Gates of Andaron Reviews
May 29th, 2010
Please note that I am writing this as an early review. I have spent about seven hours with this newly released MMO. Opinions may change as I dive deeper into the game but for the moment, these are my thoughts.
I have been playing MMO’s for a while (about 12 years). I have played many PTP and FTP games, taking the good with the bad, most of which was bad. The majority of FTP MMO’s out there stink, let’s be honest. The controls are wanky, or there is terrible graphics, or they passivly ‘force’ you to pay real money for items that pretty much make gameplay a huge nuisance without (I’m talking to you Atlantica!). But so far, Gates of Andaron Gold has fulfilled all of these categories without disappointment. In addition to Runes of Magic, this is one of the best free to play MMO’s I’ve encountered so far, and I would be lying if I said I’ve tried less than 30+ of them. The real money online store offers a few nifty things like +exp potions, or special mounts, but nothing that you ‘need’ to play or enjoy the game.
Moving right along, GoA offers three different races; human, feline, and fairy. Each of them has their strong points and weak points in relevance to the class they choose, of which there are 6. They are warrior, night walker (rogue), archer, magician, Gates of Andaron Goldpriest, and finally evocator. Fantasy MMO vets will be more than familiar with the classes so I won’t go into the skills of each.
The targetting and controls are mapped out pretty nice. You can move via the W A D keys instead of being forced to click the ground like most FTP games.
The skills and attacks can be performed via the F1 or number keys, or by clicking the skill buttons on the hotbar. You can customize what goes where soGates of Andaron Gold suit your needs.
The leveling is fairly balanced. Although the first ten levels will move rather quickly by doing the simple assortment of started quests, this will slow down a bit after level 10, but not to the point where you’re forced to go out and grind 1000x wolves to level up. There is quite a large assortment of quests to keep you busy. How this mayGates of Andaron Gold or may not change in the higher up levels I do not know, but for now I’m kept busy.
Graphically, the game can be (and I hate to use the comparison) to WoW. Although I’ve NEVER gotten into WoW, I can see the similarity in the more cartoony graphics opposed to the more realistic approach from games like Conan or EQ2. While this isn’t my personal preference, they aren’t a pain to look at. The details on the armor and weapon sets are also pretty nice, even if you’re using a low level weak set like bronze or the like. Items are also pretty, and can be upgraded, so GOA gold you don’t have to constantly get new gear.