User Score
3.7

Generally unfavorable reviews- based on 775 Ratings

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  1. Sep 11, 2015
    0
    The publisher completely train-wrecked the game into a wall of greed. One of the most innovative games ever made went to **** because of Trion, by far the worst publisher I have seen. I didn't know you could **** up as badly as EA without any hesitation.

    Some facts why this game is broken and why it is the publisher's fault: 1) Labor point regeneration system only regenerates a
    The publisher completely train-wrecked the game into a wall of greed. One of the most innovative games ever made went to **** because of Trion, by far the worst publisher I have seen. I didn't know you could **** up as badly as EA without any hesitation.

    Some facts why this game is broken and why it is the publisher's fault:
    1) Labor point regeneration system only regenerates a suitable amount while being online: Forces you to afk-farm or buy labor pots from the cash shop.
    2) Rare items for crafting high tier equipment only available in cash shop. Which makes the endgame essentially a game of $$$.
    3) They didn't even try to fix the land-grab bot problem by changing the land claim methods or system which made cheaters insanely rich and ruined the whole economy.
    4) Economy in the game (which is a huge aspect in a game of trades and piracy) went to **** even further after introducing boxes in the cash shop which gave you randomly very expensive items: Killed the economy because everybody had to find new ways to make money which got torn apart by the publishers once again.
    5) Server merges now which nullified all the effort of getting a castle for your guild or a huge lot with a big farm. Best way to kill the playerbase.

    The list gets bigger and bigger but I'm too lazy to list it all.
    Best MMO, worst publisher. Such a shame.
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  2. Jan 14, 2015
    0
    The recent trend in MMORPGs has been games with enormous potential floundering due to poor implementation and features falling far short of expectations. XLGames and Trion has turned that on it's head with ArcheAge as a well done game overflowing with engaging features and gameplay floundering due to frustrating and even unethical monitization of the content, abysmal customer support andThe recent trend in MMORPGs has been games with enormous potential floundering due to poor implementation and features falling far short of expectations. XLGames and Trion has turned that on it's head with ArcheAge as a well done game overflowing with engaging features and gameplay floundering due to frustrating and even unethical monitization of the content, abysmal customer support and communication, and totally inept handling of goldselling spam and rampent cheating and exploiting.

    While not required to play the game, land ownership is a huge part of gaining access to many gameplay features. Trion ignored numerous warnings during testing that scarceness of available land and exploitative land hording would be huge problems in release.

    Obscene economy inflation, anemic loot drop rates and labor point generation, and demoralizing RNG failures at every turn are sucking the soul out of this game for the few diehard founders pack players that remain.

    The only thing that will likely save this game is a total reboot as done for FFXIV. Square Enix had that kind of commitment and courage, does Trion? I doubt it. Trion will likely follow in the footsteps of Funcom soon to exit the MMORPG development field for good.
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  3. Dec 22, 2014
    0
    Game has gone to @!#$%, another one bites the dust. The company (Trion) is giving preferential treatment to people and guilds in the game (The White order) for whatever reason. Maybe they know people at Trion, maybe they are bribing them, either way, it's destroying the play experience of everyone else. On top of that, Trion is now giving away items to some players that arent evenGame has gone to @!#$%, another one bites the dust. The company (Trion) is giving preferential treatment to people and guilds in the game (The White order) for whatever reason. Maybe they know people at Trion, maybe they are bribing them, either way, it's destroying the play experience of everyone else. On top of that, Trion is now giving away items to some players that arent even released in the game yet.

    Just go look at the forums and you'll have all your answers. You can't post though, not until your level 15 of course. Of course as a new player, good luck getting any help then on the forums as the actual game is write off. The chat is filled with gold spam while a good chunk of the players are absolute losers.

    The one positive thing to come out of all this though, the game is on track to die by Jan or Feb as predicted. Don't expect Trion to keep their servers up, not when they are losing money hand over fist due to their bad management.
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  4. Nov 18, 2014
    4
    It doesn't have the longevity that an MMO should have. People will play until end game, but why do you want to play anymore of it? You have everything already because of how linear the questing is, and the only thing left for players to do is to build a house, but there is no reason for it anyway because it contains minimalistic interactivity. The combat is mediocre at best taking afterIt doesn't have the longevity that an MMO should have. People will play until end game, but why do you want to play anymore of it? You have everything already because of how linear the questing is, and the only thing left for players to do is to build a house, but there is no reason for it anyway because it contains minimalistic interactivity. The combat is mediocre at best taking after pretty much every MMO nowadays just without the charm. The environments are dull, and the enemies are like something you would find out of Wizard 101, including their AI. Also, as is with many free to play games, there is an in game shop where you can buy currency to purchase in game items. In most games this would be really fair, take War Thunder for example, but in this game, you can have exclusive items TOP TIER items when you get to level 30, which is 20 levels below max. This game is not worth anyone's time unless they just want to get through the tedious questing to see why everyone says this game is great, because you won't find that answer while going through your questing phase, and you will most certainly never find that answer after end game. Expand
  5. Jun 3, 2015
    0
    Lots of potential ruined by greedy companies and pay 2 do anything model.
    This game requires you to play hundreds of hours to be competitive or pour money like the wallet warriors do.
    This is definitely a pay 2 win game full of hackers and bots
  6. Nov 5, 2014
    3
    Loved the game in Beta. The last beta was terrible. Incredible amounts of lag. Game went live I have had very very very bad packet loss ever since. I constantly disconnect and packet loss.
    I contact support and they took about 4 days to respond with an "open these ports" response. It sorta helped, or it was in my head. It seemed like it did. I logged in a couple weeks later (I was out of
    Loved the game in Beta. The last beta was terrible. Incredible amounts of lag. Game went live I have had very very very bad packet loss ever since. I constantly disconnect and packet loss.
    I contact support and they took about 4 days to respond with an "open these ports" response. It sorta helped, or it was in my head. It seemed like it did. I logged in a couple weeks later (I was out of town) and the lag and disconnects were even worse than before. I got a refund of my pre-order and now I am trying to get a refund for my starter kit because this game sucks if you have an issue like I do. I can't figure out what is causing it or how to fix it. I tried lots of different fixes and nothing made any difference at all. I even had my ISP come out and there was no change after their "fix." I am at a loss and support has not helped. I think it is time to just go twiddle my thumbs and wait for EQN. This is a great game is their servers weren't made out of trash...if that is even the problem. If they only had a fix or would actually help me...
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  7. Dec 16, 2014
    3
    Game itself is good. Trion worlds has managed it poorly. I played in RU version and it's almost a completely different experience under different management. It's a cash grab straight up. Trion worlds has made promises and then switched them upon delivery. For example, for everyone who bought into a founder pack, they promised a 10% discount on marketplace purchases. After launch they saidGame itself is good. Trion worlds has managed it poorly. I played in RU version and it's almost a completely different experience under different management. It's a cash grab straight up. Trion worlds has made promises and then switched them upon delivery. For example, for everyone who bought into a founder pack, they promised a 10% discount on marketplace purchases. After launch they said they cannot deliver the 10% discount and will instead provide a 10% bonus on future purchases. You have to make more purchases to take advantage of the benefit now. Check the reviews on the better business bureau. I would say play free but do not give them money. They are known for being shady right now. Expand
  8. Dec 27, 2014
    2
    The farming and housing are great, but are only really available if you are willing to pay for patron. Free to players have very limited options for earning money in game. Also, there are many pay to win aspects in the game, like the APEX system. The game tends to dry very quick if you can't put a large amount of cash into the game.

    What ultimately pushed me away from the game is the
    The farming and housing are great, but are only really available if you are willing to pay for patron. Free to players have very limited options for earning money in game. Also, there are many pay to win aspects in the game, like the APEX system. The game tends to dry very quick if you can't put a large amount of cash into the game.

    What ultimately pushed me away from the game is the PvP. It is 100% gear based. Since the PvP affects many of the trade and other aspects, its really something that you can't get away from. You forced to spend all of your gold buying gear or risk being killed.

    The game is fun at first something, but it quickly goes down hill. It is not a game worth playing in the long run.
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  9. Mar 21, 2015
    0
    I had the worst experience with this game. Let me start of by saying I never actually got to play the game. the installer is so buggy that it took me three days to clean the muck of files out of my computer. I tried following the web help to get through the plethora of errors that can crop up on installation. these are all known issues to the developers. I was unable to do so.

    I would
    I had the worst experience with this game. Let me start of by saying I never actually got to play the game. the installer is so buggy that it took me three days to clean the muck of files out of my computer. I tried following the web help to get through the plethora of errors that can crop up on installation. these are all known issues to the developers. I was unable to do so.

    I would recommend no one attempt to install the game. I am on windows 8.1 Pro and the installation software made my system unstable and it took me hours to fix. It was like installing a game from the old days of computer gaming install at your own risk.
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  10. Jul 22, 2015
    0
    publisher has botched every patch. credit limit must be huge to "win" at this game. worst community manager "scapes" that i have seen in any game. so much hacking and boting.
  11. Aug 9, 2015
    0
    This game could have been so great. Instead P2W with getting weapon that you can rule others with. So expensive to grind up your gear, but the worst part the RNG for enchantment and get the correct weapon inside the game is so low for success and cost you a fortune. A guild can control an entire area and also ruined the in-game economics + in-store items for real money helps with this to.
  12. Aug 21, 2015
    0
    The greed of the developers is unbelievable, they created a great game just to ruin it by pure greed, and didn't do anything about the hackers destroying the economy. I was unable to play a lot of this game but enough to experience the pay to win. Also, they patched it and it become incompatible with my old computer, after doing everything they said and trying everything other playersThe greed of the developers is unbelievable, they created a great game just to ruin it by pure greed, and didn't do anything about the hackers destroying the economy. I was unable to play a lot of this game but enough to experience the pay to win. Also, they patched it and it become incompatible with my old computer, after doing everything they said and trying everything other players suggested, it still would not run. It wasn't anything on my end, it was on their end and something they did. For lack of proper support and giving me the same exact response (automated). After 6 months of checking back I gave up. This game is going downhill fast, already down to less than 60% approval on steam which pretty bad. The ratings here is a lot more accurate on how good a game is.
    The short list is, Developers Greed, hackers, bad costumer support, forum censorship (as in negative feedback gets you banned).
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  13. Mar 6, 2016
    0
    I played the game since the beginning, and I really did enjoy the game, but like all reviews there is a butt.

    You won't be able to compete in the game. The only way to compete is unfortunately the term every one knows... Pay2Win. This game is a total gambling game with your money. Isn't online gambling illegal? That is what this is! I have no objects buying costumes and pretty
    I played the game since the beginning, and I really did enjoy the game, but like all reviews there is a butt.

    You won't be able to compete in the game.
    The only way to compete is unfortunately the term every one knows... Pay2Win. This game is a total gambling game with your money. Isn't online gambling illegal? That is what this is!

    I have no objects buying costumes and pretty stuff in games. The problem is buying the items to be able to compete. These items are related to increasing the odds of your gambling chance at successfully regrading your equipment. Regrading your equipment will increase how powerful the item is. There is 12 grades to all your gear. Each grade gets harder and harder to regrade to the next level. They sell Charms for real life money in the game that raises the chance you might increase the grade of the item. Problem is it is a gamble with low odds of succeeding. The other problem is besides not regrading up.... the item can regrade down and you threw away all that money and did not get anything. It gets worst.... You can even destroy your gear if a regrade fails. This can get quite expensive with all the gear a person has. This doesn't just stop at player gear. All the boat items in the game can be regraded as well as pet gear in the game.

    All your gear will have item sockets as well that you can gamble on actually adding a gem to. You can always get the first gem in, but after that it is a gamble if you can add more gems. The gem will either not go in and break, and or destroy all the gems already in the item. This happens quite often.

    I'm sure by now every one knows this game has a PvP focus, which is great....

    No skill is taken into account into the PvP of this game. This game is all about your Gear Score, which is a cumulative total of the points your gear is worth. The game takes a massive amount of gold to really be competitive in the game. There is an item that you will be tempted to buy with real money from Trion called an Apex. You can sell this item to real players for serious amount of gold. You need this serious amount of gold for crafting ingredients, and regrade, and socketing, etc, etc... You can earn gold in the game, but to earn the kind of gold you can get from easily buying and selling an apex in game will take days upon days, if not weeks for newer characters that don't have ways to easily transport tradepacks in the game to make gold. You can't earn gold from killing monsters in the game. Yes... you cannot earn gold from killing monsters in the game. You can get what they call a loot bag from monsters in the game. This loot bag can then be opened to get a paltry amount of gold. Even then your limited to the amount of these bags you can open. There is a labor system in the game. Most activities in the game take labor. Combat doesn't take labor. Opening Coin Purses(loot bags), crafting, farming, and regrading. These all take labor and you have a small limited pool of labor that regenerates slowly by being in the game. Don't worry though you can spend real life money to buy Labor regeneration potions.

    I have unfortunately spent an embarrassing amount of money in the game I feel and I could not compete with any one in the dominate faction. There is a snowball effect to the game when one side is dominating the other side. There are world bosses that only the strong can take down, and all these world bosses can be interrupted by the apposing faction. While on my server it is so bad the faction i'm in can't compete and can't challenge the other factions at these world bosses to get the sweet loots. This loot you get from the world bosses allows you to craft even more powerful items in the game making you even stronger, making the other faction even weaker.

    Earning money in the game can be very hard as well when the dominate faction can essentially kill you and take all your hardwork crafting tradepacks, which is what will earn you some gold. You need to sell about 50 trade packs to be able to earn as much gold as a Apex can sell for. You can only carry 1 tradepack at a time, but various carts and boats you can craft will allow you to carry more. Basic Cart 2, upgraded 4, and pay2win cart 6. There is a boat you can build that will allow you to transport 20 packs, but good luck surviving out in open water to transport these packs in an unrestricted pvp zone. Remember you can only move one pack at a time on your back. These packs all take ingredients and labor to make. All the ingredients you farm on land and harvest using labor. If you can find land to own, you need to be a subscriber to own land. I was quite the land baron in the game and had a ton of land. Also to keep your land you need to pay taxes in the game every week. You need to make tax certificates from using your labor.

    I can only leave a 5000 character long review, and I have allot more I could say. Unfortunately this game is the most pay2win game ever.
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  14. Aug 1, 2016
    0
    The game could have been one of the greats. It is beautiful and immersive. Those are the only good points that I can give.

    The crafting system is great, with one, small problem. The game is not just pay2win; it is also pay 2 craft. It is, in fact, pay2do-anything beyond the basics. I am not talking about the subscription fee. You pay that to have the right to own land, but to craft
    The game could have been one of the greats. It is beautiful and immersive. Those are the only good points that I can give.

    The crafting system is great, with one, small problem. The game is not just pay2win; it is also pay 2 craft. It is, in fact, pay2do-anything beyond the basics.

    I am not talking about the subscription fee. You pay that to have the right to own land, but to craft anything without the prospect of spending years to create a top-tier item, you will need to pour cash into the game.

    The most despicable pay2win aspect is Labor Points. You generate a small amount if you have a subscription and even less if you do not. Want to mine that ore node? Got enough Labour Points? No, tough! Pay for more.

    Moving on from the crafting system, there is literally no end-game, none. A handful of badly designed dungeons.

    Not that this review really matters now, the server populations dropped off sharply after a few months, requiring server merges. I popped on a few days ago to see where the game was at. Dead, mostly.
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  15. Mar 27, 2015
    0
    This game oblige you to play to pay your taxes in-game, and you need to take care of your field to be able to farm some gold. If you don't, you lose your field. It's a game that makes you addicted and it's a waste of time. Don't play this game.
  16. Jun 10, 2015
    2
    This is not an rpg game, it is a FPS, also you can't change the keyboard set up. Had potential but that's had not have. You are also forced to team up, since there is no single player room.
  17. Nov 4, 2014
    3
    I like the game. Overall the crafting system is in depth the housing system is cool but challenging. Pvp is fun, and there are many other aspects about the game that makes it a great game. HOWEVER, The game administrators and developers are incompetent. Patch after patch there are problems, obtaining land is near impossible with the hackers and bots consuming every inch of usableI like the game. Overall the crafting system is in depth the housing system is cool but challenging. Pvp is fun, and there are many other aspects about the game that makes it a great game. HOWEVER, The game administrators and developers are incompetent. Patch after patch there are problems, obtaining land is near impossible with the hackers and bots consuming every inch of usable land worth any value. Hackshield creates even more problems and makes logging in a giant frustration. If you plan on playing this game as a new comer, wait for another game to roll out. if you started now you wont be playing for long once you realize the need to own land and its importance in advancing in this game. Simply too many hackers to contend with, communication from GMs to the community is sadly enough minimal and completely unapologetic about "known issues". They just released the new phase of pvp content which included new lands where guilds can build castles and fight to retain ownership there of. HOWEVER... loggin issues created an unbalanced and unfair land grab for less than half the server. It has been 5 hours since this new patch and I have yet to get online, while reports from guildies state that the new land has been completely filled. This has been a problem since early launch and unfortunately makes a great idea for a game completely a terrible and frustrating experience... Im bidding my time for the next MMO to come out and I'm leaving Archeage for good Expand
  18. Nov 16, 2014
    3
    It started as a promising continuation of Skyrim. I was hoping I would be able to come home from work and get some good Skyrim type adventure in.. You know, explore and fight a bit yet see and experience some interesting yet not so dramatic or bloody confrontations. I just want to explore and see what I can do in a few hours. I'm not looking to be a dick pirate or griefer. That's for theIt started as a promising continuation of Skyrim. I was hoping I would be able to come home from work and get some good Skyrim type adventure in.. You know, explore and fight a bit yet see and experience some interesting yet not so dramatic or bloody confrontations. I just want to explore and see what I can do in a few hours. I'm not looking to be a dick pirate or griefer. That's for the young kids. I have some money now. I've grown out of being a pirate. It's just too time consuming. This game gives me hope. But, unfortunately, I was was banned for speaking up against playing the game as a non-pirate. The banning policy kicked me out. I said a few words in local chat I shouldn't have and got booted -- end of game. Well, I wanted to be a good guy for once but got kicked out instead. I'm not sure what my future will be. Maybe I should go back to hacking. Expand
  19. Mar 25, 2015
    3
    Archeage looked good - in marketing. From the first trailers to the final western release, it was on my radar.

    But it failed miserably. Instead of a refreshing new take on the MMO genre you get WoW 1.0 with a tiny dash of novelty that doesn't make up for how boring this game is. From the beginning you are greeted by the same old way of doing things - Animated over-the-top intro,
    Archeage looked good - in marketing. From the first trailers to the final western release, it was on my radar.

    But it failed miserably. Instead of a refreshing new take on the MMO genre you get WoW 1.0 with a tiny dash of novelty that doesn't make up for how boring this game is.

    From the beginning you are greeted by the same old way of doing things - Animated over-the-top intro, character creation with 4 races split up into 4 races and marginal appearance options (Don't let the amount of sliders fool you, you can basically just change the face of your character and pick from a dozen or so hairstyles) and then you're thrown into the world.

    Instantly you will get the "same old" feeling as you start in a regular starting area full of copy/paste monsters, unvoiced standard NPC's and bad localisation. Conversation options? Not in this game. Active combat? Nu-uh! Quests apart from "Get this and come back" or "Kill 10 Y and come back"? Nope!

    You stand in front of enemies unleashing your attacks, moving around just to strafe a bit. Your skillbar looks like a blast from the past and the general UI could as well be from the early 2000s.

    On top of that, the game tries to present you with an open class system that is just a way to rename the classic triad into 120 different options. Yes, you can mix and match, but in the end you won't do anything more than in the early days of WoW, Guild Wars or any other MMO of that era.

    Now comes the big thing we all looked forward to: The building system.
    It's nothing. Star Wars galaxies did it better, and that's saying something.
    There are some areas in the game where you can put premade houses. No individuality apart from interior objects. You can farm on your own land and move some basic town services there, but that's it. Everquest Landmark, Oort, Rust and a dozen others offer more individuality than this. If you want that typ of game, go download Neocron from 2002 (!!!).

    On top of that, the game is F2P with a strong incentive to pay - Labor points. This system lets you use up "Labor points" for everything from looting a monster to harvesting resources. You regenerate those at a very slow pace in F2P (5 min for 5 labor) and a slightly more speedy pace in subscription mode (5 min for 10 labor). In payed mode, you regenerate while online.
    Let me rephrase that.
    In F2P this game ENCOURAGES going AFK.
    Encourages! Going! AFK!
    To do stuff like looting or harvesting!

    Stay away from this game. If you want a good standard MMO experience, there are far better options out there.
    You like the eastern style F2P? Lineage is superior.
    You want to build stuff? Go check out Oort, Everquest next or any of the dozen other games like this.
    You want a standard MMO? WoW basic is F2P now too.
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  20. Mar 30, 2015
    0
    A great MMO if it werent for the way trion handled the game. A bot infested game, random bans, full of exploits that never seem to be fixed. Pay to win, economy is influenced heavily by the game creator instead of letting it be what it is. Lots and lots of bad things and too may to be name.
  21. Jun 4, 2015
    4
    Pay to win. If you are combat only the game may be ok for you. The graphics are nice. By automating the farming and crafting they have made it so the builders have no place and they have sealed that deal by announcing the mergers of the low pop servers.
  22. Mar 21, 2016
    6
    Played since the US alpha and a lot has changed.

    The good; Archeage has well polished pvp mechanics and a metric ton of stuff to do. Stuff includes land based, oceanic, and transcontinental trade routes as well as building your own farms, housing areas, and finding other ways to make landmasses productive for you and your group. It also has some of the most amusing naval combat put
    Played since the US alpha and a lot has changed.

    The good;

    Archeage has well polished pvp mechanics and a metric ton of stuff to do. Stuff includes land based, oceanic, and transcontinental trade routes as well as building your own farms, housing areas, and finding other ways to make landmasses productive for you and your group. It also has some of the most amusing naval combat put into an MMO to date.

    The bad: Unlike in the beta and the Korean release the claimable land zones do not change size based on population, they are absolutely static. This creates massive inflation on land values that just doesn't exist in the same fashion on the original release. Want anything in a safe zone? Be prepared to bleed gold. The LP system directly punishes both paying subscribers and their FTP crowd, Labor is required to build/do most things that generate income such as trade runs, ftp only get 5 per 5 minutes while online, subscribers get 10 per 5 minutes while online and 5 per 5 minutes while offline. Your play time will be punished.

    The Ugly; Mass normilization of specialty items such as the nearly unique ships, hang gliders, and mounts. Paying RL cash for in game power (reforging), and the community (At least on the west, dear bloody god do they have problems on Calleil before it merged. East was livable.) If you ever wanted to see people tear each other apart for utterly zero reason, here's a great example what not to do. Use your guild as a MLM scheme, set up a pyramid scheme, deliberately steal in bulk from members land and tell them "Oh well" when they can't afford to maintain their claim.
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  23. Jul 23, 2016
    0
    So much potential here with this game. It could have been great. So much P2W its ridiculous. I will never recommend anyone to play this game nor any other Trion game ever again. I played during beta. Purchased a founders pack, constantly bought packs they released as well. I spend a good bit of money in the game. I began gearing myself and was grinding and working hard to do so. I go awaySo much potential here with this game. It could have been great. So much P2W its ridiculous. I will never recommend anyone to play this game nor any other Trion game ever again. I played during beta. Purchased a founders pack, constantly bought packs they released as well. I spend a good bit of money in the game. I began gearing myself and was grinding and working hard to do so. I go away from the keyboard one night, standing still. To be honest, I just was tired and forgot to log out. I woke up the next day to find my account had been banned. After repeated attempts to contact Trion they state I was botting, although they will not show any form of proof nor tell me what i supposedly used due to the main fact i was not botting. They have zero proof. Yet, rather than admit they were wrong, they send me an email stating they aren't saying i would do such a thing but being as it is possible they will be keeping my account banned. All the hard work over 2 years gone. All the money i put into the game, gone. They state they can ban you at any point in time for any reason. Why would I recommend someone else to play the game after this has happened to me? I won't. Sadly, this game could have been amazing. It's falling apart. More and more people are quitting and believe it or not my particular situation has happened to more than just me. If I could rank this game on the negative scale I would. Never again will I play or give any money to any Trion game after this experience. Expand
  24. May 18, 2019
    1
    Локализатор полный швах, всё упирается в донат и донат акции, постоянные лаги, вылеты
  25. Mar 31, 2015
    6
    ArcheAge started as a very attractive concept, but its developers and publisher were too blind to capitalize on that potential. It starts out as a decent open class system questing MMO, which goes on for about 40 levels (or ~200 hours). Suddenly, the game becomes about literally farming. Raise animals, raise plants, ship their products across the map to get money and experience. There isArcheAge started as a very attractive concept, but its developers and publisher were too blind to capitalize on that potential. It starts out as a decent open class system questing MMO, which goes on for about 40 levels (or ~200 hours). Suddenly, the game becomes about literally farming. Raise animals, raise plants, ship their products across the map to get money and experience. There is no end-game, aside from a handful of grindy dungeons for which parties are rare and the rewards are inconsistent.

    Pirating in ArcheAge is clearly the best part of the experience, allowing for separate dynamic rolls like boarding party, captain, cannoneer, radar operator, small craft operator, harpoon operator, etc. Most of these rolls can be filled by a player of any level, which is a great way to get your more casual friends involved. Pirating when it goes well is a brilliant experience, but groups for doing so are usually cloistered, elitist, and the game's massive gear depravity/dependence virtually nullifies the importance of every roll except boarding party, captain, and harpooner.

    Furthermore, trading has become significantly less frequent as the current (1.7) patch's focusing is aimed toward indefinite PvE farming. This was a huge waste of potential, where the game's most promising feature could have been expanded instead.

    Otherwise, the game is chore-ish at best, requiring hours to just complete money making tasks, which are not fun in the slightest. Its something to do with friends or while listening to an audio book. Its like the MMO equivalent of Cookie Clicker, but it is not an idle game and it is not about min-maxing industry. The game's focus is on repeating similarly menial tasks ad infinitum until you don't want to get out of bed in the morning and face another few hours of grind.

    Abuse of cosmetic item drop boxes for cash is rampant. Player purchase a box for real life dollars and each box has an extremly low drop rate, with best reported drops around 1 in 8 chance, dropping to such abysmal rates as 1 in 100. Most free to play games selling cosmetic items actually let you buy cosmetic items, not simply have a random chance of getting them. In this way, the publisher exploits the addictive nature of the MMO.

    I would recommend this game for leveling up with a friend, its as good as any other MMO for that. Its something to do. But most other MMOs, even free ones, have some kind of meat past that point. ArcheAge offers practically no endgame despite being in development for years and having been released in US beta for about two years. This is not acceptable for a released MMO title which is making good revenue. The developers seem to have given up and reverted to a cell phone game style pay to pay model.
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  26. Jan 7, 2015
    4
    Archeage has ground-breaking game mechanics, deep (overly so imo..) crafting system, and great sandbox environment for PvP. HOWEVER, if you want to succeeed at PvP in Archeage, and that is really what the game is all about, it is in fact Pay 2 Win. No question about the fact that this game is money making Juggernaut for Glyph/Trion etc.. that is geared towards getting you to spend money inArcheage has ground-breaking game mechanics, deep (overly so imo..) crafting system, and great sandbox environment for PvP. HOWEVER, if you want to succeeed at PvP in Archeage, and that is really what the game is all about, it is in fact Pay 2 Win. No question about the fact that this game is money making Juggernaut for Glyph/Trion etc.. that is geared towards getting you to spend money in their RM market place on items that make it feasible for you to advance your post lvl 50 toon.

    Is it possible for you to gear up without paying? Technically it is, but it would take such a prohibitively long time (think over a year..) grinding mundane tasks such as fishing, and farming (literally.. like on a farm), that you would want to burn your eyes out with a hot poker. Meanwhile you would be getting PWND in any pvp you attempted within a couple of seconds with anyone who has payed to gear up. Sound like fun? It's not.

    Once again, beware, the End Game IS DEFINITELY PAY 2 WIN.
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  27. May 19, 2015
    3
    this is a game unlike any other game . however trion has made it impossible for the common person to make in this world .. wallet warriors who dump thousands of real dollars on there toons . are the only ones who win. the rest of you will be forced to farm thuosand of hours in places were wallet warriors will destroy you and keep you from getting gear so they can murder you some more ...this is a game unlike any other game . however trion has made it impossible for the common person to make in this world .. wallet warriors who dump thousands of real dollars on there toons . are the only ones who win. the rest of you will be forced to farm thuosand of hours in places were wallet warriors will destroy you and keep you from getting gear so they can murder you some more ... it was an amazing game but trions thirst for money has ruined it before it ever had the chance to reach its true glory Expand
  28. 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 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 PoSHave 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
  29. Jun 23, 2015
    5
    Arche Age is an Open-World MMO PvP PvE Sandbox game.

    Ah... Arche Age. This game does not kid about how Open-World it is, here you will experience almost no load screens, except for the occasional dungeons. This game has boats. BOATS! You can sail the seas as an explorer, trade with different continents and cities, pillage and plunder as a pirate. What more could make it better
    Arche Age is an Open-World MMO PvP PvE Sandbox game.

    Ah... Arche Age.

    This game does not kid about how Open-World it is, here you will experience almost no load screens, except for the occasional dungeons.

    This game has boats. BOATS! You can sail the seas as an explorer, trade with different continents and cities, pillage and plunder as a pirate.

    What more could make it better you ask? Houses! You can actually make houses! Be it the small little cute house you dreamed to have or the big costly mansion you wished you had. You can make it!

    In this game there is economy, where you make stuff at one place and sell it in to another. You can actually be a trader you wished of becoming!

    It goes deeper, this game has Professions, which basically enables you to be anything you want to be in the game! "Animal Husbandry?" Yep! "Weapon Smith?!" Uhuh! "Carpenter!?! Yes, and many more!

    Now it's time to open the box shall we? :)

    *Ta Da!*

    PvP? Pfffft... It's all about gear and 90% of all skills are homing, there is no such thing as 'actual skills' in this game. It's all about the running around pressing buttons! With Pay to Win armor and gear!

    Lets say you're an average player, with his average gear, but actually has 'skills'.

    Gear score : 2,800 for example. Yes there is such a thing as 'Gear score' in this game, anything higher than 3,500 and most probably 9/10 you can't win.

    There are even people up to 6,000 Gear score, they won't be able to tell you the story of how they go their gear. Each piece costing 67,000 gold or more, you got helmet to graves, plus weapons and regrades. They have this mystical bank where you put real money and gold comes outside the other end. *wink wink* gold sellers *wink wink*

    Okay let's say you've geared up now, you finally have 3,000 - 4,000 gear score woot! The guy I mentioned above will rek you no matter how good at PvP you are. A guy with full set Delphinad armor and an Ayanad weapon can't be taken on by 10 people.

    Well at least there are houses you may say, you are wrong, you cannot build freely, you require Patron status to do that, which basically means you have to pay. Or at least grind out the entire month for it in game and loose all touch with life outside a game.

    Let's say you payed or actually grinded for Patron status, "Can I build a house now?" No, no you can't, you gotta wait in line behind hundreds of people who haven't even gotten land yet. Even though there is an abundance of space and actual land in the game, only 10%% is allowed to be used for housing, you can't just build anywhere, so trash your dreams of making a house near a water fall on a cliff or on top of a hill.

    Well at least I can be anything I want to be, is probably what's left of what you are thinking. Wrong! Remember energy the thing we hate so much about facebook games? Well Arche Age has it, except it goes under the name 'Labor'. Each and everything you do requires labor, which more or less hinders you from actually doing anything. The thing is people with Patron status gets twice the amount you get per 5 minutes you are in game of labor, and the same amount you get when you are online when they are offline. FYI you don't get labor offline as a non-Patron.

    The only good thing about this game is the economy, not the economy in general, but the trading. Making it here, selling it there. THAT'S IT.

    So if you wanna be a tradesman and go #jobsimulator go ahead be my guest, play this game.

    But if you want PvP you're better off buying GW2 which has the best PvP and combat out there.

    Trust me, I'm a F2P player, and I know the thought of buying an MMO is awful. But if you like PvP and actual skills can win the game, Guild Wars 2 is for you.
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  30. Aug 17, 2016
    4
    Very nice game with a lot things to do, open world pvp, sieges, sea wars, good skill mechanics.
    But was totally ruined by free to play model, had to go as monthly subscription without any chance for pay to win option.
Metascore
80

Generally favorable reviews - based on 11 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 9 out of 11
  2. Negative: 0 out of 11
  1. Jan 5, 2015
    80
    What ArcheAge presents, past the horror of the chilling launch, is an open world full of opportunities and challenges as we have not seen for a too-long time demonstrating that the real MMORPG, those based on persistence and interaction, have not disappeared.
  2. 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]
  3. 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.