#Swords of Legends Online: First Impression

Swords of Legends Online is an action MMORPG set in eastern aesthetics and I was fortunate enough to be provided a beta key to try out the game back in June. Does this game live up to the hype?

This post is sponsored by Gameforge. However, all opinions are my own!

Swords of Legends Online is an action MMORPG set in a breathtaking fantasy world with sophisticated combat mechanics and a unique storyline based on Chinese mythology. I got to spend some time with the game and I’ll be real with you, they weren’t kidding about the breathtaking part. It’s like you’re looking at a painted picture in motion. When I first saw the game, I really thought it was just going to be another generic MMO and passed it up. It wasn’t until I was hit up by Gameforge to try the game did I decide to give it a shot, and honestly, I’m happy about it. Kinda, I’ll explain later on.

The combat is pretty tight, offering two ways to play the game, TAB or Action. I didn’t play much of the TAB, mostly using the action option and it’s solid. If you’ve played games like Guild Wars 2, then you’ll be familiar with that mechanics. Combat was fun, although I did notice that killing enemies that were on the same level as you took longer. And I refuse to blame it on my skills so don’t bother bringing it up.

Joking aside, I don’t know if it’s because I didn’t know how to use my character (I played as THE SPELLSWORD) or if the enemies are tougher but that just something I noticed in my time with the game. Speaking of classes, the game offers you, six classes, to choose from and none of them are gender-locked, which is quite surprising. I say that because MMO’s from the EAST have a habit of gender-locking their classes but at least you won’t have to worry about that.

I didn’t get a chance to play as the other classes, mainly only using with THE SPELLSWORD, which honestly fit with my playstyle well. It blends swordplay and magic so I got both close-range and long-range options. I just liked the way this class played. Fast and powerful. I guess I should talk about customization since I’m talking so much about my character. This is the one aspect of the game I didn’t like at all and it obviously depends on you. It’s also why I initially didn’t want to play the game in the first place.

Essentially, given that this game is made in China, the customization option is great if you’re light-skinned (Asian) but sucks horrible if you’re wanting to create a dark-skinned character, basically anything non-Asian. And don’t get me started on the hair options. Let me be clear, I know this game is set and inspired by the eastern culture and mythology, but I was hoping the fantasy aspect would negate that and allow you to create what you want but nope. I mean, it’s an MMO, so creating YOU shouldn’t be that much to ask but oh well. So yeah, for me personally I tend to avoid games with this kind of problem but honestly, it’s not something I would deduct points from. Just an annoyance at this point.

While we’re on the negative anyway, let’s transition to another thing that I didn’t like, the HUD. Again, a personal grievance I had with the game, the HUD was all over the plays for me. Didn’t like it and hope you can customize it in the full release. Other than that, I enjoyed the game for what it was. The mounts in the game were my favorite part, they looked so cool and even cooler to use as you jet at high speed across the map, which by the way are huge.

Now for the game modes. Swords of Legends Online has PvE, PvP, Raid, and Dungeons, with PvP being the core of this game, which is what I play MMO’s for most of the time. Now the game offers a variety of PvP events for you to do, such as open-world PvP called Rampage, and time-event PvP. I’ll admit, I’m not a fan of the timed event PvP. Kinda inconsiderate of people who may not be available to play those events. The open-world PvP sounds like fun but I didn’t get to max level to try it out but from what I’ve seen, it’s something you turn on to be able to attack other players who also have Rampage turned on.

I can already tell that range character will dominate the game. In PvE, the structure is pretty MMO obtain quest standard, and there the classes shine well, but in PvP, certain classes dominate the battlefield. I hope it gets balanced, as if not it’s not going to be fun in the long run.

Overall, Swords of Legends Online is pretty fun, I just hope the end game is just as good as the base game.