Monthly Archives: November 2013

Divines of the East Review – Discord Behind the Beauty

By Jonar Isip (Minstryl)

 

Divines of the East is a game that looks like it would be a joy to play. The visual aesthetic is their main selling point and you wouldn’t be at fault if you tried the game simply based on that. But is the game underneath worth your time? Let’s see what Ngames’s browser based MMO is all about.

 

Divines Of The East Review

A Divinely Inspired Eastern Style

The art is the strongest part of this game. Blending colors and sweeping brush strokes convey a pleasing stage to play in. Characters are drawn with little details that are fun to spot but don’t distract. Backgrounds are designed with more muted colors, and are layered to give the sense of distance as your characters travel. Being a sprite-based game, there isn’t anything technically impressive to note, and the animations are repetitive and quite short, but the art style can make it a little easier to forgive these shortcomings.

Divines of the East Auto Combat

The music is also good. The gentle twang of lutes, along with the slow rise and fall of flutes and horns, match the Asian motif of the visuals. There is a variety that comes from this ensemble, from the staccato pace of a quiet number to the rousing score that is often attached to huge towns and dungeons. There are a few complaints that can be leveled against their sound design, however. Music is played back at a low bit rate, giving the otherwise good soundtrack a muffled quality to it. Also, pieces are short enough to notice that they are on an incessant loop.

 

Thankfully, there is an option to shut off the music, but that makes the other flaw in the audio presentation more noticeable – the lack of sound effects. The only time you’ll hear any sort of bang, fwip, and slash is during combat. They’re middling at best. And there’s not much to hear as you walk about town or explore the wilderness – no subtle footsteps, incoherent vocal babble, or ambient noise. Turn off that music, and you’ll be sitting in silence.

 

Divines of the East Crowded Town

A world with a lot to do (as in click)

Divines of the East has plenty of activities for your chosen character class, whether it be the Swordsmen, Eidolon, or Leaf Elf. There are story based quests that reward quite a bit of xp. There are also dungeons that you can take on with other players, when you are at a high enough level. Also present are faction based events that are available at certain times. You may find more things to do if you check out the game’s events calendar.

 

You navigate through the game world by clicking on the various hyperlinks and icons on screen. Some of the activities mentioned can be easily spotted. However, the rest of the options aren’t immediately clear. Frankly, the entire user interface is a mess, and it can be overwhelming to those who absolutely need to know what each button or link will do. If you decide to persist, it’s best to stick with the “Task Track” on the righthand side of the screen, where the game will take you to one story-based quest after the next. The Task Track is good for two things:

  1. To progress through the game without knowing the UI and how things work.
  2. To expose you to some of the more nuanced mechanics that is hidden under that confusing UI.

 

It’s good that this feature exists, because it prevents you from feeling stuck when you are just starting out. However, the downside to this mechanic is that it’s a fairly hands-off experience. When the game shows you to a new feature, it points out the buttons that you need to press, without explaining what each button does. This may be frustrating to those who need additional explanation in order to know what they’re doing. But, at least for a good chunk of the game, it’s just push-button operation, so there’s not much need to understand – just click a link and watch the game go.

 

Actually, most of the game can be described that way. In fact…

 

Divines Of The East Dungeon

It Basically Plays Itself

Divines of the East has many parts of its gameplay that are automatic. When you click on a quest link in the Task Track, your character will move to the next quest giver, then to the monster you need to kill, and then back to the quest giver for your reward without much input from you – except when you need to click on stuff to move past dialog windows. There is an auto-complete button for dungeons that will move your character through the area, fight all the trash mobs, AND kill the boss for you. You still watch your character move and fight, though, which makes the process feel like you’re botting.

 

And the reason why the auto-complete button works is because combat itself is automatic. When your character starts a battle, there isn’t a whole lot of input required from you. You pick the skills that you want your character to use, but the game is the one that activates those abilities in a rotation. Sometimes, once you’ve accrued enough power, you’ll use your servant’s (i.e. your pet’s) ability. You can also switch targets manually but, in general, the game does a good job of selecting which enemy to attack next. In other words, if you’re the kind of person that likes direct control, you’ll be sorely disappointed.

Divines of the East Stat Screen

However, you have control over how powerful your character can be. The game wants you to be more like a coach to your character and party members. Much of your party’s success rides on their individual members’ power rating, a number that goes up based on the equipment you wear, how much you’ve enhanced it, and, of course, your level. If you set up your party correctly, then it’s smooth sailing – just click on the appropriate auto button in the Task Tracker or dungeon interface and you’re free to do whatever else you want with your life.

 

If you aren’t strong enough, well, good luck trying to figure things out with that messy UI and poor help system.

 

Divines Of The East Annoyances

Other Small Annoyances

There are a few other things that may annoy you. The English localization is kind of bad, though you may find the weird syntax and okay grammar cute if you’re into ironic humor. That translation doesn’t help the story much either, which is forgettable and nonsensical in spots. The cash shop isn’t very intrusive, but it does feature a service that will let you grind out monsters while you sleep – which is basically game-sanctioned botting.

 

Divines of the East Dialogue

A Discord Behind the Beauty

Divines of the East is a lot like a beautiful date with deep seated issues. On one hand, the game is fun to look at and is quite easy going at first. You may even find yourself having some dumb fun with the game. But, when you try to get to know the game better you’re liable to drive yourself nuts as you deal with the messy complexity of its interface and gameplay mechanics. Some people may be attracted to that kind of mess. Heck, they may even find the challenge rewarding. However, those who are looking for less hassle with their games should probably stay away.

Divines Of The East Verdict

Verdict: Fair

Shotgun News 11/5: Guild Wars 2, City of Titans, Warhammer Online, and More!

City of Titans Kickstarter Raises More Than 200% of Goal

MWMThanks

The fan made, spiritual successor of City of Heroes, City of Titans has seen their Kickstarter campaign come to an end. After more than a month the indie MMORPG raised more than $670,000, double what Missing Worlds Media had been asking for. Stretch goals mean that the character creator will be available on iOS and Andriod. Congratulations MWM on reaching your goals and beyond! We can’t wait to fly again.

 

Lego Minifigures Online Opens Beta Registration

Registration for Funcom’s upcoming Lego Minifigures Online Closed Beta have now opened on the official website. The closed beta will be an ongoing process over the next year with Funcom slowly inviting players to take part throughout the whole thing.

 

Guild Wars 2 Announces The Nightmares Within

Arenanet has announced details for The Nightmares Within, next week’s addition to the Living Story for Guild Wars 2. The story will continue with the current trouble brewing in Kessex Hills with the opening of the massive tower. And to get the excitement built for the event Arenanet is teaming up with Sygnus Guitars for a competition to win a one of a kind Guild Wars 2 guitar.


Warhammer Online Free for Final Weeks

Mythic is inviting everyone to see Warhammer Online ride off into the sunset. For the last few weeks until the December 18th closure Warhammer Online is free to play. Anyone with an account in good standing as of the end of October is invited to play. And on top of it all there will be unique experiences for players throughout the remaining time.

 

Popstar Ahri Spirit Rush Tour Skin Announced

Popstar Ahri

A new skin has been announced for League of Legends. Popstar Ahri’s record smashing hit “Charm’d” has raised excitement for her upcoming Spirit Rush Tour. She’s been seen practicing new dance moves, and working on a dramatic entrance and exit.

Black Aftermath

Black Aftermath is a text-based online strategy/role-playing game, offering players the chance to dominate the streets and earn a cold cash jackpot (or a turn prize). Get involved with international espionage, thievery, and murder – dominate the global crime circuit – lie, cheat, and steal your way to the top. Train your henchmen to become better at heinous deeds – but be prepared for retribution.

Extra Life Raises $3.7 Million Despite DDoS Attack

More than 31,000 players rallied together over the weekend raising $3.7 million to-date for Extra Life, a Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals gaming fundraiser, despite malicious attacks to the program’s donation website, extra-life.org.

Extra Life Success

Extra Life participants from every U.S. state, throughout Canada and overseas are sponsored by friends and family to play games for 24 hours, although this year’s event featured 25 hours of play thanks to the time change. Funds raised go directly to the Children’s Miracle Network Hospital of the player’s choice and nearly all donations are collected through the secure extra-life.org website. On Nov. 2, at 12 p.m. Eastern Time, extra-life.org crashed. The site’s technology provider DonorDrive said the site suffered a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack.

“Extra-Life.org was the victim of attacks throughout and after the 25-hour event, taking it down intermittently,” said Todd Levy, managing partner at DonorDrive.

Levy said a DDoS attack is basically when vandals overload a network by sending loads of web traffic to a site, causing it to become inaccessible.

“We’re all still a little stunned someone would want to hurt a program that’s helping hospitalized kids,” said Jeromy ‘Doc’ Adams, Extra Life’s founder and a director at Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals.

Late Sunday night, Adams Tweeted his appreciation of the Extra Life community, “My belief in humanity was momentarily shaken then viciously reinforced. GJ FTK gamers. 3.5 and counting.”

DonorDrive’s Levy confirmed all personal data associated with the site, including credit card information, is safe and was never in jeopardy.

“What happened to extra-life.org was not caused by a “hack” or any compromise to security. A DDoS attack is like being stuck in a big traffic jam, not like having your car stolen. All personal information on the site was and continues to be safe,” said Levy.

Despite the attacks players, including our own news editor Leliah, set a record high fundraising total since Extra Life was started in 2008 and also helped the program reach its highest engagements ever on its Facebook page and Twitter account, @extralife4kids. Adams said players had raised just over $2 million for this year’s event before Saturday and rallied to bring in another $1.7 million over the weekend.

Extra-Life.org is accepting donations for member children’s hospitals through Dec. 31, 2013 and thousands more players have continued to sign up Monday. Adams confirmed an Extra Life make-up day will occur Saturday, Nov. 9 at players’ request. For all updates on the make-up day visit extra-life.org or the Extra Life Facebook page. Supporters can also donate to their local member hospital at Extra-life.org/donate

Extra Life is in its sixth year and was created by Adams in 2008 to honor his friend, the late Victoria ‘Tori’ Enmon, a 15-year-old Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals patient who played video games during her battle with acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Since then, thousands of Extra Life participants have raised more than $7 million to benefit 170 Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals in North America, mostly by playing video and tabletop games. The program’s previous fundraising record was in 2012 when it raised $2.1 million.

Mist of Stagnation

Mist of Stagnation is a multiplayer RTS/FPS set in a fantasy steampunk world. Two teams gather resources by holding Control Points in order to advance their technology. During each match, the commander – a huge Steampunk Mech – builds upgrades for their team’s weapons, vehicles, armor, and more. Inside the Mech’s cockpit, the commander has access to the game’s real-time strategy component, while also able to assist their team in first-person perspective in holding objectives. Should a Commander fail to inspire and lead, a team can mutiny and place someone else in the position – putting the pressure on performance.