Review: Shroud of the Avatar: Forsaken Virtues (Steam)
Shroud of the Avatar: Forsaken Virtues is a multiplayer fantasy RPG and the spiritual successor to Richard Garriott’s wildly successful Ultima and Ultima Online games.
Pros:
- Ok graphics.
- 8400MB Download size.
- Steam achievements.
- Graphics options- Fullscreen, AA, Depth of field, Cloth simulation.
- Online/offline worlds.
- Matchmaking- Open, Party or private.
- Opening tutorial section with pop ups later on.
- Deep charcter creator.
- Can customise the UI.
- Keybinding is possible.
- Decent soundtrack.
- Frequent events and double EXP activities.
- RPG gameplay.
- A spiritual successor to the Ultima games.
- Trading cards.
- All the features of an MMO without a subscription.
- New content released monthly.
- Buy land and houses to store your goods.
- Classless player where you can create your own class as it were and tweak away.
- IAP are tradable.
- Has PVP combat.
- Full deep crafting table.
- Plenty of loot.
- Huge world full of many varied biomes and worlds.
- A wide variety of enemies/creatures.
- Very old school feel in its approach and appearance.
- lots of sidequests and a management system in place.
- Easy enough to get into and play.
Cons:
- Huge frequent updates which are always a few gigs at least.
- Long loading times.
- Clipping issues.
- Combat is clumsy and not that fun.
- Stops responding issues.
- Feels like a game still in development.
- Huge learning curve.
- Housing is very costly and takes a long time to actually buy.
- The slowdown in built-up areas.
- Small online numbers.
- Little voice acting.
- Easy to rack up 100s of sidequests.
- In-app purchases.
- Steam actually patches the game slower than the standalone client.
- A lot of ugly textures.
The Numbers:
- Graphics - 7/107/10
- Sound - 7/107/10
- Accessability - 6/106/10
- Length - 7/107/10
- Fun Factor - 7/107/10
Summary
Ok so I went in expecting a nice RPG game that stinks or retro goodness, What I got were a game that felt unfinished, A lot of ugly textures and eye aching pop-ups. Not to mention every few days I get a few gigs to update the game, It really began to irk. Anyway, I found Avatar to be old feeling in its approach but more antique than retro and more obtuse than open. You can get a lot of hours out of this game as they do nail the MMO feel and content, whether that’s a good thing or not is up to you. In short, its has many flaws but it could at any point break into a must own title. Best to wait for now.
