Zero Online is a futuristic giant robot/mobile suit (like Gundam or Mech Warrior) MMO set well…in the future. This is coming from the TQ Digital, the people who created Conquer Online, Eudemons Online, and Crazy Tao. Right from the beginning, I noticed a lot of glaring similarities between their other games and this title.
The graphics are definitely not something to write home about. They are at least a few years old and really look uninspired. What I will say is that there is no one in the world that should be unable to run the game. It is extremely quick and will play on even the most basic of computers. This bodes well for their PvP since you do not have to worry about dropping graphical settings when a war begins. Different guns and melee (hand to hand) weapons look different and have different effects when used, especially in coordination with skills. Still, it would have been nice if more time was spent making the game look good.
The sound in the game is not going to win any awards either I am afraid. All of the music sounds completely uninspired and could really use some attention. Maybe the composer was having a bad day when he put it together, though I really have no idea. The sound effects for skills or even just the use of weapons really only meet the bare minimum required. It would have been great if when you are blowing apart things like robots if sounds like the creaking of metal or the explosion of plasma tanks would have come through. There is no point in crying over spilt milk though.
When it comes to the gameplay, there is at least something to write home about. It is a bit grindy, but at least you can be automatically flown to the areas for your level where you need to grind. There are some quests in the game for experience and they help to break up the game, but by a large margin, you will be killing the same thing for hours. If you are familiar with Conquer Online you will feel right at home as it appeared to me that they basically reskinned that game to create this one. There are some differences in the gameplay, but very minor ones that will be hard to pick out.
As always, the community leaves something to be desired. Since there are plenty of kids in the game, anyone over the age of 21 will quickly realize that they are few in number. On top of that, the typical fights start out over nothing and will escalate to levels that are completely unacceptable. If the company were to accept some volunteer GMs and pay them with some item mall currency or something and allow them to police the community, it would be a much better place for everyone.
One major sore spot for Zero Online is with the performance. I am not sure if the problem was with their servers or with the network code, but anytime there was more than like 6 people on my screen I got massive lag. Considering I am running on a 5 month old machine that I built myself and paid over $1500 for the parts, there is no way it is my system that is to blame. Hopefully though, TQ Digital can address these problems in the near future.
No one can say they are not trying to reach all audiences with this game though. They are developing the storyline more for those who care about it. Events are held on a fairly frequent basis by the GM staff, and they do actually try to address troublemakers as often as they can. It is not their fault that parents use the internet to babysit and raise their kids, so the GM staff is often left to fill that role. There is a lot of potential in this game and it is still fun to play as it is, especially if you loved Conquer Online or have an older computer.
