Another Wuxia MMO takes a stab at the market with 'Swordsman', based on the Chinese novel series of the same name, and developed and published by Perfect World. Although 2 years old now, the game. Swordsman was a free-to-play massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) by Perfect World Entertainment and is currently available exclusively on Arc.Closed Beta began on June 16, 2014, and was open to all users with a Closed Beta key. On June 27, 2014, the closed beta ended and the open beta began on July 1, 2014 for players with early access benefits and July 3, 2014, for all.
Before I begin, this article is purely a personal opinion piece, based on 6 hours of gameplay and 3 characters belonging to different clans. Swordsman Online, developed by Perfect World, entered test phase 2 earlier today, and I got in for a look.
With Age of Wushu leaving a deep impression, minus the combat which I didn't enjoy, my hopes were extremely high for this game, which was delayed for a couple of years due to an upgrade in game engine. So how did it fare in my eyes?
Basic gameplay
I was deeply disappointed, I truly am. While Swordsman Online can boast of its 10 authentic martial arts clans for players to choose from, every player wears the same look for the first 20 levels. To add a further blow, players are not transferred to the clan base before or after choosing.
In fact, players choose the clans to join in a house, and then carry on like everyone else. No branching storyline, no differentiation in clans to show other than the skills.
From what I remember in Age of Wushu, every clan has got different quests to allow players to understand its foundations more, its beliefs and get to know the important people. Not in Swordsman Online, everything is rushed for players to progress.
The maps are really small as well, leaving no room for actual exploration. I might be spoiled too much by Age of Wushu, but I am estimating each map in AoW is about 10 times the size of that in Swordsman.
There is also no actual 'qingong' thus far except for some instanced quick time events, with just a double jump to show in actual play.
Clan base
The 3 clans I tried were Wudang, Emei and Tang Clan. After the above disappointment, I thought that I should move on, and perhaps the clan bases will be all grand and stuff, a gigantic place to explore and even bigger than those in Age of Wushu. Man I was wrong.
Seen above is the map of Emei. Doesn't take a genius to really know how puny it is, with only a couple of NPCs around. Ok, it is closed beta after all, but what are the chances of a massive base expansion come launch? And every clan base is an instance, players can't just go riding up a mountain and reach them.
Combat
The combat system in Perfect World's other new game, Saint Seiya Online, was near perfect for a classic point and click. Everything seems like a mass in Swordsman Online, from a normal gamer's point of view. You see, the 'normal attack' key cannot be dragged and placed under the number keys, since they are taken up by the set skills.
With most of the other keys confined to different functions, the default attack keys are just right click and the console key. Yes, the one beside the number '1' on your keyboard, which did not work for me. Eventually, I placed the normal attack key under 'E', which is reserved for chained combos.
There are different skill sets to learn, for example the Taichi Swordplay set has a few skills under it. New skill sets can be learned when progressing in the game, and players can change them during battle. Pretty much like Guild Wars 2, except that the weapon stays the same.
Party system
Partying for dungeons in Saint Seiya Online is extremely fuss free, with the system automatically allocate individual players of the same level range together and even make sure different classes are chosen. I have no idea why. but Swordsman Online reverted back to the confusing system of looking through a list of parties with slots, hoping the leader will accept.
This led to the chat window spammed with players looking for parties for the first instanced dungeon, with most eventually choosing to go solo. Why, Perfect World, would you take a step back?
Graphics
The only saving grace during my 6 hours of game time is probably the awesome graphics. Everything looks so pretty, minus the same clothing every single player is wearing. It is a shame that Swordsman Online seem to be bogged down by its gameplay features.
Closing comments
I will still be playing Swordsman Online, and I am actually on my 4th character now to test out the different clans. If nothing major changes my views, I will not be posting any more personal updates. I am seriously underwhelmed by the game, and I can't believe almost nothing on my list of expectations is met.
GamesPublished on August 26th, 2014 | by Edwin Millheim
Summary: Learn from one of 10 sword schools in this free-to-play MMO
Swordsman
Developer: Beijing Perfect World
Publisher: Perfect World Entertainment
Platform: PC Arc Download
Reviewer: Logan Ladnyk
Swordsman by Perfect World is a free-to-play MMORPG that is currently in open beta. It's based on the Chinese novel The Smiling, Proud Wanderer by Louis Cha (a fact you are reminded of during the game's initial loading screen), though a few plot points are slightly different to better accommodate the player. While the game is free, Perfect World supplied Impulse Gamer with one of the packs players can pay for in order to better experience the game.
The game is accessed through Arc, a program that is essentially the Steam of Perfect World games. I personally found it a bit cumbersome to have to download one thing just to download another, but it makes sense if there is strong brand loyalty to Arc. I suspect there is, due to how controls for Swordsman are recommended; there's more on this later.
The plot is pretty average. Cha's novel was a political metaphor masked as a work of fiction, and the plot works much better for that purpose rather than as a game. In the amount that I played before writing this review, the plot was mostly avenging deaths caused by villains. It works as motivation, but it's nothing new (which makes sense, seeing as The Smiling, Proud Wanderer was published from 1967 to 1969).
Like all MMORPGs, the bulk of Swordsman's content comes through quests. One of the options allows active quests to be displayed. The name of the quest target, be it an enemy, location or npc, will be highlighted, and the player will move toward that target if the name is clicked. This made navigation through the world easy and quick, but it felt at times like watching the game instead of playing it. Apple image capture update.
Even if I was watching instead of playing, auto-routing was still my preferred method of moving about. This was because of the control scheme. Swordsman has three control schemes, and for me it was a matter of finding which one I disliked the least rather than which one I liked the most. One scheme uses the mouse to move and the keyboard to attack; another uses just the keyboard, with the mouse controlling the camera; and the last scheme is a combination of the two that doesn't enjoy the benefits of a dedicated scheme from either of the first two. Not one of the control schemes had a good camera-moving system, so I played by choosing an optimal angle and hoping I wouldn't need to move it.
Complicating the matter was that the control schemes were recommended based on how other Perfect World games' controls worked. 'Suggestion: Players who are used to playing FW and ESO' doesn't help newcomers who have no clue what FW and ESO are (Forsaken World and Ether Saga Online).
Another issue I had was with the loading screens. It takes over 70 seconds to go from launching the game to being able to play it, with the two screens separated by the five-second interactive portion of choosing which character to play and which server to use. A loading screen also appears whenever you change locations, adding to the delays. I don't know if the loads were merely long on their own, but I suspect that tabbing out of the game during loading screens stops the process, forcing players to watch shimmering Chinese script and a tip that may or may not fit on the screen.
Swordsman looks okay. The best graphics come from the landscape, and initial character customization is pretty in-depth if you want it to be. It also has a nice visual mechanic where clothes marked as fashion items override armor, so players can wear the best gear possible without worrying about how items might clash aesthetically. One display problem is that while quest dialogue is shown in a text box, words will sometimes cut off mid-apostrophe. If 'I'm' is the last word of a line, it might appear as 'I' m.' That looks jarring and sloppy.
I think the best part of Swordsman is its audio. The music matches the mood, and sometimes there is no music at all because just ambient noise can carry the game at that point. The voices are all Chinese, with English subtitles. For me, this was both a blessing and a curse upon the game. Hearing characters speak Chinese helped with the immersion, but at the same time almost shattered said immersion because it was a language I didn't know and made the dialogue merely a series of sounds.
While this next part doesn't fall strictly into gameplay, it is worth noting. The game has a severe problem with its economy. Bots and cash for gold site advertisements run rampant. The advertisements abuse a chat mechanic called 'roar,' which appears even if the chat box is closed. I also received at least one piece of mail a day advertising a site that I could buy in-game currency from. On a few occasions I found myself in the middle of a bot convoy, with no characters talking and all having four-letter names comprised solely of consonants. More than once while I had chat visible, players would complain about the amount of bots in the game, begging for someone, anyone, to do something about it.
Summary: Learn from one of 10 sword schools in this free-to-play MMO
Swordsman
Developer: Beijing Perfect World
Publisher: Perfect World Entertainment
Platform: PC Arc Download
Reviewer: Logan Ladnyk
Swordsman by Perfect World is a free-to-play MMORPG that is currently in open beta. It's based on the Chinese novel The Smiling, Proud Wanderer by Louis Cha (a fact you are reminded of during the game's initial loading screen), though a few plot points are slightly different to better accommodate the player. While the game is free, Perfect World supplied Impulse Gamer with one of the packs players can pay for in order to better experience the game.
The game is accessed through Arc, a program that is essentially the Steam of Perfect World games. I personally found it a bit cumbersome to have to download one thing just to download another, but it makes sense if there is strong brand loyalty to Arc. I suspect there is, due to how controls for Swordsman are recommended; there's more on this later.
The plot is pretty average. Cha's novel was a political metaphor masked as a work of fiction, and the plot works much better for that purpose rather than as a game. In the amount that I played before writing this review, the plot was mostly avenging deaths caused by villains. It works as motivation, but it's nothing new (which makes sense, seeing as The Smiling, Proud Wanderer was published from 1967 to 1969).
Like all MMORPGs, the bulk of Swordsman's content comes through quests. One of the options allows active quests to be displayed. The name of the quest target, be it an enemy, location or npc, will be highlighted, and the player will move toward that target if the name is clicked. This made navigation through the world easy and quick, but it felt at times like watching the game instead of playing it. Apple image capture update.
Even if I was watching instead of playing, auto-routing was still my preferred method of moving about. This was because of the control scheme. Swordsman has three control schemes, and for me it was a matter of finding which one I disliked the least rather than which one I liked the most. One scheme uses the mouse to move and the keyboard to attack; another uses just the keyboard, with the mouse controlling the camera; and the last scheme is a combination of the two that doesn't enjoy the benefits of a dedicated scheme from either of the first two. Not one of the control schemes had a good camera-moving system, so I played by choosing an optimal angle and hoping I wouldn't need to move it.
Complicating the matter was that the control schemes were recommended based on how other Perfect World games' controls worked. 'Suggestion: Players who are used to playing FW and ESO' doesn't help newcomers who have no clue what FW and ESO are (Forsaken World and Ether Saga Online).
Another issue I had was with the loading screens. It takes over 70 seconds to go from launching the game to being able to play it, with the two screens separated by the five-second interactive portion of choosing which character to play and which server to use. A loading screen also appears whenever you change locations, adding to the delays. I don't know if the loads were merely long on their own, but I suspect that tabbing out of the game during loading screens stops the process, forcing players to watch shimmering Chinese script and a tip that may or may not fit on the screen.
Swordsman looks okay. The best graphics come from the landscape, and initial character customization is pretty in-depth if you want it to be. It also has a nice visual mechanic where clothes marked as fashion items override armor, so players can wear the best gear possible without worrying about how items might clash aesthetically. One display problem is that while quest dialogue is shown in a text box, words will sometimes cut off mid-apostrophe. If 'I'm' is the last word of a line, it might appear as 'I' m.' That looks jarring and sloppy.
I think the best part of Swordsman is its audio. The music matches the mood, and sometimes there is no music at all because just ambient noise can carry the game at that point. The voices are all Chinese, with English subtitles. For me, this was both a blessing and a curse upon the game. Hearing characters speak Chinese helped with the immersion, but at the same time almost shattered said immersion because it was a language I didn't know and made the dialogue merely a series of sounds.
While this next part doesn't fall strictly into gameplay, it is worth noting. The game has a severe problem with its economy. Bots and cash for gold site advertisements run rampant. The advertisements abuse a chat mechanic called 'roar,' which appears even if the chat box is closed. I also received at least one piece of mail a day advertising a site that I could buy in-game currency from. On a few occasions I found myself in the middle of a bot convoy, with no characters talking and all having four-letter names comprised solely of consonants. More than once while I had chat visible, players would complain about the amount of bots in the game, begging for someone, anyone, to do something about it.
Criticisms aside, Swordsman isn't a bad game. The combat was fun, and the same controls that didn't help navigation made fighting enjoyable. In addition to special moves, double-tapping a direction makes the character dodge that way. Leveling up is easy, and while it didn't hold my attention for long periods of time, the quests were short enough that it didn't need to. https://imulep-zupp.wixsite.com/leisuredownload/post/framer-x-21-air-filter.
The game is free to play, which is the best possible value. It was a unique gaming experience for me. My mind wandered about what I could be doing instead while playing Swordsman, but when I was doing something else, I thought about playing the game. Swordsman isn't unplayable because of the issues outlined above, and even if I didn't particularly enjoy certain elements, I liked the game as a whole.
If free entertainment's most redeeming quality is that it's free, so be it. That's not a knock against it.
Swordsman Online Lost Arts
Swordsman Online Review Free
Related Posts
Transformers: Battlegrounds Xbox Review →