*editor's note - Although this review is rather harsh, we believe AC is still a good MMORPG for the casual player.
Less than acceptable issues -
The treasure system is simply horrible. No matter what level character you fight, the normal reward is usually JUNK. Many of the "Rares" that have been introduced into the game are pretty well worthless. One use items, good for 15 minutes at best.
The prime function of this game has turned into trash collection. No matter what level mobs you fight, we found roughly 90 percent of the "Loot" is trash. The main thrust of the game, for the last few years has been to turn characters into tinkers. Basically, collect trash, then hope like hell you beat the odds of making imbued weapons and tinkered armor. The game GUARANTIES a 67 percent failure rate for most people. Even after purchasing the tinker's "upgrade" for 2 billion xp, the game still guaranties a 62 percent failure rate. Adding insult to injury, the game developers have decided to make trash collecting a frustrating experience by limiting trash required to attempt weapon tinkering. Some examples are red garnet, black garnet and Jet. In other words, Turbine has created upgraded mobs, but has decided, frustration is the key ingredient of the game. Don't allow the player base an equal chance of killing the bigger mobs with more powerful weapons. Gee Turbine you know, the consumer might have fun if this aspect of the game turned the figures around. How about a 65 - 75 percent change of success guaranteed.
With a few exceptions, most of the monsters are rehashed from the original game launched 5 years ago. Higher levels, some armor changes but they fall in the SOS category (Same Ole Schtick).
Lag still kills many toons in battle. Even with the lower server populations, this is and has been a major issue for over 5 years.
The population counters have been removed. This missing feature now requires you log into every world to look for a populated game world. So, you blow about 30 minutes running around checking out various towns on worlds with the result being, hmm think I'll go play something else. The decision to remove population counters is most likely due to the hemorrhage of players to other games. Save Turbine the embarrassment of a failing Flagship product as well as incompetent management.
The combat system pulls a vacuum to the extent few have seen before. In the eyes of Turbine, this is called a "combat balanced". Once more Turbine.. HELLoooo This is a World of Magic, yet in the infinite wisdom of the developers, Magic Casting characters have been nerf'd to the point of being useless. Short-term UCM is built into the game for melee and missile characters, yet the Mages must cast each spell every time they attack. Melee and Missile can auto-lock and auto-attack a target, then start chatting or leave the pc for a few minutes while they wear down a critter. This combat system has killed the life-caster as well as fostered the growth of inferior magic casters. High level mobs cannot be debuffed by a magic caster with max'd War, Life, Creature, Focus and Self. A level 200+ mage is easily outdone by a level 160+ melee or missile character. An archer can take 100 wrapped bundles of arrowheads and shaft and hunt all day long, while melee characters only need their swords. Depending on lag (accelerates comp burn), rate of comp burn, the magic caster must return to a town store every few hours to replenish burned components. Schlepping these tapers around creates burden for the mage ultimately affecting his survivability. No such restrictions for the melee while the missile user only makes a bundle of arrows at a time and can drop these bundles if the burden starts affecting performance. High level casting items are rare as hens teeth while there are plenty of high level melee/missile weapons to be found throughout the game. Turbine continues to push for more melee/missile characters. It has become obvious, even to the most casual observers that Turbine created this land of magic, yet felt it necessary to remove or curtail the casters abilities in this game.
Apparently Turbine lacks the talent of a good few good code jocks. There were many really good 3rd party applications available to be used with this game before the expansion pack. During the build of the expansion pack, Turbine stated they would not be changing the code to the extent that the 3rd party apps would become inoperable. On launch, umm well HELLOooooo, no 3rd party apps worked. Ya really gotta love the Turbine talent pool. Instead of building the many great apps INTO the game or dealing with the decal dev's. Turbine chose to trash the code to the point it was not usable by 3rd party dev's.
The persons involved in this review had a hard time finding Good things to say about this Asheron's Call - ToD expansion pack. It boiled down to ... why did it take Turbine 18 months to come up with this crap?
So what's good about the game?
Yes there are new areas to explore and Yes there is a new ethnic group. This expansion pack is a continuation of the AC-DM expansion. Overall, the only real differences have been cosmetic User Interface changes, and those are marginal at best.
In conclusion, Turbine will not allow this world of magic to be driven by magic nor is Turbine interested in the consumer and protecting its consumer base. It seems that Turbine's key driving element is to appease a few whiners who have no serious gaming habits or abilities.
Message to Turbine; If this game is to continue, go hire some decent code jocks and a PM with imagination.
Review created with input from crash-test dummies, each with over 4 years experience playing this game;
2 Melee - 2 Archers - 2 - Mages
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Mediocre
This game is no longer for
the serious gamer. Nice diversion for the casual gamer.
Rating
1 = low 5 = high
3.5