Allods

[Guest Quafe24]

Was checking out mmorpg.com and Allods is actually one of their highest rated games right now.

The game is free to download and play, it's supported by an item shop. (Buy unique in-game items using real $$$)

It looks pretty good, I'm wondering if anyone else has tried it and also if it's safe to download and use. I'm weary of downloading free games because of spyware..etc.

 

http://allods.gpotato.com/

 

[alexmvp]

Never played it but it looks sweet!

 

Have you played it? I've been looking for something good (and inexpensive) ever since I quit playing Dark Age of Camelot a few years ago.

[goLfie]

Personally I avoid Gpotato like the plague. They have a reputation for buying out small indy games like this one and then killing all development and support for them, while at the same time item malls really kill a lot of games.

[Guest kx3]

really. never heard of them at all. grafx look pretty good though. might have to try it out.

[Guest Animis]

looks like a well done game using the World of Warcraft gfx engine.

Found a video of it here:

 

[flash=425,344]

 

They have an active twitter and facebook and do maintenance pretty regularly. I might give this one a try but I'm going to look around because there are about 3 others coming out soon;

Mortal Online

Darkfall

Xyson

[goLfie]

Okay, I did some more research on this title and I found this

 

From http://www.mmorpg.com/showFeature.cfm/f ... llods.html

Leading up to its successful domestic launch last year, Allods Online was the focus of tremendous attention, much more than it has received here. For example, it was named Best Game 2009 and Best Online Game 2008 by the Russian Game Development Conference (KRI), where it also received the Audience Choice Award 2008. Then, a few months ago, Astrum Online Entertainment was acquired by Russian internet giant Mail.Ru.

 

Until very recently, Orlovskiy retained a minority share in Nival Online. He was also busy on another front, starting up Nival Network to create a social network and games portal, ZZima.com, and to publish and operate a selection of F2P titles that currently includes MMORPGs Dragonica, Shaiya: Light and Darkness, Cabal Online, Conquer Online and Eudemons, multiplayer racer Level-R, browser-based strategy game Khan Wars, and musical titles RockFree and Super Star. On the development side, a project called Prime World is in pre-production.

 

Last month, around the time the North American open beta began, a rumor somehow surfaced that the original developer of Allods Online was no longer involved. Gala-Net even felt the need to issue a statement denying it. The studio is the same; Nival Online merely became Astrum Nival, which was then acquired by Mail.Ru. It does appear that Orlovskiy, whom I'd regard as the "father" of the property, is no longer connected with the title.

 

Another questionable matter arose almost concurrently. Gala-Net opened the game's cash shop without providing any advance notice to the advance beta players, and with pricing that caused, in the company's own words, "stir and shock. While an apology on both counts was quickly issued, it remains to be seen how satisfied the community will be with the reduced item costs. Some of the changes were pretty dramatic, as much as 78 percent.

 

It would appear that Allods is still being handled by the original developer, just with a new name. Gpotato is simply the North America "Portal" and all is well with the title.

[Guest Quafe24]

Hey so I made an account and Allods is a really fun game. I did some research on the development as well and it has a lot put into it. The development team has already had $12+million USD invested into it.

 

The story idea is very cool, the classes are great and decently balanced, and the graphics are stunningly better than World of Warcraft. The graphics engine might look similar at first but you'll notice how much better it is after playing for a while.

 

My only complaint is that the cash shop items are ridiculously priced, but on the other hand you don't really need to purchase anything from it to be any "better" than anyone else. The regular item drops are just as good as the cash shop ones.

 

If you play, there are two servers. Nezeb and Tensess.

There are also two factions, "The League" and "The Empire."

From what I can tell neither faction is really good nor evil, it's not like Alliance vs. Horde that most people are used to.

 

Anyhow, "The League" faction is put together much better than Empire and Nezeb is much more populated (and more fun) than Tensess. So I made a League character on Nezeb. If anyone else wants to give it a test run let me know and I'll play with you in game sometime, though I don't have a very high level because I don't have much time to play.

 

I really like that the game is free, it doesn't make you feel obligated to play.. You don't have to "get your money's worth."

 

Here's me and a group of about 20 people taking down a Cave Troll boss in "The League" starting area.

[Steve Krause]

I've never played WOW. How would you compare it to Dark Age of Camelot ( DAOC ) ? As good? Better? Thoughts?

 

I take it there are a lot of ppl playing? Not hard to find a group?

[Rufio]

I play it too and have been impressed so far. There are TONS of people playing it and the play is pretty good. Not as good as DAoC.. but what is?

There is a private classic DAoC server named Uthgard that has an average of 500 players on, I think that is the most popular one. Allods on the other hand has easily 10,000 users on average.

The leveling system reminds me of DAoC except it has much more personalization. After level 4 you choose every single one of your skills and then at level 10 you start to choose "Rubies" which are like bonus skills.

Combat is similar, but more fast-paced.

I really haven't seen anything I DON"T like yet, except for a few minor user interface changes that need to be made.

As far as end game goes, I wouldn't know... My highest character is level 10 an the level cap is 40. From what I've been told by others there is still a lot of development going on so they haven't quite finished end game content yet. There is lots of pvp starting at level 23, again I wish it was RVR with 3 factions.. but they do a good job with what they got.

There is only 1 level 40 dungeon for big raid groups, it's nowhere near as cool as "Darkness Falls" though.

 

Supposedly next patch they are adding player mounts and in an upcoming major release they are giving people the ability to buy Astral ships, which can be used to transport you and other players from Allod to Allod. An allod is essentially a continent, but they are all floating islands in this strange cosmic dimension which the game exists called The Astral.

[Guest kx3]

anything from Russia scares me.... call me crazy. I'm worried I would install it and my computer will slowly be full of virus files.