Godswar Online - Play it while NOT playing it.

I came across this sorry excuse of an mmo whilst browsing http://www.mmorpg.com , a site that I frequently look at, in my search for new and interesting (albeit mostly crappy) online games.

My attention was caught by a banner that read something to the extent of:

Download it in 5 minutes! Level up in 60 seconds!

And they were right!!! Finally a banner add for a crappy mmorpg that actually keeps its promise!

The full game file was around 150mb to download, so quick and easy to get that one, compared to the usual 1 to 3 gb files we see in most of the newer trials and full games. But there is a very good reason for the small file size...

The game looks like it belongs somewhere in the back of my closet next to some random Playstation 1 game :/

In short, its a semi-topdown/isometric , 2.5D game with graphics that look like a horrible mix of some epic fail anime and UFO X-Com Enemy Unknown from 1990 something :P

As a player you start in either Sparta or Athens, both are regions where npcs were named after prominent figures in the greek history and then had their names Engrishly butchered by adding about 80% mispelling to their names. Anyways, who cares about history and flavour in an mmorpg, its just like every other game afterall! So lets just ignore the great greek history and randomly throw around names of deities like Hephaestus and Melpomene and give them retarded jobs like Potion Vendor and Skill Trainer ;)

To be honest, I am not really sure if I played the role of a hero or a god or a randomly chosen chibimon, aimlessly wandering around the greek countryside looking for things to kill and stuff to do...

Anyways... The level curve was pretty quick, you pick up a quest, go out and kill some mobs, finish the quest and go back to town to hand it in it. Well... by pretty quick, I mean by Asian Mmorpg Standards of course :P

It took me about 3 days or so to hit lvl 50 and maximum level is... i think 200 (I know that if I did it again, I could probably do it alot faster... but no thanks, Already uninstalled the game and wont retry it... even though it only takes FIVE minutes to download and SIXTY seconds to level!!!one!1 )

Now before you say anything along the lines of: oooh, but it must have been alright for you to play it for 3 whole days? if it was THAT shit, wouldnt you have just quit after the first 1-2 hours?

Yes I would... But I will tell you why I didnt! :P

Godswar Online has a built in BOT/AFK function! The game is soooo shit that the developers had to put in a function that lets you go away from the computer while its playing the game for you! ;)

All you have to do is set up the AFK system so that it drinks healing potions at a certain percentage of hp or drinks manapotions... then you drag some of your offensive skills to your AFK System window and you're good to go!

Good to go away from your pc and go have FUN! instead of playing that horrible horrible game.

Sadly the AFK system doesnt pick up loot for you, so after a few days you'll find yourself at medium-high levels... and broke and wearing crap gear ;)

It did have an interesting kind of character progression system though, and I have to admit, this was one of the reasons that kept me going, but I quickly realised that it was relatively simple and quite un-eventful.

You have 2 xp bars... One of them is for your Experience Level and will increase every aspect of your character whenever you level up...

The other is the more interesting one, and is used to accumulate Talent/Tactic/Skill Points... Sadly the system is a bit flawed... The bar always has 100 points max, and you gain 2 points for killing a mob that gives you xp. Meaning every 50 mob you kill, will give you 1 Talent Point to be used for advancing your character.

These talent points are used to upgrade your character in ways like +1% melee offense, or +1% magic offense, or +10hp , or +1% healing... etc etc etc... you get my point ;)

Its not a bad system, but its not very deep either, or rewarding, because its a tiered system. So in order to upgrade a higher tier skill, ALL the previous tiers will need to be upgraded too, and this quickly depletes your Talent Points, meaning you will have to grind ALOT of mobs to get the talents you want... Or you will need to lower your expectations and just focus on 1 line, which makes your character simple. This left me with a feeling of 'World of Warcraft', and illusion of having a choice, when there were actually very very few choices to be made in the character progression.

(Still, this game had more choices than WoW, but then again, we all know that WoW players cant handle more than the 3 choices they have in their talent trees, just go to the official forums and have a look at how many threads have been started on how spec a rogue for epic-win-pvp mode :P )

Ooh, Ooh! Another thing that kept me going for 3 days was the incredible support and encouragement that I received from my Mentor In-Game!

If you're below level 50, you are allowed to become the apprentice of a higher level player who will then act as your mentor. The purpose of this, is so that new players will feel welcome in the game and the high level players will help them understand how it works.

The Mentor will recieve a sizable bonus to his xp and money, as well as receive a few items when his Apprentice reaches lvl 50, and he can take on as many as 6 different apprentices! As an apprentice you will also gain a bonus when you reach lvl 50... I gained enough xp to instantly hit lvl 51 as soon as I dinged lvl 50!

But I did so without the help of my Mentor... In fact... My mentor saw me as nothing but a source of free xp :p

My only communication with this guy was basically him logging on every few hours to tell me to hurry up and hit lvl 50 (I assume that he did this because once I hit lvl 50, he would then take on a new apprentice)

On the 2nd day he was starting to get very impatient, telling me to remember to turn on AFK and to make sure i used my 400% xp booster potions so that i could hit lvl 50 faster!

Gee, thanks Master Yoda, without your valuable advice I might never have reached lvl 50! I bow to your mighty wisdom, the force is strong with you!

So naturally, I did what any good apprentice would do! I logged off the game and took a 3 day break while playing something else, just to piss off my nagging mentor and keep him from getting the bonus that he would get when I hit lvl 50 :P

Came back 3 days later, levelled up to lvl 50, saw that the game didnt get any better or more fun after lvl 50 (or 51, in this case, since i received my grand bonus of finishing my apprenticeship).

Uninstalled the game, and started looking for something new to play :P

So there ya have it, thats why I quit that game ;)