Each world exists for a limited period of time (between a month and a year). Which brings us onto one of Crowfall's more interesting systems. This is probably a side-effect of the fact that most of the lands are procedurally generated and disposable, getting destroyed when a campaign ends. Each area feels flat too-thin forests amidst stumbling hills, with no geologically imposing terrain. The same process applies when moving over to other worlds like the Eternal Kingdoms-player-made worlds that may be anything from marketplaces to guild halls or PvP arenas with custom rules.Īll this makes Crowfall feel fragmented-a feeling exacerbated by low player numbers and the fact that all zones within a world are connected by portals rather than, say, mountain passes or rivers. See, to go to Dregs you have to deposit whatever you want to take over in the bank, exit back to the game menu, spend some of a finite number of import tokens to move items into your Dregs bank vault, sign into Dregs, then retrieve those items from the vault. But travelling between worlds isn't that simple-it involves a lot of logging out, logging in, and stripping your character down to their undies. Once you hit level 25, you can head out into the PvP wildlands of the starting world, or jump over into the guild-vs-guild 'Dregs' world. (Image credit: ArtCraft) Shattered worlds The combat lacks the kind of physicality we see in Black Desert Online, Guild Wars 2 or even Elder Scrolls Online. It's your classic hotkey-and-cooldown-based setup, ostensibly leaning towards a more 'action game' style by removing auto-attack, adding 'reflex' moves like dodges and jumps, and implementing a manual targeting system over traditional MMO tab targeting.īut these technicalities seem a little arbitrary when dodging has a long cooldown, your only non-hotkey weapon attack is executed by holding down the mouse button, and hitboxes are so vague that you can shoot the general airspace around an enemy and still score a hit. There are buildings and villages in the world, but no lore tidbits, chatty NPCs, or meaningful loot within them, nor are there spontaneous sidequests out in the wilderness to break up your exploration of Crowfall's lands.Īt least your time in this most purgatorial of tutorials lets you get used to the combat. You don't have to worry about PvP or partying up until you hit 25, but that brings into relief how empty the game world feels without those elements. You learn some vital things along the way, but too much of your time is spent on uninteresting fetch quests for ungrateful and unvoiced NPCs. A tutorial zone is to be expected, but here it takes a good eight-plus hours to get through its painfully-protracted questline. Long before you ever engage in Crowfall's enormous PvP battles, you have to cut your teeth in the God's Reach starting world until level 25 (in a game where the hard level cap is 35). I opted for the Duelist class, making him a specialist in dual-wielding pistols. The exception are the charming Guineceans, a race of stout guinea pig-folk who puff their chests out and rest their hands on their hips to give off a real 'let me at 'em' aura.
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