SCORE

Pros: Similar to other RPG’s in the genre so will appeal to those kinds of fans.
Cons: Poor translations and constantly reused systems, mechanics and in-game graphics.

Graphics: 4
Performance: 6
Gameplay: 3

Overall: 5

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We recently took some time to check out the newest browser-based fantasy/Greek mythology themed RPG, from publishers LeKool Games; Clash of Olympus. In the game players can select various classes, progress a narrative quest-based story, unlock new features and even go head-to-head in PVP in the later game. The free to play action RPG genre is quite oversaturated with many similar titles and so we thought we would check it out to see if it offered anything particularly new. Accessing the game is as easy as registering an account over on their official website, after which it jumps you straight into the game.

The first thing we faced was the character selection screen, divided up into three classes that had a female and male option, as with many games in this genre the classes act more like characters with zero customisation options and every player in the game looking exactly the same. On the flip side at least Clash of Olympus had put some character/class descriptions to accompany the available choices to give players an idea of their options (something missing from most RPGs).

Things didn't get off to the best start, at least for us as native English speakers, as the translations were pretty poor (although we have experienced far, far worse), it's something that has become very much the norm in these types of Asian import RPGs and the translations (at least into English) are never accurate. Clash of Olympus was no different, even to the point where one of the NPC's referred to our female character as a "guy", showing that the choice of character/gender isn't really taken into account other than your chosen portrait and the PCs don't seem to identify it.

The game went from bad to worse with the amount of automation, again something extremely common and is a feature that the Asian market seems to almost demand in comparison to the Western market. These games are not designed for the Western market but are, presumably, translated and published to try and bring in a little extra money (which is fine, games are a business, but that doesn't mean that the features are good). Whether moving from NPC to NPC with the auto-pathing feature, or jumping into battle and having zero control over combat, our amount of involvement and "gameplay" was pretty much clicking the continue button and letting the game play itself.

Combat was lacklustre, as often as not it took longer to load into the actual battle instance/challenge area than it did to actually defeat any of the enemies inside, the majority of which could be killed in one hit given that our "Battle Force" rating (the culmination of our gear, level, pets etc.) was way beyond the curve and there was absolutely no challenge or even any point to battle. Added to this was the fact that for the entirety of our game experience, which lasted around a good 30 minutes and consisted of 10 levels of combat, the instanced combat background only changed once and the enemies that we fought repeatedly use the same graphic.

This reusing of graphics and elements was pretty consistent, even the two primary gods Zeus and Chaos, that we get our quests from, were essentially the same graphic sprite and avatar (though they had modified it slightly and flipped it horizontally). Essentially it felt like we were in exactly the same tiny area, fighting in the same location, fighting the same enemies, talking to the same NPC's for 30 minutes, which got quite tedious. Added to the fact that we didn't open up any new features in the first 10 levels (where actually reaching level 10 was a bit of a disappointment as we were expecting to open up something new after having so much samey content up to this point).

Overall the game failed to deliver anything new and played exactly the same as the vast majority of RPG's in the genre that came before it, the graphics were nothing special and the amount that they were reused was disappointing to say the least. As the primary focus of the early game is the story/narrative it was both confusing and poorly translated and experiencing any of the other features that may give the game some appeal required grinding through hours of arduous gameplay.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 3rd, 2015 at 11:30 am and is filed under MMO News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Puedes dejar una respuesta, o un trackback desde tu sitio web.