Welcome again for today’s blog post folks! Today’s topic (as if you haven’t already inferred from the topic) will be a medium-length review of my dabbling in some random MMORPG – popular or unpopular, big or small. In this case, this will be a review on my adventures in the Browser MMO, Doomlord (www.doomlord.net), made by the folks at Beholder Ltd. You may be thinking that I am pushing the budget a little for going this out of topic. But hey, this is “Delvarian’s Assorted Things”, where I’ll (and maybe others in the future) will cover a multitude of topics ranging from gaming topics to other topics – no matter how outlandish they may be. It all depends on my mood and reader demand. Besides, some MMOs need some attention and are overlooked by MMO-reviewers at times. So, sit tight and enjoy the review!
From the beginning of the game, I had to choose from four different “classes” of sorts or hordes - Ruby, Emerald, Sapphire, and Diamond. Each had their own bonuses relating to skills and I decided to pick the Ruby horde due to its specific (which I forgot) advantages. I presume the choice of class will affect something later on down the line. Just afterwards, I was introduced the story of this game and began the tutorial. From what I can make out of the plot, the forces of nature on a medieval planet have been dis-balanced so much to the point that the planet entered an apocalypse of sorts. Moreover, the natives or people were forced down into underground caverns due to enemy forces on the surface. The surface ones were ultimately defeated yet, the aftermath people to turn on each other and become murderers of the like. They wanted each others soul energy (or ability points of the sort) to become stronger – to become a Doom Lord. Thus, begins my character’s quest to quench his never ending thirst for soul energy and to become one of the greatest doomlords – hopefully to overturn the apocalypse and restore the balance of the planet.
The tutorial ran me through how to spend my soul energy to increase one of my 7 stats (Strength, Attack, Defense, Constitution, IQ, Magic, and Thaumaturgy) and all the other basic features of this kind of game. Some prime examples of this genre would be BiteFight and BattleKnight – two mediocre games in my opinion due to their lack of innovation. However, what distinguishes itself from its relatives is that it uses a point-buy system (not a leveling system like other similar ones) to directly improve stats while the EXP earned is used for gaining levels and advancing the story. Speaking of the story, the game mechanics’ seem quite woven into the story and not considered to be “static” or inconsistent like in other games of this type. For instance, when my character reached level 1, the story explained why I attained the ability to buy items from the Soul-huckster AKA the equipment and items shop – I met a soul-huckster, a traveling merchant of sorts, while traversing through the surface lands. Though, one will have to eventually strike a balance of whether to buy new items or to directly improve stats as they use the same currency – soul energy. A nifty feature for strategy, though with enough persistence this can be averted.
Similar to other “time-waiting” games, you set a time to hunt and you’ll have to wait through a timer to see the results. Though, it does update after each individual hunt is completed. You have a set limit of Action Points for hunting though (capped at 250) to prevent on infinitely hunting or to stack them to infinity. Of course, I never ran out of action points per day probably due to the fact that I check it only 3 to 5 a day on average. You can duel other players using Duel Points (capped at 100) but, I don’t recommend doing it at a low-level until you raise your skills and buy good enough equipment. From my own experiences, dueling gave a minute amount of soul energy and EXP and could not be rapid-fired – something I would put up with due to all the clicking involved. Thus, I gave up on dueling entirely for profit and instead relied solely on questing and hunting for obtaining soul energy and EXP. A nifty feature which also sets this apart is that per every hunt, you are asked a question which if you answer correctly, you’ll gain a 10% bonus to the amount of soul energy you would have earned originally on that particular hunt. These questions range from general knowledge to less than known knowledge, but never delve into the complicated subjects (thankfully).
Of course, this game isn’t without its own downsides. Like most other games of this genre, Beholder Ltd. makes a profit by selling Ancient Stones, which are needed to get the most powerful items in the game and can be readily bought in the game story for real money. This can seriously disbalance the game if players can easily buy better items. However, thankfully the developers have coded the game so that one can earn Ancient Stones for free by hunting – though a VERY low rate. Of course, this can be also offset thanks to a skill increasing the chances of finding one. Moreover, all the waiting in this game may turn off a lot of gamers and prospective players looking for something more fast-paced or more sophisticated. This isn’t exactly a bad thing, but it limits the population of the game servers – thus, the servers don’t really have that many active people (AKA only about 100 or more).
tid-bits or findings in the game in the future (if any). I give this game a (heavily opinionated, Your Mileage May Vary on this) rating of 6.25 out of 10 stars. I recommend you all give this game a look though if you looking for a browser-based MMO.
Well, thanks for staying with me through the review folks! I thank you for the support and wish you a great day/night. Please point out any flaws or inconsistencies you found in my “review” if possible. Suggestions are always welcome! See you tomorrow for another blog posting here! This is Delvarian, signing off!
No comments:
Post a Comment