I've followed this game's development closely since its first playable release. Like some of the negative reviewers here, I was also concerned that the dev team's change in design direction (away from an open world, toward a hub-and-spokes one) wouldn't be for me. But after playing solo for a few hours, I've found I'm really enjoying myself, and I can confidently recommend this game to most fans of old school RPGs and MMOs (EQ, DAOC, Gothic, etc.). I'll explain why in more detail below:
- Deep, subtle combat system - This aspect of the game hasn't changed since the early days. In fact, the dev team has only developed it further. As in previous releases, the combat feels responsive, high-stakes, and highly tactical. It's EQ-paced, but with the addition of nuances such as positional advantages/disadvantages and timed/reactive combat skills. Of course, the focus is more on using the right ability at the right time, rather than spamming as many abilities as you can in a short time, so actual player input is much slower than in most modern games. Personally, though, I prefer this older, "classic" style, as it makes each move and round of combat feel significant.
- Level design and risk/reward - The scale of the levels, the sense of danger and adventure it creates, and the density of secret areas/named mobs/rare loot all feel as right to me as they did in the earlier releases. Named mobs and loot, in particular, are two areas the dev team has continued to work on since release, as well.
- Music and sounds - IMO, these have been underrated strengths of this project all along. Although modest in number and variety, I think the sound and music design contribute greatly to the sense of exploration and adventure (even in the hub zone).
- Level scaling - Initially, I thought this would be a much bigger turn-off for me than it's ended up being. The way it works is that the player must manually choose to level up once they've gained enough xp. On leveling up, the player gains increased stats and, depending on the level, unlocks new spells, abilities, and potential loot drops, while all enemies also increase in strength. In other games with level scaling, I've sometimes lost interest because the fact that all enemies always remain challenging has made the game world feel uniform, generic, and without a strong sense of place (think of Diablo 4's flat, forgettable overworld vs. D2's iconic levels like Chaos Sanctuary). But for me, Legends of Old avoids this trap due to the qualities I praised about level design above. Because each adventure zone is handcrafted with such care, I've actually found myself enjoying the fact that each of them stays relevant as I level. In the future, I see an opportunity here for the devs to add level-based rare spawns/loot/events to certain zones to reward players who return and continue exploring even after they've seemingly outgrown the area (they may have done this already; I'm still low-level). Overall, given that higher levels unlock new loot and abilities, progression with this level scaling system hasn't felt too different from the more conventional leveling system we saw in the game's earlier versions.
Now, for my constructive feedback:
- Crafting/economy - Currently, the game has no merchants, no currency, and (I think) no trading between players. The only form of economy I've seen so far is the disenchanting system, which allows players to sacrifice 3 items in exchange for 1 new one. The player can influence the type of item they receive from this based on the item types they sacrifice, and I think this is a great start toward some sort of item economy. However, I think there's room for a lot more development here, especially since there are times when it's advantageous to delay leveling up until one is ready to confront stronger enemies. In these scenarios, grinding out kills can feel a bit boring, since in the absence of xp gain, the only reward for slaying monsters is the occasional gear drop, which after a certain point is very unlikely to yield an upgrade, either directly via the drop itself or indirectly via disenchanting. Adding some form of currency, money or otherwise, that could be transformed in some way into character power would give players another way to make genuine progress even when they're not gaining xp.
- Quests/narrative/worldbuilding - Currently, there don't appear to be any quests in the traditional sense. The adventure zones certainly do have secrets, and the NPC dialogue and other text, which are generally well-written, seem to hint at a grand, coherent world in the background of the game's events, which I find compelling. However, I think the game would benefit greatly from the addition of quests to give the player another way (i.e., other than mass slaughter) to interact with and explore the world. Now, I want to caveat that by saying we DO NOT need the sort of tedious busywork that most modern games call "quests." But something like the quests from early EQ would fit this game nicely--lengthier assignments requiring exploration and experimentation, potentially in multiple zones, with minimal direction and handholding, and yielding truly impactful rewards.
All in all, I still find this game's core "feel" as charming as I did in its original release. I plan to continue playing and look forward to seeing how it will undoubtedly continue to develop over time.
