I am about 2 weeks into Darkfall and even though my skills are crap, my gear is crap and I have barely explored further than the newbie areas, I have to say it is a lot of fun. I am actually quite surprised as to how fun a game it is. Remember, at launch this game produced enough bile that every subscription came with a pack of antiacids. Folks on this very site dismissed the game after wrestling with its arcane user interface. Every forum (Darkfall’s included) was filled with wailing over how bad this game was. It scored a 2/10 in an early review… and then that review was hotly argued… by the developers and the review site’s editors nonetheless.
It was the biggest trainwreck since Age of Conan — The Trainwreck of All Trainwrecks — which is a cornucopia for hobbyist internet vultures such as myself, but did not bode well for the health of the game. And yet, here we are nearly a year after launch and through several patches and expansions, Darkfall is still around and it has become a good game.
Say it with me, “Darkfall is a good game.”
I am having a great time. The two friends I sort of dragged along with me are having a great time. Talking to a few vets, I find that they are having a great time. The Darkfall forums are generally positive and for every “I quit” post (can’t have a game forum without them) there is one “I am thinking of coming back” post. Membership in NEW (a guild that caters to easing newbies into the otherwise harsh game) is trending up over the last few weeks. Development is continuing with more features being added, more bugs being fixed and more exploits being closed. It seems the Internet’s Most Maligned Game (this week) has hit a stride.
One thing that I think has helped attract and keep new players, and currently the best part of Darkfall for me, has been the game’s PvE. That is likely to surprise people who’ve never played and is certain to annoy the game’s vets who are gnashing their teeth, screaming “Carebear!” and queuing up their Gank skill as we speak. But it’s true. Darkfall has been touted as the PvPer’s paradise — a hardcore, free-for-all, full loot gankfest where player skill trumps gear and giant 100 v. 100 sieges are commonplace. It may actually be all of that, but it is also a game with some of the most engaging and exciting PvE I’ve seen in a long while.
Saying that PvE is the best part of Darkfall is a bit of a stretch. As a new player, there are huge aspects of the game I haven’t seen. I am sure that most veterans of Agon would claim that PvP of one stripe or another is Darkfall’s forte. For me, PvP mostly consists of getting smacked down by meth-amphetamine enhanced circle-strafers with stats macroed well into the thousands all wearing depleted uranium armor and wielding two handed plasma cannons… at least that’s what I’ll say when I cry on the forums.
Seriously though, Darkfall is a game with a pretty steep character progression curve. Stats matter, skills matter and though it matters less than in most games, gear does still matter. As a new player, I am seriously lacking all of those things and so it will take quite a bit of time to close that gap. Closing that gap for most means grinding PvE and fortunately, Darkfall’s PvE is a pleasant surprise.
Great Environments — Darkfall’s world of Agon is filled with ancient ruins, caves, villages, goblin huts, statues, bandit forts and abandoned keeps. The environments look good, are well-designed and are fun to explore. It has been a long time since I have experienced an MMO with more “Let’s check that out!” moments as Darkfall has. And there is a good reason to check out these sites. Many of them hold magician’s boxes, chests and crates of food and resources. Others have lucrative monster spawns. Of course, some sites have nothing, or spawn monsters that will rip the unwary newbie in two. Not knowing is a lot of the fun.
Terrain Matters— The first cool moment I had playing Darkfall was when I realized that hiding behind a boulder allowed me to draw a lone goblin into striking distance, and that a tree would allow me to kill one goblin while protecting me from an other’s spells. All games have trees, boulders, hills and shrubs, but Darkfall is the first game where they matter… a lot. Having the high ground is useful in melee and archery, but being up against a wall exposes you to splash damage from spells. Also, many mobs in DF have ranged attacks and will start shooting as soon as they spot you… none of this pansy 25 ft. aggro radius. Stealth in Darkfall means crouching in shrubs, or behind rocks and trees and how you approach a battle has a lot to do with winning it.
Skill Matters — Two times in my life have I been sleeping while doing something that theoretically requires human intervention. The first time I was a student working the night-shift in a motel and I had an early morning appointment in a nearby city. About half way through the drive, I realized I wasn’t going to make it and so I turned around to head back home. Half an hour later, I woke with a start at a red light about a mile from my house, seemingly having driven 25 miles while sleeping.
The second time, I was playing City of Heroes. I hear I did pretty well actually, firing off buffs, holds and attacks without missing a beat. I guess controllers are easy mode after all!
That’s not to say that tab-and-click MMOs take no skill. They do, but much of that skill comes from knowing the game mechanics, knowing your build and your combat options and constructing proper skill chains to react to various in-game events. Once you perfect your build, a lot of the minute-to-minute gameplay is rote. Start fight, press 1, then 2, then 3, then 2 again, then 5, then 1… spawn is dead. Move to next spawn, rinse and repeat.
Darkfall’s FPS gameplay keeps me engaged, even when fighting spawn after spawn of mobs. You have to aim. You have to dodge. You have to keep an eye out for new mobs and enemy players looking to capitalize on you making a mistake. Falling asleep during Darkfall would be a little like dozing off playing Modern Warfare…
Decent AI— Though no computer game has great AI, the mobs in Darkfall do a good job of making combat interesting. I have seen DF mobs lure me into their friends, circle strafe me, flank me, find their way up two flights of stairs to ambush me while resting in a supposedly safe place and pelt me with arrows from an unreachable position on a nearby cliff. Mobs are difficult right from your first quest to kill four goblins. Ask 100 DF vets and I bet 99 of them have a story about underestimating a mob and ending up dead.
Constant Reinforcement— The skill system in Darkfall is a lot like those you find in Daggerfall, Morrowind and Oblivion in the sense that your skills increase as you use them. So, as you are slogging through goblins, you are rewarded with a steady stream of messages about how your sword skill is increasing, or your defense skill has improved. As you craft and gather, you are increasing your skills, but also your stats which will eventually make you a combat machine. Everything you do in the game improves your character.
Risk v. Reward— A lot of game developers talk about risk versus reward and very few of them get the equation correct. The main reason for this is that there really is never any risk in a typical MMO. If you die in WoW, you have to repair your gear at the cost of some gold, or possibly sit a few minutes as your rez sickness wears off. In City of Heroes, you accrue some debt which slows your rate of xp gain a little. It used to sting, but over the years, the devs have reduced the debt so much that death effectively has no penalty. In Champions Online… there is no death penalty to the point where “graveyard zerging” (alternating deaths and making sure at least one character in a battle survives long enough to allow the others to return, thus you heal to full while the enemy is slowly worn down) is the main strategy to beat a few of the bosses.
Darkfall’s risk comes from the fact that combat is inherently dangerous for much of the game. There are no levels and no “conning” in the game, so you only know how hard something is going to be by hitting it and getting hit by it. Of course, at some point, you learn what you can handle. Even so, most mob spawns contain mutiple mobs, that will work together to kill you and respawn fairly quickly. It is easy to get in over your head if you aren’t careful. And if you aren’t careful, you can end up winning a fight, only to end up with a quarter of your health and out of stamina and at that point, you are a prime target for a PvPer looking for an easy score.
At best, death means running back to your unmolested corpse and having to fight your way back to reclaim your gear. At worst, you lose everything you brought with you and everything you gained this trip. Every time you grab gear out of the bank, you are taking a risk.
On the other hand, by adding the risk into the game, the developers have made the rewards that much sweeter. Every time I find a chest and get a free infusion of cash, I am elated… and paranoid. A good hunting or mining trip where I make it back home to bank a pack full of cash and goods makes me happier than looting yet another blue item off yet another boss mob who happened to be sitting around waiting for me to kill him and even if I managed to die in the battle, I could just return in five minutes to try again. And spotting that player corpse on the horizon when no one’s around is quite a rush. Who knows what you might find? Or could that player be storming back to retrieve his stuff? Could it be a trap?
Welcome to Darkfall.
Great review! I agree that Darkfall has the most interesting and challenging PVE that I’ve seen in a MMO.
Great review!
I’d be drawn in, but my connection was always around 500ms on wow. I’m thinking that wouldn’t be fast enough in darkfall? I used to do battlegrounds in wow and could sort of work around the latency (had this time where I sapped a dwarf while I was cloaked and…he appeared sapped about ten feet away to my left…he mustn’t have realised he was knocked out!)
500 ms would be rough, since a lot of the game is aiming your attacks and friendly fire exists. Without tab-targetting, I would think you would have a hard time.
On the other hand, that lag should also make you hard to hit, so who knows?
Say it with me:
Darkfall is a good game.. if you bring/drag your friends to play with you. Which is true for EVE Online and every other PvP game on the market. You either bring friends or spend enormous (meaning no life besides gaming) amount of time to befriend other players.
Any PvP game is bearable if you got someone to watch your back and there is strength in numbers to guarantee some victory. For a casual (solo) gamer of today that will never work and you know it.
I don’t know Luk, my first few days in Darkfall were solo since my friends hadn’t shown up yet. The first night I randomly teamed up with a guy to kill goblins. Later, I saw him and got an invite to his guild… which I ultimately didn’t take. Is that common? No, but guilds all over the NA-1 server are recruiting all the time.
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Are guilds friends? No… closer to a frat than a friend, but they offer a certain level of help and backup that is required in a game like Darkfall… and some of them are cool guys too.
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I am glad I have two friends to regularly group with; it makes life much, much easier… though because we are sooo weak, it by no means guarantees victory in PvP. But a guild offers a lot of the same benefits and really, a lot of guilds aren’t hard to join. Mind you, you have a to find a guild that matches your playstyle and can handle your play schedule. A heavy raiding guild makes no sense if you are on 2 hours, one night a week… but casual-friendly guilds exist, even in DF.
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So… no, I don’t know that it “will never work.” It is working, right now, for lots of folks.
Point taken, for now.
But give it some time, gain some levels. Once you get bored of PvE and find that it will be impossible to PvP and win when odds are stacked against you , maybe then…
[..]But give it some time, gain some levels[..]
There are no levels
[…]Once you get bored of PvE and find that it will be impossible to PvP and win when odds are stacked against you[…]
mmmh… odds stacked against you… like 3v1? 4v1? If you are good you can roll over people like a speeding truck. No other MMO lets you do that. Only FPS generally and DF is a MMOFPSRPGOMG lol.
@Luk
Fair fights are rare in DF. The whole idea is you try to make sure the odds are stacked in your favour. Of course you would have a high chance of losing if the odds are against you… Isn’t that obvious? And finding a good Clan isn’t that hard :P
@OP
Great post, my first experiences in darkfall were similar. Keep it up!
Interesting and fairly well rounded review. I agree with your observations on PvE; Darkfall has some of the more interesting PvE in this latest generation of MMOs.
However, it still needs a lot of polish and balancing if it’s going to last, especially with competitors like Mortal getting closer to release.
I’ve been playing since EU launch, and I love the game, but it still needs some work to be truly great.
Darkfall is a great game and i enjoy it. AV do good work and i am sure Darkfall will stay for many years on the mmorpg market.
DF best game since DAoC for me :)
Perfect review!
Played they game since beta and if it’s something you can say about it it’s: “The world is absolutely stunning!”
Not by far the best graphics but the world design is so beautiful. I still now one year since i first played the game find new spots in the world i have not seen before and get amazed.
You can totally solo in DFO and not get bored.
I’ve soloed since beta, through release, for this whole time.
I’m never bored, I’m never unhappy, I love it. I get to fights groups and roll them, I get the rush of solo raiding and mobs. It works just fine for the casual gamer.
An excellent review.
From someone thats played since launch you have captured well the darkfall experience.
This game will grow and will continue to be successful.
It would take a screwup of NGE proportions to stop this game.
I had a really hard time deciding whether or not to try this game, because df-critique has kinda become a genre on its own since the release… But I’ve never played a mmo that’s even close to this much fun in terms of skillbuilding and pvping… and never one so underestimated in terms of reviews, either. Speaking of which, great rev:)
Great wright-up, you have made me want to look back into Darkfall again
@luk you honestly havnt got a clue, A) go to the forums find the pvp section and look at some vids, B) actually play the game before you make comments as above.
Thanks for the great review, I was agreeing with everthing said in here. As a newish darkfall player I found my first day killing goblins using tactics very fun! Darkfall has come a long way since launch indeed. Anyone who ragequited should definatly come back.
this is the first review that is actually making me want to try it. Already i am sick of no risk games that monsters wait around to be killed and everyone has the same loot. here it seems as even coming back from a farming day is a challenge… cant even imagine that.
Spot on. Good review, and as a veteran player I will have to say that many of these things you’re pointing out such as the risk vs. reward were reasons that I stuck with the game from the very beginning. Regardless of the bugs and issues Darkfall has seen the devs have always had the right idea, and that (at least for me) is enough to keep me sub’d.
AV really is doing well with this game, and it’s good to see other people appreciating DF! It’s got some flaws, no game is perfect, and it may not be polished as a triple A MMO, but gosh its fun and it has indie spirit.
The community in DF is great too because the PvP and PvE demand cooperation for the best rewards.
If you’re looking for something different give DF a try!
Great Review! It made me to decide try out DF. I wasn’t sure because of the excesive amount of ppl saying bad things about this. Gonna get this game ^^
Darkfall is a g… g… goo…
Darkfall is a gooooooooo..!
I’m sorry, I can’t lie!
Great review!
If you think that you are having fun now, just wait until you have a few months under your belt! I have played since EU launch for about as much time as a regular person may watch TV (3-6 hours every 2 days?). I rerolled for NA launch and even though I do not ever play all day, my skills and stats have rapidly increased. I have caught up to most EU players and am getting close to capping a few stats (yes, stats and not skills) and expect to have 110 str, 110 vit, 110 qui in the next couple months!! So excited! My magic is very low and archery is almost maxed (which can be done in just a few days of full gameplay) but the fact that I am a casual player who has been able to catch up to most others is very nice . .. you just really have to think about what you want and how to get it (without cheating of course). Need reflex? Fight the mobs that DOT you, etc. There is a tactic to building every skill.
I have enjoyed the rush of being red and against pretty much everyone . .. my bank is overflowing with loot I’ve collected from other more unfortunate PVPers but I am so far from end-game content IMO. I do not have any magic skills worked up at all, and feel that the grind for magic is definitely worth it for PVP . .. I mean how cool will it be to AOE blind people for 12 seconds!? This game is amazing because of the gameplay, but you really have to sculpt what you are used to into what works in this game.
If you enjoyed Daggerfall, Oblivion, Morrowind, Call of Duty, Halo, etc . .. than this is the game for you! I never got bored with the PVE either. This game really keeps you on your toes compared to other games. You cannot be too drowsy, are scared to go AFK to pee for too long, and what is the coolest thing is the stealth factor and the way your heart jumps from time to time!!
Ask anyone who plays this game, even if they don’t like it, ‘How often do you feel like your heart is going to pound out of your chest while your shaky hands do their best to maintain control?’ It happens to us all. This game really can be felt physically. It has the ability to make you feel like shooting yourself in the head, but at the same time, gives you an outstanding euphoria when victorious.
No other game has done that for me, probably because this game is the most challenging out there and has the most realistic feel (especially when solo).
Agreed.
This game has a different feel than any other and extremely enjoyable once you get past using a different UI and used to your controls.
I really hope that more people start playing as the population can seem low at times . ..
: (
Very good write up.
I looked over the darkfall forums to see if the negative posts were really so few. I found out why after digging several pages into their archives. Their moderators lock any threads that are blatantly negative. There are hudreds, or maybe thousands of threads that are locked for even the simplest complaint.
I guess anything game could look that good if they moderated their forums like darkfall.
@UltimateOrange
I agree, any game that needs to lock down its forums with heavy moderation is not being true to its customers. I am also not surprised about foaming at the mouth DF defenders who are “ganking” anyone who says anything negative about their game. Give it a rest, DF is doing fine with or without your help, but it will never be the game of choice for anyone who is not into dog-eat-dog kind of behavior.
BTW, I am a cat person, so there you go :)
About the “heavy moderation” on the Darkfall forums, otherwise known as forumfall.
AV have only just implemented a system that links game accounts to forum accounts. This and the fact that the community existed years before the game was released (same as many games) ment that it was a public free for all on the forums.
It has improved now with the new forum system, and any complaints, suggestions or grievances that are voiced on the forums intelligently and with common sense are left alone.
Most of the deleted or moderated posts are QQing kids who have lost their gear in a full loot game and can’t have everything their own way ;p
I like the review a great deal and am tempted to give this a shot. I agree fully that the risk vs reward in most games is heavily reward focussed with minimal risk.
That said I don’t want to take on a game like this without giving it a try first and their reluctance to provide a free trial (7 days would do) means I remain to cautious to invest.
There is rumour of a free trial next month (late Feb) and if true I will be there like a shot.
Chris: Honestly, I understand your hesitation. I was very much in the same boat. I read a lot of stuff about Darkfall and had mixed feelings. On one hand the game sounded cool, a harsh world with exciting massive battles. On the other hand, it sounded like a macro & cheat laden, gankfest. I was tempted to try it on multiple occasions, but just couldn’t bring myself to hit that buy button.
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Ultimately, what happened was that I kept getting new games, or tried going back to old ones, and they all left me bored. WoW is a great game, but even though I still have a lot of levels and dungeons to play through, I am done with it. CoX gave me years of fun, but it is a solved problem. CO was great for a month, but I soon realized how truly trivial it was.
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So… at some point, I figured what the heck? I needed something different and DF offered that. If I bought it and was ultimately disappointed, it would be no worse of a waste than the rest of those games.
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Having bought Darkfall, I am certainly glad I did. Even though the game is hard, unforgiving, frustrating, and clunky, everything about the game has been a fun change from the traditional formula.
than text to fix your article where the phrases begin from the bottom instead of top.
On topic:
Darkfall is a decent sandbox game, but very unpolished, very poor GUI, very poor optimization with a good sandbox gameplay. Unfortunatly every mmo game, requires a minimum of polish, which Darkfall has not.
The game survives, because the market is completly void on sandbox mmorpgs, otherwise this game would be ignored completly.
Cheers
for me poor GUI..Its does’t look like it is release in 2oth century it’s like old games.I rather go flash games than this.
Darkfall is good i rate 5/10 if they improve the gui for Darkfall 2.0 this a game is promising. Only if they plan to bring back the game to life it is more on gui make it more realistic.
I Say it with you, “Darkfall is a good game.”
im a totaly newbie. i started playing 4 days ago and on my first day i got picked up in a clan. now just from the 4 days of gameplay ive had the game is great i mean ive had good times and bad ones. ive participated in sieges and raids ive scouted miles and miles of land trying to find an enemy force ive even been in ship battles. but there are down times too. such as when you get ganked twice by diffrenet poeple the first one takes some stuff you go grab your stuff get ganked again and he takes everything. id give this game a 7/10 the PvE is great ive never had to actually try to farm mobs before. just turn on auto attack and macro tab. either way great review man hope to see you inside too ^^ (name of the clan i joined is: The Industry check us out)
Darkfall is a lot like those you find in Daggerfall, Morrowind and Oblivion in the sense that your skills increase as you use them.
a steady stream of messages about how your sword skill is increasing, or your defense skill has improved. As you craft and gather, you are increasing your skills, but also your stats which will eventually make you a combat machine. Dark falls rocks!
hmm.. I am sure that most veterans of Agon would claim that PvP of one stripe or another is Darkfall’s forte.
It has the ability to make you feel like shooting yourself in the head, but at the same time, gives you an outstanding euphoria when victorious.
such as when you get ganked twice by diffrenet poeple the first one takes some stuff you go grab your stuff get ganked again and he takes everything. id give this game a 7/10 the PvE is great ive never had to actually try to farm mobs before.
now just from the 4 days of gameplay ive had the game is great i mean ive had good times and bad ones. ive participated in sieges and raids ive scouted miles and miles of land trying to find an enemy force ive even been in ship battles.
CoX gave me years of fun, but it is a solved problem. CO was great for a month, but I soon realized how truly trivial it was.
You either bring friends or spend enormous (meaning no life besides gaming) amount of time to befriend other players.
The game survives, because the market is completly void on sandbox mmorpgs, otherwise this game would be ignored completly.
just turn on auto attack and macro tab. either way great review man hope to see you inside too
Well written post. I especially liked your note on quality content. These points have once again underlined the significance of good content.
Well written post. I especially liked your note on quality content. These points have once again underlined the significance of good content.