Early impressions of RaiderZ
RaiderZ is a new kind of MMO experience for me; I never gave Terra a shot or any other action MMORPG for that matter. I’m not entirely sure how it fits into the genre since I have no actual baseline for it at this point. In fact, bottom line here is that after playing it for a good 10 hours or so and completing all of the content through the third area in the game and reaching level 15, I still don’t really have any strong feelings about the game one way or another. While it may be a good game, good has a hard time cutting it in a market full of exceptional games showing off all of their sexy digital flash for your attention. RaiderZ is either very conservative and just holding back the goods so that I can appreciate it that much more when I get to end game content, or it really is just a mediocre title destined to eventually let me down and end up on a long list of games that just don’t hold my attention. I know this is all rather nebulous exposition, so I’ll go ahead and detail some specifics and let you be the judge.
First off, RaiderZ is free to play. Like so many other games that ping briefly on my radar, you just download it, make a character, and start grinding away at the bad guys. Time and again this seems like it should be the foundation for a successful game. The problem seems to be that when you’re not invested financially, nothing stops you from just dropping the title and moving on to the next shiny game to come along. So it should have a solid hook to get you playing. What really got my attention with this title is just how cool it is. I mean, they use a ‘Z’ instead of an ‘s’. They almost ended up with Raiders, which is cool and all if you’re a professor / archaeologist with a thing for whips, but RaiderZ is something that appeals to the really cool, hip scene. Yeah, okay, I have no frakking idea what the Z is for and I’m tempted just to call the game Raider Zed. I know it’s in open beta test, which means things can change, but I’m guessing the Z is staying.
I got a chance to play RaiderZ at PAX Prime when it shared booth space with Neverwinter. I’ll admit that they did manage to buy my interest by letting me win a rather sweet stein for my second favorite hobby, drinking all the beer. I had the same basic issue with it then that I still do now: controls. My biggest complaint about RaiderZ as it sits is that I control my avatar with standard WASD controls while looking / aiming with my mouse (since spells must be aimed to hit), dodging with the shift key (though double-tapping a directional key works as well) and attempting to use an ability with the hotkeys of 1-0 and F1-F10. It’s a bit cumbersome and I find myself putting my hand in the wrong position pretty regularly and getting beaten down by a monster. Ideally there’s a gamepad peripheral out there that can accommodate a dual stick control scheme while allowing for 20 button controls. I don’t think I have seen it, but feel free to tell me if you know of one.
Preparing to face the Goblin Golem
Graphically, I’m pretty impressed by this title. It’s not nearly as bland as some of the other F2P games that I’ve played in the past. There’s a good amount of detail in the environments and the player models and areas didn’t feel redundant to me as I explored. The armor and weapons are unique enough from the start that you don’t really spend much time looking like a medieval peasant as you might in other games. The monster designs are cool looking though not particularly original. You’ll face goblins, wolves, trolls, giant crabs, and other standard fantasy game fare. However, I’m hoping to see more boss fights like the goblin golem that involve weak points and strategy. It’s pretty straight forward – break the purple crystal on the golem’s chest in order to make it vulnerable to additional damage.
Which brings us to the crafting system. The robust crafting system will thrill every MMO player that never felt that crafted goods could really hold up to the items that just drop from monsters. This is, oddly enough, because monsters in RaiderZ don’t actually drop any consumables or items that can be equipped. The only thing monsters (including bosses) drop as far as I have seen is materials used in crafting or trash. Sadly (unless you actually hate grinding crafting skills) there are no actual crafting skills. Artisans of various trades will craft for you in town when you bring them the materials. However, like some kind of fantasy world spouse, they will happily send you out into the field with a shopping list for an item which can be tracked in the quest pane.
A quick blurb on the class system here. There are four primary classes in the game: defender (defense/tank), berserker (melee dps), mage (ranged dps), and cleric (support). However, upon reaching level 11, you can begin putting points into the skill trees of other classes to gain their abilities. So making a hybrid is really simple, but as the current level cap is 35 you will never be able to acquire the top skill point reward in any class. Additionally, it’s worth noting that if you want to use a skill from a secondary class, it only works when wielding a weapon available to that class. So that can get tricky at times.
Right now, I feel like there’s not a whole lot that draws me to this game. While crafting is nice, grinding enemies for drops to make armor just doesn’t press that slot machine style reward button in my brain that random equipment drops does. The action itself can sometimes feel as if it’s coming to a crawl, and with hybrid classes being easily created and possibly leading to less than ideal builds, I don’t feel like the game is as intuitive and fast paced as it should be. When combined with the control issues I have, I’m pretty tempted to just call it a good effort and walk away. However, I’m very curious to see how my experience might change in the end game and while involved in a guild. Hopefully I should have another report on that in the near future.
