Its probably one of the best looking Java games at the moment. Its highly polished and one of the few Java games to be published by a big name publisher, Sega in this case (hopefully a trend we’ll see more often now).
Yup they did a great job with this game and I like the gameplay idea. It’s very dynamic. Unfortunately when I played it was pretty empty, only met 4 people.
Game was alright, biggest problem with it wasn’t the programming, it was the game design. You can theoretically buy yourself straight to the top. The game is entirely gear based, you need two star gear to go down to the next tier. However a best way to get new gear is either to buy completely off another player, or to craft it yourself. With all gear being completely BOE (Bind on Equip) you can buy the best gear (5 star) off another player for real life money, kinda kills the drive to play lots of hours.
I played for around 10hours, and barely hit mostly 2 star gear, not even enough to hit tier2.
So basically your issue is that they messed up on the addicting/frustating/time wasting element of the game that make the success of every other MMO? That doesn’t sound too bad.
Some things I saw that would be a bigger issue :
Some fights can be very chaotic, you dont really know why you win but you win. The basic idea behind the game mechanics is very simple : to attack just press the right mouse button, to make a bigger attack hold the right mouse button, to switch between gun and sword press the space button. Ok that part is very cool, it’s intuitive and it work.
But when you are in a real battle it become a bit more complex. When you attack enemy you are not always sure if your attack is doing anything to them, no damage number poping, enemy doesn’t always change color to show it was hit so you are not sure if it does anything. Also, you can interrupt enemy ‘‘spell’’ by attacking them ; is it because you do a certain amount of damage to them or because you push them back? I’m still not sure. It would be nice to understand how it works so you can make ‘‘strategy’’.
Also it’s a bit annoying that any time you combine a few sword swing that you have to move forward (part of why battle are chaotic).
Special attack (holding button for long) are not very useful. Take too long to charge, doesn’t seems to be that strong.
When talking to a npc you cant move until you close the window (would be nice to just walk away, you dont want to press the x button everytime)
There is a lot of spelling mistake in the french version (I know I make a lot of mistake in english sorry).
Sometimes it feel like there is some kind of lag. For example when you switch the direction your character is facing and he suddently jump forward or backward, it’s kinda strange. Sometimes, you also seems to speed up and slow down for no reason when walking. The walking animation are nice but it would be cool to have a constant speed. It will a bit like watching a rogue shadow stepping if you are familiar with WOW.
Also, it’s too easy so far. I played for 3 hours, attacking large group of monster alone (like 6-7) and never died… The game is designed to make it easy to play in group but you can ask yourself the question why should I play in group if I can do everything alone.
I still don’t know how to upgrade my gear. Ok, I only did instance and didn’t talk much to npc but usually it’s obvious. Some item drop and you equip it. This time there is no item dropping. Ok that might be the time to introduce a new way to maximize your character but well I still don’t have any idea about that. It would be nice to have some tutorial. I spend 5 minutes with my gun equipped, trying to change it for my sword by going in the inventory window (I) and/or by pressing any keys on my keyboard before realizing by chance that the space key was the one that I need to press to change my weapon. Lord of the ring online made a very good introduction/tutorial at the beginning of the game. The first thing you need to do is talk to a npc, get an item in a bag, go to your inventory and equip this item. It’s very annoying the second time you have to do it but the first time it’s a great help. So, more tutorial would be a good thing.
I find it pretty boring. I’ve played a decent amount and I’ve gotten relatively nowhere in that time. Similarly, it is much much much too difficult to get any different gear that’s worth getting, and your current gear upgrades via “heat” (only level up mechanic at all), so it’s like two totally conflicting compulsion loops. In order to level up, you can’t get better gear, in order to get better gear you can’t level up. It’s a baffling design choice to me.
In addition, the game is freemium, and as such is marketed at more casual players. This conflicts with another decision to force the player to beat 8 levels of the game in order to save their progress. At this point I haven’t succeeded in getting that far before getting bored - the game is best in small doses.
It’s just clear in general that Three Rings need to work on design for an RPG, and I’m surprised at their lack of compulsion loops given their extensive freemium experience.
[quote]Charming free-to-play MMO Spiral Knights has added a new PvP mode, and it’s all a bit Bomberman, as you can see from the footage below. Three Rings explain: “Blast Network is now available, with more events on the way soon. Blast Network is a highly explosive event that pits Knights against each other and equips them with instant-charging bombs. The object of the game is to blow the competition to smithereens! Blast Network has no equipment requisites at all – simply join and get blasting whenever you like.”
And we all love Bomberman (yes, even you), so this sounds like profit to me.
[/quote] Source
OMG this is awesome!!! I just came from RuneScape and this game is gorgeous and the gameplay seems fun. I am going to play on to see what else great I can say about this game.
If it’s fun, I have the name “Mads” which is never available anywhere! 
