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.