Echo of Soul (EoS) is the latest Action MMORPG from Aeria games.
Managed to get a beta key and decided to check it out. I must say I was excited to play the game after watching many teasers and KR videos about the game.
Sadly the game doesn't seem to quell my hunger for a new action MMORPG that can compete with Tera for me at this moment.
Here's my pros and cons of the game so far:
I shall start with my list of issues with the game, being that there's very few compared to my enjoyments.
Cons:
- Connection issues: I know that it's a CBT but for one thing I would like to point out is the time it takes for the game to load the game on my laptop with my connection being hardwired. On average it takes about 4 minutes for the game to get past the splash screen to load the game up. Then there's also the issues with D/Cs that seemed to have plagued me numerous times the first day of play. I documented about 8 disconnections, which 2 came at the worst times: in the lvl 10 dungeon at the boss, and the Bear King party quest (both of those resulted in me dying, and missing the goods from the party quest).
- Gender locked classes: This is an issue because the class I wanted to play with the archer, was locked to female, so I went with my 2nd favorite class of play, the Rogue. I dislike gender-locking because if you want to run a male/female on your favorite class, you're restricted to do so unless you can don't mind the avatar. It's not a BIG deal honestly, more like an annoyance that I wish wasn't present.
- Portals: The game has a nice feel to map size until you have to travel through 3+ portals just to get to your specific destination. It's annoying to have to deal with loading screens whilst you travel from one place to another. This gives the game a disjointed feel, and to me kills some of the immersion of a more "open field" vibe that the game does have well in the more content heavier areas.
I know that sounds pretty contradictory, but I just wish you didn't have to travel through so many of them to get from point A to point B most of the times.
+A positive to this feature though, is that when you've got quest related monsters and the area is saturated you can jump to the next "zone" and usually will be able to rack up the needed kills or items for the specific quest.
- Story: The story comes off to me as pretty dull. It's the same "You're the hero, save the world" that we get a lot. I know this shouldn't be a negative but it's something that's a bit tiring in the sense that it's done in just about every MMORPG that's hitting the mainstream nowadays.
- Jumping: There is jumping in the game, but it's limited on it's uses. I tried to jump over a basic fence in town and it's like there's an invisible wall that hinders me from doing so. Also out in the field I couldn't jump up to a higher platform because of a series of small rocks, having the similar effect as the fence. I like to jump, and the rogue's jump animation is enjoyable, it's sad that it's not that practical, except for when jumping down/off areas.
- Rogues auto-run: I haven't figured out to turn this off (I'll check to settings) but at the time of this writing, there isn't one. It's annoying when I used the Rogue's shuriken skill and after it makes contact he begins to auto-run towards the target that he hit. This makes it annoying at times to kite or lure enemies being that if it's not caught in time, it puts me out of my position which results in me gaining too much unwanted aggro from surrounding mobs.
- Co-op/Party rewards: These are flat out underwhelming for a lack of better word. I ran the "air spirit" co-op quest and received a bandage, and then I completed the party quest for the Bear King, and also received a bandage. I figured harder content from something that does require assistance to help ease the difficulty to at least give something more worthwhile in the end, than a basic health item that can be dropped from basic "trash" mobs.
-Launcher issues: My issue is the protocol Aeria requires to log into the game. I don't see why if I have to be logged into Ignite to run the game, why they require another log in to play it. It seems a bit unnecessary, and hopefully they remedy that soon.
Now on to the Pros:
+Music: I must say I thoroughly enjoy the music score in the game. I even at times catch myself just sitting in area and idle while letting the music loop.
+Help Menu: Having a help menu is always a necessity, but to have it voiced to explain things to you is a bonus. I enjoy the fact that the menu does give you a voice over of the different features in the game, this way you don't necessarily have to read the menu if you don't want to.
+Achievements: Who doesn't love gaining achievements in a game? How about getting some nice rewards for earning them as well? EoS delivers quite well with this system I must say.
+Clean UI: I enjoy the fact that UI isn't overly cluttered. My favorite feature is the Compass that's presented on the screen as a way of marking you to your destination. It keeps the screen clean and helps you know that you're going in the right direction. One of my most enjoyable features in the game.
+Energy system: This is associated with food, that you can either buy or cook in game. Upon eating the food, you gain energy, and energy gives bonuses to you ATK and your HP. So eating that hearty meal not only fills your character up, it also helps make them stronger.
+Professions: Haven't played much with the system at the time of writing, but from what I'm aware of there are very few of them, and you only choose one to master. The choices given are Cooking (mentioned previously) allows you to cook foods; Alchemy, which allows for the creation of accessories; Resource gathering, which allows for the creation of gear, and Soul Conversion: which allows you to break down unwanted gears for chaos souls.
+Soul System: The bread and butter of the games make up. As you kill enemies in the game, they drop Chaos souls. These souls are utterly useless until you convert them, in which they randomly separate themselves amongst the 4 different tiers of souls available. Once you gain enough souls, you can then use them to trigger temporary buffs on your character. This comes in handy and does add some extra tactical approach to some of the harder fights you will encounter later on in the game.
+Gems: In the game you'll come across gems. These items are socketable into your gears and weapons giving them added bonuses. Each of the gems have a specific property and can only be added into a specific gear slot. They can be upgraded to make for stronger gems and thus stronger bonuses, but if you're not careful you can risk losing those hard earned gems if they conversion fails, and you find yourself with a safety net item.
+Resting Exp: This is a nice feature to have when in game. Rest exp is what you gain when you leave your character within the borders of a town. While you're logged off, you character gains a percentage of exp, that triggers a 2x multiplier for the experience gained via combat. This exp threshold also moves when you turn in a quest thus allowing you to still gain some extra exp on top of the quest.
+Dungeons: The dungeons in EoS are difficult, that's a good thing in my opinion. A dungeon wouldn't be much fun if you could run through it easily. There's a good amount of dungeons, and they do offer quite the challenge. Though I do have to say, my only issue with the dungeon mechanic is the large radius mobs have for aggro, sometimes they can aggro from 30m away and it's hard to juggle mobs with a single target DPS class.
They do allow you to party up, but some of the dungeons are solo only, so make sure you're well equipped with not just items, but with food for your energy, gems socketed for stats, and PLENTY of healing items.
