Tag Archives: alpha

video game reviews

Is Cycles of Aylorea Worth the Alpha Price?

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I was sent free early Alpha access to Cycles of Aylorea to review for my blog. While I am very grateful for the opportunity, I won’t let it sway my opinions. This will be my honest review.

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What is Cycles of Aylorea?

Cycles of Aylorea is an open world survival MMO with the goal of player driven content.

You wake up in a strange world with the clothes on your back and a desire to survive. Use the resources available to you to build your arsenal, construct your home, and survive the ever changing landscape. Team up with other players to build vibrant cities, forge alliance, and fight off anyone who gets in your way. Will Cycles of Aylorea be the sandbox playground we’ve been waiting for?

Gameplay

The alpha features the traditional Survival MMO experience where players attempt to get their foothold in Aylorea while defending against the elements and other players. The Alpha features always on PVP where players can loot the corpses of the dead. But those players who can survive this unforgiving world or make strong alliances can build bases or take up a profession. Future patches will expand the gameplay to allow players to form cities, and create contracts, and there will be a few PVE events to keep things spicy.

Review

I know Cycles of Aylorea is still in its alpha, but I fear this project may be a bit too ambitious. None of what I got to try in the alpha made me want more.

The game kept crashing on character creation whenever I changed hair color. Aside from the hairstyle, none of the other features did anything. I don’t care too much about character creation, so I am willing to overlook this issue. I then proceeded to spawn inside a mountain. I was able to get out, but it is emblematic of the rest of the experience.

I understand the animations are not ready yet, but they are wonky and offputting. I was also moving through trees and other solid objects during farming or when I was trying to run away. Again, I am willing to forgive some level of polish since the game is still in its infancy.

What is harder to forgive is the lack of novelty. Cycles of Aylorea doesn’t do enough different, at least not enough to be worth the $45 alpha key. Combat feels stiff and boring, farming and crafting feel like the same chore it does in other survival games, and there was never anyone around for PVP. Playing at the odd hours I do meant that I was playing solo, and the solo experience is boring. Maybe with a few more patches and features this game will be interesting, but it isn’t really worth playing it over any of the other survival games out there.

If you don’t mind the bugs and want to help make Cycles of Aylorea a better game, go pick it up using my reference code. I’d recommend trying it with friends so you have something to do, otherwise I wouldn’t bother. Nothing about this game excites me for a better version, but I am willing to give it another chance after a few major updates.

video game reviews

Game Preview: Project F4E Beta

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All images are from the screenshots I was able to recover after my hard drive died

I got to play the beta for Project F4E this weekend, and I thought I’d share my experience. While it is too early to form a proper critique of the game, the beta offered a taste of what the full game has in store. Because the game is still in an early alpha build, I will not speak on the crashes and bugs I encountered.

Project F4E is a MOBA with some RPG elements to it. The objective is simple, kill the world bosses before the timer runs out. You are one of three players who roam a large open map, searching for bosses to kill. You can build some towers, or animate and power up large statues that will help you with the mobs and bosses. Although there is a direct path to take to the bosses, the world is pretty open. You can clear the mobs in any order, but be mindful of the ever-ticking timer. 

The beta had four different champions to choose from: a tank, support, a ranger, and a healer. You start with a basic ability, and game stats and abilities as you level. At each level, you get a choice from the cards you draw from this deck. Each level offers you two cards to choose from. This mechanic offers some variety in the gameplay because it is unlikely you will pull the same set of cards twice. I enjoyed the randomness this brings to the game, but I can see it becoming unfairly broken. I can only hope that they can make the champions balanced. 

You get rewarded for completing matches and quests, and bonuses for winning. The in-game currency is used to power up your abilities. Leveling up your abilities gives them permanent buffs. As you level your champion, you gain new abilities and boosts that you can use to change up your deck. As is the tradition in MMOs, there is also loot to be had. Matches and quests drop items that boost your character’s stats. 

So what did I think of Project F4e? It was fun once I got the hang of it, but the gameplay got stale pretty quickly. Although I always had a different deck, the game felt the same each time. Matches were either a slow-moving escort mission to the world bosses, or they were an aimless and frustrating walk about. 

The combat was ok, but it was stiff and slow. Most of the time I spent waiting for cooldowns or dying because the level-up menu would pop up at the worst times. The mobs in this game all felt the same regardless of what biome we ended up in. It got stale and repetitive pretty quickly despite having a random element.

This is a Moba, and strong communication and coordination are important. I lost a lot of games because we couldn’t coordinate correctly or someone wanted to solo everything. F4E at the very least offers a true MOBA experience. The gameplay is a bit repetitive, but it is too early for it to be absolute.

If you like MOBA’s but need a break from the toxic ones, you should at least keep F4E on your radar. You can find out more about the game on their official website. Don’t forget to sign up for their future betas.