Pros: Quests update themselves when completed, change classes in the same character, decent enough graphics
Cons: Old fashioned MMORPG gameplay, tedious questing, lacking in features in its current state
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We recently got access to check out the pre-Beta version of Artix Entertainment’s AdventureQuest 3D, a free to play reboot of the old flash web version of the game AdventureQuest. With our account access we were provided with two characters to check out what was currently available in the game, a level 5 character and a level 12 character (that appears to be the current level cap for this part of the test).
We were initially logged in to the starting town of Battleon, some gear loaded up onto our character already we were able to pick up a few quests from some of the nearby NPCs and have a little look around. We think it’s fair to say that the game is way off a release, this is a Pre-Beta in every sense of the word and actual Closed Beta isn’t planned until Summer. Graphically the game is basic but of a passable quality, but the lack of features and content right now is a slight concern given that they’re looking to release the game this year.
For an MMORPG the game most definitely lacked a few staple features we’ve come to expect; there doesn’t appear to be any sign of a map (either overhead or area map), nothing in the menus or anything resembling key bindings (at least none we could alter). One of the annoying things was that it wasn’t obvious which buildings we could enter in the town; all of them have their doors closed and by walking into the door it loads up a new instance inside the building, but there was no way of identifying which buildings you could enter; some do have large signs such as the “Magic Shoppe” (no actual shop vendors in there…), “Ye Olde Inn” and a handful of others, but then there were similarly named buildings such as the “Pet Shoppe” and “Apothecary” that we couldn’t enter. We can only presume they will make an appearance at some point and are just place holder signs for what will end up there, but it was a bit annoying for us.
Once we’d picked up some quests we head out of town; the quest journal could only have one active quest at a time, which wasn’t the end of the world as the PVE is very linear and themepark orientated, completing the quests in one zone then moving on to the next. What we did like about the quest journal, as we discovered when picking up a quest from a Trolloc Warlord we’d been directed to, was that when we completed the quest we could claim the rewards where we were and then the next quest came up, removing the need to run back and forth to the quest giver.
That’s not to say we were spared having to run back and forth. Our Trolloc cave encounter had us fighting Trollocs, five we had to kill, then when it was complete we had to sabotage the Trolloc camps (clicking crates), which obviously contained Trollocs that we had to kill. Having the two quests accomplishable at the same time would have felt a lot less grindy, killing the 5 Trollocs we needed whilst sabotaging the camps. After this we had to kill a few of the other types of creature in the cave.. then we had to get red and yellow leather… which only dropped from Trollocs. It was a frustrating, time wasting set of quests that we found quite annoying.
Whilst the quest was a little dull and not really anything we hadn’t seen before, what we did like was the Class system in that players are able to switch between the four available classes (though we had access to the Guardian we believe this is only open to those who have donated to the Kickstarter or something like that). The Warrior is an offensive melee fighter than can buff allies and debuff enemies, the Guardian more defensive with his buff raising allies’ defenses as well as having an ability to stack “Guardian Marks” with each Guardian Strike attack he made, which would then make your other abilities more powerful. The Mage could cast some offensive and defensive spells, the Rogue stacked poison and could stealth, and both were fairly traditional classes. Switching between them was easy enough, done through the menu providing you weren’t in combat, but we mostly stuck with the Warrior for the balance of offensive and defensive capabilities.
The four abilities for each class, as well as the primary attack (which didn’t use mana) were all in the bottom right of the screen as big buttons, suitable for tablets and mobile devices, the game is after all cross compatible with Android, iOS, PC, Mac and Web Browsers, letting people all play together regardless of which platform they are on. The fact that there are only four abilities, no way (currently at least) to customize these or change them through talents, means everyone has access to the same classes and abilities, which doesn’t do much for originality.
Checking out our level 12 character we were equipped with level 12 Alpha Knight II gear (which we presume is some of the best gear in the game for that level) a Soulborne Axe and Fiery Wings, here we could head straight to the final unlocked zone of Doomwood Tower, where a bunch of undead were waiting all piled on a bridge and defending some big dude at the other end called General Gathmor, a huge level 15 boss standing in the way of the gate that would presumably lead to the next, as of yet locked, zone. We could kill pretty much everything solo that we’d come across, apart from the Gate Wraith at the end of the previous zone, but trying to take on Gathmor was definitely a job for a group of highest level players.
Our wings definitely got us a lot of attention, and it was fun making up quests for people on how they can get them (we have no idea how you acquire them), but once we let people in on our joke they shared the laughs.
Overall the game has a nice base, but lacks in every MMORPG feature we can think of: PVP, Crafting, Pets, Mounts, Zones, Content, Skill/Talent customization; there’s still so much that needs to go into it before it is a game that is going to keep people playing and whilst we’re sure there’s a lot of that stuff that’s going to be added, it does beg the question how long will it take?
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