Albion Online
Albion Online (AO) is a free medieval fantasy MMORPG developed by Sandbox Interactive, a studio based in Berlin, Germany. During the beta stages of development, players were able to purchase 'Founder's Packs' to gain access to the closed beta play-tests which were run intermittently by Sandbox Interactive, typically after an interval of a few. Watch Albion Online channels streaming live on Twitch. Sign up or login to join the community and follow your favorite Albion Online streamers!
AVOID LIKE THE PLAGUE! In it’s current state (as of 2/10/2016) this game is absolutely terrible, particularly for new players. Whilst not extremely difficult to start playing, it has zero tutorial aspect to get the new player acquainted with any aspect of the game. There is no lore based text or introduction to set the scene; no assistance or purpose to what you are doing as soon as you start on a beach in your underwear.
You click on uninspired nodes, click on some more, rinse and repeat. Congratulations, you just clicked enough to get a ding! You upgraded a skill to let you click on something else! Whilst the “player driven economy” may seem interesting, it is halting to progress as you continually need to collect, refine and find purpose with your items, and can’t sell them to vendors (as far as I can find out). You have an auction house, but as the low level ingredients can be found readily, and then crafted; and money generation isn’t plentiful elsewhere then you cant purchase anything anyway… and can it be used with out click click leveling those damn dings? It has different than standard MMO ideas, but doesn’t translate to better ideas… just restrictive and boring ones. No seemingly original ideas found in this game improve on the established MMO conventions.
Another aspect that may seem to have a grounding in reality is the carry capacity restrictions. You can only carry so much, but this fills extremely quickly and slows movement. This is super irritating, because all you are basically doing is clicking to carry stuff. No discernible inventory management system or sorting, uninspired item design and names. The crafting system is straight forward, click to get ingredients, refine and craft. Zero original idea. Craft points (or something to that affect) can be used to improve craft quality, but again – zero discussion or guidance on that aspect too. Every aspect of the game is far too slow paced and frustrating, including the death animations of half the animals that you wait that second too long to die, then you guessed it… click once, twice and sometimes a third time to collect ingredients… from. the. one. carcass.
The whole game feels like the developers thought, “this is a good game mechanic/idea” lets use it, but didn’t consider player enjoyment. For me, that should be primary – the enjoyment and satisfaction of the player and customer. The pay to play business model is very questionable in the games current form, and if you’re on the edge like me and decide to pay to experience it…. then unless you like monotony (such as the competitive sport of watching paint dry), then you may also be sorely disappointed like me. And instantly out of pocket after a few bland hours. I’m sure the PVP will be… uninspired also. I couldn’t for the life of me go through the torture of clicking enough here and there to get to some meaningful combat.
The fixed camera is irritating, the art style pretty enough but lacking details, and the overwhelming click click click aspect is simply mind numbing,
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Albion Online Review
If you’re on the fence, thinking the game “looks good or interesting”, and are already an experienced MMO player, please take my advice and look elsewhere – sheesh, just reactivate your WoW sub! ;). In my opinion, this game is extremely boring and not worth ANY investment – time, money or otherwise.