PvP only really becomes a serious possibility with characters above and beyond Level 30, so my brief forays into PvP with characters I’d only managed to get up into the mid-teens ended in swift and ignominious death… Anecdotally, from speaking with other Beta testers, the game apparently does get better the further you climb the level ladder, yet this simply highlights questions about the game’s structure.
Regrettably, with the Beta test period now drawing to a close, I have been unable to see whether this theory does work in practice. This is clearly intended to promote team play in the PvP conflicts, so that the best co-ordinated faction, rather than the best equipped, gains control of the mine. This naturally has long-term implications if any particular faction is able to maintain control over the mine for an extended period of time, as the resources they gain from having exclusive access to the mine will make it all the more difficult for the opposing factions to wrestle control away from the initial victors. The hook is that this arena is actually a resource-rich mine, the control of which allows the victorious faction to gain access to otherwise unavailable materials that can be used to create powerful upgrades for players’ weapons and armour. Having three competing factions in the game is intended to provide a more dynamic and varied PvP environment, with the majority of PvP battles taking place at set times in a fixed arena (much like World of Warcraft’s Battlegrounds), with the winning faction assuming control of the arena until the next PvP contest is due to take place. RF Online (RF standing for ‘Rising Force’, incidentally), similar to the previously previewed Auto Assault, is a PvP-based MMORPG. Can our candidate game stand up to the pressure as you pick through its CV and you start to ask those difficult, probing questions about its experience and gameplay? Is this the game you’re looking for? Now, however, comes the really hard part. Each player faction has its own distinct style: The mystical Cora have an almost classical D&D elf-like aura the Bellato Union have a more masculine feel than the Cora, thanks to their affinity with high technology, including Gundam-style mechs whilst the Accretian Empire have the clinical, ruthless lines and sharp colours that you’d expect from a race of robotic Terminator-a-likes.įirst impressions, then, are promising. The character models have a refreshingly high polycount for an MMORPG, and though textures aren’t quite as vivid or varied as they might be, the game as a whole has a glossy, coherent look and feel. It’s hard to find fault with the presentation.
RF Online, thankfully, at least turns up for the show without a hair out of place and with breath as fresh and minty as the breeze through a Polo factory.
Turn up with your tie askew, your teeth and hair unbrushed, and with your breath smelling like a dragon’s after three courses of sautéed troll, and you can expect a frosty reception. So, with game previews, like any job interview, it’ll be the first impressions that invariably make up to 90% of the decision of how favourable the outcome will be. “ So, Mr Online (may I call you R.F.?), what do you think you can bring to this role?“ Previewing a videogame is a little bit like being on the review panel at a job interview:
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