Zappo
03-14-2017, 04:37 PM
A couple weeks ago I re-installed Project Gorgon. It’s a free game that I had abandoned sometime last year. I really only re-installed it because I wanted to test out a Steam controller that I picked up. I got the controller working while I got hooked on the game, oops.
I wanted to write up a thing on why I find PG catchy. I think the game is made up of mostly former Asheron’s Call players. I’ve read people calling it a sandbox MMORPG—it’s totally not. It does have an open class system though, where anyone can learn any skill. And there is not a real linear order of quest progression, which is nice. They’ve advertised advancement as being like, “hey if you want to get better at a skill, use that skill!” That is only half true, because so many skills require some level of faction (it is called favor in the game and its specific to one NPC) or a quest. Kill a named boss, learn knife fighting or handover snail shells and poetry and learn to fight with a staff!
A big part of the game is earning favor with as many NPCs as you possibly can. Getting higher levels of favor is great because some NPCs let you store stuff with them, train in skills/recipes, and sell more things. The selling part is bigger than you might first think because NPCs will run out of money and not everyone buys everything. Example, let’s say I hoard tons of mushrooms and sell it to one specific NPC, he’ll runout of money for a week and so I’m encouraged to play the game differently. It’s a challenge that is annoying at first, but I now somewhat enjoy after learning who buys what.
Death in the game is interesting. When you die from trash, you might get a weaker curse like lice, which lowers some maximum stats a small bit. I could pay to cure it, but I don’t care enough yet. #lice4life. When a named kills you, you can get a more significant semi-permanent curse. The biggest noob-boss just gives you an enlarged head, one boss that killed me and blocked me from using my basic/weaker attacks. I had to get guild mates to help kill the boss to lift that curse ASAP. I’m actually still running around with a different curse that stops me from typing my own name. Instead of me saying my own name, I’m literally saying, “Regrettable mistake”, “unimportant” “Sinister Mockery”, “idiot”, “Eternal fool” and other triggering phrases to the emotionally unstable. Once you gain a nice amount of death experience (yes death is a skill) you can “enter the light” after you die and port to town. It's a great transportation tool. I earned mine after crafting this “word of power”, where like a password pops up on my screen that I had to jot down in a notepad (the in-game notepad lives in the quest journal), that allowed me to kill myself upon speaking the word. The unique word is usable once. Words of power can sometimes grant a nice utilities or a random curse(http://projectgorgon.com/wiki/Words_of_Power). Nice and unique.
Quick notable other things:
*Nothing is instanced. Very retro.
*Attacks are enchanted/changed heavily by gear. I have some attacks that are so so, but the gear I wear makes them hit harder, allows for combinations of skills to have an extra effect and/or make the ability deal a different type of damage. I like this because a specific armor buff might be good enough to make me play differently or hold onto an item longer than I would otherwise.
For a free game in alpha, it’s really worth checking out. If anyone else is playing, we should link up! Rambling post, off.
I wanted to write up a thing on why I find PG catchy. I think the game is made up of mostly former Asheron’s Call players. I’ve read people calling it a sandbox MMORPG—it’s totally not. It does have an open class system though, where anyone can learn any skill. And there is not a real linear order of quest progression, which is nice. They’ve advertised advancement as being like, “hey if you want to get better at a skill, use that skill!” That is only half true, because so many skills require some level of faction (it is called favor in the game and its specific to one NPC) or a quest. Kill a named boss, learn knife fighting or handover snail shells and poetry and learn to fight with a staff!
A big part of the game is earning favor with as many NPCs as you possibly can. Getting higher levels of favor is great because some NPCs let you store stuff with them, train in skills/recipes, and sell more things. The selling part is bigger than you might first think because NPCs will run out of money and not everyone buys everything. Example, let’s say I hoard tons of mushrooms and sell it to one specific NPC, he’ll runout of money for a week and so I’m encouraged to play the game differently. It’s a challenge that is annoying at first, but I now somewhat enjoy after learning who buys what.
Death in the game is interesting. When you die from trash, you might get a weaker curse like lice, which lowers some maximum stats a small bit. I could pay to cure it, but I don’t care enough yet. #lice4life. When a named kills you, you can get a more significant semi-permanent curse. The biggest noob-boss just gives you an enlarged head, one boss that killed me and blocked me from using my basic/weaker attacks. I had to get guild mates to help kill the boss to lift that curse ASAP. I’m actually still running around with a different curse that stops me from typing my own name. Instead of me saying my own name, I’m literally saying, “Regrettable mistake”, “unimportant” “Sinister Mockery”, “idiot”, “Eternal fool” and other triggering phrases to the emotionally unstable. Once you gain a nice amount of death experience (yes death is a skill) you can “enter the light” after you die and port to town. It's a great transportation tool. I earned mine after crafting this “word of power”, where like a password pops up on my screen that I had to jot down in a notepad (the in-game notepad lives in the quest journal), that allowed me to kill myself upon speaking the word. The unique word is usable once. Words of power can sometimes grant a nice utilities or a random curse(http://projectgorgon.com/wiki/Words_of_Power). Nice and unique.
Quick notable other things:
*Nothing is instanced. Very retro.
*Attacks are enchanted/changed heavily by gear. I have some attacks that are so so, but the gear I wear makes them hit harder, allows for combinations of skills to have an extra effect and/or make the ability deal a different type of damage. I like this because a specific armor buff might be good enough to make me play differently or hold onto an item longer than I would otherwise.
For a free game in alpha, it’s really worth checking out. If anyone else is playing, we should link up! Rambling post, off.