I've spent the last few weeks giving this game a chance.
Wide as an ocean, deep as a puddle.
At first the game is overwhelming. In some good ways and some bad ways. The sheer amount of items, alerts, and pop-ups the game throws at you when you start is insane and there is no real guiding as to what the fuck any of the shit they give you does. On the other hand, the scope of the world and the amount of things you can do in it drew me in, but after interacting with the systems it isn't enough to keep up my interest. Learning what the fuck any of the shit they clog up your inventory with does requires more effort and learning than the combat and crafting does.
The combat could be really fun, if the game had any content to use it on. It's 10 years old but has less bosses with simpler and less interesting movesets than single player games like Souls or Sekiro. The PvE is 90% areas of the map filled with brainless mobs that you are expected to farm for eternity. Just watch a streamer try to play this. The only real variety is that sometimes you will farm them while running in circles while in others you'll stand in one spot as waves spawn over and over.
There are lots of other activities but these activities aren't that great either. Many are actually intended to be done while afk. Those that aren't are frequently gated by a resource, so you can't just dedicate yourself to them without first grinding out your energy capacity and then making 20 alts (alt characters all have separate energy and your max capacity is account wide). You'll gather milk 5 times, then park your character in the kitchen and cook 50000 chickens for 5 hours. If that's too much effort you can max out your inventory and then afk fish for a whole day.
At most I could grind for 30 min - 1 hour before getting bored. Then my "playtime" was progressing crafting because I couldn't stomach actually playing the game. So the inevitable question is why? Why do I even bother to log in? Shouldn't I actually want to play the game?
This game has a staple of P2W items in their shop and just recently they've actually added even more. They veil them as "convenience" but you'll quickly realize that, due to the way progression works, items that let you get money quicker also mean you win more. At minimum you need to buy some bullshit campsite that's 50$ by default and you'll probably have to buy RNG attempts to try to get an actually functional fairy companion. Note that it's attempts, because the skills your fairy rolls when she levels up completely random. You might only spend 5$... or 100. Haven't even mentioned that things like maids, pets and weight can also be bought but you can get some of these for free and they occasionally give them out in events. Those things are vital for making money. But that's not all, there's "optional" items that are 15$ a month if you want to keep them activated.
Money is the most important thing in the game as you are expected to farm billions because you'll spend them to stop your gear from blowing the fuck up when you try to RNG upgrade them or to buy replacements. If you like games with long term goals this game's goals are virtually infinite.
I tried the PvP and since I was a noob I got crushed. In the open world you will absolutely get farmed by no lifers, on the rare instances you see them. There's an arena gamemode with equal gear but you can't even play it whenever you want, it has to be at certain times. And the population is low, so you'll play with veterans. Overall, I couldn't really get enough information on it to judge whether the fighting is fun but I did tell that it suffers from serious desyncing. Characters will dash in one direction then appear in another, often with your face firmly in their grasp. You'll also get hit out of super armor and grabbed out of invincibility. I swear at some points I saw people T-posing. The animations seem jittery and hard to follow. In GW2 I can tell exactly what my enemies are doing and desyncing is rare. I hate Anet but I have to admit, that at least far as PvP goes, I like what they offer better. At the very minimum, I can at least participate in PvP whenever the hell I want.
The game probably has the coolest looking spells, moves and character designs of the MMO's I've recently played. I honestly didn't even see the need to customize the classes I rolled as even the defaults look great. The character creator is also pretty cool and I ran around as John Wick for awhile. Despite all my complaints I have to admire their unfaltering dedication to providing hot waifus with sexy outfits. It's nice to be reminded that it's possible to differentiate between men and women in games and that women have the potential to grow huge tits.
They are going to give a free trial for a dragon mount at some point so I'll check it out but I don't anticipate staying here for much longer. I decided to save my money and didn't buy anything, even during the huge sale they just had. Even the guild activities and bosses are dull. This might be the loneliest MMO I've ever played. I only ever see people in World bosses. 10 years and almost no group content at all. You grind by yourself with a chat service.
Out of TnL, GW2 and Black Desert I sadly have to give it to GW2. I think they give the best bang for your buck and the game actually respects my time. And that's with Anet sucking huge ass and sabotaging the game for years. Bring back the nipple textures on the Dr. Manhattan armor you fucking pussies.
