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Heyho.
First off: I bought Pagan Online despite everything screaming at me 'dont'. I liked the comic-styled graphics and i thought i wanted to give wargaming a last chance from my point of view (most games are not good to me. There are exceptions or one exception. World of Warships - I kinda like the low paced fights with ships). Most of their games disappointed me a lot but this is a 'buy to play' title. So no shop shenanigans or anything.
This is gonna be a very long (probably ignored) post and also a kind of feedbackrant. Because i am very impressed how things are handled from my point of view (Everything in here is my pov. If you had a much better experience, awesome! Really.)
Also, i am German so my english is probably very bad. Still, i hope you will get the meaning of everything.
TL/DR
Game has some serious issues from my point of view that needs to be fixed. Release should be shifted away a month or two to take some extra time - at least, i would recommend that. I dislike many abilities, freezes, character-locks so they cant do anything anymore and your classes mostly use 'poison'. Also: I want a kangaroo instead of the bear for australian resons. Would not recommend it right now but i will keep on playing it.
1.) Where am i in the game?
I have not played through the campaign yet since... its kind of boring for me. Voice acting is nice and all but the story is bland as heck and 50 hours? If you have at a point do fetch quests, yep, could be. But i say: Its fake 50 hours. Not even close. Well, okay, if you have very underpowered gear and play at max difficulty... but enough.
I have unlocked: Kingewitch (I call him Barbarian), Anya (I call her Karen the Manager Killer), Morokh (I refer to him as Deathguy), Lukian (Call im OP as heck) and Dameer and his cuddlebear (Further refered as Boomerangguy with additional Pet). Levels of the Pagans are: 11/15/18/29/22.
2) What did i expect from the game?
I am a grinder. I mean, i really like to grind. Thats why i play D3, PoE and Real Life. Nothing is more satisfying than seeing hordes of monsters flying around because you pressed a button while the fat pizza juices drip down the chin on your new shirt.
3) What do i do when i dont player games?
I kinda started making my own games, learning a lot of things just because of learning stuff and i am mostly making sure everyone knows that i am not vegan. Btw: I eat meat.
4) First Rant: Core Mechanics
Movement & Abilities/Combat. Thats it. Those two (if you put Abilities in another category, 3) mechanics are your core game mechanics. I learned, if you dont get your core mechanics right, you will probably fail with your game. Well, at least a good amount of other devs told me that. Maybe they're wrong, cant tell, i am just a simple guy.
Movement: So far, lets say, it kind of works. And "kind of" means that this mechanic struggles hard at some times. Especially when the game does is freeze-feature (I think of that feature its difficulty based. Higher difficulty, longer freezes - not true). Then you dont move, even if you keep the button pressed. That means, that you have to press the movement button(s) again. That killed me a couple times as i was new and trusting.
Combat: If i am not mistaken, Pagain Online is a A-RPG. An action roleplaying game. And with that, i would like to compare it to the 3rd Devil in the room. While with the third devil everything does the 'kapow' and 'kaboom' thing and stuff is flying around, demons scream for help and distant sirens are wailing.
In PO (Pagain Online further referred to as PO) on the other hand, combat is... kind of strange. As i know now there seem two or three people in the world having the same issues with that freezing stuff. But, aside of that, the combat would not be better if thats gone. Okay, a bit wrong there. It would be a tad better. But not much better.
While playing D3 when i attack, pressing buttons my characters all go like into uber-mode and send demons flying around dropping dead on the ground. If they ever hit the ground again. Its like pure hell of an impact doing slashi-dashi-wackomacko.
PO on the other hand is more like your friendly old neighbour that has no plan what happens but still likes you no matter what you do. You do an attack, you wait, use an ability - if the button press is reckogniced - and wait again, then press another ability eventually. Okay. While one game is whack-bam-shamalamadingdong, PO is more like 'whack' wait 'zoom' wait 'tonk' wait 'ruff' wait... and so on. Boomerang-Guy misses even a Tree-Trait! (Haha! Tree! Because he probably was thought of a Australian Druid! ha... ha.... haha... *coughs*)
I am sorry. You see - your core mechanics should have not top priority. They should have the 'OMG! THROW EVERYTHING OUT THE WINDOW AND FOCUS ON THIS!'-priority. If 1 dude says something about it. Meh. He doesnt like it, carry on. But if you have, lets say, like 2 dues already complaining... Yeah, you know you should not say "Yeah, we will 'eventually' fix this. Probably with the release patch" but more like "The eff?! Sure as heck we working on that. And we tell you a lot about the state of our work progress" Lets do 2 mechanic-examples with users.
Example 1: You say you will fix it. Done. Nothing else. Users will wonder if you really do. They probably get angry after a couple days without communication. Even more so after a week or two.
Example 2: You say you will fix it as fast as possible. You tell the next day that you doing hard but somehow cant find where the problem is but you keep on communicating. Users will still be a little bit on the 'meh' side, because its impacting games performance and also fun but they also will say "Ah dont worry. At least you tell us youre working hard on it"
Okay, enough of that and back to the Abilities and the 'lockdown' as well as the 'tilt-lockdown'. These two ocur for me only on OP-Magician and on Deathguy. But what is the lockdown?
Lockdown: This is when your character cant use any skills for a period of 3 - 6 seconds but you still can move around. Happens to me constantly with Deathguy.
Tilt-lockdown: This is when your character cant do anything anymore. At all. Escape still works... That happens only in specific circumstances which are: OP-Magician teleports to an enemy and the enemy is using jump/invisibility?/teleport somewhere at the same time or at least before you land. OP-Magician freezes and gets beaten to death. Try to watch this in a very low level area... It hurts not only your feelings for that moment but your future generations will feel that too.
Conclusion for me on the core mechanics? Either they are testing it a (tiny) bit on perfect pc's (you know, the kind of pc where all the parts are in perfect harmony and work together) and therefore, dont experience those problems at all. Or, they test it barely on one or two characters or, what i think, they dont test it at all and puts the test-procedure completely into the early access which means we, as users, should have some impact with our feedback?
Yes. Early access means we dont buy a full ready game but a game in (deep) developement. But what i find very funny is, if i can belive that information, they want to release the game on 27th this month. I dont think that they will fix all the problems. That is by far not enough time to fix AND test. And the moment you are a tester of a full game, reviews will be even more worse than now. Mixed on steam if i am not mistaken.
5) Abilities
Yes, i admit, in ARPG games i am kind of looking for optimal builds and the best characters to play the end-game (not there yet but i kinda have already some end-game gear for what i have researched if i am not mistaken. Maybe i am and 10k weapons are just the start for the endgame. Like 'here, with that you can at least defend yourself'-weapons.
Barbarian Guy is kinda fine with his skills. Deathguys skillset and level-tree stuff is kinda awesome and marks a 'if everything works perfect, you will have an awesome assassin!'-character. The OP-Magician... heck, that guy's op but has two absolutely bad abilities that i never would suggest to take and a lot of useless branches.
Now we come to that Australian Boomerang-Guy with his useless cuddlebear. I mean, you wanted an Australian Druid? Why didnt you give him a Kangaroo instead? That would have at least got some laughter out of it. But okay, maybe i dont have 'the perfect item TM' to make the bear viable. I fiddled around in theorycrafting with two builds. A stun-build where you can near constantly stun monsters and dish out double dmg if necessary... but then i tested that fluffy guy.
Maybe i am not allowed to play stuff that has my level at a higher difficulty than normal. And even there, that furry friend gets farted at and faints. Does the monsters smell THAT bad? I am more healing the freaking dead pelt on the floor than anything else. Dont get me wrong: Idea was kind of okay-ish. I could design within an hou... Okay, lets do this right now:
Skill 1: Claw Attack, Skill 2: Feral Jump
Your basic form druid. Claws at enemies, dexterity, fast. You get the point. Feral Jump for a 'in ya face' jump attack, higher critchance, yadda yadda. Now, instead of doing companions go magic and go were-thing. You know, like... transforming into an actual animal? How about a Wererat if you dont like to do the 'everyone does the werewolf thing' or 'werebear'? Possible. Some people find rats cute. Make it a wererate with high dexterous attack speed with bleed or poison (since... it seems every half-decent magical character uses... poison. Very... interesting).
Or let player go all magical with elemental powers. Dont wanna have the 'firy' guy theme? Because op wizard is that already? Flashy-bashy also a nono? Then freaking use earth! Make his skin like barkskin or stone or whatever. And please go away from the idea that everybody somehow uses poison. First time i read this with Karen i was like "Uh, nice! Everyone gets probably some cool elemental-changer instead of physical! Cant wait for other chars!" Oopsiewhoopsie - everyone that changes elemental stuff uses poison. But not OP-Wizard. He's all about flashybashyfirewire.
Okay okay okay, dumb-me. Its about the lore of a... specific pre-christain mythology? I would love to know more about that Australian Boomerang-Guy please. The Gipsy? I get it. Taro-Cards and all that... wait? Since when do they slash with blades through enemies? WHY?! You could have made some awesome character that uses a lot of control effects! Even some random skill like 'draw one of x cards from a deck and it will have a different effect on enemy and/or you'... At least her weapons kinda resemble tambourines...
I feel, the worst character for me will be the Australian. Give me at least a kangaroo pet instead of the bear. I would find it very funny! I would pay extra!
6) "Quests" or "Hunts" as you call them
Devs... You arent gamers. Arent ya? I mean, did you play RPG games? And by playing i mean really playing rpg games? Or Action RPGs? Because nobody with a clear mind will say that Fetch-Quests are a thing. And by Fetch-Quest i mean that atrocity you do with "x% chance of enemy that eventually spawns" with "y% chance of that enemy dropping the item you need".
You effing serious? This is not how you do it! Stop it! Change it! Luck based is subjective yes. While some do such quests in mere minutes, som others need an hour, or more. Thats just for generating play-time without having much fun (at least i did not have any fun doing those fetch-quests. And i have again some... really... why ... WHY?!)
Okay. There is, for me, one exception of a fetch quest that was awesome and fun. Witcher 3 and its Pan-Quest right at the start. It had a fun beginning and lead to something bigger. Dont get me wrong. I dislike the Witcher-Game-Series with all my heart. Its simply not my game. Would i recommend it for anyone that, even only a tad bit, likes rpgs? Without hesitation and thinking. Witcher 3 is one of the greatest rpgs ever created. Why i dislike it? Uninteresting for this topic.
Those Hunts are... uninspiring as hell. Sure, they could be a filler for now but i dont believe it. Its done, its the system that you wanted - i would bet on it. The Assasinations... are also very uninspiring. Yes, I like grind and hitting stuff with a stick. But please... if you try to make something a feature, make it interesting. I mean DANG! That bossifght against the
SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER (Go to SPOILER END!!!)
Dragon! You fight, then you run, then you shoot kick-ass metal in his body and bring him down to the ground! That was awesome dragonslayer moves right there! Or the fight with the other Deathguy. Get magical spheres and... yeah, put it in the middle to have an advantage. Nothing to spectacular but fun! Its not just standing there and hitting bosses with a stick.
SPOILER END!!!
If you would do mechanical based bossfights as assassinations - THAT would be a feature. Or, why dont you steal the nemesis system? Its a good idea. You dont have to invent the wheel again. PoE did it - you can too. Having a boss going all nemesis because he beat the crap out of you? And now you have to fight some underlings of him before you can reach him? Heck... so many ideas what you could do. Yet you did an uninspiring 'go there, hit with a stick, end'...
And please... take away 'You MUST do hunts before assasinating' as if the hunting feature is that interesting. It isnt.
I think that generally "must" things will end in "yeah, dont want to. bye". Looking at the userbase playing the game... it kinda proofes something. Maybe not directly what i am saying. But this is currently hell of an uninspired game. Exception is the campaign. That one is decently enough to get the lore going. I am not a lore-guy but i bet a lot of people really will enjoy exactly that. For me its just hitting things with sticks or using mechanics and then hitting things with sticks. Or i throw stones.
7) UI
If i look at the UI... I see. Well... i mean... oof... I dont know where to start. Okay, the level-trees. THEY ARE HORRIBLE! Who thought its a good idea to let it look like chaos had a baby with ... another... eh... chaos. Heck, that was uninspiring. But yeah, it looks like chaos had farted out the level tree.
Then the game-ui overlay or whatever you call 'SURVIVAL STARTING IN ....' and other things. Somethimes i spawn in survival and it starts right away! While the Font is hindering my sight. Lead to one unexpected death.
Oh and whats with the vendor? If i die i can fill up all potions. If i am at the hub i can fill up all the potions. But at the vendor? Hell no, he sells you one potion a time. You went a bit bananas there.
Then this... 'click on top bars and woooooooshhhhh' thing. Yeah, i know, you want to make it look appealing but seriously: It isnt (for me). Also... Its more confusing than anything else. I am very sure, with some time on my hands i could make this ui much better and i am on a intermediate level when it comes to programming. I have to google all that poo and write my code after i read an example. You guys probably could code weeks without even looking stuff up. So why did you mess up the UI that bad?
A 'Back' Button would be appreciated by me more than clicking randomly somewhere to go actually 'back'.
8) Would i still keep on playing?
Yes, of course. Beside all the negativity i spread out in this rantback or feedrant i like the style. I am all in for monster bashing in neat comic graphics. Hence, that why i like Borderlands. NOT YOU Borderlands 3 you epic games exclusive c-word!
9) Will i recommend this game to anyone?
Heck no, i would hurt myself before i would recommend this - at least if it stays at it is.
10) Would i test your game again before you release a version?
Heck yeah. Thats what i do on my own stuff. I try to break sh*t. EXTREME testing! Players break games all the time. That way you learn where you have to focus (a bit) more. Please, get testers going on! At least for your next game.
Ending words:
Most of the stuff i wrote was meant to entertain a bit. It is a huge wall of text and i dont meant a lot of things too serious. Yet, there are a lot of problems in the game and i dont see them all fixed with the release. And with a full release you get reviews, and they will be horrible bad and do more damage.
I would recommend you say sorry and put up a couple more months into early access. Most users can and will understand. Dont be ashamed if you fail with stuff. A delayed game will be eventually a good game. A rushed one not. Or something like that. Read it somewhere, cant remember who said it.
I will stay with the game to the last few users. But keep on fixing/updating guys. You did already a good job! Even with all the things i said. You have a running game! THATS AWESOME! Now just fix some stuff and done.
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