I don’t think I really did slam many online games before, but R2 Online’s User Test phase will rank at Number 2 in my list for 2011 (first being Waren Story’s Alpha Test). Yes, R2 Online is still only in its first beta phase, but I don’t think that core system can be re-designed especially for Korean online games. Here are some of my rants after playing an hour plus of R2 Online.
The combat. Yes, cinderboy is at it again complaining about how combat is not action-based like TERA. But no, seriously. In order to lock-on a target and start auto-attack, players will have to click and hold the left mouse key, followed by right clicking the target. Nope, there ain’t an option to change macros from what I found. At least it is not in the settings list. And oh, pressing ESC doesn’t bring up the friendly options menu.
Quest wise, there ain’t any indication on where the NPC is when you decide to turn in a completed quest. Yes, I have a bad memory, but when the quest list can apparently hold up till 30 ongoing quests, I wonder how will this work out in the future. Why can’t a simple indicator be added in the mini-map? And talking about the map, you may choose to turn on all the NPC’s name. The thing is, the NPCs in town are so near each other, the names get jumbled up. What is the use of this system anyway? I mean, didn’t the team at least do a simple internal QA before even starting this beta phase?
R2 Online is PvP based with territorial control and various PvP/ PK features, but that doesn’t mean the developers could be lazy with the basics. For example, the character status screen. Well, there is actually none. By pressing “I”, players will open up the inventory and status window at the same time. There are no stats shown such as critical rate, dodge, movement speed and even attack. What?
Next will be skills. Take a look at the screenshot below. On the left shows the skill/s I currently have, while the right shows the “Character skill tree”. Noticed something? The skill Power Shot is actually learned through a skill book via a quest (or buying from NPC). The first actual Summoner skill can only be added at level 35… While the first skill, Power Shot at level 11. Although players mainly level through the basic attack during the first 10 levels, I am really disgusted at this “feature”.
As mentioned, I only played for over an hour and yet to really touch on more content. But the first impression given is far from being satisfactory even for the first beta build. And it has one of the longest exit duration (10 seconds) to save my character data. For those who prefer PvP and PK online games, there are many better options out there as I don’t see how Webzen is going to improve the “defects” I talked about. More footage over at my YouTube channel~ Cheers!
