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80

Generally favorable reviews - based on 11 Critic Reviews What's this?

User Score
3.7

Generally unfavorable reviews- based on 775 Ratings

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  • Summary: All players begin their journey on either the Nuia or Harihara continents. From there they explore the world, cooperating or competing with each other. Remnants of the Lost Continent, where the ancestors of the world's races lived together in peace two thousand years ago, still dominate theAll players begin their journey on either the Nuia or Harihara continents. From there they explore the world, cooperating or competing with each other. Remnants of the Lost Continent, where the ancestors of the world's races lived together in peace two thousand years ago, still dominate the landscape. If you explore deep into the hearts of these ancient relics, you may discover the secrets of legendary gods and heroes. Or you may reveal more details about the catastrophe that caused the Nuia and Harihara schism. It all depends on your choices. Expand

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ArcheAge - Closed Beta Trailer
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 9 out of 11
  2. Negative: 0 out of 11
  1. Nov 18, 2014
    88
    ArcheAge is one of the best free-to-play games to be released this year, with a near endless amount of content awaiting eager adventurers.
  2. Oct 28, 2014
    85
    ArcheAge has been prepared for the western player in a very good way. Trion Worlds has managed to tweak this Korean game to meet the demands of European and American markets, and that's not an easy task. What's more, the game is being constantly improved and expanded. I'm certain that fans of the MMO genre will be very happy - at least the ones that like fighting other players.
  3. CD-Action
    Dec 13, 2014
    85
    Don’t let your judgment be clouded by other people’s opinions influenced by terrible server problems they encountered when ArcheAge was launched. It’s a really good, beautiful game. [Dec 2014, p.76]
  4. Sep 29, 2014
    80
    There’s endless hours of enjoyment in ArcheAge for just about anyone. If you can stomach a slightly stale questing experience, and get your head around the quite innocent labour system, it’s an MMO with near endless potential for player driven, organic content. And to be quite honest, it’s the closest thing to a true fantasy sandbox experience on the market, and will be for a good time yet.
  5. Oct 30, 2014
    80
    A rare example of a sandbox in a MMO, with lots of potential and good quality, but we wish we could arrive at the sandbox part sooner.
  6. Oct 12, 2014
    80
    ArcheAge is a potentially great MMO burdened by questionable decisions.
  7. If you are a Sandbox MMO lover, ArcheAge is for you. There is just one problem, bad management.

See all 11 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Sep 16, 2014
    10
    No initial server pboelsm (besides the DDOS attacks) and a lot of new stuff that hasn't been seen in previous MMORPG's... definetely a game to try out
  2. Oct 30, 2014
    10
    I'm hooked. It's theme park elements introduce the sandbox elements as well as intended. Crafting is big and purposeful. The world isI'm hooked. It's theme park elements introduce the sandbox elements as well as intended. Crafting is big and purposeful. The world is immersive, dangerous, and beautiful. Expand
  3. Nov 12, 2014
    7
    As a far as the game goes, Archeage is fairly polished for a korean ported MMO. The cash shop is important, but does not notably push playersAs a far as the game goes, Archeage is fairly polished for a korean ported MMO. The cash shop is important, but does not notably push players into using it like others might. Controls are not clunky and it has a smooth camera too. Game offers many things to do and rewards players for grouping up to achieve goals, be that building a house or questing. Is fairly scenic too. As long as you have a few friends to game with, it can be pretty fun. It's even fully accessible to free players as paid players can share their property.

    However, it does have it's issues. It can feel too small for it's player base at times. Land is limited, even crowded. This lack of land is not just about the house space. I've talked to a number of people in and out of game and lots of them feel that the sea is a bit smaller than they'd prefer. Archeage gives the impression that large scale sea battles would be possible, but really, 4 or 5 ships traveling about are quite easily noticed.

    PVP is more of a gank fest, with skill combos designed to take down a player's health while they are stunned.. rather than strategic use of attacks. Groups of people often camp towns in attempt to pick off lower lvl players, since there is no penalty for doing so. So far, even the events are a bit light.

    It's major vice however, has to be it's poor management. While the game is smallish compared to some others, it has potential and could have easily overcome this.A good team would have added just the right touch. Trion was not the right team.

    The game has been affected by an early history of cheaters. These reports of botting and poor responses from Trion are completely factual. The economy has been hit hard and fast, with inflation having risen greatly in a matter of months. Many players are already talking about "trade runs" not being an effective way to make gold soon.

    To their credit, I can say that trion has now made an attempt to fight back. Server ques are less common, a report feature has been added, and public channel chat is no longer allowed until lvl 15. I personally have seen GM's booting bots and there are rumors they are seeking permission from XLgames (the game's owner) to ditch the current firewall for a better one.

    However, while these developments are praise worthy, I feel it may be too late. Technical issues have plagued archage since release. The game works well once you can get online, but odd lag spikes and client side crashes are common.

    Updates often take far longer than they should, and more than once a large number of people have been unable to login, giving a lucky few who could log in a large edge. Responses from trion have not really improved either.

    This has led many people to feel cheated. People are spending money on this game and not seeing much of an improvement or even apology. In light of this, I have to lower my rating.. archeage might be a good game to play if I could host it privately.. but I should never have to feel that way with an MMO I am paying for.
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  4. Dec 19, 2014
    2
    Would be a pretty good game, if the people in charge of making decisions weren't complete idiots.. test server not testing anything (bugs fromWould be a pretty good game, if the people in charge of making decisions weren't complete idiots.. test server not testing anything (bugs from Alpha still in the game, despite beta testing being long over and the game live for a while now, game offline during prime-time with little or no warning (for minor patches, not the game is screwed issues). The game will be lucky to survive another few months if they don't find someone who can take all decisions and run them through a "is this utterly stupid" test before letting those decisions get out. Expand
  5. Ysa
    May 26, 2015
    1
    Have you read any of the other player (the only ones that count) reviews? Awesome, because they were all absolutely correct and i wont need toHave you read any of the other player (the only ones that count) reviews? Awesome, because they were all absolutely correct and i wont need to repeat a review about the myriad and epic failures of this p2w title. Have played MMOs for over 15 years, and am finding myself less and less loving to play them, but this one takes the cake. Archeage + f2p+p2w = hordes of execrable PoS players,creating an environment so repellent i'd have a nicer time in prison, and this is on top of the other negatives. If you value the joy, laughter, friendship and sense of accomplishment derived through playing with other gamers online, this game isnt for you. Expand
  6. Jul 6, 2017
    0
    Played since 2014, game is a terrible pay to win Korean grind mmo, that has no actual content expansions per patch that give the game anyPlayed since 2014, game is a terrible pay to win Korean grind mmo, that has no actual content expansions per patch that give the game any sense of longevity past the initial week of the patches release. The amount of randomness required to progress your character are so prehistoric its like being vaulted back into 2005. Trion, the North American publisher of the game admits to having no actual control over any content that gets pushed into the region. And XL treats the north american and european versions of the game extremely bad. Most Other korean developers of mmos have gotten over this xenophobic approach to development yet it still seems XL holds onto its ideas of a Korea First focus in the game.

    The game has 120 possible classes, yet everyone mostly plays 1 Dark Runner because after 2 years it hasn't been balanced.
    The quests are somewhat engaging but thats only if you get filled in on the lore ahead of time, the writing and delivery of that lore is terrible in the game outside of a few cutscenes which can be jolting as they don't fit with the direction or path of your character.
    The PVE elements of the game are terrible. They require no thought outside of a handful of bosses with 1 shot mechanics, everything else outside of that handful are pinatas. PVE requires no thought, you stand in 1 spot and press 1 dps skill as fast as you can.
    PVP elements of the game are terrible. As the game is pay to win, most of the skill factor in the game goes out the window as you can simply wash away any amount of bad skill with spending money on the strongest gear.

    The Naval combat while fun, doesn't really have any meaning, as having your ship destroyed gives no real consequence, and in most cases the actual ship combat can be ignored by simply jumping onto enemy ships with masses of players or pulling them off with spells as players have the ability to move faster than ships.....why even bother having a ship out at that point?

    The housing system, while a good idea on paper, is a terrible idea in practice, as it limits the amount of players who can actually join the game for that experience. Land isn't instanced or limited by amounts you can own.

    That being said, the actual game mechanics shoot themselves in the foot when the game allows you the ability for free, to create as many alternate characters as you can in a world that has limited space. Which means a single player can own an entire area of a map again blocking any new player from setting any property there. That kind of stuff used to matter in the beginning of the game when it released and had a future. But since the mistakes have piled on patch after patch, bug after bug, mistake after mistake most of the population of the game is gone.
    Most notably the European population of the game on all but 1 server have vanished.
    As far as the players that remained after, most if not all of the organized gaming communities have left, and I'd wager to say most people left still playing have either invested so much into the game they don't want to quit, or are new players that don't have a clue about the games traps.

    Oh and I almost forgot the most important part, the game encourages you to be a heel to other players rewards it, causing all of those problems mentioned above to be amplified by 1000. Griefing etc have no real consequences.

    That being said, Stay away from this game and avoid it like ebola. Let it rot with all the other korean cash grab imports that settle their way over to other countries only to be shut down a few years later.
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  7. Sep 18, 2014
    0
    Pay2Win PVP ganking and zergfest with systems designed around farming free players. Terrible implementation of Free2Play systems, hasPay2Win PVP ganking and zergfest with systems designed around farming free players. Terrible implementation of Free2Play systems, has subscription which gives major advantages in game and a pay2win cash shop on top of that. Expand

See all 437 User Reviews