>> Risk Your Life: Path to the Emperor preview
>> 03.15.05
Publisher: Planetwide Games
Dev: Youxiland/Gamasoft
Release: Was planned for 03/01/05 but got pushed back to 03/17/05 (online) and 05/05/05 (in stores)
As it stands: 7.1/10
Support grade: A
Keep in mind that this is a preview, the game being in its beta phase. There will be 150 levels in the retail version, while characters are currently limited to lvl 95 in this open beta.
I decided to take a dive in the Open beta for RYL: PotE on its beginning week (it started in Feb) thinking to myself that jumping in another mmorpg open beta was a good way to resist the urge to subscribe to World of Warcraft. So I jumped in the RYL:PotE open beta bandwagon. After downloading the client I took 5 minutes to mentally prepare myself for a big letdown …
The interface is very rebutting. It took me a good 2 hours before figuring the controls and mechanics (it took me 5 minutes in WoW) But I got over it and decided to go directly to the first monsters and quickly start making some xp… I went through the wrong city gate and fond myself face to face with a squirrel that proceeded to whoop my ass: you have to be level 10+ to fight squirrels! After figuring where to fight, the whole picture appeared to me very clearly: the whole game is organized in “areas” for a range of level, as indicated by your map where you can see creatures of your level and the creature’s level ranges from you. The leveling process to level 10 took me… 2 or 3 hours? Max. Then I got to pick my specialization class. That’s how I came to be an Assassin (from a simple rogue it was that or Archer.)
I figured I’d be level 95 (the max you can get in this open beta. It is 150 in the real game) but it slowed down after level 10: The grind is a pain. Imagine being forced to kill the same things for hours, then moving to another area to kill a new mob for hours, rinse and repeat (solo xp is the best at the beginning for most classes.) Now get to level 50+ (count 4 weeks+ for regular gamer.) Take a day off or two to relax your index finger, the one you click with (there is no auto attack button; you have to keep it clicked if you want to be attacking.) At 50+ the xp you’ll get by yourself is too low, so you’ll start grouping with the other people from this game (my first group was at lvl45!!)
The griping system relies way too much on some specific classes to my taste, it needs a tanker, a healer, and a buffer to form a core, on which satellites will add. Then it’s the same as before, except you don’t get a break when your finger is tired. Mobs are coming to the same area the fighters are, wave after wave, 5 by 5. You spend two hours with your finger constantly pushing the attack button of your mouse without noticing. And you cannot talk because of that either, so no socialization when getting xp. There is no real money pit in place at the moment (no tradeskills) so the economy prices constantly increase to ridiculous amounts. My advice: invest in Silvins (base metal that players start selling for 1K the first week; that sells for 60-100k by the end of the month.) About the quests: There are multiple quests but don’t expect much.
You’re basically following a story line where every new quest adds a little bit more to the previous quest. Except there’s WAY too few: don’t feel bad if you can’t find any, there’s really not that many. Something along the lines of 1 quest every 10 levels to begin with, and a few more at 40, 50 and 60…. The real frustration is the feeling that quests are just here to soothe someone tired of clicking, or just for retarded player who really expect them, but just for show. A way to say “hey we have quests in this game!” while Diablo2 gives out a feeling of having more quests than this MMORPG. In fact coming back to Diablo, that’s what the game feels like right now. It’s a continuous crawl not in a dungeon but on a map, going deeper and deeper, fighting harder and harder, gaining xp slower and slower…while improving equipment and skills.
Is that good or bad? Good, I liked Diablo in fact. The caste you selected as a specialized class opens you some specific skills to pick from, while giving you a favored attribute. As you level and increase favored or regular attributes, you gain a skill point to increase a class specific skill or one of the common pool skills of your race. What you make of your character can greatly differ from others among your class, but might just work in a fun weird kind of way (an assassin putting all his point in int can be fun, depending what common skills you take.) The items all have stats requirement, usually primary stats. They use a letter grading to represent the item’s quality. An F is a crappy item, while an A is very good. Even though it is usually better to look for items that are in your level range, as in picking an F item you just met requirements for than a B items you’ve been carrying around for 20 levels.
So yeah, decking out your character is fun. Creating your build is fun.
The two races are humans and Akkans (demons) and are inherently at war. After you pick a side you will battle the other one. That was the drill in the first RYL but it was a surprise to start with Akkans in the same city. I found out you could even group with them under certain circumstances…. But don’t let that fool you. It’s the façade to the game, the real game will start to unveil to the one who has been patient enough to play through the tedious and annoying levels, and decides to join a guild (has to be level 30 at least) From the moment you join a guild, you become flagged for pvp outside of the city. Any other guilded player that you meet outside of the city walls from the opposite team will be able to attack you. And there’s no place to hide, no dungeon instance in here. So any guilded group can become the prey to another group while xp’ing. You’ll loose some fame and 3% of your current xp level (without ever losing a level) and can respawn at the nearest city/spawn if you want. Or you can get a res from another player to negate the xp penalty and respawn at your body’s location. Rinse and repeat, mix in guild fortresses that players can create in certain parts of the map and you’ll discover something that in the end might just come close to “counterstrike mmorpg” and it might just be as fun as that.
The fighting, even around level 65 is very fast paced, pve or pvp, and overall satisfying if you’re into hack and slash.
The graphic style of this game is enjoyable, and looks good overall. I’m just going to complain about the lack of a first person view. But that’s me.
The game is supposed to go p2p (pay to play) in a couple weeks, but there are still a few bugs here and there, the most obvious being graphical flaws… There is music in the game, the ones I have found so far were entertaining. The support this game is receiving so far has been nothing short of great: the staff responded quickly and accordingly to your requests/troubles, and there is about one event a week with prizes sometimes impressive (I won a ipod shuffle in one event!)
Keep in mind that this is not a review but a preview of the game. The characters go up to level 150 in the p2p version of the game, and I barely made it halfway. The game experience might just be totally different in the end. However it is safe to assume that the pvp aspect is a dominant one in the later game, if not the main. If you’d rather go play pve I suggest you try a diff MMO because this one is relatively dull compared to what is currently available. The overall feel of the game is dated, as if it were already 3 years old, but there is some fun coming out of it anyways. In a weird Counter-Strike-Diabloesque way! Nothing to die for though, and be warned that to start having fun you’ll have to put in the hours.
Reviewed by Pierre Johnson
