My Thoughts...

Seeing as I've been playing the game now for a few weeks I thought I'd put my views down on the whole AoC thing.

I'm really enjoying the game. It still has bugs to iron out and a few fixes needed, not least to the fps problem a lot of peeps are having, myself included. I can't really complain when it comes to fps as I have an ageing rig and it runs it pretty smooth for 80% of the time on med-high settings.

I have to say that for an mmo to be this enjoyable at launch is a very good sign. Believe me when I say WoW had way more issues at launch than this game. I think the trouble comes when people try to play it like wow. It has similarities but that's it. I'm loving the combat system. It's taken me a while and a few levels to realise that the button bashing and/or combo spamming is not the way forward. Clever use of the shield system, countering the oppositions defences and timely use of combos is a real skill and a delight to play with. Very noticeable when encountering overwhelming odds, it's incredibly satisfying when you pull through a seemingly unwinnable situation.

I'm not sure the world fits seemlessly together for me, it still feels like each area is an instance, which brings me to a few things that need to be looked at. The whole instance within instance thing. I understand that it takes load off the server for specific areas but it will be highly exploitable, especially in pvp. Imagine you've been ganked a dozen times, and you want revenge only to find out the culprit has buggered-off to a different instance in the same area. With only having a character at fairly low levels I cant comment on things such as gathering, trades etc.

The inevitable patches will start to roll off the production line soon wich will hopefully make the game better and more stable.

I can't see me going back to WoW as it stands at the moment.