The deists of the Enlightenment came up with a ‘clockwork universe’ theory which I’m going to be borrowing to compare my experiences with XL Games’ MMORPG ArcheAge. In this concept, the world is compared to that of a great machine; both created and wound by a God who just sits back and watches everything play out on its own without interfering. This is similar to how a watchmaker crates a watch, never to tinker with it ever again. In many ways, ArcheAge follows this same model. XL Games created this highly ambitious fantasy world that is left to a player base to forge in their own way. Now we’re left to question the importance of the God / developer role.
First things first, it must be noted that ArcheAge isn’t technically a new title – it’s only new to North America and Europe. The game originally came out in Korea in January of 2013. With over a year and a half of shelf life, this isn’t ArcheAge’s first rodeo. The MMO came to Japan in July of 2013 and is also currently in a beta phase in Russia. It should also be mentioned by no means have I experienced the entirety of this game. At the time of this review in progress I’m in my early twenties.
While ArcheAge doesn’t avoid all the MMO tropes, it does one hell of a job adding its own unique spin to them. The approach of ArcheAge is that of a sandbox MMO. Sure you’re doing the whole level up grind through questing but instead of that being the main focus of the game there are so many other things happening at the same time. The amount of detail and possibilities of what you can do as a character are so potentially enriched that it’s downright overwhelming.
To better explain this, let’s look at housing. This is a feature that has been becoming more and more popular in more MMO’s as of recent. ArcheAge takes it to a new level. First off, housing is non-instanced like how Star Wars Galaxies did it back in the day. Decorate in interior and exterior until your heart’s content. Hell, add some farmland, mate some livestock, kill a real player thief… it’s your land after all. As a taxpaying citizen, it’s your right. If you can’t pay your taxes, you better believe other players are going to claim your precious plot by force. After all, since they are not instanced, there aren’t infinite plots.
Take crafting as another example. Nearly every MMO has a form of crafting but not nearly every MMO has 21 crafting professions. In ArcheAge, combat is only an aspect of the game – not necessarily the focus. Sure you can create weapons and armor but you can also get into farming, carpentry, and animal husbandry of all things. Twenty-one options is a ridiculous amount of options. Yes, this includes gathering but that’s a whole thing in its own. This sort of spice gives you a truly unique experience allowing you to play your character the way you view them in their fantasy setting. Oh, there are also trade routes you can establish for economic gain, need to protect, and gives your refined goods a purpose.
My favorite feature of ArcheAge is the class system though. You go from picking a starting class, to adding another class on top of it, to adding a third class on top of those two within only a few hours of playing. The little detail I like the most about this is that the combination of your three classes gives your character a title. For example, an occultist who plays music and partakes in witchcraft is a Tombcaller. When you level, you can get points to distribute in one of these three trees. Spells and abilities have combos that require use of other tree spells. So once you get use to the system, you can build some nasty combinations to fit your play style. These can be reset with in game currency. Indecisiveness comes with a price, but is a welcomed feature.
The center of combat revolves around combinations and downtimes of certain abilities. Instead of relying on the ‘all mighty combo,’ you’re going to want to throw together multiple options for grinding where you won’t have to wait on cooldowns to be devastating. Other than this system, combat is fairly standard to other MMOs with tab-targeting. As you level your horse you can grab barding and turn it into a vehicle for combat. I haven’t had success with this thus far but perhaps at higher levels it will be more than a gimmick.
With all the diversity in crafting, professions, and classes… this somewhat trickles over into character creation. There are so many minute details you can shape your character’s face with, that it may blow your away – seriously, I’d be amazed to find two people with the same exact head. With that said, that’s about where the customization ends. There is no body shape, physique, or height slider. So while your head will look detailed and unique, you’ll look identical and be the same exact height as those of your fellow race. There are four races in total, none of them give off the impression of anything new, and the four races make up two factions. There is also an outlaw-pirate faction but that has to be earned and makes all both the other factions your enemies.
Questing is fairly bland in the greater scope of MMOs. While it’s not particularly painful, it is fairly standard. While other games may create compelling characters or humorous objectives, that isn’t the case in ArcheAge. Finding quest locations is a cinch though. There are color coordinated arrows coming from your feet that tell you which direction each of your current quests are. This may be one of the simplest quest finding means I’ve ever experienced in an MMO. Another interesting feature is that on many quests you can go out of your way to overachieve them; collect more of something, kill more baddies, etc. This will get you better rewards. There are also hidden quests which are pretty groovy when you’re just out there slaughtering things at random and pick them up.
There is definitely a story present which has its own green-colored quest line. While I’m normally a die-hard story person, I couldn’t get into ArcheAge’s story. While I tried at first, I found myself skipping the multiple cut scenes soon after. In a game with so much going on, the story is not something that grabbed me. These green missions are race specific and while they tell “your” story, they are telling the same story for everyone else of your race. While this is a common mold for MMOs, my expectations for ArcheAge I guess were just slightly higher.
While I’ve talked much about PvE, there is also a hardcore PvP aspect. I can’t speak from personal experience due to the fact that I have yet to attempt it. This is the sort of PvP where you can lose items for losing or even gain lands upon victory. There are castle sieges, siege warfare, and even ship battle. The aspiration, in concept alone, even in PvP is remarkable.
Returning to the core of the ‘clockwork universe’ analogy, so much of this sandbox MMO is player run. Players live in non-instanced housing, pay taxes, get penalized for theft, work the earth, raise animals, trade goods, and protect their lands. This leads to the concept of politics. Players run the judicial system. Your peers will judge crimes such as theft and murder and deal a punishment. Criminals will then work off their time in prison or attempt escape. Lands are constantly in conflict with other lands. If you leave all your chat tabs live, you’ll see all the changes, wars, and battles going on in world.
With my experience with ArcheAge, the largest conflict I run into is that of ambition vs. execution. On paper, ArcheAge is monstrous in possibilities. The game runs into some free-to-play model issues. Those who pay (Patrons) who have a ‘fast-pass’ into servers still suffered at first. Those without were plagued by hours of wait queues. In a system where PvP means loss or gains, those who pay have an advantage which non-payers have suffered from. The more appealing features such as housing are extremely limited and without instances, are only experienced by a percent of the audience. On top of that – only Patrons can have plots. ArcheAge suffers from a Roman Empire type effect, it’s a good game but too big to contain its borders. If the various features were better refined, perhaps the execution would be better? There is still more life to breathe into this game, more levels to grind out, and time for my complaints to be recognized; we shall see.
