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Horizons: Review @ Just RPG
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Dhruin
Stranger In A Strange Land
Stranger In A Strange Land




Joined: 20 May 2002
Posts: 1825
Location: Sydney, Australia
Horizons: Review @ Just RPG
   

A glowing <a href="http://www.just-rpg.com/default.asp?pid=963" target="_blank">review</a> of Horizons can be found at Just RPG, with a score of 86%. Here's the intro:<blockquote><em>Welcome to Istaria! Welcome to a world where a select few are somehow not affected by death like the rest of us. Those inhabitants, known as the “gifted”, have been asked to take part in a great undertaking: the defense of Istaria against the invading hordes of Withered Aegis, bent on making it not such a nice place to live in. <br></em></blockquote>
Post Fri Mar 12, 2004 6:44 pm
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I am sick and tired by official lies about this mediocre amateurish game. Here is a fair analysis of the game from the boards at tazoon.com which make nice counterstrike:

Where Have All The Fanboi's Gone?"

I always said Horizons was only fun for a few weeks; and then the
fundamental emptiness of the game would become apparent.
This has totally been proved out; except for the remaining few who
it still appeals to. Anyways, I'm going to paste an excellent post from
the official boards which describes the state of the game very well:

(by Klaus69)

Horizons, in EVERY aspect is a "kiddie" verson of the real thing. Now, granted when designing and making a fantasy based MMORPG that there will be alot of thing in common with the others... swords, armor, magic, elves, dwarves, cities, crafting, adventuring, housing....etc.

UO has it all, buts it is a 2D world, Everquest is HUGE, massive content and well rounded, but it has "zones". AC is more open and has a different play style... but the game is stagnant because of no expansion packs. DAOC is great offers what all they offer, but the end game cetners around realm wars instead of "dungeon crawls" so in a sense, it is limited in what you can do once you've maxed lvl's.

But all of these are VASTLy superior to Horizons.

-1st
lets look t the actual world you play in; Istaria. The world is smaller than what can be found in other MMORPG's. Even though the Dev's did a good job of "tucking" towns around a mountain range to make the world seem bigger... but without falling dmg, you can simple climb a mountain and fall down the other side to get to the next city than follow the road.

Graphic will be different no matter what game you play, but design and implamentation is what really shines in a world. Horizons geography is all rolling hills & mountains. EXTREMELY limited creativity went into making they layout of Istaria. If you have a lighthouse and a port town, then where are the ships sitting in harbour ..? You have inland lakes but where are the streams and rivers... or water falls ...?

-3rd
You have to look at the Graphic renderer and/or the physical world. How your avatar interacts and moves throught the world. You can build a landmass with Bryce or any renderer, but to make a game you need to interacts with the world. In Istaria, you character cannot Open doors, swim, ride a horse, levitate, turn invisible, Fly, morph, climb a ladder..etc. The game limits the possabilities from day 1. There is just too many other MMORPG's out there that offer more, for AE to release one with less.

-4th
LAG, most games will get "laggy" when there is considerable amount of PC's in a given area, such as EQ bazaar when there can easily be 400-500 people in a small area on a heavy night.. or on a Relic raod in DAOC when you have 3 guilds 200+ people running threw the frontier.. yes you will get lag or "jitter". But in Horizons most manage to get "jitter" when standing all by themselfs. This problem was previlent in Beta and it is prevelent 7 months later. Yet, AE has to run a POLL, to understand why the lost (approx)30,000 customers.

-5th
Content, Horizons as it stand now would be in good shape if this was phase3 or 4 of Beta. But, the game is so barrien and the lack of fauna and imursion is sickening. Some people would argue otherwise but take this little tid-bit of info with you. Everquest in March of 1999 had 15x more veriety of MOBs than Horizons has now. There are exactly 11 more mob types in East Commons (1 zone in EQ) than there are in ALL of Horizons.
AE skimped on development and creativity. There are no rats in the cities, no dogs or cats.

-6th
Reason. There is no reason to play Horizons. In UO you adventurered to become stronger to become richer to buy a house. Then you did it all over again to buy a Castle... then lastly you did it again to purchase a KEEP. Along the way you made or impressed friends... gave house keys to them and formed a kinship or guilds. In DAOC and AC... you do the same.
In EQ you band together to achaive something you cannot do alone. SPending 6 hours deep in a dungeon and finally reaching the DRAGON. And when the battle was over you either lost but learned, or someone in your guild got a shiny new magical breastplate. Perhaps the only one to wear it on the server for months to come. Because once a dragon was dead... it tooks month for him to respawn.

Reason.. lvl 100 Dragon that cannot fly, cannot build a lair and cannot have a horde..?

Reason... lvl 100 Mage that cannot fly, cannot mount bazaaire creature heads in his house as trophy's, cannot invite friends into his house, cannot be sought out to use his magic to imbue special properties into items and cannot take his mastery of his arts and do anything different than the next mage.

Horizons has no reason for YOUR character to exsist. Yet, there are the Withered Aegis. The ONLY foe for us to battle. There is no Goblins, Morvalts, Aviaks, Ents, Bandits, Ginats, Cyclopses or any other sentient race that walk about Istaria.

There is no reason to become all you can be... no competition amongs the other players to be the best... and absolutly no way to prove it otherwize... since you cannot /duel each other.

-7th
2004, this game was released 3-5 years after other major MMORPG's yet this game doesnt offer a pittance of what the other do.

Why design a game, and bring it to the market with intent on offering considerable LESS if you are not going to charge less..?

PC gamers 44% is generious IMo, this game is a solid 30% in my book.


for $12/month ALOT more can be had for you money. ANd as AE polls show, most the people who played and are playing HZ are newbies to the MMORPG areana... and are un-aware of the superior products that are out there.
Post Fri Mar 12, 2004 6:48 pm
 
Ammon777
Warrior for Heaven
Warrior for Heaven




Joined: 20 Apr 2002
Posts: 2011
Location: United States
   

Horizons is the disease, Darkfall is the cure.
Post Fri Mar 12, 2004 10:04 pm
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