A solid MMO that doesn't quite get the claim to fame. Read my review!
User Rating: 7.5 | Allods Online PC
Allods Online is a fantasy MMORPG made in Russia. The game also has some small sci-fi industrial elements to it, as you will see abandoned factories and machines through out the game world. The games graphics are like WoW's, except less cartoony and have a more polished feeling. Even on a generally low resolution, the game looks great. Lets move to the charcter creation; the customization for your character is pretty good as you select from various hair, hair colors, facial hair, facial features, physical form, and other things. The game has two warring factions: The empire and the league. Each side has three of its own races, with the empire having xadagians, a human type race, arisen, which is like a biotic race, and the everyday orc, complete with some nice muscles. The league having the kanians, a human type race similar to the xadagians, your everday elf, wings included, and gibberlings, which are actually a group of three little gerbil looking dudes. You can control them all at once, and you can customize each one. Unlike in WoW, where the hoard are the bad guys and the alliance is good, each faction here seems like they are generally clean. There are eight classes and twenty-eight archetypes; an archetype is when for example an orc becomes a reaver, which is like a paladin; if you than choose an elf reaver, even though they are the same class, they will both have different skills and abilities, so it is pretty interesting. Moving on to gameplay. The games combat is a little awkward. You dont auto-attack, which may sound good to some people, but it isnt hack 'n slash either. You actually have to press 1 every time to do a basic attack, as well as with other skills. However, once at about level 10, you wont need to use your basic attack; all you will need are your skills. Also at level 10, it has some kind of grid system, but I don't know much about it as my charcter only level 9. But I heard its pretty interesting. The exp. rate in the game is very slow. It would probably take you a week to get to level 10 if you played for an hour each day, even though I met some guy who played for like 8 hours straight and hit level 11. However, from me playing on my friends old account (He had a lvl 21) there is a huge lack of content starting at level 20. There are the Allod ship battles, but thats about it. Also, level 20 is considerebly low for the allod PvP system anyway. Another major down fall is the cash shop. It used to be catastrophic, as the prices were incredibly high and you couldn't do anything with free gear from level 15 +. They moved some items to free and significantly lowered the prices once the community started rebelling, but it is still really un-balanced. The bottom line is: Don't play this game if you are looking for something completely, 100 % free to play, but if your looking for a nice, polished MMO that you are willing to invest some money in, play away.
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