Darkfall Online

[Glynbeard]

Darkfall is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game that takes place in the ancient and mystical lands of Agon. It is known mostly for its unrestricted PvP, and a player skill dependent combat system free of the class and level systems that typify most MMORPGs. Its unique game play that mixes the style of a FPS game and a MMORPG bring many changes to the way we are used to playing. Follow me into the depths of a world of magic, mischief, and mayhem and decide if it is the right game for you.





Game: Darkfall (or Darkfall Online)
Genre: Fantasy
Developer: Aventurine





Here is a little bit of the story behind Darkfall. If you're not interested in lore etc. please jump down to System Requirements.

The interesting thing about Darkfall is its lack of lore. Only the most basic lore behind races and the actual world of Agon has been created. Some people (like myself) consider this a downfall, due to lore being able to add a special aspect to the games augmented reality that would otherwise be unreachable. To sum up the lore that is availeble though:

The world of Agon has fallen into battle, you must bind your allegiance with one of the 6 major races.

- Alfar (or Dark Elves) of Nagast

- Dwarves of Dvergheim
- Humans of Mercia
- Mirdain (or forest elves) of Mirendil

- Mahirim of the Tribelands
- Orks of Morak



Each race is colour coated to match their allies. As you can see, the Alfar are a lone race with no alliances with any other fractions. Together you battle to take control of hamlets and villages scattered all throughout the land.





Operating System:
Windows XP / Windows Vista (with latest Service Packs)

Processor:
Minimum: 2.5 GHz P4 processor or equivalent
Recommended: 3ghz Dual core processor or more. 2.5ghz quad or more.

Memory:
Minimum: 1 GB RAM (2GB for Vista users)
Recommended: 2 GB RAM (2 GB for Vista X32 4GB for X64 )

Video:
Minimum: Nvidea Gforce 6 Series or Radeon X700 or equivalent
Recommended: Nvidea GForce 8800 or ATI HD 3800 or equivalent

Darkfall is also Windows 7 compatible.





Operating System:
Mac OS X 10.4.11 or newer

Processor:
Minimum: PowerPC G5 1.6 GHz or Intel Core Duo processor
Recommended: Intel 1.8GHz processor or better

Memory:
Minimum: 1 GB RAM
Recommended: 2 GB RAM

(Mac information taken elsewhere as I do not have a Mac or any knowledge behind their components)





From my experience of playing Darkfall, I don’t overly enjoy the graphic content. It can be very bland and choppy/jerky in areas like character animation or even quality of houses/buildings. But, this makes sense when you think about what will be going on in these environments:

- 100 vs. 100 player battles

- No zoning (like World of Warcraft, this game is a seamless world with no zoning except for instances)

I would like to express my love for most of the outdoor environments, sky/clouds, and dynamic shadows though. These are all very well done and add a special feel to the game that is hard to find elsewhere. To add onto my last thought, I would like to mention the weather effects are also very well done, wind and rain is very realistic and they have put in a lot of work to get it to where it is now.

Don’t watch a single Youtube video and declare it unworthy of your time. You have to try it yourself on your OWN computer, because many of the popular Darkfall videos are recorded at a low-resolution on medium quality settings. I hate to refer to this saying, but don’t judge a book by its cover! Or in this case a game by it’s so called Youtube graphics.

I would also like to point out that Aventurine has expressed comments concerning the state of graphic quality and intend to work on new options that will increase the quality of game play without harming any of the other areas they worked hard to preserve.

All in all, the graphics aren’t amazing, but they fit their purpose of allowing things like massive battles and no zoning.





This is what first attracted me to the game! The audio in Darkfall is amazing, but not for the reasons you would initially think. To attract people to world PvP they added a nice game mechanic of listening for other players.

This means when you are out searching for your next battle, crank up your speakers and listen. While players mine for rock or chop away at trees for wood, they emit a very distinct sound that might attract a blood thirsty enemy. The range of this sound is fairly large and allows you to hone in on the source by getting louder of softer.

Take a listen: Click

I personally find that there is nothing more fun than going into the wilderness and hearing someone chopping at a tree, because I know that if I find them before they are finished, they are dead meat.

If we look at the games music, I wouldn’t rate it amazing (it certainly does not have the same quality that WoW does), but it is there in the background. Battle sounds, running or swimming and interacting with NPC’s are also apparent, but nothing overly special.

I think that their addition of the audio radar is an amazing quality and I’m surprised other large MMORPGs have not picked up on this idea yet.





One interesting way Darkfall has appealed to many is it’s innovate ideas in gameplay. Instead of a leveling system that most MMORPG use, it runs completely on a skill based system. This means instead of gaining exp when you kill a mob you gain skill points.

The neat thing about this is that there are hundreds of areas to level your skills in and hundreds more in subareas like specific spells or weapon masteries. I have been leveling my Mana Missile lately which is a very basic Lesser Magic spell and when I cast it and it hits an enemy it increases in skill (you increase largely at first and it gets slower the higher it gets). By leveling my Mana Missile I am also leveling my Lesser Magic, which allows me to learn new magic spells or even upgrade to a higher pool of magic like Greater Magic.

My favorite part of this skill system is that they increase without you even intentionally trying to make them increase sometimes.

For instance, your run and sprint will be used to get you around and the more you use it the higher the skill becomes (eventually all skills cap at 100). It’s a fairly simple concept; the higher they get the stronger you become.

Another interesting mechanic that Aventurine has added to the game is the ability to purchase houses. Instead of that 2 room apartment you may be living in now, you can buy a grand mansion on a cliffside overlooking the ocean. They have very practical uses too, trading through windows is a much safer way to do business with less than trustworthy members of society. Also holding meetings or gatherings with your clan can be done here if they do not own your own residence.

In addition to owning houses you can also take control of villages. The Village System introduces many dynamic small scale PvP hotspots that clans can compete to control. The individual house ownership doesn't actually change but the village itself generates tax for its owner. Holding one or more villages generates direct gold income, potentially earning your clan thousands of gold every hour. Four times a day all villages go vulnerable during which time they can either be reclaimed by their owner or taken over by another clan. Every six hours Darkfall turns into a no-holds barred deathmatch for control over villages and their taxes.

But really, overall this game is dedicated and built around PvP. The ability to fight with other people and steal their loot is a great and terrible idea at the same time. It makes you question what you should carry with you and requires stops at the bank every 10 minutes. But it does allow players to quickly obtain valuables or gold with a quick swipe of their sword and gives the game a realistic touch by allowing you to take whatever the person has on them (this also applies to mobs, if the creature is seen carrying a sword, shield and bow, they will drop all 3 when killed).

The actual battles between people can be very annoying and difficult as they are sprinting around, and even hitting them can be a challenge of its own. I have only been able to do a complete battle between 3 or 4 people, the rest run off and it becomes as difficult as shooting a single pixel on your screen.














One of the things I would like to mention before I finish up my conclusion is that Aventurine had one of the worst game launches in history which really dislodges your trust and hope for an aspiring company.

Anyways, overall the game is okay and is a nice alternative to the other big name games that are out there. It has its major downfalls and I wouldn’t call it ‘jump out of your chair and run to your closest Gamestop good’, but it is definitely something that I could see myself still playing in the coming months.

I am Qhan and I play Darkfall Online.

[henkzen]

ok after reading this, i want to play it even more!

Good job!

[Glynbeard]

ok after reading this, i want to play it even more!

Good job!

Thanks

Yea tbh, I ran out of time last week and while posting it, I wanted to go and buy a couple months to keep playing haha.

[Deadly Tomato]

You got some good pictures. I kind of want to play it now aye.