I downloaded the FFXIV open beta over the weekend to check it out and what a chore. Despite the updater using Bittorrent tech it was quicker to open the torrent files in uTorrent than to use their downloader.
I tried FFXI in the past and thought that it not only looked drab and ran like crap, but it had a very high barrier to entry in terms of gameplay. It also was a game that forced you to group. My experience with FFXIV has shown me that Square-Enix have learnt very little. While the graphics engine has received a much needed overhaul, the interface is mostly exactly the same as before, and it is very unresponsive down to the very mouse pointer itself.
The game opens with you on a boat and a room full of NPC’s. There is no indication at all of what to do. There is no tutorial telling you how to move with your character or how to interact with NPC’s. Once you figure out for yourself how to interact with NPC’s you realise they provide just two completely meaningless conversation options (which are repeated for every NPC I’ve encountered so far). There is a door on the other side of the room why you can use by walking close to it, but of course there is no indication that you need to walk close to it or that it is even something you can interact with.
Once on deck the in-engine cutscenes ensue and at one point you are expected to work out how the battle system works with no help whatsoever. You eventually arrive at a town and are stuck at a dock until working out that you need to talk to a certain NPC (of which there are about ten in the area). Not just any conversation will do, you’ll need to select the correct option before the game will send you to a zone in which you have more freedom.
After more cutscenes you are dropped into the world and instantly expected to know where to go, what to do and how to do it. Even worse is that after you’re dropped into the world and after each time that you interact with anyone it takes a full minute before everyone else will reappear, including NPC’s!
It’s games like this that make you appreciate the value of quest indicators which are completely missing from this. There is no direction (that I’ve seen), no tutorial, and the games interface is slow as hell.
I’m honestly shocked at how bad it is but in retrospect it is, perhaps, a good thing considering I have little time in my life for another MMO. Thank you Square-Enix for letting me see the game for the shit it is before I laid down actual money for it (and got myself in trouble for doing so).
PS I neglected to mention the biggest mistake of all – putting Australian players on European servers!
