Exploring Allods Online (Video + Commentary)

As promised, here is a video of Allods Online.  Yesterday I wrote a few quick impressions of the game and gave you guys a general overview of what it played like and what I thought about this F2P MMORPG.  Today, I give you a video showing my Gibberling (Gerbil guy) running around exploring the immediate area near Novograd (League’s Capital City).  You’ll get a tour of the capital, a couple fights to show you the Animist (Gibberling Warden), and a good sense of the world.  What you won’t get is an in-depth look at multiple classes, PvP, or the Empire side.  I have been dabbling briefly on the Empire side and they are quite different from League so I may take a video of that later.

Classes are also very different.  I’ve learned that my Warden, while fun, appears underdeveloped compared to several other classes.  Each other class that I have played has a class mechanic.  The paladin has a mechanic where he stacks seals on the enemy and then can use an ability to proc them all adding more damage.  The paladin also has a mechanic where damage counters are built up on him and they tick later, but according to the tooltip you can get rid of these damage counters using abilities.  Other classes have mechanics like the WoW Rogue or the WAR Brightwizard — stuff somewhat similar.

I’m hearing a lot of people comment that this appears to be a WoW clone.  If you consider themepark style games to be WoW clones, then you’re correct.  Allods Online shares many things with its cousins in the themepark genre.  It has traditional combat, levels, talents, questing, and those types of things.  But what sets it apart is its approach to PvP, the classes and their progression (talent trees mean more in Allods than in WoW, for example).  I do not think “WoW Clone” when I play — I think of it as a game that took a bunch of stuff from its predecessors and combined it for a similar, but new enough approach.  Perhaps a mutant instead of a clone.

My reservations about the game right now revolve around the cash shop, and how it will screw up the game, and whether or not the leveling will resemble anything grindy without providing fun content to mask it.  Since the level cap in beta is only level 10, I won’t be able to provide much more insight into the game.  Exploring  has revealed a lush and beautiful world ripe for exploration and adventure.  Youtube has provided a glimpse at the later content such as PvP in the Russian version and I highly recommend you check out those videos as well.

  • If you consider themepark style games to be WoW clones..

    Agreed. Allods seems to be a straight down the line race/class/level quest-grinding themepark, but I didn’t necessarily think it drew that much more from WoW than from a bunch of other games. The large number of fiddly-looking stats reminded me of LOTRO. The way you spent talent points to buy abilities actually reminded me of Diablo 2. If their original features like the ship-to-ship combat work well, this will be a very worthy entry into the F2P field.

  • Thanks for the video. I had yet to see the cities cause I’m trying out alot of classes to around level 5-6.

    I agree with your comparisons. I’ve played alot of games that felt like WoW as soon as I started. This wasn’t one of them.

  • After trying a few classes now, the big thing that seems to be off in Allods is combat. It seems completely irregular. I can fight two of the same level mob and one I will destroy, while the other one almost kills me. Dodge, Miss, etc. don’t seem to follow a regular pattern, and mobs of the same level can be wildly different in challenge rating. Combat also takes too long IMO, and I play Aion (for comparison).

    Overall, I think Allods has great art, a beautiful world, and a grand scope (the main city feels BIG). But the combat is far too clunky, and all over the place to make me want to play. I’d rather just run around and explore the world.

    Also, I found that the combat seemed to be a little light on sounds. And the music would only kick in once and a while. Was very jarring.

    Though Allods is the first f2p MMO I’ve ever tried, so maybe I’m just expecting too much. But even though it’s free, I doubt I’d play it.

  • @RevMrBlack

    The huge disparity in difficulty between different types of mob of the same level is actually a pre-WoW standard feature. In EQ and DAOC a big part of the gameplay consisted of learning which type of mobs you could take and which you should avoid. I’d consider this to be a major positive feature, personally, and if it turns out that the disparity is there by design then it’s another incentive for me to play Allods.

    Fortunately for my sanity, the EU closed beta seems to have stopped giving out keys for the moment, so I can go back to my plan of waiting for release.

  • Well in terms of the graphics, the interface and even the fonts it could not look any more like WoW – so this will continue to garner WoW-Clone comments.
    The Gerbil race is a very odd touch, almost anachronistic when set against the rest of races on offer there. They almost look like a cutesy / demographic-broadening afterthought. I have to say I’m intrigued by the fact you play a pack of 3 of them!

  • Great video. This will come in handy in hyping the game to some friends.

    Does anyone know what the dungeon situation is with Allods? Are there WoW-like dungeon instances? Are there a lot of dungeons, or is it like Warhammer/Aion?

  • Obviously no one knows what the rest of the game will be like since you can’t go past 10th level yet. That said, this is probably one of the best initial experiences I’ve ever seen in an MMO. It’s on par with WoW and even exceeds it to some degree.

    Polish: Unbelievable. The little details are amazing. The way it shifts from initial character selection portrait to your actual 3D character is pretty cool.

    Usability: It appears the usability of the various in-game interfaces looks pretty good, such as the auction house interface. Would you agree? Looks like they did a great job and you don’t have to think much, things just work the way you’d expect them to do so.

    Exploration: Oh my god! I’m a diehard explorer. Just watching you walk around the massive city and then seeing those mountains off in the distance near the video’s end gave me goosebumps. The world looks like it’s twice the size of WoW. Be nice if they incorporate rewards for exploring, other than just the typical achievements. One thing I always wanted was the ability to find an abandoned cave somewhere in the wilderness and be able to build it into your guild hall with a teleporter / portal to a set city of your choice.

  • BTW my only main concern is still the store. It seems like you can buy bags of gold which means you can then easily turn around and buy armor / weapons off the auction house. If this is the case, will we start seeing people selling armor on the auction house at absurd prices, in effect catering specifically just to gold buyers. Thus the best stuff on the auction house will be inaccessible to those who don’t buy gold, no matter how successful they are at crafting and selling things off the AH.

    To be honest, while those playing the PvE experience won’t have to worry much, it seems like those doing PvP will have to spend the cash to be on top of the hill with regards to gear, or they’ll be wasted in the process. How they balance this all out will be extremely important for the overall experience.

  • @Bhagpuss

    The variation in challenge rating between different types of same level mobs isn’t that big of a deal for me. It’s the seemingly completely random combat vs. two mobs of the same type and level. Combat should have some overall consistency, and not feel like I’m flipping a coin to see whether I live or die.

    After trying a few different classes, it still feels as if combat could use some work. Spell and ability effects are top notch, but the mechanics still feel clunky.

    My ideal item shop would have the ability to buy a character that could never level, pick up gear, buy/sell, etc. But that would never aggro mobs, etc., so I could just go out and explore the gameworld. Either that, or if someone would let me play their max level character so I could explore for a day or two.

    I <3 exploring.

  • Whoa, awesome video! Really enjoyed watching it. Thanks a ton 🙂

    I don’t mind it being a WoW clone so long as that’s what I know I’m getting. I actually think the take on races and classes looks really interesting, especially the gerbils, the Orcs and the Undead guys. They look very fun and innovative.

    Share your concerns about the cash shop… that sort of stuff always worries me.

  • Like some of the above commentors, exploring is a huge draw for me in a MMO. What I find surprising is that this F2P does what, IMO, no AAA MMO has done since WoW. It delievers a huge, non-instanced world that begs to be explored.

    I’m not a huge fan of the combat, mechanics are interesting but it just feels clunky. The cool thing is though, since its F2P, I can just log in anytime I want to do some exploring or mess around, without having to worry about sinking any money in it.

    On a final note, I am a huge fan of the graphics. I loved Nival’s work in Heroes of Might and Magic V, and I love it here as well. It does share WoW’s graphic style to a certain extent, but I find it superior in many ways. The spell effects are more detailed and the world just feels alive. I’ll definately be keeping this one installed when it releases.

  • Okay, something must have been bugged before, cause it seems that my Trickster character does a lot better in combat. And I’ve changed nothing. Instead of near dying some times, he kills most things almost before they get to him.

    I think a big problem with the game right now is that the character stats aren’t completely understood, and they’re not similar to other MMOs. Since they don’t level with you, you suddenly become weaker. Things like Intelligence boosting magic damage, but only around 0.16% per level, whereas Perception is far more important to keep spells from being resisted, and is around 2% per level. Most MMO players think boosting their magic damage (when playing a caster) makes sense. But in Allods, Perception is far more important.

    Giving Allods another looksee. Especially after exploring a bit, and forgetting that the zones are islands so I couldn’t get to the higher level areas to explore. Saw lots of Darkwater though. 🙂

  • Hey Keen,

    What times do you usually play, I’ve added you to my friends list on my main character but unfortunately I have yet to see you online. Toss me an email so we can hook up in game and shoot the breeze while exploring a bit.

    -Cheers

  • I think the game is great so far… I like scouts but my after recreating my scout 3 times, my scout was like twice as strong at level 5 as my first scout was. Combat may feel slow, but if you have a good build and if you do the right quests to get the right armor, it’s much faster and more fun. And about the cash shop, my brother did get a ‘curious chest’-drop from a low level monster, which containds an item shop item. So that’s a great thing, you can get all item shop items ingame if you’re a lucky 🙂 And I think that someone with a good build without item shop money armor will be a lot stronger than someone with a worse build and with item shop money armor…

  • I downloaded and just started tinkering. Looks promising so far…but, uh, is there any way to invert the mouse controls? Haven’t been able to find any info on this.

  • I play randomly. I was on for a couple hours yesterday in the evening.

    My Gibberling Animist is up to level 8 now. I have the rest exp “bug” where I Do not get more than 900 rest exp per level. Rest exp in the game supposedly works where you do quests and earn “rest” exp that you can then buy from an innkeeper. For most people, they earn 900, get it from the innkeeper, then can earn 900 more, and so on. For those who are bugged, like me, we earn 900 then we earn no more for that level. The result is a huuuge slow down in exp.

  • Man that actually doesnt look to shabby, no one can beat the king of wow clones, alganon though.

    Characters look cool as well.

  • I was interested when I saw some earlier videos, but didn’t realize it was going to be F2P at that time. I have my beta key and Dec 1st my closed beta access starts. Looking forward to it.

    Runes of Magic was a good try, but it eventually just made me want to go back and play WoW. Wondering what Allods will feel like and whether I will just want to go back to play WoW or not.

  • This is much better than Runes of Magic. Allods feels like vanilla WoW or what WoW felt like in the first few months of release.

  • I have a few keys to give out as well that I’ll post about on Monday.

    Since a bunch of people are playing, we should create a guild or something to test out those features.