Guyver's Written Beta Review

[Guyver]

I decided to make a written review for all those people who like words. Shame on you! lol

To start off, we've all been waiting for this game for sometime now, but the game still needs some work. So don't read this as a final "decision" if you will.



In order to start the game client, I have to login on the Huxley website and click "Game Start". I found this as a pain since this doesn't work with firefox and internet explorer loads the site about as fast as a snail on a salt trail. Once all of that is done a pretty little client pops up, well designed and not too big. Only 3 buttons and right in the middle of the client is the play button. But before you can press ANY buttons the HackerShieldPRO has to load and this takes almost 2 minutes at times.

When you click the play button you get a small load time for the intro video. Once the video is done or you just press 'Escape', the server list comes up. I couldn't understand the server names so I just clicked the one at the top for the time being. Finally when I chose my server, it was time to make my first Huxley character. It slightly disappointing in the hair design portion. There were on average 5 to 6 hairdo's to pick from. All but 1 made you look normal-ish. When it came to the face customization, you can change the size of the chin, eyebrows, cheeks and more. The only shameful part though is that I never noticed a whole lot of people with the 'uniqueness' I was hoping for. Unless you are completely zoomed in on the screen, there's no other way to point out facial features. You can't change the height or build of the character either. Seeing an altereaver NOT on steroids would be a funny look I could live with.

So far the interface seems to work pretty smoothly. There's the inventory and license sheet. There doesn't seem to be a way to increase inventory slots. I'm assuming everyone has the same amount of bag space. I haven't ran out of space yet, so let's just leave that alone. As for the licenses, these are your specs. By the time you are level 50 (max), you should have atleast looked at the sheets. There are 3 kinds of licenses; weapon, vehicle, and bonuses. The weapon licenses that are available depend on the class you pick. which is a let down, I wanted to be a phantom with a rocket launcher. The vehicle licenses allow you to use bigger, badder types of the vehicle you want to major in. Would you like to specialize in buggies? Go ahead. Tanks? Be my guest! The bonus licenses are things like extra defense when in a group. Things like that. Little things that ALWAYS help.

Entering dungeons, instances, missions, etc is simply a matter of knowing where to run. If you press 'M' for map all the quest areas are shown which ruins the 'adventure' portion of the city. Once you get to the entrance of the quest area, you are prompted with 2 windows. Once window list any quest you need to have done in that area. When you double click the quest you want to do, the game loads the quest almost like a script for a movie. The quest area is loaded for THAT particular quest locking off certain areas and only spawning what the quest's guidelines have.This makes the quest feel more legit than just another thing to do like finding an item. For example. There is a quest zone I almost know like the back of my hand now, and every door is opened allowing me to search everywhere. But when I select a quest, the instance locks certain areas off, adds and minuses certain NPC's, and might add a few areas I've never seen. Of course this doesn't mean there aren't fetch item quest.

Speaking of instances, alot of people wonder how loot works. Well, after killing something it has a chance to drop something from it's loot table. You can tell it dropped something because a 3D model of the item pops out of it and lands on the ground. They are never that hard to spot for they are fairly large in size and glow a bright red. Easy enough. A little old hybrid isn't going to drop a super rare nuclear bomb launcher, but he may drop some trash you can sell to an NPC like his eyeball or something. If it is a peice of armor, the 3D model will be a really cool looking chest piece. If a weapon, a glowing red weapon. All you have to do to pick up the items is walk over them, no clicking or pressing of buttons required. This is very handy seeing as how the combat is fast paced at times.

Speaking of weapons, there is an NPC that does "Tune-Ups", with a little bit of cash and some required parts that drop from creatures and NPC's, he/she can upgrade your weapons damage and clip size. Sadly there is a chance of failure and she will BREAK your gun. Recently I found a rare level 17 machine gun to only have her break it in front of my eyes and now it's a lowly level 1 gun that can't even be sold to to other players for a good price. There's no reimbursement, no insurance. If she broke it, oh well. Now, If I gave you a gameboy and the screen was broken and you knew how to fix it. I supply a new screen AND a little cash for your trouble. Then you break the whole gameboy while trying to fix it, and you just tell me sorry??? NO! You are paying me back big time. If webzen at least made it downgrade a level instead of fully ruining it, I would have been satisfied. BUT seeing as how I upgraded my sniper rifle, and current machine gun 3 times each with no breaks - this seems a bit unfair.

As for armor, I'm level 14 and I haven't noticed a whole lot of differences in armor yet unless you are a different class. Everywhere you turn there are vendors that sell armor and it seems like if you have money - you'll get all the good gear. The same goes for skills, I have a phantom and I can only use skills for the phantom. Sadly there are only about 6 of them. This means I have to use the same ones for a long time and I don't think I'll ever get different ones. Of course higher ranked skills have longer effects that consume less energy, but it's not all that different.

When it comes to the AI (artificial intelligence) I am disappointed to say the least. Sure they may have programmed hybrids to determine when I'm going to fire my rifle so they can successfully dodge, but the second I stand on top a box, the beast just wiggles around like a moron having a seizure mixed with cocaine. This makes them hard to shoot and ruins the "hunter vs. prey" aspect of Hybrids. In all the videos we see, hundreds of hybrids are crawling on walls and biting peoples heads off. The most I've fought at one time is 4 hybrids and they didn't sneak up on me or anything. I can actually walk behind to a hybrid unstealthed, and it won't notice me until I touch it.

Health does not regenerate over time, but your armor does. This is extremely helpful, but the problem is, it acts like a second health bar. none of my health goes down until my armor is completely down. So as long as you keep your armor up- don't worry about health. As for ammo, through out the quest areas there are floating stationary canisters with a certain amount of uses. Once you touch it, your ammo is fully replenished for all weapons. So if you need to run for it, grab some ammo. Here comes the bad part - the canister charges replenishes after a small while. So say it had one use left, I use it, now there is no more uses. I come back later I can use it again. This ruins the whole "spare your ammo" idea unless it's your sniper rifle or rocket launcher.

Gameplay aside, let's go over the more cosmetic things of Huxley. The music, wonderful. Nothing says "kill hybrids" while a 20 man symphony plays for you in a dark hallway. The graphics for the cities and instances are extremely well done. For some reason though, the character models don't seem to 'fit in' with the surrounding worlds. Almost as if they were forced to be in a foreign area. That may explain why the starting area for Alternatives (Eleska) has a slight European feel and Alternatives feel a bit more Eastern.

More to come.

[Goldenrice]

this game went from a 10 to a 6

[Decent_xVICIOUSx]

Guyver is very critical and remember its BETA not done yet

[shneb]

Originally Posted by Goldenrice

this game went from a 10 to a 6

but its only a beta rmbr its not done yet.

[Guyver]

Yeah, I admit I made the game sound a little bad. But I tried to make it more fair than biased.

Honesty hurts.

Oh and GoldenRice - Honestly? -4 points? Whens the last time you played a beta that was 10/10?
HM?

I was expecting this game to be a 9- Any website game reviews or scores are all a bunch of BS anyway. No game is ever perfect. Look at WOW for example? How ridiculous was that game when it first came out? Do you realize how many patches are out for that game now?

Pshhhhh

[Fox_Makenshi]

Again, you must remember this is the beta. All equipment, skill, item, weapon, etc... choices are very limited. This game was never meant to be a super amazing 20/10 blow your fucking mind game. The real questions you should be asking are "What is this game trying to do/be?" and "Does this game accomplish that?" It was meant to be a venture into a (relatively) new genre, MMOFPS and it does this very well.

About the hybrid enemies, they can crawl on walls and whatnot but apparently only when they spawn. If one jumps on top of you it's a 1-hit KO. If you jump up to an area they can't reach, yes they do just wiggle around it but some of them can jump pretty high. The HLO are pretty hard to kill though, especially in large groups.

About going out on quests. The orange box on the right is for special quests, kind of like story missions in Guild Wars. The blue box on the left lets you just go into the area. Often quests using the orange box will have many objectives and are a fun venture from standard kill and gather quests.

I've noticed the look of my armor changing when I hit level 11 and bought all new armor. The weapon looks didn't change from E-rank to D-rank but I'm sure that will change.

About tune-ups. The fact that items break and turn into lvl 1 items doesn't really phase me at all. In some other online games I've played (PSU as an example), when you tune-up a weapon and it breaks, it's entirely gone. This keeps everyone and their mom from having super awesome equipment. Yes you lose time, money, etc.. but that's the point. If you want something super awesome you need to work for it, as well as have a bit of luck. This may or may not change in the final version. Also you'll be able to craft your own stuff in the game so keep that in mind as well.

About classes and weapons. I'm fairly certain that all classes can use all weapons, but not high grades. I think if you can't acquire a license for a weapon you can only use E-grade though again, not 100% sure on that. I know that I can buy a sniper for my Avenger and use it though.

I think the game is good for what it is and what it's trying to do. Webzen managed to mix MMO and FPS quite well and I'm very glad with the Beta, especially knowing that the full game will be many times better. Not only because there will be many, many more options but because we will actually be able to read everything lol.

Love,
Fox Makenshi

[Raphael]

To put things on a bright note. I give this a 9/10 compared to other beta's I've done. Just wait for the US beta and I'm sure the gaming experience will improve greatly when you can understand what your doing.

[Guyver]

YES Rapheal you make a good point.

A small reason why I'm being so harsh ---- IS BECAUSE I DON'T KNOW A LICK OF KOREAN

Hmmmm forgot to mention that lol

[Fox_Makenshi]

Yeah, we're right there with you lol. I'm sure if we could read, it would be much more enjoyable.

Love,
Fox Makenshi

[mrroboto40]

The launch off the website is a classic Korean style, check out Holic, Infinity, SUN, GunZ, aswell as most of ijji games, they all launch off of websites :P.

As for the repair issues, it is also a part of some MMO's, it is a pain in the ass, but it isn't that uncommon in Korean MMO's (Mabinogi).

[shneb]

will ppl from the ul be abel 2 go on the us beta?


and on other note OFC it will make the game 50% better if u actually understppd what they hell ppl and quest givers and evrything said lol.

[Goldenrice]

yes open beta blah blah blah, from their history of making games, dont expect big changes. enuff said

[Grind]

I really don't like having to log into a website to start a game, it just seems like a hassle lol.

Anyway, we all had INTENSE hopes for Huxley, it was supposed to be this shining god that brought forth the light of our gaming lives :D Playing a korean beta might not be the best way to experience it lol.

Not that beta's don't have their problems, I'm sure there are many many ways for Huxley to be improved, and hopefully most of those ways get done.

If it's true that you can only use class specific weapons and only have a few abilities (with higher level abilities only lasting longer and there not really being any "new" abilities) I'm definitely going to be disappointed.

The PvE doesn't sound too bad though. And even though I know PvE is going to be a big part of the game (which I'm all up for), I really think the PvP is going to make or break it for me. I might or might not play the US beta. Betas tend to ruin games for me, but at the same time it makes me expect a little less, and then the game seems better when it comes out lol.

Either way I plan on buying the full retail version of Huxley when it comes out, and giving it it's fair chance. If it doesn't match up to what I want, I'll stop playing and keep an eye on the forums to see if they make any improvements :D

[Guyver]

Well with all PvE aside. I can't properly review PvP because of a slight error.

http://img530.imageshack.us/img530/759/pvpqu4.jpg

So until I figure out what that says and how to fix it. This written review is at a stand still.

[Centaurus87]

Okay cool, seems like most of you guys are in. At the moment i'm struggling to get myself an account and start the download.

If the whole game is Korean that could be a bit of a problem yeah :P
But I would advise alot of skipping text and running around like a headless chicken...

ofc, that's a personal favorite

[Centaurus87]

Originally Posted by Guyver

Yeah, I admit I made the game sound a little bad. But I tried to make it more fair than biased.

Honesty hurts.

Oh and GoldenRice - Honestly? -4 points? Whens the last time you played a beta that was 10/10?
HM?

I was expecting this game to be a 9- Any website game reviews or scores are all a bunch of BS anyway. No game is ever perfect. Look at WOW for example? How ridiculous was that game when it first came out? Do you realize how many patches are out for that game now?

Pshhhhh

Exactly, that's what i've been trying to tell people. Only in more general language then with WoW. Because some people get agitated from it.

It's still in a test phase. 9 out of 10 times when a game goed from Beta testing phase to Full Game Release there are 90% changes. Minor or major, about the largest proportion of the games are redone in certain ways to put that final finishing touch at it. World of Warcraft WAS ready, but not as far as they wanted.

To be honest, I still have complete faith in the game itself. Ow well, maybe that's because i'm about the only one in the world also looking at Game Engines and other Features then just "OMG I CAN GAME AND SHOOT HEADS LOLOL I IS 1337"

[Dreconus]

hey centaur guy, if you still need one do you want my account? if not i can create you an account in like 2 minutes. i played it to like lvl 11, found out that after quests end, its just gonna be a grind session becasue we get the p2p error in pvp simulations. this is because of latency issues...