Allods Online Europe Review: Never Thought P2P Gaming Can Be Free
By Vincent Haoson, OnRPG Journalist
Allods Online is the latest in the Gpotato Europe lineup that has received critical acclaim, and is considered to be one of the must play MMORPGs for 2010. The game uses a lot of familiar game features and interfaces from famous MMORPGs such as World of Warcraft but also introduces a lot of game elements that are exclusive to Allods.
Starting Off
Once you have gotten started with your Allods adventure you have two ways of being introduced into the world. The introduction you’ll have is dependent on the faction you choose. Choosing League means that you will be starting off with a bang, literally and if you decide to go with Empire you will be shot at during your first few minutes of the game.
Character in Allods
The semi-theatrical beginning of the game is a refreshing take on how you start your Allods experience. In fact, it was fun seeing how in-game structures get blown up and it is a good way of immersing you into the game.
Races
Allods Online uses the usual set of races such as humans (Kanians & Xadaganians), elves and orcs. However the game has two unique races, which are exclusive to Allods, they are namely the Arisen and the Gibberlings.
The Arisen, at first glance, look like the usual undead race you can find in other MMORPGs however they are not. The Arisen, according to Allods lore, were part of the earliest human kingdoms in Sarnaut, the world of Allods, they are the race archetype on the Empire side and are the strongest magic users.
Gibberlings archer class
Meanwhile, the Gibberlings are a race of their own. They’re like the three chipmunks in the old show, Alvin and the Chipmunks and you control all three of them either as a group or individually. The Gibberlings are the most unique job class in Allods. Controlling them is kind of similar to how you handle a family in Granado Espada. Each Gibberling is unique on its own and what I like about them is that they actually work as a team when they attack. For scouts, when you use a bow one holds on to the bow while the other Gibberling draws the arrow while the third aims.
The Gibberlings reminds me of the Pom race in Neosteam. Gibberlings look waaay cuter than the Poms and in fact it’s more fun to see the Gibberlings in action compared to Poms.
Gameplay
Allods Onlne’s gameplay is a solid mixture of a lot of familiar game systems that you can find in other MMORPGs. However the character interface does look like that of World of Warcraft, however don’t let it fool you. The character stats screen in Allods provides more customization choices compared to WoW’s. Allods uses a mix of stat point allocation and equipment bonuses for your characters. Each level up gives you a stat point to spend as well as the regular the stat point increase you get per level and the modifiers from the weapons and armor your character has equipped.
I like the addition of the stat point setup in Allods because it provides one thing that WoW doesn’t which is, character build customization. However you won’t enjoy the benefits of the stat increments from the allocated points till later in the game, however seeing how things went with my character it was well worth it.
Other Main Features
Aside from the above mentioned game features, Allods Online has a lot more key features that you might want to experience. One such example is the Astral ships. As the name suggests, Astral ships are literally ships in Allods that you can travel from one Astral to another. Astrals in Allods are the chunks of land that are littered throughout Sarnaut, which is home to a lot of the cities and areas you get to travel to.
What makes these Astral Ships so epic is that you need more than just one man to “pilot” these ships. In fact you need several people to man the different stations within the ship. There are eight stations that need to be manned if you want to set sail and travel from one Astral to another. Also once you set sail in an Astral Ship you can act like pirates and invade other ships or go head to head with them in epic ship battles.
I believe that the Astral Ships are the game’s main selling point. It’s rare for a game to use a ship system like this.
Grinding
The biggest problem I encountered in Allods Online is that the game is one big grind fest. It’s really hard to level in the game without relying on the numerous quests that you will encounter in the game. I think they made it like this to emphasize that Allods Online is not just merely a MMORPG but rather more of a story-driven online game. Though I don’t know how they’ll pull this off because the players who log in want to level and be strong rather than read the game’s lore and slowly unfolding story.
Conclusion
Allods Online is a game that will eventually be labeled as “another WoW killer” with a lot of game elements seemingly similar to Blizzard’s MMO masterpiece. However, I personally don’t think the game will go as far as rivaling WoW. The most praise I can give the game is it has the potential of becoming a sleeper hit just as long as they do things right and not commit the same mistakes other game distributor’s have done with their own games.
I like how Allods Online is being handled and hopefully they keep this up for a long time. F2Ps have the tendency to be mishandled by game distributors after a certain period of time and hopefully the game doesn’t follow this trend. For the meantime I’d highly recommend someone who wants to experience a P2P game for free because that’s what Allods Online is currently delivering.
Pros:
– Astral Ships
– Addition of the stat-point system in character growth
– It’s P2P goodness in an F2P MMORPG/
Cons:
– Grind Fest
– The interface looks similar to a lot of other MMORPGs
– The human character’s body shape seems disproportionate.
