So got an invite to the ArcheAge beta and have been playing it. I've played two characters (occulty, witchy, evil Brio and kindly, woodsy archer Dydreas - of course) up to level 10. That's not very far in this game. My initial impressions are an overall sense of MMO genericism.

But first, let me wax poetic over the character creator. That fucker is amazing. I could spend a year just playing the character creation game. You can choose the position of your pupils and even the size of your tear ducts. But all that care and attention to detail really doesn't translate well once you're in game running on low graphics due to your shitty computer. Brio is lovely, and Dydreas has a boyish charm, but only in cut scenes. The rest of the time I can't really see the size of their tear ducts.

Quests are pretty standard, go here, fetch that, kill 10 flamingos (no... really, I had to kill flamingos. I felt so guilty) type thing. So far I haven't noticed anything that stands out as above par about the lore or the story. Gameplay is still fun enough, and fast-paced. So far I haven't had to grind anything. There seems to be plenty of experience to go around, and leveling has been quick.

There is, however, no voice acting. TSW and ESO kind of have me spoiled for voice acting. I don't mind reading a game if the story is enough to keep me engaged but I don't yet know enough about the story to make a judgment on that.

I like the mounts. Humans have horses and elves have elks. Not sure what the other races have. But the elks are purdy.

Combat felt clunky at first, and targeting is tabbed, so yeah. But it gets a lot more fun as you add skill sets. Classes seem to be very customizable. There are lots of skill sets and you combine three to make a unique class. Brio combines occultism, sorcery and witchcraft. Dydo combines archery, shadowplay and I'll probably add some healing to his. So ultimately there are hundreds of "classes" and I'm a sucker for customizable builds.

PVP is forced. There are areas that are PVE only, areas that are all PVP (but have truce times) and the open seas are PVP all the time. There are naval battles and piracy.

The thing is, I get the feeling that the best this game has to offer happens waaaay after my present level. Crafting is supposed to be superb in this game, and you can build your own houses and boats.

I'll play as much as I can this weekend (depending on how much time off I end up having) and report back when I have more info. At this point I'm cautiously optimistic. So far the game seems rather linear and generic. It's pretty and entertaining, but nothing special, however the promise of all kinds of sandboxy goodness wavers seductively on the horizon.

Just want to share a page that lists all 120 classes in the game. http://archeage.info/classes

Yup. 120 classes.

Brio is a demonologist (the witchcraft skill set is so much fun) and Dydreas is a Ranger (what else?)

Yeah I think this looks really promising. Forced pvp seems kind of... not my idea of a good time, but we could also form a gang. Or a crew. Of pirates. WITH A PIRATE SHIP.

How's the beard selection in character creation?

Sadly, there are no full epic-looking beards, but there's a pretty decent selection of staches, goatees, nicely trimmed beards, five o'clock shadows and so on. Also, for the first time ever in any game, I was able to give dydreas the freckles he deserves.

I do like that you can ride two to a mount. I was very surprised when a guy jumped on my mount behind Brio. Actually, I think he was pretty surprised too, especially when I rode off into the sunset with him against his will.

Navigating water is a bit of a pain in the ass. I had difficulty with a rowboat. Not sure how we're going to manage a big ship. (on the plus side, I now have a rowboat). However, the navigation difficulties may also just be due to my own ineptitude. Other people seem to row very smoothly through water. I'm not discounting the possibility that I'm just retarded.

However, I've grown accustomed to games like ESO, GW2, and TSW where there's a certain amount of cooperation. You can run up and just start whaling on a large world boss without forming a party, and everyone gets a piece of the pie. Not so in Archeage. It seems very dated in that you have to form parties for a world boss (if you aren't in the party that first tagged the boss, you are locked out of even targeting it) and it looks like KSing could be very much a thing in this game, which is kind of a sad return to the bad old days. Not sure why they'd go that route but I guess it's because of the PVP atmosphere.

I really want to get this game....

I'm enjoying it. It has its flaws but it's entertaining and I've nearly finished building my crack-house.

I really like the skill and class system. Questing is pretty mediocre, but the higher you get in level the more other stuff there is to do. This is my second beta weekend and it's shaping up to be pretty fun.

Yeah and it's even better now that I'm playing too.

Justin, My Lord and Pagemaster Forever Amen getitgetitgetit. I'm really enjoying experimenting with class combinations.

Y'ALL

Y'ALL

I FINISHED MY CRACK-HOUSE

Screeeenshots! Post em!

Sweet! Jordan was showing me your house way earlier today, and it looked pretty cool. I love the whole non-instanced housing.,

Screenshots incomiiiiiiiiiiiing.
This game has a fantastic camera mode. Ctrl F12, lets you zoom in and out with a flying camera, change angles, all that.


My extra-majestic Elk and I. Note the lovely phallic rock formation in the background.


Crashing Brio's house. Melinoe is getting some reading in.


All of Brio's lurvely craftsmanship.


Feeling rather bandity.


Random aircraft flyin' overhead. Maybe you guys can make that zeppelin you've always dreamed of.

Ok first off iffin any of you feel like doing some reading, here's a translation of ArcheAge lore.

So I have more screenshots. Lots and lots more. Too bad "game photographer" isn't a viable vocation in this. It could work like in the Sims... where you take a screenshot and the sim paints a copy of it... Could do landscape paintings for houses. People might buy those. Hah uh ANYWAY PICTURES!

Y'all. Y'all. Open beta the 4th through the 8th. Headstart on the 12th. Release on the 16th.

Yaaaaay! It's so much sooner than I expected.