I've been debating writing more reviews and guides for video games instead of solely focusing on Seattle sports teams so here we go!
Elyon was a game I've been loosely following for a while since it was named Ascent: Infinite Realm. Korean MMO's usually have promise, but always fall short and Elyon really fits within this exact scenario so far, which is why I cannot recommend it in its current state. Here's what's good and bad...
Look and Sound: A-
The game looks and sounds really good. It's not quite upper echelon of graphics for a new game, but let's keep in mind this is a Western release of a game that's already been released in Asia. The character models, armor, weapons, NPC's, buildings, effects, and environment all look fairly decent. I'd put them around the same as BDO, Blade n Soul, and other Korean MMO looks. The sounds are what you'd expect from an MMO and the music is actually somewhat calming.
Character Creation: A
Character Progression: B+
The progression during alpha/beta felt very quick, but at full launch it felt slower to me, yet still faster than most MMOs. Overall the progression isn't anything too exciting. You quickly level during the introduction and the initial quest hubs help you unlock most skills within the first couple hours of gameplay. It's hard to give this a high grade because the progression doesn't feel anything noteworthy. The skills, gear, and passives didn't make a noticeable difference while leveling as I felt myself not becoming anymore powerful than at level 1.
I'd also say the skill system, while cool and somewhat unique, locks you into a set of skills to use per class very similar to Diablo 3 where you get to equip up to 6 skills and then start spending points augmenting those skills to do something slightly different. Example: you start with a basic lightning fingers attack akin to Palpatine and if you spend 10 points augmenting that skill it'll shoot more lightning that hits a couple extra enemies. I'm not far enough along in the game to have enough points to choose the tier 3-4 augments but the tier 1-2 ones are so miniscule that they don't even seem worthwhile.
Gameplay: C
Not many bugs but the overall gameplay loop is your standard pickup X side quests and 1 main quest and progress through the story and zones. While there is a vast open world that's very cool, there's little exploration that goes into it if you stay on the questing trail. You follow a very linear path through the game and hit any side quests you can along the way. The only positive here is the main quests all start/end at quest hubs so you can work on side quests fairly easily as you make your way between main quest hubs. Most side quests are kill and collect style which is a bummer.
Mounting in this game is also very clunky as the transition to/from mounting is manual and there's no natural transition that I'd prefer like in WoW where you can jump on and off your mount and be instantly into combat. I usually use the autopath/autorun system more than mounting just because it's easier to set a path on the map, autorun, and do something on the side monitor while your character runs.
Combat was very fun at first. I liked the different combos you could pull off, especially if you setup your skills and rotation to compliment each other. However, after a while it just got dull to me. I felt like I was just spamming the same skills/rotation every single engagement which just got boring. I know this is a problem in many MMO and RPG style games, but it'd be cool if they did something to create a more diverse usage of skills, such as enemy resistances, engagements that had to be close vs far away, engagements that require crowd control/blocking/dodging, etc...
User Interface: B-
The UI is ok but very cluttered and it's hard to find things you don't use often. It follows a very similar UI that I've seen in other Korean MMOs and overall I just hate how cluttered and hard to find things are. I'd prefer it if they didn't have so many complicated things within the main menu and maybe "hid" things more within sub-menus.
I'm also not the biggest fan of having to hit a button to get my mouse cursor while I'm in my inventory. If you're in your menus then obviously character movement and combat aren't a concern and shouldn't be the priority yet the mouse controls are still largely in character control mode until you hit Alt or whatever button you set to enable mouse in menus.
Endgame: F
The dungeons are nothing too exciting but a couple are cool. Overall there's very few of them and half of them are solo instances (really? solo dungeons in a "massive multiplayer online game?"). They definitely need solo dungeons to allow co-op and should definitely add more. I haven't seen anything related to raids in this game which also falls short of MMO expectations.
The end game "grind" appears to be mostly open world pvp similar to BDO and New World and as you know that'll only ensure the already limited player population will dwindle quickly without any real reason to play beyond max level.
Monetization: D
When Bluehole came out and said they wanted monetization to not affect gameplay I applauded them for being honest. Then I played the game and watched many reviews of the monetization and came to the conclusion this game is very pay to win in a couple aspects. To me the best monetization practice is a purely cosmetics based cash shop. I hate when boosts, buffs, gear, convenience, and quality of life upgrades are all in the cash shop as it forces you to spend money in the shop to have a more enjoyable gameplay experience.
Buying a founders pack gave you early access and boosts which helped you level, gear, and craft/upgrade faster. This essentially is pay to win to me as it gives players who buy this pack an obvious advantage over regular launch day free to play players. The xp boosts and crafting/upgrade materials purchases you can make puts you at an advantage early on in the game when everyone else is leveling and gearing. Since the end game is open world pvp this gives the pay to win customers the advantage.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TcaF6YsdtBw&t=637s
Overall Grade: C-
I really wanted this game to be successful because it's hard to find a decent MMO these days. WoW is dying. FFXIV has a huge barrier and cost to entry for new players. ESO, GW2, and others have aged poorly. New World was a 2 week hit and then died. Elyon unfortunately falls into the same MMO trash heap where it looks promising and dies quickly. Perhaps if the devs and publisher stick it out they can make some big QoL improvements and add end game content in the future. I'll keep an eye on it in 6 months to see if anything has changed for the better, but until then there's some other promising games coming out including Destiny 2 Witch Queen and Lost Ark.
Update: the game died quickly and was taken offline
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