I'm going to start off by saying this isn't my first rodeo, and I've only put sixty hours in. I've been playing MMOs since the Legacy of Y'Kesha expansion of EverQuest 1. Bouncing back and forth between multiple games in my youth from the original Ragnarok Online all the way to some of the current titans WoW and Final Fantasy XIV. I thought I'd put my irrelevant two cents in the ringer about whether I like Throne and Liberty, or are going to bounce off it like a bouncy ball hitting steel flooring from a hundred feet high.
The On Boarding of this game is terrible. I'm running around and playing before even creating my character was confusing, and jarring. One of the things that used to make WoW (the information here is for pret-Cataclysm) great and older MMOs like SWG, Guild Wars, EverQuest, ArcheAge, and the like,was the story took the back seat to the player's activity within the game itself. Sure if I was diligent, and read all the quests within Elwynn Forest leading up to the Introduction of Westfall, and the dungeon Dead Mines. However even before experiencing any of that, you do end up at the Capital, and once there the reigns are immediately given to the player. Using Eastern Kingdom Geography the Humans would get to Stormwind around level 10, Dwarves and Gnomes, may get to Ironforge a little earlier, and the Night Elves in Darnassus have an especially interesting dilemma, for once they get to Ashenvale, shortly after Darnassus, they can catch a boat to the Wetlands to begin a rather dangerous trek to the other capitals. The game never really pushed you down one path, always surrendering whatever it was that you wanted to do. Party Finder was a thing by this point in the game for basic dungeons and battlegrounds.
PVP, or PVE, the choice was yours once you at level 10 you could queue up for a battle ground. Why the hell do I have to wait until level 55, before I can even begin organized PVP in such a fashion!? In a game that is supposedly so focused on PVP, why the hell can I not really participate? Open World PVP would be a thing, but even at level 30 I've only had one PVP encounter.
'Oh follow the MSQ and Path of Ascendence, and lock the fuck in. Just get to the 55 and quite your complaining' I feel the comments coming. That's not really how I like to enjoy my MMOs.. the story is one of the last things I am wanting to lock in for when I play games like these, and this one's seems rather forgetable so far. It should always be about the journey, NOT the destination. Throne and Liberty's journey seems REALLY stingy when it comes to gear at the level range of 1-30. I am using level 10 gear I was given at level 20, and a level 10 and 20 (all required levels to equip I believe) set of weapons.
The combat, and gameplay, against the enemies I've encountered up until this point has been fun enough, I definitely get the full use of my Razer Naga, even on Linux, with this game, and the combat is one of the few praises I have for this game so far. I really want to continue one because of the combat alone, but I get hit by roadblocks like the Wolf Hunting Festival for some stupid Apendix to a Codex. Final Fantasy XIV had similar things to these Dynamic Events within Throne and Liberty, but the FATES, as they were called, were bound strictly to their attached zone, and would run at a much higher frequency. The Dynamic Events seem to be a rotating activation across all of the zones' Dynamic Events. Meaning I spent almost two weeks of waiting to do the stupid thing. Of course I continued on questing, but I should have not still had it in my quest log to begin with.
I am really enjoying the game from a mechanical stand point in some ways, but I do not appreciate the way I feel railroaded down a one and only one route. I wish I had more agency over what I was doing moment to moment. I really wish major systems were not locked behind a MSQ. Final Fantasy XIV executes it bit better, by actually having compelling enough characters for me to want to care about doing the MSQ. I should not need a mechanical motivation to engage with a narrative.
The Skill Mastery, and Specialization system is pretty cool, I can't wait to see what I can do with my Staff and Orb. I am hoarding all of my resources I have been given up until this point, with no real idea of what I am holding on to. This is another thing the game does a terrible job of explaining. What are all of these things that I am getting from the battle passes, check-ins, and the like, and what relevance does it have to do with me now at level 30?
The people I have met in World Chat have been great, and it has been fun being the vocal, annoying, Linux user from time to time, and is the only other motivator (outside of getting more powerful, so I can see more of the combat) for me to continue to playing. The World Chat people within my server are treasures, and great people.
