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Just About Everything You Wanted in a MMORPG

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 63 / 82
Date: September 23, 2003
Author: Amazon User

True, the MMORPG scene is very very crowded. So, why Horizons?

I can't do this game justice in the allowed 1000 words, but here are some of the (publicly-available) highlights:

- EVERYTHING in the game can be crafted. Start with the necessary weapons, armor, tools. Add structures, communities, castles, machines, bridges, portals, hedges, statues, etc. etc.
- CHARACTER GROWTH - Not locked into any "job". Change schools to advance different skills. MANY different schools, including "prestige" schools with prerequisites for membership. No level caps! Tons of skills.
- MAKE A DIFFERENCE in the world - Help reclaim lands from the enemy. Free subjugated races (so they add to the nine playable races available at launch). Build houses & communities. Build "empire structures" and "artifacts" that help your community or everyone.
- HIGHLY DETAILED CRAFTING SYSTEM - Wow! Obtain formulas, acquire the proper skills, harvest over 100 different types of resources, (Wood, sap, flax, essence, carrots, iron, silver, wheat...) Obtain the proper tools, Use the proper machinery, make the item. Enhance the item. Now sell it, consign it, build with it, trade it, etc.
- CHALLENGING REAL-TIME COMBAT - Not just "click and wait until the random-number generator decides on a victor". Learn special combat skills and use them at the proper time in combat.
- STUNNING VISUALS - Real weather. Layered textures. Fluid cloth motion. Spellcasters can create jaw-dropping weather affects seen by all players. Player-dragons can take flight to reach floating cities. Huge surface world with areas in the sky and below ground. Hundreds of animations per player race.
- AMAZING SOUND - Rich cinematic score. Impressive sound effects. Combat, race, and town-specific scores.

Definately the mixed bag...

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 15 / 17
Date: December 07, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Horizons, as you might have guessed from the posts here, is a jumbled bag of many different attributes, both good and bad. I'll try to cover much of each, in as fair and objective manner as possible.

As a beta tester since September, with a top of the line rig, the graphics engine is a memory hog, with major loss of frames per second in a scene drawn of any complexity. While some spell effects are indeed quite nicely done, other graphics, such as characters themselves, are rather lack luster at best. The world environment itself is drawn quite well, with but just a few unrealistic detractions that pop up every so often. Combat animation is very reasonable, while casting animations (seperate from the actual drawn spell effect) can be quite repetative.

Races are many, but their variety is mostly in their looks. While there are differing "stats" per race, the amount of that difference very quickly proves inconsequential after 10 levels. Races also have abilities, some of which are quite potent, and lends some viability to the different races, while others are lackluster at best.

The exception here is dragons. The dragon race is uniquely done in comparison to the other races, with the promised ability to fly once becoming of age. Dragons are the only race with aging (three progressive steps), have their own classed (one each for adventuring and crafting) with its quest based advancement system, and a hoard which needs attention to keep a dragon viable in combat and effects the aging process. However enticing a Dragon seems from the start, however, they are weak when young, are significantly more difficult to play and level with, and sadly, have very few options for "distinguishing" themselves from other dragons, other than by looks alone. There is also likely to be many dragons at the release of the game, until the glamour of the race begins to wear thin, when those who are looking for achievement see that this is far easier to accomplish with a normal race.

The classes of all other races are available freely amongst each race. The classes, as is normal in a new product like this, range from potent to lackluster in capability ... some, at this point, lack any viability at all in the eyes of their testers. However, it can be expected that given time, these sorts of problems will be addressed, as is the nature of MMORPGS.

Multiclassing is not only possible, but quite rewarding in Horizons. The system is done very well, for example allowing you to be primarily a ranger, but with some mage like spells if you wish, with little impact. Those who go for balanced combinations will find their path a bit more difficult, as their level "rating" is raised by due to their increased abilities. Note, while any class can technically be mated to another, same combinations are far more effective, while others are a waste of time. Usually classes that share similarities are the more rewarding ones, while combinations which are vastly different from each other, such as a warrior/mage combo, will wind up disabling nearly all of the abilities and spells of the non-current "primary class." (A multiclass character must always have one single class selected for adventuring or crafting each, and that current class is the one that gains experience, and likewise limits the other classes from their full potential)

Prestige classes are also possible in this game... one need not be simply a warrior/mage combo, but instead might chose the prestige class of Chaoswarrior, using the abilities they have gained to apply towards a single class that uniquely combines the two, once they have reached the necessary prerequisite skills by leveling to a certain point in those two classes.

Crafting in this game... from my point of view, is done extremely well. If you like crafting classes, you will love Horizons, no doubt. While not as complex as in Star Wars:Galaxies, there is challenge, and a massive amount of variety, as well as the individual tasks of gathering resources, pre-processing them, and finalizing the product. Currently, there is little in the way of customizing a product visually, or in a more complex manner than by just adding a few statistics, but at least some of this has been promised to be added some time close after the release.

Monsters in the world, from the beta testers eyes, are the same models with different paint over them. However, on the final eve of beta, a few models "hidden" from even beta tester eyes were introduced, and promises of more waiting when the servers go live are heavily rumored. All models tend to be animated very well, and they usually are every bit, often more so, capable as characters. The AI has shown a tendency of severe repetition, anther feature proportedly "hidden" from beta testers eyes. However, a few observed instances, such as other monster healers attending to engaged mobs, rather than just themselves, does bode well for the game.

The weather effects of Horizons, by near to every testers judgement, are just astounding in visuals and sounds. Blinding blizards exist, that arent just swirls and a blanketed snow fog that limits your visability... but instead variating with snatches of visability just as one would have in driving windswept snow. Area's known as "blighted" can have terrific miasma's of green fog, or torrential rain with awesomely well drawn and powerfully thunderous bolts of lightening. Some particularly unique creatures in game can even "carry pockets of blight" with them, causing the weather and landscape to change as they wander about their way. Hands down, I have not played a game with better weather effects, and currently could only complain that the "natural" weather always seemed to be consistant and localized in beta. IE, if you picked a spot, and it was a clear day there, it was always a clear day there. If it was a blizard at another spot, it was always a blizard there. Again, developers of the game claim that this will not be the truth upon release.

While the sounds from weather are great, often the rest of the games sounds are quite repeating at best. They are done fine, with nothing sticking out as incongrous, but again, its quite lackluster. Additionally, ambient sound has yet to be seen ... er ... heard implemented.

Like any MMORPG, music, particularly combat music, is dreadfully repetative. I believe it as simply the nature of most computer games. There will never be enough music in a single game to add enough variety to it, and at some point, again especially combat music, it begins to get annoying.

However... what music there is, is done very, very well. Some of the music is just mind blowing in how wonderful it is; its obvious that they put a lot of effort to get a handle on an issue that plagues computer games. There are multiple scores for combat, but still far too few to sucessfully address that issue. Otherwise, the music is thematically placed, and for example, lends a strong feeling of the culture of the city you are in. I literally have gone to cities just to sit there and listen to the music run through, and then ported to another city to listen to it's score. Some cities even have multiple scores, another attempt to add to the variety. While I speak ill of music in computer games in general, by comparison Horizons does extremely well at it, easily placing as one of my top three games with regards to its music.

As for the User Interface, it's quite modifiable and easy to use. Visually, its merely acceptable; funtionally it is quite nice. Text from chat and game information is adjustable in size and color, as are the background of all the windows, to your preference of the level of opacity. Multiple banks of hotkeys are displayable at once, with the ability to select the primary hotkey bar for keystroke use, while keeping other hotkeys visually acessable and activated by a single mouse click.

My only gripes with the User Interface is that the area in which you type in order to chat with others or issue a command is not adjustable in size, which can make for extremely small text at higher resolutions. Also, there is an issue with the text "cropping" or having parts of it dissapear preceeding your curser as you type, making a very difficult situation for those who are not expert typists such as myself, leading to games of "guess where your typo is in the missing text." Finally, the size of hotkeys are not adjustable, again leading to issues of tiny sizes at higher resolutions.

Horizons, overall, is a darn good game, with it's own bag of issues. The nature of MMORPG's lends that this is normal upon release, and will get better as development of the game progresses. For me personally, I had no qualms ordering this game, as it fits my needs. However, others, particularly those who must have an element of Player vs Player, may see the game quite differently. The best suggestion I could make is to read as many reviews as possible, or better yet, see if you can look at the game first hand with a friends assistance.

Good luck, and I hope to see you in the world of Istaria, should you decide this game is for you.

Lots of potential - still unfinished

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 10 / 10
Date: December 16, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I've got the game this weekend. Installed, setup account, created a Lizard cleric, no problems. Web interface (idea) is real bad. Also IE takes a lot of memory so I suggest you close the IE while the game engine is loading. (Still it may take a few minutes until XP drops the IE libraries)

The good:
- Graphics, visuals, even in such low detail level (for good performance) Istaria looks amazing.
- Sound, best music for MMORPG by far.
- Tradeskills are OK (better than other MMORPGs)
- Fighting is fun, got some skills to use and make a difference
- Can really be unique with so many races available and then so many features that can be customized (height, head shape, etc)
- Can actually multiclass and it really works.
- No exp penalty on death, no corpse runs to get gear (allows you to take risks and have more fun)

The bad:
- The web interface login.
- not enough servers for the demand.
- Loading times are ridiculous if server is highly populated
- Gathering resources for TSkills is difficult cause so many ppl doing the same (if same place).
- Unless someone is selling what you want (spell or gear) you cannot buy it.
- Not enough information anywhere about the schools and skills, didn't even know Druid was a choice from start until read about it somewhere.
- It seems to have several bugs including very nasty memory leaks (game gets real slow after a while)
- Casters are not working very well ATM
- Warrior types always take Cleric to lvl10 for heals
- NO PETS in game, huge drawback for me
- Huge BUG when abilities go grey for no apparent reason thus becoming unavailable until you log (loggin in takes quite some time).
- Lacking dungeons which I think are great fun.

Can be the real next generation MMORPG if several issues are addressed (I'm sure all problems will be fixed eventually).

Horizons is not for everyone.

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 12 / 14
Date: November 28, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Horizons is not for everyone. It doesn't have PvP and the monsters don't drop pretty armor and swords for you to play with. Dragons are going to be very difficult to level up to the point where they can even fly. It is a game where griefers, macros, kill stealing, ninja looters are not welcome and they won't even enjoy this type of game. Horizons is a game where if we don't work together then the undead can and will take over our cities.
In Horizons things are not handed to you on a silver shield. The crafting system has great depth and the combat system grows increasingly complex.
I will play Horizons. If you want to play then read up, ask questions and learn about it. Decide if it is for you based on the facts, not the incorrect and odd rumors.

Not bad, So Far

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 13 / 17
Date: December 28, 2003
Author: Amazon User

After about 6 months of nothing but extreme disappointment and let-downs from star wars Galaxies, I cancelled my account, and decided to try Horizons. This game seems pretty cool so far. Although It seemed like a buggy, crappy, mess in the beginning, after making a bunch of adjustments in the options menu, It plays quite flawlessly except a few disconnects. First thing you need to do is to turn off the shadows, because, like SWG, they cause extreme lag, even with extremely fast graphic boards. Next you need to change the resolution to 1024 X 768 if your graphics supports it, and change the other graphics settings to the highest they can go without slowing you down. You also need to set up your interface (HUD) and lock all windows in place where you want them or they will reset on restart. After that, most problems seemed to be solved. You can then change the keyboard settings as you would like, because the pre-programmed ones aren't the greatest. I basically made my keys and interface the same setup as everquest.

The graphics, overall, seem to be a little better than Everquest, but not as good as Star Wars Galaxies, but the ideas that went into this game seem to be better than both. The web interface used to log on looks like it's gonna be great. From the start, you get your own page, and you will be able to check personalized messages, maps, view your characters, inventories, auction and trade items with other players, and view your account info, or even cancell your account. All of this can be done from the very first web page the game brings you to. These are all web options that other MMORPG's make you pay extra for! The game interface is entirely customizable, with movable windows, you can change the opacity, lock them into place, or even set them to auto-hide (although sometimes they disappear, don't come back, and are very hard to find). Unlike Star Wars Galaxies, where the mouse lag and interface make you feel like your gonna puke, the mouse and interface in Horizons are very responsive and no different than in any other Windows based programs. In fact, you actually use your original desktop mouse cursors, which gives you the added feeling that this game is incorporated into your Windows desktop, especially with the popup help menus. You can also play windowed or full screen, and in window mode it is very easy to switch between the game and your current desktop without any problems (just move the mouse away from the game, it's great!). The job system seems to be awesome, you can basically pick anyting you want. Although you can only pick one adventure school and one craft school at a time, you can switch, work on another, gain new abilities, and then switch back to the old school. You can't cast spells outside your adventure school, but you can still use the abilities (some abilities are as good as spells). Horizons broke away nicely from other MMORPG's that are entirely "hack and slash". The problem with other games is that everything, including earning cash, completing quests, and even gathering resources, revolved solely around killing monsters. Horizons (and Galaxies) broke that mold by allowing you to gather randomly spawned resource nodes(without killing monsters). Also, the creatures seem to be plentiful, unlike SW Galaxies, and create just as much loot as everquest (also ulike SW Galaxies, where nothing drops any loot for you to sell!). You have tons of equipable weapon slots on your characters, such as back, chest, arms, wrist, shoulders, hands, head, ears, fingers and so on... You also have the ability to hide two hot menu bars far in the corner of the screen (I think, like 15 slots total) and you can put all of your spells, and abilities there for very easy access. The journal is great, and organized for keeping track of quests. In fact, all or the menus are extremely organized and you have tons of organizing options, customizing options, and filters. And at last, ther are no death penalties (except you go back to bind spot). Basically, unlike Sony Online, this game seems to have taken the approach where fun gameplay and the end user were taken into account first, rather that worrying about hooking more and more monthly users with poorly thought out junk and empty promises, in order to collect more monthly fees to line there greedy little pockets.

All of the annoying problems that Everquest and Galaxies contain seem to be taken out of Horizons. Everquest and Sony Online make you pay for tons of expansion packs (on top of the monthly fees) in order to get rid of these flaws over the coarse of like 6 years! The Sony and Everquest expansions always promise to add new elements that make the game easier to play, but when you actually buy the expansion, you soon realize that there is always some other added element, that still makes it difficult to play (hence making it longer to do stuff and making you still pay more $ every month, and buy the next expansion that claims to fix these issues). This is why they call Everquest "Evercrack", because it is a very expensive habit and a waste of money! I believe Galaxies is headed down the same road and will suffer the same fate. Even though Galaxies doesn't yet charge for their expansions, they still add no content to help gameplay whatsoever, only fancy, sugar coated "mounts" and "vehicles" that don't work and are only to hook more monthly subscribers. All of these fixes that people have been paying for in Everquest expansions over the years(Over $200 in expansions sets and the issues still aren't resolved), plus many more great elements are all included in Horizons for only $49.99 and $12.95 per month.

The only issues in the game seem to be with minor graphics flaws. Another thing Horizons seemed to have done correctly is to worry about fixing the main issues (that effect gameplay) first, and then go back and fix minor graphics issues. They will probably go back and make this game look alot better after all of the other flaws have been worked out, so this game doesn't turn out like Galaxies, which looks amazing, but plays like trash and is extremely boring.

Great graphics, weak rollout

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 9 / 10
Date: December 16, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Whenever a new MMORG hits the market, one expects a few issues with the rollout. Horizons is no exception. In the past week, I have personally experienced multiple boots, along with quite a few programming bugs. I am not going to review based on these, lest I knock the review down quite a few points.

On graphics: The graphics in Horizons are excellent. The textures, overall, are very smooth, and the graphics flow nicely as you move from location to location. Considering the game world is huge and holds thousands of players per server (er shard), this is no small task. Unlike Asheron's Call 2, you do not see the lag when your character on your local machine gets out of sync with the server. The sky textures are especially nice. I have stopped just to look up at the clouds rolling by with a lovely moon in the background. One downside I have noticed is you sometimes have to stop for the engine to paint in NPCs and other characters. If you are on the move, you will completely miss many people.

Gameplay: Many of the elements still feel half baked. In many instances, you have to click a button more than once to get the desired effect. Compared to other MMORGs, this is a sore spot. Click on monster ... click on monster ... click on monster ... click attack ... click attack ... finally attack. Fortunately, the game paints items with a box when selected or you might just sit and wonder why a creature is pounding the snot out of you and you are not fighting back (also fortunate is the fact that the lower level creatures do not agro until you attack).

Menus: One thing I do not understand is why all menu items were not hotkeyed prior to release. Want to pull up the quest menu the first time. Okay, click the blue button on the hotkey menu ... click the blue button ... click the blue button ... now, choose Quests from the menu. Now, you want to see your knowledge box ... click the blue button. Did I mention that you sometimes have to click multiple times to do anything.

Character play: Overall, very nice. The humans run rather stupid, but that is a minor annoyance, as you get to see gnomes scooting around, which is rather amusing.

Character race: While choice of race does not affect gameplay that much (all start with the same health), there are benefits to each class. Dragons and half-giants, for example, have greater strength, which helps you with damage at the lowest levels. Once you advance a few levels, the extra points are less significant. It is really neat you can choose a dragon to play.

Character classes: The beginner's choices are rather limited in both crafting and adventuring, but you will find that there are plenty of prestige classes as you move up the skill tree. Be sure to craft and adventure, as you will want to create or repair items to get better weapons and/or armor. Anything you craft, but do not need, can be sold, either to pawn brokers or other characters. The character classes are one of the things that really makes the game shine.

Combat: Fairly similar to most other systems. Click to choose ... click to choose ... click attack ... click attack. (OK, except that you often have to click multiple times). After that, it is largely a system of watching your character and the creature beat the snot out of each other. Like most MMORGs, you can also choose special abilities to use when attacking.

NPCs: This is where Horizons shines a bit more than some systems. There are plenty of NPCs in the game, many of which can give you tasks. You can also ask for short, medium and long tasks from many of the NPCs. The experience you gain from tasks is largely based on the time and difficulty.

Community: In Horizons, you can purchase and own land. If you desire, you can build a variety of structures on your own land. Rather nice. It is easy to group and form guilds, which helps with the community structure of Horizons. Finding other players is not as easy as some other systems, however.

Summary:
--------
Pluses - graphics, NPCs, choices in character race and classes and community (if it really takes off)

Negatives - hitting the button ... hitting the button, ad nauseum. Early release bugs. Menus not being hotkeyed.

Fantastic Potential, but Still Needs Some Work

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 10 / 12
Date: January 09, 2004
Author: Amazon User

As far as I'm concerned, this game takes what's best about UO (a complex crafting system) and EQ (stunning graphics), combines them, and then eliminates one big pain-in-the-neck plaguing the casual gameplayer (player-versus-player combat).

I'll admit it -- I'm a MMORPG wimp. I don't like to kill players and don't particularly enjoy being killed. I like to make things, build things, and casually poke around the game world.

I've played Horizons now through 80 aggregate levels of experience in my three classes (Spellcrafter / Mason / Healer). I feel competitive, despite the fact that I'm limited to evening and weekend play. Here are some other thoughts:

1. The crafting system and options are the best I've ever seen. I was easily able to quickly purchase a nice plot of land with money earned selling spells to other players. About 10-12 of my items sell each day off the in-game consignors, who act as your vendor for a 10% fee. Level advancement in crafting can be boring, but it's not grueling, and the payoffs can be quick and substantial if you focus on high demand items. And the number of create-able items are amazing. As a merely low-to-mid-level spellcrafter (level 35), there are literally hundreds of different spell combinations that I can put together.

2. The land / construction system is ingenious. Buy a plot, plan it out, and start construction. Each building unit requires resource contributions that must be made by several different crafters. If you are an independent sort, master all the construction crafting skills (Mason, fitiing, carpenry, etc.) and make those buildings yourself! Or, if you're so inclined, "deposit" money on your structures. Other players can draw off this money by contributing resources towards the construction. It's a real thrill to drop by my plot and see a couple of carpenters there adding wood. And if I need a few silver, I can make some bricks and drop them off for payment somewhere else. Unfortunately, not all buildings work -- so right now, some (particularly the much-coveted storage silos) are merely decoration.

3. Combat is not overly challenging or overly easy. I can solo mobs at my adventuring level with reasonable success. Experience gain is steady and fair. Loot drops are weak, but not pitiful. You'll never get rich in this game if you don't do some crafting, but adventuring helps facilitate crafting (through the collection of craft ingredients and the enhancement of attributes) and does provide a small income stream.

4. The game has easy to use and comprehensive communications features. Contacting other players and managing multiple conversations is simple and efficient.

5. Griefing is minimal, at worst. Camping really doesn't pay off. And the world is big enough to support the player base.

6. Lag has recently become an issue for me, but only during high-traffic times. I can craft away from 6-8 a.m., but crafting at 9 p.m. has become quite irritating. Inventory takes a long while to update and I spend as much time waiting as I do crafting. Lag hasn't affected my adventuring at all, however, so I bash beasts at night and craft during off-hours.

7. The huge world is a bit barren. You can run in a straight line for 10 minutes without seeing a single mob. That's a bit weak.

8. The game logs me out for no reason about once every 12 hours of gameplay. Logging back in takes about 90 seconds on my DSL connection.

Bottom line: A terrific game with some early problems. AE needs to fix its server lag problems during peak hours. It needs to fill in the huge world it's built. It needs to get its buildings in working order. If those three issues are fixed, the game's a clear Five Star purchase. Until then, I give it Four.

*edit* 1/29/2004

The game is getting better and better as the weeks go by. New features are appearing each week, problems are being remedied, and new areas are being opened for exploration (through community action, no less!). If you've been biding your time to buy, I think the time is now.

Has the World Gone Crazy?

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 13 / 18
Date: December 17, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Have I lost my mind, or is it the rest of the world that's gone insane?

This game is not finished, pure and simple. I (like many reviewers) was extremely excited about all that Istaria claimed to offer. But I'm not going to sit here and make lame excuses for the developers just because I wanted this to be a great experience. Istaria is barely at the beta level. It was released to capture holiday sales.

The servers are constantly down. The billing / logon / account creation are all slow, unreliable, and just really poorly done. This I can all live with (though I don't see how the developers can claim to have stress-tested Istaria thoroughly, when even a moderate player load breaks EVERYTHING).

What's upsetting is that even when the game "works", it sucks. The graphics are terrible and clunky, even on a high-end system. The framerate is awful at even the lowest detail settings (which are pitifully ugly). The quests (even the beginning quests that everyone has to do) are often broken. There are only a handful of monster types, poorly distributed across the maps.

Both the billing and the customer service software are done by third parties, and both rarely work properly. People have complained of multiple credit card charges, and the support system sucks.

Perhaps most disturbing is the fact that the support team has not addressed the pathetic non-gameplay. The knowledge base contains no articles about the bigger issues that plague Horizons.

I've been playing computer games since 1984. This is the most upset I have ever been about game quality. I am cancelling my subscription and will attempt to get a refund for the (overpriced even if it worked) software.

Just in case I haven't made this clear, Istaria is vile, utter crap. It is not worth the two CD's it is burnt to. People claim that we should be patient and that the developers will fix these problems. Whether that's true or not this game should not have been released in it's current state.

Needs Time

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 8 / 9
Date: February 02, 2004
Author: Amazon User

The game hasn't changed much after beta.
o Not much content.
o Several players now boast level 100 just after 1 month of play.
o Server events pose lag issues worse than earlier games.
o Regardless of hardware, frame rates are below par.
o "Skater" and "standing grey corpses" as other players approach.
o Dragon race is unfinished.
o Observe several classes solo higher level mobs
o Lack of item decay keeps craftable items in low demand
o Quests are not very involved and lack creativity.

For a list of pros/cons and all the chatter, check out http://www.tazoon.com or http://horizonsvault.ign.com. Post your question or read the commentary posted by the current subscribed player-base.

Possible gem in the works.

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 9 / 11
Date: December 08, 2003
Author: Amazon User

This is the first MMORPG that I've ever been in. I entered beta in August and have been a steady player up until they closed beta. I am currently awaiting the US release and I shall stick with this one for a while.

First of all, I'll blast some of the problems the game has. From what I have seen on the message boards (go to Tazoon.com, the former official beta board for messages from experienced beta players), the Europeans are already playing almost the exact same version as all of us beta players were. The changes being mostly that most, if not all the monsters and play elements have been turned on. Many things were kept from us in beta and I can agree with some of that, they don't want to spill all the surprises at one time. But that also leaves many things untested. There has been much made out of the crafting and building system in the game, but if you were to be a dragon player, be aware that laircrafting (as I've heard) is still in Alpha stage with a total redesign and flight for adult dragons got sent back to QA for several reasons. The flight does not concern me yet because there is susposed to be a (rumored 3 month) timer before you can even become an adult dragon, no matter how advanced your character is. There are a lot of other problems in the game as well, graphic, gameplay and exploits that I doubt have been taken care of yet. I think they were under some pressure to release this game, but it seriously could have used another month or two of refinement. Short term, it is probably going to result in some seriously bad press for them.

For the positive side, it has a lot going for it IF the developers can work out the bugs. I consider this release to be "beta 4" (we just finished beta 3). The characters are nice to look at. Most of the animations are good looking, though many need to be reworked and tweaked. There is a player run economy that could be one of the strong points or could lead to problems, but I like it so far. Crafters who work hard will make lots of money. Adventurers can find their share of excitement, though they don't seem to be able to make much money. The best part is the dynamic world. They can make changes to the world in real time, not have to take the server down and patch it. Judging by some of the things I have seen, it may even be possible for one of the big towns to be overun by the enemy and if you were there, see it crumble into ruin as the blight takes over. That means, if you lived in a frontier town, everything you worked for and built could be taken over by the enemy if your town was not defended well. This game promotes community building and cooperation, crafters and adventurers working together for a common good. Many will be turned off because there is no player vs. player element yet, but there is a large stadium outside of Tazoon that has a definate look and feel of a gladitorial arena, so they may get their PvP in the end.

Overall, I think this will be a good game in the end. It has had great anticipation over the past 4 years, but remember, it is not the same game it started out as. Half way through it's development, a major portion of staff departed and the game was redesigned to what we see today. Those that remember seeing stuff about the "old Horizons", forget it. That game is gone. This is what came in it's place and, for better or for worse, I think it is a good one.

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