A huge virtual world!...with nothing in it. My 1 day review
The software is a free download, which took 4 hours total download plus install. Since it was free, I feel the wait time is ok. And I must admit I was pleasantly surprised when I discovered it would work with my integrated graphics.
After a few initial crashes, the game finally stabalised enough for me to create my character. It was the standard fare, choose your gender and the avatars general features. Unlike in SecondLife you can only do this once, and then its set. The options available, while varied, were dull, limited, and uninspired.
Then its off to Port Atlantis, where there are some NPCs who give some text which qualifies as the tutorial I suppose. Then you have to figure out what to do with yourself. If you go one way, you're off into the wilderness. The other, into the "city", which lags like crazy.
The wilderness is for the most part, empty. Yes empty. I found myself trying to run to a certain destination, and realized that I hadn't seen a single creature for about 10 minutes. I did see some trees that looked as though they'd been designed by Dr. Suess though. Then I ran over a hill and some baby triceratops rip-off head-butted me and I died.
I was teleported back to the city, which is basically a mall and a teleporter and alot of the socialising players. The mall had no other people in it, just stores that all sold pretty much the same weapons and armor.
Then someone ran by and I asked what a newbie could do, I was told to sweat some animals, and he let me follow him to the "sweat farm". This is an area where mostly newbs go to magically suck out the sweat of the creatures that roam there. Only the process usually fails, It took me about 3 hours to get my first 100 sweats, which I then sold for less than a single PED (the in game currency). Not great I thought, but all RPG games start slow. So I gave it another 5 hours or so (bathroom break included) and managed to eventually earn myself 3 total PED through the sweating. Enough to buy the basic gun and some ammo. I ran off into the wilderness to do some killin, and started blasting away, and before I knew it my ammo was gone and my gun had decayed. So back to sweating I go, and with my avatar at level 10, it should be quicker, right? NO, it still takes forever.
Getting bored, I ran to an area where a bunch of folks were hanging out, and someone offered a teleporter run, where he would show me a bunch of teleporters, that I would henceforth be able to teleport to. Excited at the prospect of seeing new sights in the game I agreed. What the result of 2 hours or so of running around was was that I noticed that most places simply aren't worth teleporting to, because they are empty. Empty, empty empty. Why would anyone go here. There's not animals to mercilessly slaughter, theres no peeps to chat to. There's just a building that offers, for a fee, to sell you crap or to fix the crap you were already sold.
Then I finally made it to Twin Peaks, the city of all cities, or, a mall and a teleporter. Oh, and lag. And the chat box was overwhelmed with sales pitches that are probably on an auto-timer.
MindArk will be upgrading the graphics engine soon, but what's the point. All the beauty in the world won't make up for the bland, empty world full of monotony and frustration.
Maybe this game is good and I just haven't spent the time neccessary to realize its full potential. Maybe over time I could develop a cash flow and make it like that kid I read about. Or maybe its like half the reviewers say, and its a cash-drain and a waste of time. At least in SecondLife there are strip clubs.