ArcheAge

 PC
User Score
3.7

Generally unfavorable reviews- based on 775 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 203 out of 775
  2. Mixed: 80 out of 775
  3. Negative: 492 out of 775

Review this game

  1. Your Score
    0 out of 10
    Rate this:
    • 10
    • 9
    • 8
    • 7
    • 6
    • 5
    • 4
    • 3
    • 2
    • 1
    • 0
    • 0
  1. Submit
  2. Check Spelling
view
per page
  1. vermarien
    Oct 5, 2014
    0
    A really bad copy of other bad mmo's nothing new >.> so sad. Didn't even bother to reach lvl 10. Character customization is really poor, graphics reminds me early 2000 mmos, or should i say way worse (world of warcraft, guildwars 1, lineage 2 and many other were and still are really superior), bad ui. You can't cast the majority of spells while moving (really? on 2014?). The only thing iA really bad copy of other bad mmo's nothing new >.> so sad. Didn't even bother to reach lvl 10. Character customization is really poor, graphics reminds me early 2000 mmos, or should i say way worse (world of warcraft, guildwars 1, lineage 2 and many other were and still are really superior), bad ui. You can't cast the majority of spells while moving (really? on 2014?). The only thing i liked were the naval battles.… Expand
  2. Druegan
    Oct 3, 2014
    5
    Decent game, horribly mismanaged.

    I've been playing ArcheAge as f2p since public launch. Will probably be trying out Patron status here in a few days. As a f2p'er, here are my initial impressions. 1, the launch was bad. Really bad. Trion dropped the ball very, very badly here, and are still struggling horribly to try to recover. Lots of problems with people not getting what they    Decent game, horribly mismanaged.

    I've been playing ArcheAge as f2p since public launch. Will probably be trying out Patron status here in a few days. As a f2p'er, here are my initial impressions.

    1, the launch was bad. Really bad. Trion dropped the ball very, very badly here, and are still struggling horribly to try to recover. Lots of problems with people not getting what they paid a *lot* of money for, horribly overloaded customer service... 13+ hour queues for f2p players, 7+ hour queues for Patrons who'd paid for priority access... It's getting better, but so far, it doesn't inspire confidence.

    2. The game is overwhelmed with hackers, botters, and spammers. Some of the most aggravating problems with the spammers could be solved with a couple lines of code limiting chat buffer sizes... But, the "Hackshield" rootkit being used for "Security Theatre" is wholly ineffective and doesn't uninstall properly. Nor is there mention made of it being installed prior to installing ArcheAge. Potential liability there. Teleport hacks, auction house hacks, massive waves of botters... these have pretty much destroyed much of the "economy" and who knows if it will actually recover or not at this point.

    3. Trion, of course, has a bunch of schleps who know nothing spouting mindless platitudes attempting to placate the enraged masses.. but that's hardly different from any other MMO publisher, in my experience. Just don't expect much, and you won't be disappointed.

    4. Don't expect land without paying a fortune for it or being extremely, insanely lucky. Your best shot is if you can find a brand new server opening up and get in with Patron status in the first few minutes. The initial servers were a massive landgrab in headstart, and with Trion's screwups, a lot of people got very pissed. Land is just not an option for most, especially now that the hackers are using packet injection to snipe land remotely if somebody fails to pay their taxes.

    5.Labor is kinda **** If you are Patron, I hear you get decent-ish Labor Point regeneration..which you need *lots* of in order to do anything other than wander around and whack things, but from what I understand, it needs some tweaking even there. Apparently a lot of the recalcitrance to fixing this problem comes from XL Games, not Trion.. but who knows?

    6. The community, as one would expect from a PvP focused game, is utterly rancid and toxic. Racism, bigotry, griefing, sexual harassment, extreme vulgarity.. Pick any and/or all of the things you'd expect from a bunch of hyper-competitive knuckle-draggers, shoot it full of "Lord of the Flies", and sprinkle a healthy dose of **** on top of it, and that's basically what you're looking at. Far as I can tell, Trion actually *promotes* scamming, abuse, and undesirable behavior, at least from the absolutely nothing they're doing to address it.

    6. The graphics are not that amazing. I run on max settings.. and while the world is very picturesque from a distance, up close, things are quite blobby. Water effects are awesome, but trees look horrid.. it's a mixed bag. Lots of recycled mobs..

    7. The gameplay is.. ok. Nothing to scream about, either good or bad. Your typical Korean over-dependence on combos, bias towards Melee in PvE, Overpowered Range in PvP.. There's a very irritating system where if you try to damage a mob and it doesn't like the patch of ground you're standing on, it'll become immune to absolutely everything until it gets to where it registers that it can damage you. Even if you're 5 feet away from it on a flat field. XLGames also has no concept of what the words "Line of Sight" actually mean. Mobs also occasionally just decide that they're going to reset to full hp and walk nonchalantly back to their starting positions in the middle of a fight. Needs work.

    8. The world is huge... and probably half of it is completely useless. There's tons of open space, huge vistas on hilltops and such that could be used for all sorts of things.. either to alleviate the housing crunch or to provide some resource rewards for determined explorers.. except there's just nothing there. at all. Nothing spawns there, no mobs, no resources, and you can't do anything with it except fly over on a glider or climb around on it and look at the scenery. Seems a waste.

    9. The story is actually kinda decent, if you bother to read. It needs a bit of fleshing out, but then, most MMOs do. Questing is crap, of course.. standard "Laundry List" fare.. but there *is* rather a lot you can do without questing.. if you have the Labor Points.. I think it's absurd that opening 2 coin purses takes as much labor as chopping down a tree, and don't get me started on it costing labor to report a bot..

    10. If you're thinking of playing this..Keep in mind that a lot changed from the Alpha and Beta. The stuff you see on the videos and reviews from those periods really has little to do with the current state of the game. It went downhill.    … Expand
  3. satekh
    Oct 23, 2014
    10
    Seriously, people are rating this game solely on the fact that the launch was a mess. I'd say you'll wanna give it a shot. Do you like sandbox but think it takes too much time to play it successfully? This game is for you. It's a semi-sandbox semi-theme park MMO, good and bad. The combat is tab-target, more or less and the depth lies more within the exploration/crafting aspect, at leastSeriously, people are rating this game solely on the fact that the launch was a mess. I'd say you'll wanna give it a shot. Do you like sandbox but think it takes too much time to play it successfully? This game is for you. It's a semi-sandbox semi-theme park MMO, good and bad. The combat is tab-target, more or less and the depth lies more within the exploration/crafting aspect, at least for me. I say, try it before you judge it. The payment-model isn't P2W in my standards.… Expand
  4. Vareba
    Sep 17, 2014
    5
    It is important to understand one thing: Archeage is a game by XLGames, which happened to be launched by Trion Worlds, Inc. for the NA/EU market. Archeage itself is an amazing game, without doubt. Therefore, critiquing it here on MetaCritic is somewhat of a misnomer, as it's very broadly labeling the game, not the company managing the localized launch.

    That being said, the Trion launch    It is important to understand one thing: Archeage is a game by XLGames, which happened to be launched by Trion Worlds, Inc. for the NA/EU market. Archeage itself is an amazing game, without doubt. Therefore, critiquing it here on MetaCritic is somewhat of a misnomer, as it's very broadly labeling the game, not the company managing the localized launch.

    That being said, the Trion launch has been an absolute disaster and a farce.

    "All launches have problems", "QQ your tears are delicious", etc. is irrelevant. The problems that have been exhibited are huge, and the response has been completely vacant. They have not only failed to address urgent issues, but they have not reflected any desire nor attempt to solve them in the future. their failure to manage this launch, compounded by their immoral service practices is inexcusable, and would easily garner a 0 rating.

    However, as previously mentioned, Archeage is a fantastic game, and itself would deserve a 10.

    #ThanksObama360noscope    … Expand
  5. Uberwolfe
    Sep 18, 2014
    7
    ArcheAge is truly an impressive game in its scope. It is possible to make the game what you will. In fact, it is entirely possible to just stop questing at around level 30 and live and prosper as a crafter.. spend the rest of your days tending your crops and livestock with the occasional foray into the wilds to gather materials. Or, do away with the chivalrous main quest.. join up with aArcheAge is truly an impressive game in its scope. It is possible to make the game what you will. In fact, it is entirely possible to just stop questing at around level 30 and live and prosper as a crafter.. spend the rest of your days tending your crops and livestock with the occasional foray into the wilds to gather materials. Or, do away with the chivalrous main quest.. join up with a pirate gang and turn against the world – including your own faction. How about buy a big boat and work as a ferryman, shipping players across the open seas for gold? All this is possible.

    It's this flexibility that gives ArcheAge a significant edge over the current offering of AAA MMOs. Of course, there are quest hubs and a main story but it quickly becomes apparent that the world is a big place brimming with opportunities. What lies on that distant shore you can spot on the horizon? What kind of adventures await over the hazy blue mountains to the northeast? There is absolutely nothing stopping you from gathering a few supplies and adventuring off to find out.

    On that topic, the feeling of an open, expansive world is accentuated by the fact the world is entirely seamless. You can travel by foot/hoof/paw/boat or glider from one end of the world to the other without being presented with a single loading screen. This harks back to the MMOs of old, and it is truly appreciated that this seemingly lost art has returned here. Forget the heavy instancing in games like Elder Scrolls Online or SWTOR.

    The gliders are truly a brilliant spark, too. Having a finite flight-time combats the issues that are usually caused by flying mounts. The need to find a lofty take-off point and then carefully manage your flight path makes flying a considered act and not just a mindless WASD manoeuvre..

    But sadly, all these amazing features don’t diminish a few glaring negatives. The core of the game, arguably the most important feature, combat, is archaic. Fighting is an old-school tab-target cooldown affair. Pretty much think WoW with the ability to stack combos based on different skill effects. It is mostly static and lacks the dynamic, visceral nature of other recent MMOs such as WildStar or Tera. Add to that a generous helping of lag and combat is basically a ho-hum interference between the start, and the end of your quest. To be fair though, most skills have satisfying effects and feedback, but the very nature of the combat in ArcheAge has seen better days.

    The bland combat isn’t helped by the constant mob tagging. I have waited for up to 30 mins to kill a single quest boss with 20 other players standing around all desperately trying to get a kill. With some classes having a 2-3 second cast time on basic attacks, it can be virtually impossible to kill certain mobs until the other players move on. Some players are willing to group up, but most inexplicably are not. The lack of smart tagging seems to be yet another rustic theme from MMOs of old. But then, if the combat isn’t your thing – then that’s fine. As mentioned already, a non-combat (or at least very minimal) existence is entirely viable.

    ArcheAge allows you to build houses and farms in a host of pre-defined locations. There are entire districts reserved for housing, but also many hidden locations well off the beaten path. Each plot restricts houses to be of a certain size – which I feel is unfortunate. If I pay the tax on a piece of land, I believe I should be able to build whatever I please on it. House designs are bought either from the instanced Mirage Island which is like an island-based shopping mall or from other players on the auction houses. You pay a healthy tax on your property, and if you miss your payments, you lose your plot and all things placed on it will be mailed back to you. Of course, you are welcome to try and grow a farm anywhere in the world, but anything you grow outside of your reserved space is pretty much free-for-all – so hide it well!

    Graphically ArcheAge suffers from inconsistency. There are certain views that are drop-dead goregeous as the CryEngine is capable of. But then there are locations that have had the arm completely rolled over and are almost totally devoid of anything. Character models, gear and mounts are generally very high quality though, and the rich character creator enables a great many options for customization (facial features only).

    Add to all this a proper player-run economy, justice system for naughty players. A healthy selection of classes that can be combined and you do have a compelling and feature-filled MMO. Give it some time for expansion and polish and ArcheAge could truly grow into something amazing.

    Pros: Seamless world, non-linear gameplay options, Housing, Graphics (mostly), Gliders, Variety

    Cons: Lag, DX11 issues, Dated combat, Forgettable characters, Lack of housing space, Tagging

    Note: Review based on premium version    … Expand
  6. Mudgee
    Nov 23, 2014
    7
    Never been huge on the MMO scene. This however, seems to buck the trend with quantity and quality. Unfortunately, I can never get myself back into it. For games like this, you do need online MMO friends. For a casual, single-player, this cannot be done. Great game with little re-playability for me. Even as a $150AUD paying founding member.
  7. Kaiserin
    Sep 21, 2014
    5
    Pros: Fun gameplay and 'gimmicks' (the farming and husbandry especially is fantastic, at least for me!), beautiful scenery and graphical aesthetics, excellent facial customization for your characters, the ability to build ships and sail the seas, beautiful mounts that actually move and appear realistic (most of the time), game encourages guilds and grouping with others to survive and makePros: Fun gameplay and 'gimmicks' (the farming and husbandry especially is fantastic, at least for me!), beautiful scenery and graphical aesthetics, excellent facial customization for your characters, the ability to build ships and sail the seas, beautiful mounts that actually move and appear realistic (most of the time), game encourages guilds and grouping with others to survive and make the most of the game, ability to write/play music.

    Cons: HUGE queues (3-8 hours, from shorted wait to longest for me), nonstop errors of one sort or another - sometimes related to gameplay or other times attributed to billing/payments, poor labor system which encourages people to AFK in game and hold up queues, boring repetitive quests, poorly written story, lack of land for paying customers to place farms/houses, no customization for the body whatsoever.

    Other thoughts:
    Lovely game in terms of actual gameplay and the farming is fantastic, but the issues with long queues (3-10 hours, sometimes even more), nonstop errors, disconnects, etc.. I paid for patron status on the day it came out, didn't go through until the 20th after going through all the payment methods. Just one problem after another, one look at the forums, and you will see why. I tried cancelling my sub and resubbing, then I wasn't able to cancel because of more errors. Still not completely fixed it seems. F2P is not very viable if you want to become a serious crafter or own land/farms, and the labor system is poorly designed as F2P doesn't get enough to do much of anything unless they afk and stay logged in the game to accrue more.

    All in all, I would recommend it, but maybe in a month or two with the hope that some issues will be fixed. I think it could be a wonderful game, but Trion isn't doing very well to keep their customers happy!    … Expand
  8. Kaosh
    Oct 13, 2014
    10
    Some of the best fun i've had in a MMORPG. Since EverQuest and vanilla Wow, the genre hasn't been able to make me feel like i am diving into another world. Freedom of choice, secret adventures you can find if you investigate, the possibility to be peaceful, own lands and become a farmer, or even the opposite, to break the law, act against your faction, murder and loot, and finally become aSome of the best fun i've had in a MMORPG. Since EverQuest and vanilla Wow, the genre hasn't been able to make me feel like i am diving into another world. Freedom of choice, secret adventures you can find if you investigate, the possibility to be peaceful, own lands and become a farmer, or even the opposite, to break the law, act against your faction, murder and loot, and finally become a pirate. All of that and some other things make your actions have consequences, you feel that what you do matters. For those who don't pay, a good management of time and effort can easily grant them gold-paid subscription items. In general, very happy about this game. Give it a try and you will probably agree with me.… Expand
  9. merican1fidel
    Sep 12, 2015
    10
    Archeage went through a rough patch where it lost alot of its followers. I was one of them. Today Archeage is better than ever. They listened to their community and did their best to fix everything. The game is now on par with the Korean version and Naval combat was brought into a new light. It is amazing. Overall Archeage has a large player base and many options if you don't want to doArcheage went through a rough patch where it lost alot of its followers. I was one of them. Today Archeage is better than ever. They listened to their community and did their best to fix everything. The game is now on par with the Korean version and Naval combat was brought into a new light. It is amazing. Overall Archeage has a large player base and many options if you don't want to do any pvp you don't have to. There is a decent story line specific to each faction and your continent begins to feel like home. If you haven't played before its well work the free price tag... hundreds of hours of gameplay and you don't have to be a premium member to experience it. If you do want something to work towards you can buy premium membership with in game money. That is money you earn in the game from selling things on the market, to running and crafting trade packs. It takes some work but it is well worth it. If you are new to the game don't worry they just opened some new fresh start servers and there are a lot of helpful players out there. If you are returning you'll find a completely new guild system and tons of improvements. Check it out for sure.… Expand
  10. Johay
    Oct 29, 2015
    10
    All bugs/exploits of 1,7 fixed. 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.
  11. Kloonike
    Oct 29, 2015
    8
    Game of the century! I love how this game is set up, it has all the elements you'd look for in an MMORPG. There's houses, cars, boats... PVP with risk involved, amazing 1v1 experience in Gladiator Arena... This game is not for the soft hearted tho... It's a hardcore game where your ceilign is set very high. Cash shop actually helps the casuals to keep up with the progress somewhat. This isGame of the century! I love how this game is set up, it has all the elements you'd look for in an MMORPG. There's houses, cars, boats... PVP with risk involved, amazing 1v1 experience in Gladiator Arena... This game is not for the soft hearted tho... It's a hardcore game where your ceilign is set very high. Cash shop actually helps the casuals to keep up with the progress somewhat. This is a free to play game and you can succeed in it with dedication and by playing smart. Enjoy your time in ArcheAge!… Expand
  12. kitsuneshoujo
    Sep 17, 2014
    5
    Good game, bad management... my biggest complaint is the way they apply the pre-oder in-game perks. Instead of simply give the items to all your characters you make on all servers, they apply them the *first six* And if you happen to make test characters to see what they look like in-game, well then, sucks to be you... cause you just deleted your in-game stuff and no soup for you!
  13. ekolet
    Oct 13, 2014
    0
    Infested with hackers/bots/gold sellers and Trion does nothing about it. Even the official forums hosts porn and other stuff and it takes weeks before they get deleted (if ever). I have never seen an online game managed so horribly. Housing is more than %60 of this games content and automatic house placement hacks deny everybody from owning property.

    And don't even bother with f2p.
  14. PeregrineOmega
    Nov 1, 2014
    10
    I'm giving this a 10 because I'm not exactly sure why people are so hastily against it. It's definitely a bit buggy, but not out of the ordinary for an MMO of this size. It's got a lot of things going for it, and its size is definitely one of them. It needs care and development overall, but the in-game GMs are VERY active and very quick to squash bots and hackers on site and will rewardI'm giving this a 10 because I'm not exactly sure why people are so hastily against it. It's definitely a bit buggy, but not out of the ordinary for an MMO of this size. It's got a lot of things going for it, and its size is definitely one of them. It needs care and development overall, but the in-game GMs are VERY active and very quick to squash bots and hackers on site and will reward you for accurate reporting. It's clear that the developers want this game to succeed.

    It's big, beautiful and better than ESO, that's for sure. I'm still playing for free and don't see why so many people think it's "pay2win." You can have a lot of fun as a free player and not even think about paying unless you want to get serious about playing the game. At which point... why wouldn't you pay?

    I think people are misunderstanding what is necessary to run an MMO. It's hard, expensive and time consuming. There must be incentive to pay, and I honestly wish more games would go back to an exclusive subscription plan. As someone who played Ultima, EVE and City of Heroes for several years, I don't see why you shouldn't expect to dish out for the full experience. Don't be afraid to pay for a game you like, and you will be rewarded for it. Stop expecting great MMOs to be free, and you might actually have some fun.    … Expand
  15. monnef
    Nov 5, 2014
    2
    All begins with untruthful hardware requirements (e.g. 2GB RAM is no way enough, even with 4gigs the game were forcing Windows to swap). I really liked the idea of sandbox with thousands of people cooperating, crafting and building. But all this is severely limited by labor system, as a free player you have no chance of doing any "sandboxy" things. Those things, which are only advantageAll begins with untruthful hardware requirements (e.g. 2GB RAM is no way enough, even with 4gigs the game were forcing Windows to swap). I really liked the idea of sandbox with thousands of people cooperating, crafting and building. But all this is severely limited by labor system, as a free player you have no chance of doing any "sandboxy" things. Those things, which are only advantage over other F2P MMORPGs. Without these elements it's just another MMORPG game with nothing new and a lot of standard PVE and PVP stuff missing (again, from a point of view of F2P players).

    Transporation is tedious - takes minutes/tens of minutes, in my opinion too much realistic. Dungeons don't seem too elaborate. I did miss a lot of group PVE features - like proper loot system (no greed option, just pass/need), no group finder for dungeons/quests. I also dislike the notion of "only world PVP". I kinda like instanced PVPs with some team objective(s) - capture the flag, domination and so on. Quests feel repetitive even on lower levels, only story quests were a bit better (probably because of short cutscenes).

    Queues were a big problem, but I assume it gets/got better. What is a problem (for me at least) is EU players being treated as second class citizens, for example restarts in prime time, US problems are always fixed first (in some cases days between fixing US and EU side) and prices of paid items.

    It's pure PAY TO WIN, unless you buy a patron status, you are nothing. If you aren't planning on tossing money away, then avoid even trying this game, it's not worth it.    … Expand
  16. Kyzara
    Sep 29, 2014
    9
    Did you ever play Ultima Online? Do you miss hunting Player Killers, being a player killer, having the ability to choose what skills you can use? Do you like owning land and running your own business? In Archeage you really can do all of these things.

    This game reminds me quite a bit of the old Ultima Online type of gameplay and pvp is far from fair or balanced. This game is based on    Did you ever play Ultima Online? Do you miss hunting Player Killers, being a player killer, having the ability to choose what skills you can use? Do you like owning land and running your own business? In Archeage you really can do all of these things.

    This game reminds me quite a bit of the old Ultima Online type of gameplay and pvp is far from fair or balanced. This game is based on group pvp and poltics. House building and life being unfair. If you aren't interested in this type of game play and earning(and being able to lose what you earned) then don't play it. But the old school gaming population has been crying for a game like this for years and this game delivers that experience. The best part of the justice system where you can have a trial among your peers. Are some jurors corrupt? yep! Is it fair? Nope. Is life fair? No.

    If you like sand box work for what you earn and defend it type games this is the game for you. If you want an easy game with little challenge then this won't be your cup of tea. For what it is it delivers and is a really interesting experience if you enjoyed games like Shadowblade or Ultima Online(pre-Tram).

    Yes there is a little pay to win if you want to craft and be part of the economy. However, I don't see that deserving of a bad rating. Yes Queues are bad right now again that's every MMO. All the reviews here that are bad are complaining about things that are minor as this game and the game world is really fun for the sandbox players. It's the same as any game, F2P is a taste of the game. If you want to full experience pay for it. If you don't like the game don't pay... When I like a game I don't mind giving money to a publisher to support it.    … Expand
  17. Phaetul
    Sep 18, 2014
    7
    This isn't a solo game. You NEED a guild, a good guild.
    The majority of the horrible ratings are from f2p'ers that don't know what this game is about and most that I've read sound like they have been trying to solo it. Not one of them offers a description of said P2W'ness either.
    You have to be a Patron to be able to own land. I attempted to log in as soon as the servers went live for    This isn't a solo game. You NEED a guild, a good guild.
    The majority of the horrible ratings are from f2p'ers that don't know what this game is about and most that I've read sound like they have been trying to solo it. Not one of them offers a description of said P2W'ness either.
    You have to be a Patron to be able to own land. I attempted to log in as soon as the servers went live for headstart but was unable to (Due to the massive influx of players) until 15m after launch and that was just to log into the queue of 1.5 hours. So I ended the day with 8 hours played and 59 gildas with no place to put down a house. Granted I had one of the larger starter houses the "Thatched Farmhouse" but all places except some of the far flung PVP areas were claimed. I did get to place an 8x8 farm which is the smallest you can own.
    So paying for Patron status did me no good in that respect.
    Labor is an resource that you get for being in game (Which lets you build/craft/plant open drop items). If you are a Patron you get double the amount of the f2p and you get it offline at the same rate as the f2p get it while on. You can also purchase a potion that gives you 1000 labor. After you take one you can't use another for 12 hours. Not really a big deal since f2p can buy them on the AH for 4-8g.
    You can use public farms to grow just about anything.
    Gold isn't an issue for f2p because they can still do trade runs that they can gather materials for easily and make anywhere from 2-9 gold per run. Only issue is that you don't get the money for 22 hours or so regardless of whether you are a Patron or f2p.

    The major problem this game has is space.

    Things I would have liked to seen changed:
    *Non-instanced housing is great and cool but I would love to see instanced housing as well. Nobody can give me a good reason (At least in my opinion) why everyone can't own a house. It is the major selling point of the game and the only way to get it now is from players that bought up a ton of land in the first 2 hours or be in a good guild. If I had land I wouldn't be selling it. Also if there were Instanced housing they wouldn't have a problem having more than the few servers that they have now. They don't want merges on their hands. If they merged servers people would lose land claims and would rage the way it is now but there should never be a server with a queue of 3900 people. This just turns away prospective paying customers. It just doesn't make much sense to me.

    Also my guild and I practiced running the 59 Gilda story quest run several times prior to launch and we could have 59 Gilda's in less than 2.5 hrs. Apparently everyone else in the head start did this as well. Due to the horrible idea of having items and quest givers react to every player that turns in a quest (they also have a cool-down between talking to the quest giver or interacting with an object on some quests)
    One example that really bottle necked us was Flora on the West continent. A big block of stone with a chick in it kind of like when Han Solo was sealed in Carbonite. You had to interact with her to progress the quest. When you do this she is inaccessible to anyone else and has like a 2 sec cool down. That doesn't sound so bad but there were about 80 people on and around her trying to do the same thing and for every one that got it down 3 more would show up. This by itself took me 3 hours to luck out finally.
    So the Gilda run that took less than 2.5 hrs before now ended up taking over 6 hours.
    No game should ever have that same kind of mechanism.

    TL;DR version:
    Limited space is the main reason that I have only rated this game a 7. If these issues weren't here I'd rate it a solid 9.
    This isn't a P2W game anyone that says it is has no idea what they are talking about ask for specifics and see the above long version.    … Expand
  18. Rigermortis
    Oct 2, 2014
    10
    I've now played for a few weeks and I'm still loving it. The issues are sorted out now mostly and the game is settling into a nice rhythm.

    This is not Rift and it's not WoW. It's more like Eve Online but in a fantasy world. The "end game" is the player economy: Trading/PVPing over limited wealth and resources. Trade is difficult as you need to transport goods as well as craft them.    I've now played for a few weeks and I'm still loving it. The issues are sorted out now mostly and the game is settling into a nice rhythm.

    This is not Rift and it's not WoW. It's more like Eve Online but in a fantasy world.

    The "end game" is the player economy: Trading/PVPing over limited wealth and resources. Trade is difficult as you need to transport goods as well as craft them. The aim should be to move from lugging everything around yourself to mass production and carrying vehicles as well as other players.

    As a free to player it's a fully fledged linear themepark MMO like WoW and Rift though you can't own land and have limited trade ability. As a Patron you can own land and trade freely opening the game up as a non linear "sandbox" experience.

    Patron status (subscription) does not give you free land just the ability to purchase and use land. Giving land to Patron's would be tantamount to pay to win as the game is meant to be driven by players selling to players.

    Patrons definitely get major economic advantages over non patrons however this isn't a pay to win system as you can purchase patron status with in game gold via purchasing Apex (game credits) off other players.

    If you don't like crafting and player economies, if you don't like PVP, if you want to spend most of your time solo gaming this isn't the game for you.

    Essentially where ESO is a Themepark in a sandbox skin, ArcheAge is a snandbox in a themepark skin. Deceptively linear to new comers who then get very annoyed with it's sandbox non linear player based gameplay later on.    … Expand
  19. pacifyx
    Oct 15, 2014
    8
    Dear god. What a bunch of troll review. There is no real P2W in this game..... its not an issue.

    The game is the only semi-sandbox MMO released in a long time, it fundamentally is a solid game. It doesnt deserve 3.7. God metacritic user reviews are so troll
  20. rpg4life
    Nov 9, 2014
    1
    Alright this game isnt terrible because of the pay 2 win crap... those idiots complaining about that are just cheap and if you cant pay 15 dollars a month like wow or any other rpg then you shouldnt play this game period. Now! that said this game is the best rpg ive ever played hands down in terms of character versatility build wise, questing, professions, and the idea of farming. Now whenAlright this game isnt terrible because of the pay 2 win crap... those idiots complaining about that are just cheap and if you cant pay 15 dollars a month like wow or any other rpg then you shouldnt play this game period. Now! that said this game is the best rpg ive ever played hands down in terms of character versatility build wise, questing, professions, and the idea of farming. Now when i say idea of farming im meaning they had a fantastic idea for this but their biggest down fall in this game is there is no where to put a house and farm plots!! One of the coolest factors in this game is their biggest down fall so making money and some of the professions goes to crap due to this inablility to farm. Everything is taken! I finally found a place to put a house but was in a pvp area and its literally 20 feet from where you can craft the stone, iron, or wood packs which i thought would be nice... wrong. People literally sit there and wait for you to craft then go to build on your house and then kill you and take your materials. The ones you have been farming hours for... If you dont have a group of body guards with you then you cant build crap in this game and in otherwords make money. So people dont waste your time. This little factor in the end makes the game terrible to play and its sad beacause it has such amazing potencial. If they could fix this then id come back to it but till then they get a 1 as a score.… Expand
  21. Magesw
    Sep 17, 2014
    10
    Other then the que's(which will be fixed with time) this game is exactly what the NA needed instead of all these WoW clones we get an awesome game! The graphic are decent, the game play is great and the PvP is even better. Try this game and see for yourself.
  22. DriadShatigon
    Sep 17, 2014
    10
    Have been playin since closed beta and never got tired of it, i recomend this game to all MMORPG players of the old school, they will enjoy.

    Only thing to be aware atm is current overpopulation, have fun!
  23. dukstuf
    Sep 19, 2014
    10
    Long time player of MMO's here, and despite the multitude of whining in many reviews about AA being "pay to win", the truth is that this game, played absolutely free, easily offers the finest open sandbox experience since Ultima Online- a truly creative and open gaming experience where you can choose exactly what you want to be, where you want to go, and the style of gameplay you wantLong time player of MMO's here, and despite the multitude of whining in many reviews about AA being "pay to win", the truth is that this game, played absolutely free, easily offers the finest open sandbox experience since Ultima Online- a truly creative and open gaming experience where you can choose exactly what you want to be, where you want to go, and the style of gameplay you want without restrictions.

    After the glut of endless WOW clones that force you into narrow mazes and dangle carrots you can't avoid, Archeage comes along and gives the player the freedom to explore at their own pace in any way they like. You can choose to follow the scripted story, but you certainly don't have to. You can build your character to suit your style of play in a system that offers huge customization, choosing from a large number of classes, three of which you can combine to create one of some 120 different classes, each with unique underlying skills that make it possible that your character won't be just like anyone elses.

    It's true that right now there are large lines waiting to get into this game. Until enough servers are brought on line to handle the games huge popularity, this is the games largest problem. The claims that the game is pay to win is strictly the opinion of the under ten year old crowd. "Winning" in this perfectly open sandbox with a huge world to explore is the perspective of someone immature and too slow witted to understand that a game like this is not "won:- it is a world to live in and explore and enjoy. This sandbox is about the journey.

    There are several aspects of Archeage that raise it up above all other modern MMOs for me as a long time player of these things. As a gaming conceptual designer myself, I look for a game design that offers creative, thinking choices. I don't want to be told what to do, I want to decide what direction I go, myself.

    1. While the game has an excellent, deep class creation system and a fine combat system for pvp, that is only a small fraction of "what there is to do" in this game.

    2. The system's economy, crafting system and natural environment used to acquire raw materials are the best I've very seen in a PC game. There is so very much to create, and there is such a variety of types of crafting that it's a whole game unto itself.

    3. The water/seafaring elements and the air travel offer the best looking and feeling environments of any PC game I've played. Finding undersea shipwrecks and flying onto otherwise unreachable peaks have never felt so adventuresome in any other game. The simple amount of custom detail in the world is beyond belief.

    4. Cities are truly remarkable in the attention to details. This game is a roleplayer's paradise, as it'squite possible to get lost in the endless streets, all of which have custom shops, vast numbers of nocs ad even explorable rooftops with interesting and varied architecture. When I was sent on a quest to find some hidden harpy nesting areas up in the city rooftops, it felt like a real mystery, with hundreds of rooftops and ledges and nooks and crannies. Capturing this sense of real space up above the action areas below made the city seem remarkably real. It's very sad that so many players rush through the quests in their mad race to try and reach level 50 that they miss the entire point of the journey- and those are exactly the people blabbering about this beautiful masterpiece of a game being a "pay to win". Winning in ArcheAge simply requires slowing down, opening your eyes and looking at the world around you.

    5. The world is truly magnificent to look at. Where a game like Skyrim has moments that are pretty, everything about ArcheAge is not only beautiful, but also aesthetically tasteful. The characters have grace when they stand. They not only look fantastic in a photo, but they move with a wonderful, realistic sense of romantic realism, which Skyrim lacked. It's not just the technology- it's also endless attention to being perfect on the part of the designers. It's good taste. The mountains in ArcheAge seem real, and they don't feel like they are blocking off areas- they seem natural.

    6. There are no artificial boundaries. You can see everywhere. There aren't transitions. Some places are crystal clear and you can see for miles, but some islands are jungle like and thick with mists so you can't see ten feet. It's wonderful.

    7. There is no lag on my medium quality machine. I don't know how this is possible, but this game runs perfectly- in all it's beauty and with a whole world to explore at the same time there are thousands of others on too. It is a remarkable achievement in this regard.

    8. Housing is robust and not an afterthought. There are tons and tons of furnishings. Much you can make. There is a whole island where you can buy stuff for your house, and like old UO from ages ago, land is at a premium, making housing valuable.

    ArcheAge is designed for creative, thinking players.    … Expand
  24. Aerisa
    Sep 24, 2014
    10
    A beautiful game all round, Archeage is an MMORPG that anyone can enjoy.

    The game has so much to draw you in and keep you playing and playing and well, playing!.. Housing and Farming, a truly in depth and immersible trading system, an intelligent well thought out and sophisticated (yet surprisingly simple to understand) PVP system with Pirates; Crime Points, Jails, separate continents,    A beautiful game all round, Archeage is an MMORPG that anyone can enjoy.

    The game has so much to draw you in and keep you playing and playing and well, playing!.. Housing and Farming, a truly in depth and immersible trading system, an intelligent well thought out and sophisticated (yet surprisingly simple to understand) PVP system with Pirates; Crime Points, Jails, separate continents, war zones, trade routes, treasures and more. Crafting, different currency's, flying, all sorts of different mounts and pets, an amazing selection of different live stock, trees and farming goods, ships of all sorts and so so much more!

    This game is easy to pick up, but very hard to master! Making it something to work for and enjoy along the way. One thing I have loved about this game is that it gives you so many options to choose your path and create your way... Whether that be through trade routes, renting or selling land, being a pirate, PVP, stealing or committing crime, questing, grinding, crafting, stealthy missions or simply taking on adventure you can become somewhat unique.

    I guarantee after finishing your early quests and becoming familiar with how the game works you will enjoy yourself for countless hours.

    I must note though, this game is definitely more enjoyable with friends and I recommend gathering up as many as possible, whether they are new to MMOs or not!    … Expand
  25. Aedrone12
    Sep 16, 2014
    10
    Okay so let me point something out here guys.
    the company that is releasing the English version of this game is not responsible for patches that you don't like, rather they are responsible for the servers and translation on the game. The original game came from Korea.
    So if you have any complaints, go learn Korean and talk to the actual game developers.
  26. thatfool
    Sep 19, 2014
    10
    Pretty decent game, if you can get in of course (it's more popular than expected apparently). The cash shop is fair, you can pay for slightly faster progression but you can't pay for better equipment. Quests are standard MMO fare but crafting, trading and open world PVP are far superior to many other games.

    Bonus: Whining by people trying to blame their bad decision making on the    Pretty decent game, if you can get in of course (it's more popular than expected apparently). The cash shop is fair, you can pay for slightly faster progression but you can't pay for better equipment. Quests are standard MMO fare but crafting, trading and open world PVP are far superior to many other games.

    Bonus: Whining by people trying to blame their bad decision making on the developer is moderately fun to watch.    … Expand
  27. solmark
    Sep 17, 2014
    7
    A great looking game packed with great stuff but ruined by a truly awful launch. Tremendous potential but the worst launch of a game I've witness in many many years.
  28. Kad_Solu
    Sep 16, 2014
    10
    The sandbox MMO you have been waiting for! Other than the questing, which of course is themepark style, the rest of the world is yours to craft, claim, and conquer. First off I would like to address the basics. The graphics are stunning for a massive game such as Archeage, running on Cryengine 3™. The game features the latest Direct X 11 tech, with good sliders and optimization, so you canThe sandbox MMO you have been waiting for! Other than the questing, which of course is themepark style, the rest of the world is yours to craft, claim, and conquer. First off I would like to address the basics. The graphics are stunning for a massive game such as Archeage, running on Cryengine 3™. The game features the latest Direct X 11 tech, with good sliders and optimization, so you can get the game looking great, and performing just as well. The sound gets the job done, with a great subtle touch of harmonious music, which seems to come from a good composer. Combat is standard tab targeting affair with GCD's, etc. It has an old school feel to it, but when you add in cry engine 3 that old school feel is still very much alive and even more fluid than ever by utilizing smooth animations. Questing is centered around different hubs in and out of zones, standard mmo practice, but don't let that deter you. They have created a system which allows you to turn in quest early (not a good idea), or you can overachieve them by performing a few extra kills, or tasks (highly recommended), which in turn grant more exp. One of the bigger factors of the game revolves around PvP (which is absolutely incredible) as two factions at war are in a constant struggle to claim dominance. You will fight on the land, you will fight in the air, and you will fight in the vast ocean as you help your faction rid its foe. Kills grant honor points which can be spent on purchasing various things, most of which are unique only to the honor system. A simple trek across the ocean with some friends seeking sunken treasure, can lead to being raided by pirates (which is a third faction, more on that soon*). You never really feel safe outside of your home continent, which in turn creates a feeling of suspense, you never know when someone is out to get you. Now don't get me wrong this can lead to some frustrating moments for some, such as making a trade run across the ocean only to be raided for your trade pack and lose all that hard earned potential profit, but that is the beauty of this game. Bad luck can instantaneously shift into great fortune, for example, let's say you are with your guild mates and you lose a couple trade packs to some pirates, you put up a good fight, but the battle is lost and now you all are left empty handed. Sadly making your way back home, you encounter a merchant ship loaded with trade packs, but heavily unguarded, being upset from being raided you decide to get some revenge on this poor soul. After sending him to Davy Jones Locker, all of those precious trade packs are yours for the taking. So this run you lost a couple packs, but on the way back you ended up looting double what you originally had. These kind of player interactions is what makes this game so intriguing. You seriously never know what will happen on any given day whilst out braving the waters. This game doesn't stop at questing and pvp, not even close. The amount of things to craft, gather, and collect can seem overwhelming at times due to the labor point system. Which is a system set in place that limits someones ability to farm materials for hours on end flooding the market, and creating more opportunities for gold sellers. The system that is set up works like this, just about everything you do non combat and quest related takes labor points. For example, say you find an aspen tree growing illegally (Yes there is illegal crops/farms, which can get you thrown in jail if caught stealing crops) in order to cut the tree down you will need to spend a few labor points, in this case given an aspen tree, it will be around 10 points. The people who enjoy the game enough to subscribe monthly are given patron status which nets you 10 labor points every 5 minutes while online, and 5 points every 5 minutes while offline. Free to play users will get 5 labor points every 5 minutes only while online. Upon hearing about this system prior to actually playing the game, i will say i was turned off. I decided to overlook this feature and try the game anyhow, and boy am i glad i did. This system has many great uses to help stop gold farmers in their tracks. Will it completely prevent gold selling? No, of course not but it is a great system in place to make it much harder for them. If you are a patron, you will notice labor points are not actually that big of a deal, because whenever you are running low on them, you can take a break and do some questing, pvp, trade runs, etc, and before you know it you are back to nice comfortable amount ready to start burning through them once again. There is so much more to this review i feel i could take up pages and minutes of your time, but the bottom line is this folks. If you yearn for the old days of SWG, and even Ultima online, this is the game you want to grab some buddies, get some coffee & snacks, and prepare to lose yourself in this vast, seemingly unparalleled virtual world.
    TLDR; Play this game! *No room to cover the pirates    … Expand
  29. Drakota
    Sep 16, 2014
    10
    One of my best MMO, There's more than 120 Classes + Combos make the combat like a weird hybrid not exacly the same as WoW but not like GW2, this game as alot of content and alot to do, if you love:
    Housing
    Farming Open PVP Boat Gliders RP and the most important one : Cows this is your game. Cons: PVE Dungeons Questing, it's not bad but it's not good either but it's just a    One of my best MMO, There's more than 120 Classes + Combos make the combat like a weird hybrid not exacly the same as WoW but not like GW2, this game as alot of content and alot to do, if you love:
    Housing
    Farming
    Open PVP
    Boat
    Gliders
    RP
    and the most important one : Cows
    this is your game.

    Cons:
    PVE
    Dungeons
    Questing, it's not bad but it's not good either but it's just a alternative way to level up

    Also keep in mind the game just start, it's not perfect(PVE), and i hope they keep working on it because if they do, this could be one of the best MMO    … Expand
  30. Laeris
    Sep 26, 2014
    10
    Now that the launch nonsense is fixed... it's review time! I'll keep is short and simple here.

    Graphics are great with CryEngine 3. Fully optimized with nextgen hardware in mind. With a relatively high-end PC, I am getting 150ish FPS in most areas with a large format monitor. Gameplay is great IF YOU KNOW WHAT A SANDBOX MMO IS. There's a vast amount of things to do and I haven't    Now that the launch nonsense is fixed... it's review time! I'll keep is short and simple here.

    Graphics are great with CryEngine 3. Fully optimized with nextgen hardware in mind. With a relatively high-end PC, I am getting 150ish FPS in most areas with a large format monitor.

    Gameplay is great IF YOU KNOW WHAT A SANDBOX MMO IS. There's a vast amount of things to do and I haven't ran into any bugged quests or glitches yet (Level 48 of 50 presently). There's ships to sail, open world PvP, trading, light PvE content. Make no mistake though, this is a full on PvP game at its center.

    This game has great attention to detail. Animations are lifelike, dynamic seasons and weather.

    Some things folks may not like: This game requires a subscription. Sure, you can opt to pay as a F2P user, but you are throttled way back and will be used as cannon fodder until you pay. Think of the pay options in AA to be more like older try before you buy style of pay models. You can play for free, but until you pay for it you will never amount to anything... which is fine by me.

    Lots of kids and freeloaders will not like this system... but then again, AA is not a game for casuals or for people who don't have an income. It is insanely time-intensive and you have to invest time and effort to get things done. F2P users rarely like to invest anything into any game... and as we have seen so far, they don't generally like it because... well, this isn't a freeware carebear simulator like they're used to.

    Overall, I love this game... There's a lot to do and if you can afford $15 a month, it is a truly awesome experience. If you refuse to buy a patron pass (monthly sub), you will be farmed, you won't own land, your gear will be 10 levels behind everything else in the game that drops and you can't even use the auction house to fix that problem. If you want a F2P game... go play something like Rift or SWTOR. In those games you have a chance at being somebody. In AA, you will be farmed, you will die a lot and there is nothing you can do about it until you stop whining and sub like everyone else.    … Expand
Page:

Awards & Rankings

74
#74 Best PC Game of 2014
14
#14 Most Discussed PC Game of 2014
22
#22 Most Shared PC Game of 2014

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
80

Generally favorable reviews - based on 11 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 9 out of 11
  2. Mixed: 2 out of 11
  3. Negative: 0 out of 11
  1. SpazioGames
    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.
    Read full review
  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. Gaming Nexus
    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.
    Read full review
See all critic reviews »