RATING:
Pros: Interesting option offering different controls, wide variety of available classes/ schools.
Cons: Slightly dated graphics, cheesy story, lack of character customisation.
Gameplay: 7
Sound: 6
Graphics: 7
Overvall: 7
With Swordsman beginning its open beta test today, we’re having this review for after recently being granted the opportunity to give it a try. Published by Perfect World, this free-to-play martial arts themed action MMORPG set in ancient China lets players personify the main protagonist of an unfolding story arc campaign that revolves around the massacre committed in their home village.
This MMORPG fuses fantasy and Chinese mythology revolving around the Wuxia genre and allows players to join 10 different martial arts schools, each of which provides a different class that defines their martial arts/ combat style allowing them to perform physics defying feats (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon). The game is currently in closed beta, so we were granted a behind-the-scenes look at what is going to be on offer.
When logging in, you are immediately welcomed by the character creation screen which enables you to either pick a male or female character to then determine its appearance and provide it with a name. You may choose from a huge selection of different appearance options including scalable body customisation for defining your character’s proportions as well as an array of pre-made faces, haircuts, detailed features, etc. Given the genre, the character customisation fell a little short though, as your only option is to play a human while we would have expected far more choices for an MMORPG than we were presented with to define our character. This unfortunately wasn’t the case, even more so lots of the different options were that much alike that we could barely tell any difference between them.
We opted for a female character and named her "Portman", giving a tribute to the wonderfully talented Natalie Portman because of the cheek mole/ beauty mark the creation screen allowed us to add to our character’s face. We then jumped into the game. Skipping the cut scene, we started life on a beach and noticed the first thing that made us sit up and take interest: a control system. You are able to choose among 3 different ways to take control of your character using your mouse and keyboard: Swordsman Classic, Traditional 3D and Action, allowing for 3 different ways to play the game depending on your personal preferences, which we thought was an interesting touch. As you aren’t bound to your choice, you may change the settings to give the different variations a try and see which one is best suited for you.
The game takes you into the mission mode straight away, presenting players with a crying girl on the beach telling your village is under attack by unknown raiders. This immediately triggers the beginning of the story arc while teaching the basic controls.
The visuals hold up nicely, though they are far from being as detailed as they should be considering the generation of free-to-play online games we’re seeing these days; even more so as they look worse than in Neverwinter, another MMORPG by Perfect World. Surface textures are flat and the distance blurring rather leaves the impression of being used to save on draw distance and graphic intensity than having any interesting intended effect (unlike such games as Black Desert Online).
Combat was a bit lacklustre, though given that we were playing early levels it’s hard to say what the upper tier PVP and PVE might be like. For a first look, however, it felt a bit slow and clunky. We were cutting our way through the various raiders until the story’s major villain finally emerged, followed by a cut scene. We then fled the village, carving up some more raiders with the sword we had received from the village elder (which our major opponent seemingly is after). And just in the instant we’re about to leave, we’re stopped by the big foe himself and our end looks near, when a brave unknown hero emerges to fight him off and rescue us.
After that occurrence, we woke up in the main starting city and were informed about an upcoming meeting the Big Bad might attend. We than went from NPC to NPC making pointless chinwag which honestly just didn’t brought along the same sense of action than the opening of Neverwinter. A cheesy confrontation with the Big Bad was once more ended by a knight in shining armour who showed up again, telling us that we could probably stand a chance in fighting the guy with some training (to our character’s amazement).
Our "training" basically meant meeting various NPCs to choose which school of martial arts we wanted to join, instantly learning 3 abilities and then, all of a sudden, being ready to tackle that bad guy. A mini-showdown in the main city square (which in all honesty felt kind of inappropriate and entirely unsubtle) led to a cut scene chase across the rooftops, out into the forest and then to a new location where we had another face off against the guy who really didn’t put up much of a fight but was spared by deus ex machine with the appearance of another NPC.
All in all, the story felt too cheesy (and not in the positive meaning of the word, as we really like cheese!), the visuals a bit dated, the combat a bit basic and not especially inspiring. Our first impression of the game just left us wanting more, but not necessarily in the good way, we simply had the feeling that there wasn’t that much delivered. Yet, it’s far from being the worst MMORPG we’ve ever played, it just either needs more work or will hopefully have a lot more to offer in the later levels.
If you’re interested in further details on Swordsman, please visit our profile accessible via a click onto the INFO button below and also check out our first look gameplay video.
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