ArcheAge Review

It brings a tear to my eye when I think about how much money I have put into expansions, subscriptions, and general purchases when it comes to MMOs. And although free to play MMOs have seen me through in times of financial drought (which as a student is pretty much all the time) I have struggled to find an MMO that matches up to the expectations of their oh-so-expensive alternatives. Enter, ArcheAge.

MMOs can feel a little same-y. And creating my character and logging into ArcheAge leaves me with that familiar, medieval-ness that I’ve come to expect and love. There are factions, races, realms and worlds at my fingertips. And there are twists. ArcheAge is a worthy competitor, even for its subscription nemeses. But, as always, let’s start right at the beginning.

The World of ArcheAge

Characters

There are just four major races in ArcheAge, which seems few compared to the eight of Wildstar and the 14 of World of Warcraft for example. The races aren’t especially ‘evil’ or particularly ‘good’ looking either – the stereotypes are largely done away with. Well, sort of. You have the earthy and spiritual Nuians and Elves which control the western side of the dominance, whereas the Firran and Hirani have the eastern. There is also a pirate faction, which sails and pillages and does all that pirate stuff … but more on that later.

So. The human-like Nuians are based around a religion concerning their goddess Nui, and their plight is one of preservation. Visits to the after-world, or the Hereafter as they call it, leave them with an increase in stats on resurrection. They can also build stuff a little faster than other races. That’s right, building. As in, player houses. Once again – more on that later!

Unfortunately, the Elves are as Elvish as they can possibly get. That’s Tolkein/Legolas style elf, the kind that crops up frustratingly in MMOs everywhere. It seems a fantasy world simply cannot exist without this race. Eking out their mysterious lives in the forests, they are beautiful and timid, but pretty dangerous when you piss one off. They can breathe underwater for longer than other races, and can swim faster.

As with elves, what fantasy world is complete with a semi-Japanese style animal-person race? The Firran are humans sporting ears and tails of animals. The girl in me usually gravitates towards these races – kitties and fluffy bunnies, right? – but the traditional art-style thankfully saves these furries from being the wide-eyed fluffballs that I’ve become used to. They’re much more natural looking, and blend in with the other races. Attuned to the natural world, they can fall from great heights with decreased damage and are better climbers.

Last but not least, the race I chose myself. The Hirani. These are another human-like race, but with a distinctly Oriental theme. They are more efficient gatherers than other races, which is invaluable within the complex crafting and trading economy within the game.

Now, although the options of races are simple and minimalistic, classes are not so. You instead select Skillsets, which can combine to amount to over 120 different classes. Skillsets range from Archery, to Vitalism, to Sorcery, covering the ranged/tank/healer concepts that make up the classes of almost all MMOs. You start out life with one Skillset, and aquire another at level 5, then at level 10 you choose from 3 Skillsets to create a fully combined class. And there’s no liminations. I mean, really. You can mix and match as you please and unusually, you can change your skillsets during gameplay. If you suddenly decide you want to go from being an archer to being a healer, you can, and you don’t have to create and level a whole new character for it. Your skillsets level as you do, so exchanging between them is simple. Trion insist that they want to break away from the linearity of MMOs, and open up the world with no predefined path at all. Abilities can be combined to produce combos, and with so many abilities out there, the combos are helpfully highlighted in your action bar as you play. This takes much of the complication out of the idea, and so the concept passes off wonderfully.

Story

This will be a pretty short section. It’s not that there isn’t a story, because of course there is. And don’t get me wrong, the story is usually the crux of the MMO for me. But in ArcheAge, the story is not at the forefront of the game. There’s fallen Gods and dragons and the mortal races left to battle and rebuild their broken world, but that’s all fairly generic. The story serves to provide a backbone for the game, but that’s pretty much it. The two factions are locked in war, the pirate faction throws a spanner in the works and messes life up for everyone involved, and that’s all you really need to know.

The storyline is driven by your own gameplay. You create your own path, something Trion is intent on emphasising. Having a deep, intricate story-line would only limit your own movements within the game, and so the lack thereof is not a flaw but a strength. I mean, the quests are numbered, but you can go where you want and do what you want, in pretty much any order you want.

The Game

ArcheAge is very, very pretty. Especially considering it’s a free-to-play. Every blade of grass, the ridged horns on a dinosaur-like enemy, the waving leaves are intricate and a delight to look at. The animations are also seamless – my cape billowing out behind me, the pumping of my mount’s legs – it all flows freely and naturally. Despite a considerable lack of the deep styles of story-line we have become used to in MMOs, and the weak quest and group-play, the PvP excels.

This is where the ‘sandbox’ element of the game really comes into play, in a way in which your PvP really matters and impacts your game. It isn’t thrown in almost as an alternative play-style, but it becomes the crux of the game itself. Losing and looting items is a factor in ensuring that your PvP is on form. There are actual consequences for losing! Which is the spur in the backside that MMOs have been looking for when it comes to this kind of combat – a long resurrection queue is the least of your worries here.

And there’s more.

Pirates.

Need I say more? Probably not, but I will. Exploration of the oceans, combat and battles between ships, you name it, piracy is the answer. Piracy is a class unto itself, but it is the most dramatic and exciting of the combat options in-game. Grouping up into clusters of ships in order to smash against the defences of someone else’s watery barricade takes strategy and determination.

But all this crime is not without punishment. Get this – there’s a crime system in place. Points are charged against you for disreputable actions such as theft or muder, and debuffs can be applied on your character, as well as jailings and imprisonments. This puts the right amount of pressure on the player to play by some kind of rules, and commit crime out of necessity. Waiting at spawn points for hilarious slaughters loses its shine.

The crafting system in the game is also one of the finest I have seen. There are over 20 crafting professions, resulting in a complex and intricate economy system. You have all the professions you come to expect from the genre – fishing, leatherworking, blacksmithing – which are complimented by their gathering counterparts – skinning, mining, etc. There is a farming system in place which adds a new twist to the professions world. However, resource points are required in most aspects of crafting. Resource points are finite, but can be accumulated more freely with a subscription to the game. Free-to-plays often have irksome methods of wheedling cash from their players, but Trion has balanced their need for cash flow nicely. The extra accumulation of resource points is certainly beneficial, but players can still dabble in the crafting world without it.

The spoils of your farming and hard work can be transformed into a trade pack, which is loaded onto your character (visibly, in the game, which is pleasing) and can be hiked around for selling. The distance you lug your spoils, the greater your reward, but let’s bear in mind the sandbox element – carrying goods at a far distance and near big towns is both rewarding and dangerous. It only takes someone from a PvP realm to stick a knife in your face and make off with your goods for your ruin!

There’s a variety of mounts in game, but they’re not just for show and ease of movement. Mounts can be geared up with armour and put into combat, they can be healed and can be directly involved in battle. They’re a sort of pet/mount hybrid, which adds yet another exciting new element to combat and PvP.

Conclusion

What Archeage lacks in story and questing, it makes up for in action in-game decision making, PvP and investment. The ‘sandbox’ element to the MMOs genre is an exciting twist, and puts thrills into trading, moving between areas and general gameplay. And yet, this is held in check with a crime and punishment system that I have never seen in similar games before. The sheer amount of customisation that can go into creating the class of your player, and into the profession line that you go down and the story that you chase in the game guarantees a near unique experience for each player. No player with tackle the game in the same way, and you yourself will find yourself seeing the game through fresh eyes with each character you make. Archeage is a fine example of an MMO, particularly a free-to-play. A must-play for enthusiasts, which is just shown by the popularity of its servers, months after its release.

Disclaimer:All scores given within our reviews are based on the artist’s personal opinion; this should in no way impede your decision to purchase the game.