A truly amazing game. I have been playing for over a year and it just gets better every update
Pros:
*Very deep gameplay
*The ability to approach any problem from multiple angles
*The addition of player boats, housing, shops, etc.
*The great graphics
*Incredible community
Cons:
*Takes a good computer to run (a $1000 modern day pc at least)
*Low population
*Stiff NPCs
*Barren environments
The game is amazing in itself. It has things no other MMO has and it is incredibly addicting. From Diplomacy to Crafting and Harvesting the game is great and can be approached from any direction and be experienced a new way every time you play. Also, the addition of player buildings and boats is very nice and add alot to the already great game. Alot of people are being turned away due to the fact that bugs are known to exist but believe me, they arent nearly as bad as they used to be. The game has been fixed by a long shot and is very nice as of the writing of this review. People who bash the game now are still referring to the beta testing and release date of the game.
Now for my personal experience =D
My first booting of the game I had to let the game install some patches (which it did by itself) and though this is expected the patches where so long that they took two hours to download...This sucked but since they make the game playable I can deal with it.
I entered the game and was prompted to create and avatar, and let me just say that this is amazing. You use sliders (much like in oblivion) and make a completely unique character to play with...even the beast races can be customized very nicely. After I made my Vulmane Ranger I started the game and appeared in a small urban camp that offered a couple general shops, trainers for low levels, and a few quests to start me off. I accepted the quests and though they where easy they felt great as they where my first steps into the game. I had to pick some berries and kill some of the local monsters and I was done and level 2 in no time. Next I had to go into a cave and help out some 'less fortunate' souls (NPCs) that where in need...they gave decent exp. and allowed me to meet some friends along the way of questing.
I was eventually out of starting quests so ventured out and found a nice settlement that offered the basics of the game. I could start my diplomacy skills and such here which, by the way, are extremely addicting and come in handy later in-game. You can also get some harvesting quests, though you cant be a pure harvester until level 10. Anyways, I did some of the quests here, met some new people and leveled a bit. Something great is that you are penalized for dying until level 7 so dont worry about dying until then, as nothing really happens. After doing some local quests I decided to go out and explore a bit more and stumbled upon some more players who I grouped with and leveled to level 5 inside of a cave while doing some chain quests. Unfortunately it got late and I had to log off for that night but it was a great first day in the world of Telon and I am very happy with my time there.
Bottom Line:
*The game is great. It is very deep and very fun to play, not to mention the community is phenomenal. The fighting is fun and the animations are smooth as well. The only big draw back is the trouble of leveling. Though it is fun it takes a while and after playing for over 30 hrs (after the game's official release) I am now only level 11 (though i did just run around for a while so really more like 20 hrs). This game is for the more hardcore crowd and if you only have an hour a day this game isnt for you...on the other hand, if you love the gaming lifestyle and have 3+ hrs a day to play then you need to pick this up asap and start your new life :)
See you in Telon!
My character (main):
Name: Avengash
Server: FlameHammer (i believe...)
Gender: Male
Race: Vulmane
Class: Ranger
Current Level: 11