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Some balanced advice

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 12 / 18
Date: January 14, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I've read some of the reviews for this game, and if you're considering buying it, you must be very confused. Let me give you a review that contains neither the word "awesome" nor "sucks"!

AC2 is a massively multiplayer game. This means that you MUST be connected to the Internet in order to play. This *also* means that the world you play in goes on, whether you are there or not. You are playing in the same "place" as hundreds or thousands of other people. These games are massively complex to create, and have usually been difficult to play.

AC2 is much easier to play than AC1. You are not called upon to make hard-to-change decisions as your first act, before you know what you're doing. You can change your skills at any time. You just need to learn how to operate the user interface, and to pick a focus for your character.

Advice for your first hour in the game:

- Pay attention to the teaching stones.
- Do the newcomer quest that the NPCs and stones point you towards. Along the way you'll meet other characters around your level, though they may be more experienced players.
- Talk to people. Ask questions, but be polite. Nobody likes a whiner.
- Do MORE of the newcomer quest. It's got a LOT of parts and you won't finish it all. However, it does a good job of teaching you about the portal network, the crafting system, and other important stuff.
- Make a friend. Join an allegiance. Use allegiance chat.

For those lonely reviewers who can't seem to find the other players, they're not looking hard enough. Your first 20-25 levels are probably spent on Osteth, where most players find questing and doing vaults are the best ways to gain XP. Hunting (except on a quest or searching for crafting trophies) is less usual.

To find a crowd, go to Cavendo on Osteth, or Ikeras on Omishan. Ikeras is like the "center of the world" and many people go there to trade or gather parties for quests.

An economy is building. The materials to craft desiriable weapons and armor are rare, and people trade for those. You won't be wanting to make all your own equipment past the early levels, it's just too expensive. So pick a crafting specialty, and trade what you make for what you want.

This game is terrific fun now, and I think it will be much better by March or April when more of the fixes go in. Right now (January), we are still dealing with some annoying bugs. However, all those updates are included in your monthly fee, so please don't be afraid to join us!

Asheron's Call 2 disappointment at beta

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 24 / 48
Date: September 21, 2002
Author: Amazon User

I have been a long time customer of Asheron's Call 1. I was recently invited to beta to play Asheron's Call 2. AC2 is a dummied down clone of Diablo and Dark Ages of Camelot. When I first encountered this game I was extremely disappointed with the content and skill/trades/armor system. I'm hoping that before it is released to retail that some of the kinks are worked out. It is impressive graphics wise, but we all know graphics do not make the game *cough Dark Ages of Camelot cough*.

Not read for Prime Time...But When It Is...Watch Out!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 8 / 10
Date: October 23, 2002
Author: Amazon User

I played AC1 from a very early beta stage. I enjoyed the game for its open play and flexibility. I played DAoC and EQ. I left EQ cause it was too hard to get really started and DAoC was simply boring if you were not into going to Realm vs. Realm and being assassinated before you even stepped into the frontier. Same old monsters, boring boring boring! AC2 is NOT AC1 with better graphics. If you are looking for that...sorry. AC2 is a different approach. And with that said it is not ready for prime time. I have sent mail to the dev team and asked them to WAIT because it is not ready yet. PLEASE do not release this before it is done or it will flounder. With that said and out of the way let me shed some light. AC2 has a simpler combat system and is designed for people to party together. If you are a soloist it is not easy to play...you need the abilities of other races and player styles to go far in the game. There are a large variety of monsters to face and each one has different animations and play styles including groups of monsters with leaders that will group up and attack you. BEWARE!

The graphics will require a newer faster card and more memory...so do alot of new games out there. You want good graphics and solid play...you need to have the most up todate hardware.

The world is empty right now...if you pay attention you will find that you are coming out of caves after 300 years of domination by the powers that stomped on the races of Dereth in AC1. OBVIOUSLY there are not going to be shops and NPC people sellign stuff. That will come as the game matures. I agree it feels wierd but this is AC...not DAoC which never really changes its story...this story will evolve and NPC's will come up.

Combat is more interesting that AC1 combat in that archers cannot use bows when the enemy is close...realistic if you ask me. Mages can cast even when up close and use styles and abilities...something DAoC does not allow for mages. And melee have skills they can use to make a serious blow to the enemy..not simply choosing HIGH, MEDIUM, or Low location and power as in AC1. More involved.

Faction combat is now a part of the game and you can have wars and group combat against other factions in remote parts of the world...setup ambushes and such. Great concept and not the rogue fighting that Camelot has where nobody really wins the war.

So there is more for people to fight..great variety in the monsters and combat styles...and the ability to simply create items from stuff you find and mines you can mine for. Over time the story will mature and the dungeons will open up...more than the puny number of dungeons that DAoC has even to this day.

Just keep this one in the oven a little longer to kick out the kinks MS and Turbine..and you will have a winner.

Very disappointed.

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 8 / 11
Date: October 14, 2002
Author: Amazon User

This truly is a shame. The game looks beautiful but thats the only thing going for it (and you can't even take advantage of that unless you have a decent Vid Card). There is no sense of adventure, no sense of comradeeship. The A.I. is appaling and sporadic at best. 1 third of the character types (namely Melee) is entirely useless. The loot drop is buggered beyond belief with no sharing capability and works strictly on a whoever killed it can loot it basis; thats even in groups (or fellowships as their known in AC2). There are no 'channels' to speak of to communicate within the game if you want to talk to someone in your fellowship you have to type the slash command /f first... every time.

And, of course, ITS BORING. A previous reviewer called it a dumbed down version of Diablo, thats it exactly. Imagine Diablo in a 3d world and you have Asherons call. If you do not create a character who either uses a Bow or Magic, then you will get NO where. So resign yourself to standing at a distance and pinging away with your arrows/spells... it gets tedious very quickly.

Another reviewer who jumped to the defence of this game (even though he's never played it) mentioned that its still in Beta. True .. however the version of the client we are usining at the moment is the version being shipped to stores (or so we were informed at the last patch). This does not bode well.

Its really very sad. This game is truly beautiful in appearance, but with no sense of community (it is a multi-player, guild based game after all), and a class that is entirely useless and superfluous, bugs galore, constant crashes and a play style thats just plain old BORING! I do not see this game making any inroads into the genre.

If your looking for a more substantive game ... take a look at Dark Age of Camelot. AC2 is just a shabby pretender to the crown.

Need's Improvement

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 5 / 5
Date: October 13, 2002
Author: Amazon User

well I feel right now a 2 star is all i can give ...I'm sure some changes will be made ...don't care much for the vitae recovery system ...the distance a Mage needs to fight from even tho a critter can hit you from way off....all in all the xp system [is bad].....but will buy the Game in hopes alot more improvements will be made..

I played through the entire beta process

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 7 / 9
Date: November 09, 2002
Author: Amazon User

Personally I found this game to very cool. The only problems I really had when playing the beta were the character wipes which hurt the fun aspect. The thing is though there were a plethera of things not added in the beta due to it being just that, a BETA. The expect the final version to be a great online game. Yes, there are no NPC's (this means no computer generated people to buy and sell from). I found no issues with this since I could basically make any item I really needed with no problems. Also bonuses are added to all weapons when crafted appropriartly. Forges also help to increase your crafting abilities. I'd say if you want a pretty strong game which should be great fun with pretty nice players involved in-game then buy it. Its a great game. I plan on waiting just a bit to buy it though since most on-line games need some tweaking at the start. Also my computer is to weak. Need an upgrade. Buy the game its pretty and damn cool dungeons are very cool looking.

Fairly smooth start

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 7 / 9
Date: December 02, 2002
Author: Amazon User

Using the final version

Lag was down, graphics were up, quests were easy to find. The maps great, crafting is easy, and combat is the same as in AC but with the ability to do more powerful attacks at times. It's a lot easier to get used to, a lot less confusing, and a lot less of a hassle. No more trudging back to town to sell things-you can cash in in your inventory screen. Better yet, use the items to craft what you really want.

This is a very beautiful, easy to learn game. There are no real need for shop keepers as everyone can craft with practice. There were no real towns...we the players are to rebuild them. And finding a fellowship was fairly easy, once I actually tried. It will be interesting to see what we do with the world.

The only problem I have is that it REQUIRES a 733 mhz processor, a 32 meg video card, etc. That means that those of us with older machines need an upgrade to play. Still, with the low cost of parts nowadays (not to mention entire systems) it isn't too expensive.

If you enjoy camping and spending months on a quest that will net you a shiny new breastplate, play everquest. If you want a settled game, fully explored, with lots of help for you online, go for AC. If you want a beautiful, quest filled, non-ordinary (didn't kill a single bat or snake!) that will keep on growing, the come join me in AC2.

Enthralling World!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 6 / 7
Date: November 27, 2002
Author: Amazon User

For those of you who love to immerse yourselves in a world, where you can play heroic adventurers helping each other to reclaim a ravaged land, AC2 is great!

I've been having so much fun in this game. First, it's beautiful, the most realistic graphics I've ever seen in a game. Realizing that it's a MMP game, with thousands of other players playing makes the beauty all the more impressive.

AC2 also contains a great mechanism for telling a part of the secret backstory behind the game. Spread throughout the three continents are a series of Vaults, 21 in all. Each Vault is filled with dangerous enemies, along with a final enemy Lord at the end. Once you defeat the Lord, you can gain access to a hidden chamber, which, when entered, uses some beautiful cut scenes to reveal the next part of the story.

The music and sound is also some of the best I've heard in the game. I can't say enough about it.

The game is not perfect. There are a few things I wish would become better, such as parts of the UI and ability to see the display text.

But the best part about AC2 is that it has a development team continuing to actively work on the game. The original Asheron's Call was a blast each month because of all the content and fixes the Dev team made each month, and I expect AC2 to have the same.

This game is truly one where you can meet lots of cool people and be able to act as a hero as you help save the land of Dereth!
It's the best MMP I've played yet.

A great single-player game

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 6 / 7
Date: March 04, 2003
Author: Amazon User

GHOST TOWN IS EXACTLY WHAT IT IS. An MMORPG without the people. Ok, I payed my 50 bucks and created a character on the Deadeye(pvp) server. Granted, it was the wee hours of the night/morning, but still, I saw 3 whole people in 5 hours of playing! I swear! I was in the middle of one of the starting towns(could not enter buildings, only npcs), and asked someone I ran into, "where are the player run cities?" She said, "this IS a player run city". After the second day, I finally grouped for the first time (me and one other person)--wohooo. After the 2nd day of playing and talking to all the people I came across(8 i think), I came to the following conclusion: the only people playing the server were those who started at release date and "had already moved on to another continent" as I was told. And my hope for getting a group until I could solo myself to their level was dismal.

Here are the pros:
1. Great graphics for an MMORPG
2. Huge area.
3. Quests that can hold your attention and have story and purpose.

Here is THE con:
1. Not enough people playing...its a shame nobody will give anything besides EQ a try.

Conclusion: After playing for a couple days, I felt as if I was playing an offline single player game...the only thing that reminded me I was online was the occasional lag spike.

Stick to AC1 Dark Majesty.

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 6 / 7
Date: April 29, 2003
Author: Amazon User

AC2 is miserably inferior. There are no towns worth noting, no shops, no need to carry arrows, no way to make fancy arrows, no need for spell components, no need to buy scrolls, no collectors, no independent quests like The Dark Lair, no opportunities to specialise, no separate sword / mace / ua skills or separate war / life / creature / item schools of magic and no distinction between stamina and mana. Policy also dictates that you can't run a buff-bot and can't sell the game on unless you give away your "passport" account with it. An utter waste of money, to be avoided. My copy's in the bin. I've gone back to AC1.

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