I wish I could still enjoy RPGs and just get lost in them for hours. I can never do that anymore though because um always worried about life and i get anxiety about doing nothing

I feel like a lot of the commenters didn't hear this line at the end: "Take my opinion with a grain of salt because I'm clearly not in the target audience."

This does resemble Ultima Online in a few ways. Starting with 0 skill in weapons for example. Which led to failing at attacks and crafting repeatedly in order to train up your skills. Also appreciated the "cut off head" callback. In the early days of UO, it was the wild west. Including being able to not only kill other players anywhere, and take all their stuff. You could also chop up their corpse into pieces (legs, arms, head, etc) and use you camping skill to create a fire & cook their body parts. Yes, you could be a cannibal serial killer in old UO!

Have you noticed how "old school MMOs" seem to be the norm? We're gone full circle

"I like to be a peasant"-Peon 2018

This sounds so nostalgic. Reminds me of playing Ultima Online back in the day and trying to figure out the mechanics.

There are actually quests/missions in every town which let you clear a wolves-den, or ghouls at the graveyard etc. This also gives you some bonus rewards. The missions have a real-time limit and can be a decent while away, which lends to the exploration. It definitely has some real problems, but I'm going to give it a shot to do some crafting. :)

Yes, the game is based on Ultima Online and for us that enjoyed it back in the day. And yes, I do agree that it tells you very little, especially if you haven't played any proper old MMO from back in the day. (Runescape does not count) BUT! I really enjoy the game and not being told what to do. I enjoy running my little city and the social aspects of the game. And regarding the inventory. You can activate the list view and get a cleaner view of the inventory if you want. Personally, I prefer sorting through my backpack though and making my own bags for different things etc. And you can see how strong every creature is. It's a skill you use (btw you didn't even touch on the awesome skill system) But it doesn't say "level" because there are no "levels" in this game. And no, there are no "quests". Most of the time is spent managing your skills (which, once again, you never looked at) Or the social part of the game, running a city (which you never did), crafting (which you never did) etc. But there are missions you can do just to get you some gold. And also! If you don't like the combat, then don't focus on the combat. I have a few characters in the game (and in Ultima Online) that doesn't even have the Swordsmanship skill. I instead they focus on other things which grants me more money than just fighting ever could. And no, it's not just chopping trees, that is just one step in a long chain of things you could have done (available from start) Oh yeah, about that, everything from begging, to playing instruments, to fighting, to healing etc. are skills you can use at any time. If you skip Swordsmanship you won't fight very well, but you can be good at other things. And you don't even need to have the skills to do the things. For example when you wanted to tame a horse, just do it! Hop into skills and use the tame skill. You'll fail a few times but you spent.. 25 minutes? to gather gold for a horse, when in maybe 10-15 minutes you could have tamed one yourself while also leveling your skill for it. I suggest reading up on how the game works as it's very different from what people are used to these days. But I'd argue that it's a nice change from all the guided and "dumbed down" modern MMOs (though I do enjoy and play lots of GW2)

Everything said about this game in this video got me so excited for it!

Honestly your first impression of this game was my first 2 hours of experience in this game, but then I ended up dumping about 20 hours into this game and enjoying it immensely. Its a VERY oldschool style game with no hand holding and no linear progression system.

My favorite game of all time is Ultima Online by far and Legends of Aria has some former UO Devs. I have been keeping an eye on this since it was called Shards Online, looking forward to release.

Thank you very much for your vid. What you experimented in Legend of Aria was the same I suffered for Ultima Online at the beginning. It's hard to get involved in these kinds of games, if you are used to a more "directed" world. However, when you get the idea of building your character and the economic society of the game, it's super fun.

Why don´t you try a Neverwinter Nights PW like Arelith?

Hey Peon. Will you do a first impressions for Tibia? It's a pretty hardcore game but me and my older brother and his friends used to play it back in 2000 and onwards. I'm interested to hear your opinions on it because it used to be pretty big back in the day and it has some unique systems not seen in todays MMO's and people used to (literally) kill eachother over this game because everything and everyone was so unforgiving and cruel. Sounds great, i know, but it really was something else and has quite a rich history. Care to take a look?

Hey Peon, ik you checked out the game Trove in it's beta but would love to see your thoughts on it now

@TheLazyPeon is Wurm Unlimited considered an MMO for you and would you try it out ?

I spent years having nightmares of getting chased by Shelobs (Lineage 1). Not knowing how strong a monster is is realistic and adds to the RPG element of MMORPG.

I am sorry you did not like the game, but you say an "updated skin to UO" like its a bad thing.

Great vid Peon! I liked this format very much for games you don't enjoy as much and it's also a nice change to your usual first impression vids. Keep it up!

Somehow this channel and You became a factor if I am going to ever touch the MMORPG. Since I was an old-school MMORPG gamer I always loved the grind. In the end, I ended up in OSRS with a hope that genre will make something more than just a box opening simulator.

"I sold my wood" well I mean we all need and have to make money so wont judge you.

As a former Ultima Online player, watching this makes me feel right at home, including the paper doll and inventory. Nice that there can be community servers like UO Freeshards. Question is how far you can change stuff like create your own races and adding your own systems. Also do community servers run on their hardware or your own (if the company shuts down its server pools) and how much does it cost. UO didn't have levels and you defined your char over stats (str, dex, int max 100 and a total of 225) and skill percentages (700% total max across all skills). You learned by playing how strong certrain creatures are. Also at the beginning you were weak and missing alot til your skills like "mace fighting" were increasing. Stats increased by using skills like using magic slowly increases your int. Also there were no quests for many years but out game masters were running player driven quests like dungeon masters in Pen&Paper. PS: Be happy to have keyboard shortcuts. In UO you dragged the spell symbols on the screen and had to double click them and then the target. Magic duels were hectic. xD

Getting some HUGE runescape feels from this. From the camera, to the art style, to the fact a general store sells all the main tools and even the difference in enemy levels depending on area.

Great format TheLazyPeon! I like how u did your best to explain what the game was about for those that may like this type of game.

Meanwhile, DOFUS is getting a new extension. You really should cover this game, it's a famous (mainly in France, Spain, South America, Canada...) isometric turned based strategic mmo for now more then 15 years ! There's even a (very good) film, a manga and a animated serie called Wakfu (3 seasons on Netflix) on this game. It's really a big thing and most of all it's unique in the mmo genre. Even if it's not your type I think you should give it a chance, how many people said to me that they didn't like this kind of game and finaly loved it ! Good video anyway and I like your content ;)

I will begin by saying there are indeed a few elements that need to be streamlined for Modern Gaming based on your gameplay footage. However, I'm cringing a bit when you say "I prefer my MMO's more 'Sandboxy'...." While complaining that this game doesn't hold your hand enough, and tell you exactly what to do or where to go. I really don't think you really know what a "sandbox" game is, anymore. I'm looking forward to playing this game when it is officially released, because it is EXACTLY a sandbox MMO. Meaning you aren't forced to be boxed-in to a specific class, and you aren't a "legendary hero," like every other "legendary hero" spawning into the game with you. In a nutshell, you are simply a citizen of the world, free to pursue the goals you want as a citizen. You get to pick from and mix and match an extensive list of combat and non-combat skills to invest in, like Ultima Online and Star Wars Galaxies, which were the epitome of "Sandbox" MMORPGs. Stop saying you like "sandbox" MMORPGs, because nearly all your criticism of the gameplay design mechanics and bad times is the result of not understanding how Sandbox RPGs truly work. Simply put, if you want to quest your way to max level for , you want a "theme park" style MMORPG.

I feel like hearing your commentary as you played deserves its own video.

Man I had some good times playing OU. One memory that always stands out was a time some player was having an auction in the town. He had a table laid out with a range of different weapons on it. My friends and I casually walked up to him, pretended to bid, then stole all his weapons and proceeded to take his horse. He started to tell "thieves" and then we were being chased on our horses by about 20 players. I really hope this game can provide the same fun I had in UO. I love how it looks and just because you're not smashing 50 keys a minute doesn't make the combat boring.

Long time viewer here. This game is exactly what I was waiting for. Since UO, I've grown extremely tired of the typical theme park MMOs that claim to be sandbox. This game allows a lot of freedom to progress however you like and still succeed. The combat is a bit monotonous at times, but honestly I found the skill cycle spamming of most theme park MMOs eventually became monotonous as well. Personally, this is my style of game. I can kill someone and take all their stuff, craft anything I use, and if I want to retire in the woods with a humble shop to sell my wares, I can do so. I'm all in. I do respect your opinion though and still like your content man. Keep being genuine. 🤘

I think you were looking at things from the wrong perspective. You are used to the adrenaline fueled, fast combat style games.. the enjoyment from games like this, come from once you get powerful. UO Was similar in that at the start you were a weakling, dying to everything and anything and hitting for peanuts... Until you get strong. UO spells for example started with you summoning a fishcake, but the top rank spells had you summoning demons, gatting gate travels, an earthquake that damages everyone on the screen, walls of fire and snaring. Unlike the new generation of MMOS not dissimilar to incremental game where higher numbers and flashier model on the item makes the game seem...artificially more fun . Because there are no quests, every player in the game plays a different and unique role; it makes a game feel alive with a true player run economy, some people out pvping, some lumbering, some fighting enemies etc it's refreshing to see this style again tbh. You should have given it more of a chance IMHO as it is what made UO great.

Are you going to do a first impressions on star citizen???

This looks awesome. So glad to see someone who started with kickstarter is actually following through. I'm getting it as soon as I get home from work.

Is this not like Runescape? Combat system is very basic, just auto attacks that often miss. The whole "what do I do?" "anything you want" sort of thing.

tldr: played an old school rpg expecting to have his hand held and told what to do and where to go, also surprised general store sells general goods.

well can my character go strong without opening or downloading the app the app?

This made me laugh so much. Sounds very much like my first few hours in UO back in the days before Trammel.

"I lost everything I worked for in the last 3 hours. " Welcome to rust 😂

So, any UO vets here who have tried this? How does it stack up? What "era" is it comparable to?

Hey nice video man, I like the format and it seems like you gave it a fair shot considering your interests. I still might check it out seeing as I'm kinda looking for something old school atm.

hey man, could you do review of Albion Online again since it's out for while?

looks interesting but that combat system....its terrible

I didn't played any old school mmorpg but i actually like the idea of no monster level info and no quests. It doesn't seems like player is the chosen one or anything so people won't give you quests. Game says you are clueless at start so explore and experience what it will show you. Not a good game for first impression I understand but reaching out for conclusions like ''Think it is only for old ultima fans.'' or ''Looses it fun for trying to be hardcore/old school.'' is hardly doing justice to the game.

Im intrigued about this game for these reasons: 1-attacking a living (or undead) thing and not knowing how powerful it is is pretty realistic. The world is a dangerous place and when you commit violence against something, you should probably be prepared for the worst. Thinking there are no consequences and dealing out violence as a small, insignificant thing is being programmed by WoW. 2-Do what you want. Quest balloons on someones head? Really? Thats what you'd prefer? I can craft, kill stuff, make a living, save up for most stuff, buy land, a house, equipment to travel the world. Dungeon dive, explore the unknown, discover the world. 3-To do these things it takes time to get better at everything. Thus, in order to survive a dungeon or dangerous place, I gotta be skilled and skilling up takes time. 4-No cash shop. Everyone has to grind and no one can take short cuts. What you have you earn or GTFO. 5-Can host our own servers. Very nice.

Doing good as usual TheLazyPeon, nice review!

There are way too many people trying to make an old school RPG...

Very clear line between hand holding and showing a player how to function in your game. I believe the later is known as.. game design.

First time hearing of this game and your video, oddly enough, made me want to play it. Seems like a sort of, "Figure it out yourself" kinda game and I'm curious to know if I'd enjoy that. Definitely will give it a try.

Thanks Craig great review mate. Any new news around on the state of Ashes of Creation, I'm hanging to try it in closed beta phase two. Keep up the great work you do for us mate.

Looks cool! ALSO DO MORE MAPLESTORY 2!!

Wow, finally an MMO with some actual depth and journey to it. Everything you complained about actually sounds like a game you can lost yourself into for years :)

Can I just say LazyPeon...your pronunciation of Coyotes as Kwaioytase was hilarious to me.

You goinna do a video on Warlords Awakening Peon?

MAKE MMORPG GREAT AGAIN

"i like sandbox games" ...doesnt like sandbox aspect of game.

I enjoy your videos and find my opinions often echo your own. That said, all the things you didn't like are all the things that have me excited for it, as I was an OG Ultima online player. Still respect your opinion and appreciate the first look, can't wait for the release on this one :D Still gave the video a like ^^

If I were in the real world... and I saw a giant spider with no level information - I would still run because I have never seen a giant spider before.

Hey Peon! You should check out one of the oldest mmorpgs: Tibia!. Deep and hard to learn combat system, lots of content and one of the most hardcore pvps out there

"old school for the sake of being old school" This makes me Moist.

I normally like all your videos anyways, but I really like this format for review.

There is actually some quests in the game, it's near the Inn/Tavern. The Dispatcher, you can pick up timed quests to kill x amount of creatures. Crafting has Quests as well in the way of work orders.

Most of your issues are pros in my book.

Oh well, still better than Bless Online

Games hold your hand: "Game is shit, holds my hand". Game doesn't hold your hand: "Game is shit, it's not telling me what i should do at all times". *shrugs*

LOL this made me laugh quite a bit! So pretty much what you described is what I felt about Ultima Online the first time I played it when I was about 15. Went back and played again a few months later after we moved and jesus, did I fall in love wit that game. Played for 5 years. Good times.

You think you like sandbox, but you dont. There really isnt any point telling a player to go kill 10 wolves lmao.

It seems like the very reasons you dislike this game (early access as it is) are the reasons that people want a game like this. I haven't played it yet, busy playing Project Gorgon, but its clear this isnt going to be your type of game. Good on you for saying that though instead of just writing it off instantly. OSRS has been steadily gaining content and players for years now. This is an early access game that could appeal to a niche audience if they keep updating and expanding it. Ill give it awhile and see what the devs do. Thanks for the video.

Your journey of finding the axe was nothing but hilarious and entertaining. I love it. Thanks for sharing the story with us. Haha. What a joy it was. Hope there are more games upcoming that you can review, specially F2P. Also, I hope your family is okay. I heard someone is sick.

As someone who played Ultima Online for years... it’s basically UO.

When current MMORPGs don't meet the expectations of much older fans of the genre, there's amply opportunity in making versions of the much older MMORPGs into brand new IP's; there's a lot of money to gain from nostalgia. For example, this game Legends of Aria made over $500,000+ just from random people online donating to the game. That kind of money pooled together shouldn't be overlooked, and it's probably why you see many of these "nostalgic" games being worked on and released recently. Even a AAA gaming company, Blizzard, wants to get into the nostalgia side of the gaming business with their new Classic WoW (which I think will no doubt cost the player some amount of money to participate). Do these type of games play well with their modern counterparts? For the most part, I don't think so. However, they definitely resonate well with a certain group of players and that's all that matters when it comes to the $$$.

You don't like sandbox games stop saying you do.

On the 6 minute mark at the moment, but by the way you decided to edit this video, I can see that you took quite the time on understanding the game :P (sorry if you actually pointed that out on the video, might have missed it)

can u please suggest me console mmorpg i have ordered a ps5 and i want to play pvp based mmorpg on it im taking break from pc

Here is my in depth comment from another video that was sorta in the middle, leaning negative of the game. I found the game really hard to get into and really wonky at first. I spent the first hour debating if I wanted to buy in or jump ship. After joining the discord to ask some questions and asking in game players questions and such I started to get the hang of it. The weird combat become less and less of an issue the more I got into the game and immersed in it. Now this weekend alone I put about 20 hours into the game and I can say that I happily purschased the game and these are the reasons why: 1. The devs. After joining the discord and seeing the devs talking to the community and asking players what issues they were having and the passion to iron out all the bugs and get the game ready for EA I knew this was going to be a great game. Even if not at first, by the time early access is over and everything is ironed out. Some of the best games are done as passion projects, and the passion is clear. 2. The business model. Talking to the devs on discord there will be 0 pay to win, and 0 monthly subscription. Which is refreshing to say the least. The games revenue stream will come from original purschases, eventually a STRICTLY cosmetic item shop way down the road, and through expansions. The revenue coming from expansions only for the most part is exciting to me. Because it gives the devs an incentive to work hard towards if they want money. It means that they have make what the players want to buy and in return we get great content. 3. The world feel and graphics. Honestly this game may have very simplistic graphics but in a way they have a real feel to it. Its realistic in the most minimalistic way. It just feels alive and immersive, and its only getting better. 4. The learning curve. At first it was a major turn off for me because I felt so lost and annoyed, but learning the game and being forced to interact with other players was refreshing. It made learning the core mechanics of the game feel like a task or mission themself and it was very rewarding to learn how to do something new and to be able to spread the knowledge to others. The cons? The karma system is a bit broken, the game can be a bit buggy at times, had 2 crashes in my 20 hours of game play, one resulting in my losing a pvp fight, the crafting orders are bugged, yadda yadda yadda. The main cons all are just bugs or easily fixable things that the dev team has been pulling crazy hours working on this weekend to squash. The only core mechanic I find to be a bit awkward is the combat. I understand its playstyle and like I said it became alot less of an issue the more I played and learned the quirks, but I think the animations and feels need to be polished for sure. Talking in discord to one of the devs he assured me it does need a little tweaking, but stability and bug squashing was the main worry, but it will see some love in the future, which gives me home. Overall I disagree with this videos end. I think this game is well worth the $30, so much so I bought the $50 pack, but not enough that I opted for the $90 pack. After so many games failing to deliver promises I'm highly skeptical about early access games, but this weekend I had enough fun to justify a $50 price tag and if nothing changes between now and if the game ends up dying, I will get my $50 worth from open beta and launch alone. I tend to rate my entertainment value out of how many hours I enjoyed the game $1 = 1 hour, and with the first hour being annoying Ive gotten $19 dollars worth so far and I know for a fact ill make up the extra $31 in the first 7 days

Lol this is like you making a review for a lipstick. "I'm not the target audience but let me give my opinion on this beauty product" why even bother man?

Love the new review style Peon. I think a mixture of this style and your normal style would be great, I guess you'd just need a factor to differentiate. I honestly love all your videos regardless and I hold you as the authority when it comes to MMOs nowadays. No one quite knows em like you do.

Hey you should give this one another look! I am really enjoying it now. There is a lot of quests and things now right at the beginning to give you lots of different paths to go down. It seems a lot better than what you had experienced a couple years ago in this video.

Could you re-review LOTRO with the same enthusiasm you have in this one? Giving it an almost full try, and not just the intro!

Eh. I’ll keep playing Runescape. Srsly tho.. “I then tried to cut off their head” I lol’d

Didn't even know this kind of games are being still made. Need to check out, pretty hyped

Dude. This looks amazing. Grind woodcutting for hours to get 1 gold to buy a house. No goals except your own goals. Skilling grinds that get exponentially more exhausting and arbitrary. Sign me up.

These games were cool back in the day, but games have evolved and even the gamers that loved titles like UO are now mostly turned off by games like this that don't have QOL improvements from the last 20 years of game development.

i actually like how the game looked, this could be a decent game if the combat is fixed to be a little more intresting

I totally understand you didn't enjoyed your time there, but I liked to hear your first impressions of the game since I always do. This game is 90% like Ultima Online so for older people like me, it's just amazing, it's a hardcore MMO... you can loose everything in a blink of an eye, you don't have quests, you need to ask people and make the game happen by exploring it. Unfortunately these days people don't want to waste time, they wan't to know the level of the mobs, questing guiding them through all experience. If you go to the game Wikipedia it has tons of guides. Anyway, it was a great video and there is a lot to improve!

I love your reviews and your honesty! I know I can trust what you say because when something sucks or boring, you are telling us 100%

I can see Ultima Online players, myself included, drooling all over this game...

It really bugs me you compare this game to UO when you haven't actually played UO. Ten year UO vet here. I backed this game when it was Shards Online, and it wasn't then and still isn't anything near UO. Nothing can compare unfortunately.

I played UO 1997 to 2002. Dying, running back to spawn as a ghost and then trying to salvage the loot off your corpse is also something I recently re-discovered in "don't starve together" in endless mode. xD

Haven't seen a game like this in forever. It's definitely up my alley, though I'm sure the grindiness will cut into the fun.

You said it right at the very end of your video. "I'm clearly not in the target audience for this game". Before that you kept saying everything you hated and you said that being old school doesn't really result in the game being more fun. That's just it, it IS fun to a lot of people. It's totally subjective. I loved UO and I always wanted a game that was more modern-looking but had some of the elements of UO in it. That's why I started to write my own MMORPG around the same time Aria started. And, in my game, you can also lose all of your (uninsured) stuff from one death if you don't get back to your corpse and get it before another player does (or even a monster!) But your money does NOT drop, nor does it weigh anything. And, there are entire lands that are flagged for PVP. Don't get me wrong, I took some aspects from World of Warcraft-type that I liked too so it isn't as close to UO as Aria is. For example, the game IS LEVEL BASED and you DO KNOW what level enemies are. They will appear to you as a "skull" level if they're more than 10 levels higher.

You are from "Generation World of Warcraft" peon. You couldn't possibly understand tbh.. been spoon fed since infancy.

how hard can it be to make a tutorial that takes you through a little bit of each thing so you get an idea of what there is to do and what you might like

No quests!? Awesome! You've peeked my interest sir

To be fair - the game wasn’t near completion when this video was made. Pretty harsh criticism for an early access build

well this is a sandbox mmo, you need to get skill doing the job you want to get good...You lose stuff if you die so the pvp have real tension and you can make money...be a pk...apk stuff that doesn´t exist in todays mmo. The house in the game serve the purpose to show everyone what you are capable of...it´s IN THE GAME...for everyone to see, and you can put stuff or even heads in the floor to decorate. People today don´t like to earn the power in an mmo, they like to be a killing machine in the first hour with all the hand holding possible...

Peon are you going to review PoE betrayal ?

Looking forward to this, I still play Neverwinter Nights now and then.

its always fun seeing people try hardcore games like this and many others and end up going "nice, fun game" and quit

and this is the reason WoW ruined a whole generation for MMO players. Everything from UO to SWG was lost when the hand holding level system took over.

1 question. Can player trade beetwen each other??

After reading more on this game and doing some research I've come to a big conclusion that would help the game. It would be that when the community is asked, "What do I do in this game?" they shouldn't respond with "Whatever you want!" Instead players should ask, "What kind of things do you like to do?" and then tell new players to open the skills and look through the options. This game seems to have so much potential and be super interesting and if new players knew just to open up the skills list to get them moving in a direction it'd help a lot. I'm strongly considering buying this now.