I always start off with a lot of concern whenever I enter a sandbox MMORPG for Choose My Adventure. Mostly because these games are almost always murder blenders and having to look over my shoulder with every step isn’t what I’d call my idea of fun. Luckily, Fractured Online has, at least in the interim, started off being a sandbox experience that I can jibe with. Though of course that has a lot to do with the fact that I’m starting in the PvE world of Arboreus.
Of course there was also the concern that coming to this game in its early access state was going to mean I was about to experience the same wildly unfinished and incomplete thing I played for OPTV in 2021 and 2022. I am happy to report that was also not the case, as Fractured feels a lot more complete compared to then. It’s all just feeling a bit… well, basic right now.
I’ll obviously begin by marking my travels to this point, which naturally began with character creation. As a citizen of Arboreus, I was given the option of being a striped humanoid, a tiger humanoid, or a deer-headed humanoid. I went deer purely because it’s not a choice you see often in gaming, but also because it’s a race that was angled towards magic use and I wanted to see what being a mage in this game is like – because I like to live life on the stupid, stupid edge. And also I’ve been playing a lot of melee classes in my MMOs lately and need a caster break.
Character creation was not great. I don’t know if there are more options for the humans or the demons in the game, but my poor little Elksson had basically four choices for fur color and horn style. I couldn’t change my doe face, so I ended up looking like a Party City-style costume. Or the beast heads from City of Heroes. Basically, this game isn’t that pretty in terms of character choices.
But hey, I wasn’t going to have to suffer that damage considering this game is played in isometric perspective. And as in all games of this sort, I was forced to use click-to-move once again because designers of this kind of game must follow the Old Traditions, I guess. It wasn’t too hard to get acclimated, though. Except for the hotbar buttons; I was not going to use the top row of keys to engage my abilities. No freaking thanks.
The tutorial that I was experiencing here was pretty much the same as the one I had played in previous builds, so I was probably coming into this with a bit less confusion than most, but it still felt like the guidance was reasonable and the quest journal actually had concise instructions – something that I don’t recall being a thing previously. There’s still this weird demand that I have to kneel in front of a campfire in order to set my ability hotbar and character talents, but whatever. It wasn’t a huge deal. The tutorial otherwise guided me through rudimentary gathering, crafting, and combat, all of which didn’t really rock the boat.
Once I got a hang of the basics, I was being led into some of the additional progression systems, primarily through the whole knowledge point mechanic that seems to fuel character progress. Levels weren’t really a thing so much as ranks were, and fighting multiples of the same enemy type unlocked more knowledge points, which in turn granted me new abilities to equip. It was a lot like the knowledge of monsters mechanic that I’d seen in games like Black Desert only with a far more direct impact on what my character could do.
When I built Elksson, I elected to go with the Battlemage base class, but there doesn’t appear to be much that’s stopping me from doing using melee skills or equipping other schools of magic, short of making sure I have a magic focus-style weapon. Still, I got the impression from looking at the talent trees and equipment trees that specializing is probably the best move, so I’ve been mostly pouring the points I’ve earned so far into improving mana, magic attack, and my magic shield. Despite how limiting that all sounds, I’ve run into a wide assortment of different skills and feel as if I’ve got some build flexibility.
In spite of all of these good things, I have to point out that none of this felt really like a game changer or even that astonishing. There are some neat ideas going on here so far, I’ll happily admit, but it’s also kind of landing as just reasonably competent. Combat is fine, progression feels fine, the world feels fine. It’s just fine. It’s fine.
Though perhaps I’m giving this one more mental leeway than I would other games; I did just come off of a terrible sandbox experience previously, plus I have the context of just how awful this game felt in its very early stages, and considering what Dynamight Studios went through to get this thing out the door, it’s a small miracle this one plays as well as it does. All of that makes this OK game more palatable than it might for others if you ask me.
So yeah, basically I’m willing to stick this one out and see where it all goes. I am a bit on-rails still at this point, but there are a couple of options in terms of what to focus on right now, so that means it’s naturally time to ask you fine folks just what that focus should be for the next week’s report.
Where should I direct my focus toward in Fractured?
- Tutorializing. There are still things to learn. (31%, 18 Votes)
- Knowledge Points. Slaughter the enemies of the world. (69%, 40 Votes)
Total Voters: 58
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Polling will once again close up at 1:00 p.m. EDT on Friday, August 30th. Until then, I’m going to put this one back on the shelf considering how the poll choices sort of force me to, but I have to say that this one is a pleasant surprise. Emphasis on the “pleasant” part, anyway; I’m yet to be truly surprised by Fractured, but that’s not a bad thing either if you ask me.
Welcome to Choose My Adventure, the column in which you join Chris each week as he journeys through mystical lands on fantastic adventures – and you get to decide his fate. Which is good because he can often be a pretty indecisive person unless he’s ordering a burger.
