Our Beta preview is finally here, I decided to delay my review and play more before writing as to be fair to the games development team. Here it is, but do keep in mind this game is in closed beta and has its share of bugs and issues which hopefully will be worked out for final launch. And with that stated I begin my preview.
*Note: This game is in beta this is a beta preview, our thoughts and opinions are just that, they are our thoughts and opinions. And the game is subject to change, we will re-review when the final product is released.
Graphics: Very nice graphics, I love the art style and I love the character design. The engine runs smooth, I have my graphics maxed out and at 1900×1200 my system averages 112 FPS, granted I have a high end PC with expensive parts. The game is gorgeous I love the environments and the Mobs. I have not tested the 3D, but I have tested this game on few different PC’s and the game seems to run good even on older hardware say 3-4 years old now. Overall I am very happy with Rusty Hearts in the visuals department.
Sound: The sound track is very nice, and seems to fit the tone of the game well. Sound effects are awesome and the surround sound works well. Though the game is lacking in voice acting, I really would love to hear more from the characters in both cut scenes, and game play.
Controls: I’m happy with the Xbox 360 controller; I tried playing without it and found myself getting frustrated. I like the fact that you can re-map the keyboard and mouse settings, but I’m disappointed in the fact that you can’t re-map an external gamepad or controller through settings. My biggest complaint in the control department is that the instructions are poorly translated and very buggy at times. I go to use a spell every once and a while it flat out does not work. Also I should note that moving with the arrow keys is horrible, and has a delay with animation. The controller also suffers the delay issue but is bearable to control. The mouse click to move method is the best if you’re looking for no delay animation and accuracy. I would say there are a few things that need to be cleaned up before launch day, overall controls are okay, but not great.
Interface: I enjoy the interface, its easy to use, fast, and simple. All the keys have been mapped mostly logical, and the layout is very World of Warcraft like. The menus and sub menus are simple to use and the gear tool tips and comparisons are automatic and very nice. I like the stats page and the bag system so far, though I don’t like the weight system, I prefer slots and just slots. The chat system sucks, I wish I could adjust the font, size, and color of the text. Also the chat window system for party works sometimes and other times it glitches out and misses messages. Error messages are not translated yet, but I figure that’s being worked on.
Skills: So far from what I’ve seen the skills and builds are very linear and for the most part straight forward. It is very hard for me to say where it’s going and explain every possible outcome, but I thought I should mention it and that “it” is the point system. So you get skills from drops, potions, and skill points which you earn from killing mobs, completing quests and leveling. Nothing special but skills get much better from level 10 and up.
Game Play: So far the hacking and slashing has been fantastic. Generating huge
combos with attacks and magic is endlessly fun and oh so rewarding. You get quests along the way for speed runs, combo kills, farming, and destruction. The boss fights are epic, the story engages and changes them, and they never get old. You also get to rescue, and discover as you go with quests. As you progress through the main campaign the dungeons get bigger and meaner, and when you complete quests the mobs change, new halls open, new mobs pop up and boss fights even change.
You have several levels of difficulty to chose from, but you must unlock the higher difficulties by meeting battle result requirements, say to unlock hard mode you must complete a normal run with an “S” rank or above or you must complete “Some Quest” before you can take on the harder mode. And in some cases you must complete a very hard dungeon by yourself in under a set time to unlock the next difficulty, taking this idea further there is a mode labeled blood mode. Blood mode is like hell mode, it hurts you plenty and then some; Not only do you have to unlock it, you must meet gear requirements and in some cases group requirements.
Speaking of Leveling, this game has a decent amount of grind to it, but nothing like say Linage 2 or Aion. The game will get grindier as you level, but so far I have not noticed any grind that was too much for too long. So if you’re looking for a fun free pickup and put down game, so far this has been a good title, if you can put it down. Speaking of putting it down, I ran out of a stat in game known as stamina. Hardcore players hate this system, but it has been put in place to protect the gamer from hurting themselves or those around them. Marathon gaming and gold farming are a major problem in Korea and China, the Stamina system works to help prevent people from killing themselves while playing, or trying to make money with the game through RMT or real money trading. And this is how it works, you are issued 1000 stamina points and every time you go into a dungeon you lose a certain amount based on the time it takes you to clear the dungeon, most take between 20-50 points from what I’ve seen so far. You get the points back while logged off, like a cool down system. I’m not sure the rate of regeneration yet, and I’m sure it will be changed, but many players are complaining about it and I hit the wall as well and I’m not happy with it either. Game play has been enjoyable so far, and grouping is easy.
The world and the town you start in are beautiful and played out in a sensible and logical way. All the shops and quest givers are found on your map and once you figure out where everything is it becomes natural. You will need to get it down because you will be traveling it a lot.
Crafting: This game has a huge crafting system including: Food, potions, weapons, armor, cloths, items, costumes, and more. And within the crafting system there are subsystems and class specific crafting as well. I love the crafting system so far, I really need to level more to learn more and find more.
Enchanting: The system is great, you can socket an item, increase the items stats with (+1) system through the blacksmith and you can also use stones to add more stats through your inventory system. So not only can you increase the stats twice but you can also add with sockets and disenchant. The breaking down of items is key to building new items through crafting, you can break down your old gear and sometimes get back gems and other items that were attached to the item you’re breaking down, and it’s by chance though. RNG or random number generation is the method for luck when it comes to enchanting and socketing, I’ve been very lucky so far.
Group Note: This game is very group oriented, though you can solo almost anything with the skills and gear, but you will hit the wall around level 14 and will be forced to group for a few quests.
Story: I have to say I’m very happy with the story so far, not the most original but very good so far. The quests and the overall story work well together. Side quests are plentiful and are tied into the dungeon you’re running mostly based on level in the beginning, so it makes no sense to skip any quests. Do yourself and favor and pay attention you might like what you see and read. But even if you don’t read the game has a nice flow and you can progress blindly if you want.
PvP: I really don’t care for it, and either do my friends, we have won and lost a fair amount of fights but It gets boring very fast, and the lack of variety in the combat in the pvp arena is astonishing. Most fights go like this: Knock down, hit, hit, hit, Knock down, hit hit hit, knock down, dead. You don’t even get a chance to fight, you can’t heal, and speed is king. If you can land the first blows you stand the most chance of winning. Blocking and strategy seems to get you nowhere, and losing over and over again is very discouraging. Winning feels like meh. Yay I killed some under geared under leveled newbie, who was unfortunately paired to fight me, 6 levels lower than me, yay me! I honestly think the pvp in Rusty Hearts is among the worst I’ve ever played, along the lines of when Phantasy Star Online tried PvP for about a month then removed it because it could never be balanced. I think with balance and better matching that Rusty Hearts could get better but it has major issues tackle before I look at it again. Pass on the PvP it’s a waste of time.
The pay shop: So far I have not seen any pay to win items yet, though I have seen experience boosters, and luck boosters and better potions. You can buy costumes and more space for items, you can also buy an expanded chat window that allows global. So far I’m happy with the shop system my only gripe is some items are not translated yet and they are currently not selling some costumes in group or set style.
Pros: Plenty to do, pleasing to the eyes, free to play, solid action and great group play. A solid story, a fun and moving flow and a crafting system to please the item crazy in all of us and it just gets better as you go. If you read this review and you did, most of it was pro 🙂
Cons & Issues: This game is not fully translated yet; some quests and many of the errors are still Korean and this has led to some interesting and time consuming problems. The Xtrap player anti-cheat system is a minus for some, those who can’t stand system process scanners will have a fit with this. The updater is very buggy, never patch if you don’t have to. On several occasions the game was completely broken by a patch, and yet the game servers were fully online with players playing. The fix for this was to uninstall the game and start fresh, but to skip patching. A version checker would have been a nice add on, and also using some common sense with software rollout protocol. Maybe more complete testing before pushing out a major patch is a good idea. Following standards like Blizzards approach is also a good idea for example: Bringing down the servers, update, mass patching and then allow users back on. Funny bugs such as; The game launcher creates a new icon on your desktop every time you start the game, and the out of game settings exe does not work correctly. Pvp is poor at best, my experience has been bad overall with pvp. Certain pay items will lead to major player advantages in the long run, and lack of inventory space has become painfully apparent, forcing the player to buy more slots. The Lack of voice acting and music that gets old after a while in a grind leads me to turn off the music and switch over to my Mp3 collection. Controls can be funky to learn and can be no responsive at times, a game pad is highly recommended, and again due to funky layout can be hard to learn.
Overall: I can recommend this game, it is fun, it is free, and the PVE is great. The story is fun, the grouping is excellent, and the item system is huge and fantastic. The graphics and sound are solid, and the in game experience is good overall.
Final Thoughts: Don’t get me wrong there is a whole lot to love about Rusty Hearts, and overall I’m enjoying the game and can easily recommend it to others. Many of my gripes will be fixed in time through patches, I have not reached anywhere near end game yet and content is plenty full. This game is a great value and has filled the void in which Final Fantasy 14 failed to fill. Gripes aside I could play this game every day if given the time I probably would, and if you’re looking for something fun to do until Diablo 3 comes out, well you can’t go wrong with Rusty Hearts.
Learn More about Rusty Hearts HERE
Beta Keys are still floating around if you want in, just check around. Start HERE
A good Video with GamePlay Info
Also to note as a bit of minus to the game:
1) The game launcher installs to C:WindyZone and also creates the folder C:Down which is empty
>> I don’t know about everyone else, but installing right on my C drive is a big no no, much less not having any option to customize the install location.
2) The patcher system and possibly the game executable itself are packed with an encrypting compressor called Themida from Oreans Technologies. Due to the fact that the code is encrypted and unreadable virus scanners cannot scan the code hiding inside. Several virus/trojan/malware/etc developers use encrypting compressors like Themida to circumvent real time virus scanning for deployment and distribution. As a result many virus scanners may block the execution of the game and/or launcher due to heuristics noticing an encrypted executable. ESET is one of such scanners as it blocked the launcher on several occasions. While this is of course a false positive it still is rather annoying. I understand that several of these issues stem from the protection schemes that must be implemented in Korea/China, but sometimes it just goes a bit too far. Some people complain about “just” Punkbuster, but this a few levels ahead.