Since the launch of its open beta on February 16, 2010, Allods Online has only grown in popularity. Originally deemed World of Warcraft clone, this game has many unique features mixed in with an already popular MMO formula.
The most alluring feature in Allods Online is the Astral ships. Imagine owning and piloting your own vessel, attacking Astral demons to gain fuel for your ships scanners, allowing you to navigate through the ever changing Astral, a destructive force that destroyed the planet Sarnaut leaving behind floating islands in space called allods. The ships are a crucial part of end game, allowing you to navigate the allods. At level 40 players can join a group of 25 other players to make a raid party and explore the allod. On the islands are bosses that drop treasure chests when defeated. The treasure you get on the islands can’t be distributed among the crew until you dock at your home port. Until you reach port, an enemy vessel can attack you, board your ship, and steal all of your treasure for themselves. That’s right, Pirates.
The leveling is a bit broken. There’s an unnecessary Fatigue system that gives you extra experience when you have it and normal experience when you don’t. Fatigue is replenished every evening at 8pm PST. Why is this a bad thing? Hitting the level cap and questing without Fatigue risks the possibility of running out of quests at higher levels, causing you to grind out monsters for experience. Sadly the solution to this problem is to just grind, instead of quest, when you run out of Fatigue for the day.
The game has a large emphasis on player versus player (PvP), dedicating entire zones to it. At level 20, you can embark on your journey to the holy lands, a contested zone full of PvP based quests. There are objectives you can take to control the area and you can also kill members of the opposing faction to gain Combat Glory. Doing this raises your rank with the Combat Glory Quartermaster, each rank allowing you access to better and better gear.
This game has its flavor of the months, character wise. A few players find a new spec for a certain class and, all of the sudden, it’s all anyone cares to play. Really though, for the most part, classes are evenly balanced. The game has a great variety of classes for you to choose from, with 8 archetypes and 28 individual classes. All classes have a really fun play style. Something unique to Allods Oline is that some of the skills require you to prep them in advance before combat, like enchanting a Scout’s arrows. It adds a touch of reality to the game.
The audio and visual aspects of the game are fantastic. You can definitely see the 12 million dollars Astrum Nival pumped into this game. The sound track was created by Mark Morgan, who also writes the music for the TV show Dexter, as well as the soundtrack to Fallout 1 and 2. I especially enjoy the music in the Holy Lands. It being a contested PvP zone, nothing gets you more pumped for killing than listening to good tunes with aggressive rhythmic guitars. As far as visuals go, I have seen few games more aesthetically pleasing than this one. These graphics rival most pay to play games, aside from a certain game involving wings and guys with hairy backs. The contrast in scenery when switching from the Empire faction to the League is very enjoyable. The Empire has an industrial/steampunk feel to it – very 1950′s Russia. The League is very pure, with trees and log cabins everywhere.
Mounts were just released into the game with Patch 1.10. The mounts, purchased from the item mall, have health and can gain experience from consuming mount feed. Increasing the level of the mount gives it boosts to health and speed. For those of you who follow a game religiously, patch day is like Christmas and it gets pretty exciting to log in and play.. Along with mounts, the level cap was increased from 40 to 42. While it’s a small jump, there’s plenty of content that will require those extra two levels.
Although the developers still claim to be in ‘open beta’ with Allods Online, you can spend money on the game, so it ought to lose that description. They probably are keeping it as a shield in case of bugs or server errors, but once a game starts charging money, there’s no more beta, and we’ll certainly be treating it as a fully released game. This game has potential as long as the developers keep up with the support and time invested. While they haven’t completely found their sweet spot with character level progression, the game has excellent graphics and exciting gameplay.
Game Rating |
| Score: 8.0 |
its not free to play it force you to pay
July 15th, 2010 at 7:28 amQuote
So true, If you don’t pay you can’t keep playing really :/
July 15th, 2010 at 10:47 amQuote
Yeah, this seems to be a trick that devs use – make first few levels/hours totally free – but if you really want to get into the game – gotta pay up, sort of the same way with Dungeons and Dragons Online. Little weak.
July 16th, 2010 at 11:24 amQuote
This review was probably made by someone who played the game for little time or very recently. After the last patch (july 6th) the game was changed in “Pay or get away” and most of the user chose the second option. Indeed, now the game is almost empty and the forum itself is populated just by those who complain. The greater problem is that at the moment, whatever your class, you die frequently cause mobs of one level lesser then your are much stronger then you. When you die there is a 10%(i believe 50%) chance that one of your gear reverses his bonuses to negative untill you don’t buy an item from the shop (or dispose of it but it won’t ever happen). The only way to kill mobs is buying power-ups from the shops but they have a timer that expires even when you’re not logged in. So whatever your level, if you want to play NORMALLY you must buy shop items and even if you pay you’re not completely owner of your items cause they expire or cause you need to pay extreem caution in game trying not to die (almost impossible if you’re questing or pvp) or you’ll need to spend further cash in the shop to remove item’s curse. BTW the last patch completely ignored all the known bugs so it just created a user’s exodus.
August 3rd, 2010 at 4:10 amQuote
I have played Allods Online for about a month now and it’s an awesome discovery. First of all, I encourage anyone even remotely interested in rpg’s to at least check it out. There’s no reason not to try because it’s free to play. The quality is superb and if you’re a casual gamer like me who has school and a job and will be playing in spurts, it’s nice that you don’t have to pay a monthly subscription. It’s there if you have the time to play.
People have complained about the cash item shop, but I feel like it’s been a bit exaggerated. Many items in there are just for vanity or making your life easier, but only a few are “essential.” The thing is these essential items can be retrieved in game through daily quests or bought in the auction hall with in-game gold so you don’t actually have to use your own cash. Also, you can do surveys to earn the currency to buy stuff from the Item Shop so that gives you a third option. Actually there is a fourth option as well seeing that you can trade with other players.
Anyways, there’s no risk to trying out this game. If you don’t like it, quit and you won’t have spent a penny on it. And if you like it, you can keep on playing it for free.
December 20th, 2010 at 3:40 pmQuote
Allods Online… some say its a clone of another MMORPG. However, after playing it for a several months now, the game is nothing like any other. Allods Online is free to play with the option to purchase other improvement items via the Cash Shop/Item Mall. The population in the game is greatly increasing and by far, its the only game there is with active numbers of GM’s who actively logs into the game and gets involved with the community.
I found the game because I was looking for an alternative F2P MMORPG. I was amazed by the graphics the game has to offer especially considering that its F2P. Give it a try and you will love the community in the game. New content has been added just recently and the game is just getting better and better.
December 20th, 2010 at 5:10 pmQuote
Some of those first few comments are a little dated, so let me shed some light on how the game actually is.
The game is no longer p2p to level. You get a couple incense initially, which is your main leveling tool. There is also a daily quest to get more, and since they last for 24 hours there is really no excuse not to have it on whenever you play. There is also a daily quest for holy charms so items don’t get cursed.
I won’t lie to you, to get the “maximum” experience it will require dedicated gold farming if you wish not to pay a cent. But in reality, the price tag for the few truly “needed” items is well worth the cost.
December 20th, 2010 at 5:37 pmQuote
Allods Online Is my first MMORPG Game nd im Completely addicted to it…
December 21st, 2010 at 5:09 amIts an F2P game nd tho it has Cash Shop,Its upto u if u want to use se it for ur betterment u can, but its not Mandatory coz i havnt spen any real money in this game … The ingame gold is enuf to buy stuff of CS from Other Players…
The End Game is Just Awesome …
Nd there is an Instance which we have to do in 24 man raid called as Gorluxor Tower Or well known as GT ;p
The Astral stuff is very cool … I heard dat no other F2P or P2 offers Astral Traveling in Ur OWN SHIP…
This Is Just An Awesome Game Who Dont Wanna Spend Real money for Subscription…
Most of dem compare this to WOW ..
As I said THIS IS MY FIRST MMORPG game i dont care wat dey say nd i njoy playng it alot…
There Is a New Patch which came Recently which is PVP oRIENTED ..
And I Tell You dat i never loved PVP much but after this Patch IM JUS LOVING IT ^_^
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@voron
December 22nd, 2010 at 5:49 pmhey dude the game has changed alot ,,, that too in a better way :)…..the main concern about people was that people have to buy stuff from cash shop to advance..”to be more powerfull”,,,which is not the case atall
i dint paid any cash or did any surveys to get Gpots and all… all i did was only A LOT OF FUN …by doing quest and all i got enough gold to get myself decent amount of stuff , which u think “has to bought from cash shop”
and more over if u not lazy as me ;p , u can always do Surveys and get Gpot and get whateva u want…. also there are forums having topic “HOW tO EARN GPOTS FROM SURVEYS” from some experienced player…and my friend tried those ..and they do work :))
Also the latest addons of the patch are the COOLEST MOUNT I HAD EVA SEEN, just check out the link ,its a temptation u cannot resist B-)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSABqtS3AaQ
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Allods Online is the best RPG game i have ever played … Tho i havnt played any MMORPG game except Allods but i im sure dat whoever tries this game once he wont leave playing it :p
December 23rd, 2010 at 3:26 amThe best part is that its F2P game… You dont hav to pay for any subscription stuff ;)
The another Pro is that there is always some or the other patch comes which contains new stuff nd u dont get bored at all… Or u will not say that ”its the same Quest i done b4 but has different monster”
It has very cool graphics nd i love it very much….
The another Pro is End Game Stuff …. It just makes the end game stuff much more excitng ^_^
There is also Astral In Which we can travel through our own ship nd fight with Astral demons nd there are different land or rather i would say Allod ;p
It jus make u play more and more…
Plzz Give It A Shot its Worth It!!!!
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