players — and yet I sit here saying, “play Darkfall.” Here’s why:

Full Loot is Nowhere Near as Bad as You Think It Is

This is my biggest gripe with naysayers. If someone has told you that losing your gear when you die is a big deal, let me be clear, they weren’t actually playing the game. First off, it’s based on skills. You can die, get a basic weapon from a vendor, and still be strong enough to go back out and get on your feet. That’s number one. Number two, you’ll collect enough basic gear just playing that you’ll be re-outfitted within minutes, even if you never play with another person. Number three, there is no epic gear to be lost here (though there is some good stuff), so it’s not like you’re losing weeks of investment. Here’s a rule: Bank the gear you find. Do that and you’ll never have to worry about FFA PvP in the same way again.

This is also where clans come in. Any clan worth its salt — even most clans that aren’t — will have a bank full of basic gear for you. If they don’t it’s because they’re inactive and you should probably leave.

Full loot isn’t something to be scared of because the impact is minimal. Bank your stuff. Be happy. Once you get in that habit, it becomes second nature. Dying is disappointing, especially if you were carrying a lot, but it also makes your choices meaningful. If you stay out in the world with a treasure trove of stuff and you die, it’s because you pushed it. This is the kind of tension that makes things exciting. If it becomes stressful, change up how you do things. Carry less you’re unwilling to lose. Learning how to survive in Darkfall is in experience unlike most MMOs out there.

No Levels:

If you want to get better at something, use it. This is something MMO players have been clamoring for since Ultima fell out and Darkfall still has one of the best implementations out there. In vanilla DF, there were issues of players macroing and cheating to build up certain skills, and there was a wall that built up over time where new players felt disadvantaged. That’s said to be fixed in Unholy Wars. If that’s the case, this will be the single best skill system in any modern MMO out there.

From DF1.0, this will likely be different in UW

Non-Linear Gameplay:

There are quests in the game but don’t expect a quest hub tour of Agon. Your gameplay is determined by your own goals and those of your guild. Some people look at this and scoff but those people either a) didn’t give it enough time, b) tried to be solo cowboys, or c) never tried it at all. In this game, you have personal goals and social goals, from your clan or your friends, and they intermingle. What you do depends on where you want to go — even if that’s just a direction on the map. Some of the best experiences I’ve had have been based on grabbing a buddy and heading out to see what we can find.

Here’s the thing, other games push you through quest hubs because the world can’t hold up on its own. Darkfall’s does. Just finding a new spawn area or, even better, a new dungeon is an adventure that tends to top most dev-content. Honestly. Combat is truly action based and not simply dodge-distance-directional. And the possibility that at any point another player could come along and totally change the dynamic — for better or worse — adds a layer or dynamicism other games don’t touch.

Exploration is Fun, Rewarding, and Pretty Much the Best Out There:

Like I said, mobs drop things you need. You might come across a den of skeletons that stock you up on basic armor to re-gear with if you die. Or maybe you’ll find a cave where the monsters drop “epic” gear (there is no epic) that makes you look and defend like a king. To get good gear in this game, it’s not about grinding a dungeon 50 times. It’s about finding the right spot in the world and figuring out a way to take down your enemies.

Other things support exploration, too. Chaos chests spawn all over the world and can drop great and valuable things. Maybe you find a new, fast mount. Maybe a deed to a home. Maybe you find a player village to pillage. Maybe you come across an unsuspecting player and make a new friend… or kill him outright just to make sure he doesn’t move on you first. Maybe you find a dungeon or a dragon’s lair. How about a floating island with excellent spawns for all your magic ingredients. I’ll say it again, this is as close to a virtual world as modern MMOs get. Darkfall does it well. If you are into the idea of a lush, breathing, deep, and engrossing game world, you should try this game.

Combat is Active, Action-Based, and Better Than Hotbar Games

I like Guild Wars 2, I do, but Darkfall just beats it. It’s not dodge based but that’s pretty much a gimmick anyway. Darkfall combat is about positioning, and reach, attacking and defending, aiming and choosing the right ability for the situation. It is deeper and much more impactful than Guild Wars or TERA even hint at. When you get with a clan, large scale warfare akin to WvWvW takes place but carries much more weight. You are literally fighting for control of the game world, literally making your own history to be posted on YouTube and debated on the forums.

Cooperation is Key and a Ton of Fun:

If there is one thing that keeps Darkfall from attracting new players apart from the PvP, it’s that it’s at its best when people play together. This really isn’t so bad, honestly, and neither is scheduling. I am an extremely busy guy these days. I don’t raid for just that reason. But in DFO, this is answered simply by joining a large clan. Because cooperation is intrinsic to the best game experience, if there is another person online, the chances are they’ll be open to teaming up with you.

So much of the game is built to be experienced with other players that when you do get the chance to do something with a full group, it is an absolute blast. Even if you walk away having been summarily defeated, the experience of waging your own mini war on player or NPC is memorable. If you want dynamic content, look no further. It doesn’t get better than simply stepping outside yourself and joining up with another player in Darkfall Online.

Naval Combat:

This one is worth ending on because it’s just plain cool. You can sail the seas on your own ship and wage naval warfare. You can be a pirate, pillaging the shoreline. You can also be eaten by a kraken. True story, check it out:

Overall, Darkfall isn’t for everybody in the same way that WoW isn’t. It is for a lot of people who simply won’t give it a chance. That’s a crying shame because in a lot of ways DF is the exact game players have been asking for for a long time. Give it a try. What have you got to lose?

02/5/10

Someone finally killed me

Posted on February 5, 2010 by Chris

Well, I knew it would eventually happen and a few days ago it actually did. Somebody ganked me in Darkfall. To sum up the day to that one event wouldn’t be fair though, since it was more exciting than most others I’ve had there since I resubbed.

I started out in the Human city of Sandbrook. When you first get in the game, you go on a series of quests that introduce you to combat and show you how to craft. Unlike the last character I played with, a Dwarf named Cryptic, none of these quests seemed to lead me away from the nearby goblin camps. Now, these goblins aren’t pushovers compared to mobs in most other games. Actually, the shamans tend to kick my ass. Still, after being sent back to them three and four times, I was ready to move on.

That’s what Darkfall’s about, right? Exploration. Adventure. Opening my map, I found a spot that looked somewhat like a circle of stone about 10 minutes North of my location and decided to head out and see what I could find.

The journey itself was exciting. My gear was crap, mostly leather pulled from the goblins, but it was my crap, so I found myself constantly scanning the horizon and looking behind me for someone looking for an easy kill. Along the way, I found another starter city. There were no quests there for me, so I didn’t stay long.

When I left, however, I noticed a naked man wearing a two-handed sword stalking me. The kicker was that he wasn’t even trying to be covert about it. It reminded me a lot of how a little kid will say exactly what you say and then yell “Stop copying me!” when you call them out on it. Whatever, I thought, he’ll lose interest, and went on my way.

Coming to a camp of goblins nearby, I decided to kill a few and see if they dropped the same thing as the ones where I’d started out. Sure enough, they did, except, I didn’t have the chance to get any of it because the guy following me was ninja looting everything from their corpses, quickly gearing himself out in some basic gear.

I’m a tolerant guy, but after a few kills I started to get annoyed and called him out. No response. Soon enough, though, he got his confidence up and took on a goblin of his own with a bow and arrow he’d stolen from me. Still a little irked, I stepped out in front of him and let him hit me. He immediately went gray and I nailed him with my own two-handed sword.

Now, in DFO, when you go gray the first time (meaning, people can kill you without an alignment hit), it only lasts about 10 seconds. The guy ran away but to my surprise, he turned around again almost as soon as I couldn’t attack him anymore and started attacking me! Here we are, two noobs, surrounded by goblins firing arrows at us, frantically trying to land a hit while we drain our stamina swinging at thin air.

He didn’t last, however. One of the cardinal rules in Darkfall is not to try to wait it out. In WoW, if you hang out for an extra hit or two, you just might win. Here, you’re probably going to die. He turned to run with about 5% of his health left but it was too little too late. All the gear he’d taken was back in my inventory.

Another surprise occurred as I went to leave, however. In the bushes, off to the side of the goblin camp, was a gravestone lined in blue, meaning a player had died there. Going over to check it out, I found it full with chainmail and more advanced gear! Stoked, I pulled it all out, loaded up my inventory and switched out my leather. This was turning into a pretty profitable run.

Along the way, flush with the excitement of my previous battle, I kept and ear out for battle. I heard several but wasn’t able to actually find anyone, so I continued on my way.

When I finally got there, I discovered that the stony looking circle on my map was actually a bigger NPC city. What really got my attention though was the sounds of fighting coming from within. NPC cities have guard towers to stop PK’ers, so battle could only mean someone had started a fight they were destined to lose. And, when someone dies around a guard tower, their corpse is pretty much up for grabs since their killer can’t retaliate against looters without getting hit by the tower themselves.

Or so I thought.

The first thing I noticed when I found them was that one guys was in a lot better armor than the other. And his name was orange, instead of read or blue. I still don’t know what that means. I got there right as the lesser geared player died and, feeling like it was my lucky day, I rushed up to snag some of the spoils.

I almost got away too.

As I turned to leave, I heard the “splat” noise meaning I’d been attacked. My screen flashed read another two times before I went down, losing everything I’d gained.

At first, I was frustrated. Then I realized, not only did I have extra gear in the bank, but I’d gotten everything good I had by taking it from someone else. And now it was taken from me. On top of that, my heart was pumping.

This is the cycle of life in Darkfall and it really shows just how much less loot matters than in most other MMOs. It’s easy come, easy go, and with a few dead goblins, you can get everything you need to at least cover up your loincloth. But, isn’t it something that when the prospect of losing that gear comes up, it gets your adrenaline thudding through your veins like no other MMO.

Some call it hardcore, and maybe it is, but this type of play has more in common with real adventure than most theme park MMOs can come close to offering. And that’s worth something.

My only question would be why the guard tower didn’t hit that guy. Before he died, I turned around and was able to see that he was fine. Did I go rogue from looting his corpse? If so, I didn’t get a notice. I wasn’t still rogue from before. Alignment quirk? Bug? It just goes to show I have a lot left to learn in this game.

09/7/09

Exploration: may you rest in piece

Posted on September 7, 2009 by Chris

I had a lot of fun when I played WoW seriously. Coming from a history steeped in MUDs, the idea that I could run and meet any object I saw on the horizon was extraordinary. The prospect of actually being able to climb up a mountain is something a good friend of mine was giddy about. It was that sense of “open world” that we’d never experienced before that made the game exceptional.

Yet, for all of the things I found amazing, I was let down by the exploration. WoW offered very little to the explorer. Even before the release of The Burning Crusade (about when I started), the world chests were the best reward a fledgling explorer had to look forward to.

I believed, and still do, MMOs should be worlds with a lot to discover. By looking behind the waterfall, maybe you’d find a little known cave or treasure chest. Or maybe you’d find a hidden catacomb at the bottom of a castle. Yet all of that was missing from WoW and it left me wanting.

Streamlining our games killed exploration. The proof is in the pudding. Which games still promote exploring in a meaningful way? Ones that aren’t after mass market success. Most games looking to dethrone WoW work on a rapid reward, low investment philosophy. Exploration requires time and effort, so developers don’t bother with it.

Maybe it’s all related to theme park vs. sandbox design. Games like Vanguard and Darkfall are huge rich worlds with a lot to discover, yet, both are sandbox. Theme park design creates a game on rails, where the developers point the carrot wherever they want you to go. Wanderlust let’s you direct your own adventure and isn’t something companies want to design for. Instead they try to actively engage players in quests or raids.

And that’s fine. Quests and raids are fun but I can’t help but feel that these worlds are shallower than they could be. There’s something to be said for fighting your way through a hidden cave after some powerful item. There’s a little thrill that comes from that, just like running an instance, but that stands apart by its open-world setting. Oblivion is a prime example how this works.

The final nail in the coffin is success itself. We gamers are information hungry. When a game becomes a hit, websites pop up to capitalize on that fame. Take Curse’s database sites. They’re great tools but prove that the internet is the enemy of the unknown and of exploration as a gaming mechanic.

The fact is, meaningful exploration is probably dead in the mass market. Diabloized loot (a Ferrelism!) and treadmill progression stand against all that would make exploration meaningful to your character. As Keen talked about some articles back, I think it’s a piece of what MMORPGs have lost over time. And sometimes it’d be nice to find an area that’s something more than a quest target, farm point, or blank mountainside.