User Rating: 6.7 | Horizons: Empire of Istaria PC
Overall I found Horizons to be quite boring. The initial excitement of an extremely well done crafting system soon turns to boredom due to excessive repetition, which has become the main theme of so many online games these days. I am leaving out comments on lag and bugs since these are common issues and the devs at Artifact are doing a good job taking care of these issues. The game is finally in a playable state for those with a DSL or Broadband Cable connection and lag is becoming a haunting of the past. If you have a monster of a system with a high end video card the graphics are actually quite nice. Many seem to be saying the graphics are not that great but unless you are running an updated machine you will not truly get a sense of how beautiful the game world can be when you explore it. The sound is the best I have experienced in ANY game ever. I cannot say enough good things about the soundtrack. Hunting is where I feel the game is severely lacking and is responsible for the mediocre score I give the game. The game world is quite empty. There is a severe lack of creatures on the landscape. You can start a timer and literally run for 30 minutes in some cases and not come across ANYTHING. In some areas, if you come across a creature, it is the same creature over and over but with level variations. I do wish to state I did not hunt to a very high level. The higher level people I talk with seem to be having some more fun as they get more special abilities during combat. However, the lack of variety is the same for higher levels so you had best get used to what you choose to hunt. If you enjoy solo hunting and do not mind much creature variation, then you might have a lot more fun then I did. There is little to no reason to ever join a group to hunt and consequently, you won't find yourself in any town and have people trying to even form a group. There is also no experience benefit to hunt in groups so bottom line, pretty much no one groups at this point. If you enjoy hunting with your guild you will have to find someone who will feel punished sharing experience with you. Especially if you are much higher level. Crafting is the strongest point of Horizons and I am willing to bet if polled, most are crafting vs. hunting and hoping hunting gets better later. I have to admit, initially, I was ranting and raving how good crafting is to all my friends. It is thoroughly enjoyable and relaxing after a hard day at work. However, once again, after thoroughly learning your school of craft it becomes tedious and boring. After 100 hours of crafting, you might not feel using your pick axe on a copper/ore or silver node very exciting anymore. It gets to the point where there is no point in leveling. The higher level you craft, the more rare and difficult the resource is to find. For those who enjoy adventuring, this might be fun to you. Higher level crafting means needing the proper time to find that resource which might mean 45 minutes of your time looking for it. It comes down to what you might think is fun based on your crafting experience in prior games. Will it get old to your personality type? Overall, Horizons feels like every other online game that has come out the last 5+ years and doesn't offer much to really keep my attention. I haven't seen anything overall unique other than the crafting being more in depth than ever before. I will be checking out any of the number of big name online games coming out throughout 2004 instead and saving my $12.95 per month.
