Is it Worth Playing Swords of Legends Online?
Is This The Prefect Non-Pay2Win MMORPG?
We been promised the perfect Non-Pay2Win MMORPG title for a long time now which none of them have really made good on that promise or survived long enough to boast it’s success. Will Swords of Legends Online be the one who actually delivers good on this promise? In fact, can you actually trust the publishers before SOLO, let’s not forget some of it’s titles it currently held in the past and present. Some of the biggest Pay2Win titles includes, Elsword, Runes of Magic, SoulWorker & TERA.
Swords of Legends Online
Publisher
Swords of Legends Online or SOLO for short is developed by Wangyuan Shengtang Entmt. Technology and published by Gameforge. Gameforge is the publisher behind huge MMORPG titles you most likely have heard of such as Tera and Aion. Whether you like it or not, they don’t have a great reputation to begin with. Between neglecting some of it’s games to rot such as Tera & Soulworkers along with promoting Pay2Win elements in majority if not all their games.
Now, Gameforge has suddenly said they have turned over a new leaf and will be actively listening to community feedback along with bring SOLO to the West with zero P2W Elements. It was actually quite unbelievable and let’s be honest, majority of the community was ready to be let down with P2W elements added during launch.
Combat
Swords of Legends Online utilizes a mixture of tab target combat and action combat, does not excel in either and isn’t particularly smooth on either styles. A weird mixture of half-action combat or a pseudo-action combat. For me, this combat system was super off and not enjoyable at all. I personally prefers tab target, however, a well-done action combat is super enjoyable either. This is one of it’s biggest letdowns, which we may see improve when Swords of Legends goes into Unreal Engine 4 which has been rumored to be in the making since Q3 2021.
One of the biggest issues with SOLO’s pseudo-action combat that was present in Alpha and Beta is that there is hard-locked aiming system which causes range classes multiple issues with the biggest one which was unable to hit targets in line of sight. However, since release, they have fixed this and is no longer an issue which is great to see.
Gameplay
Features
Swords of legends is another Theme-Park MMORPG that focuses on more PVE such as Dungeons and Raids while still giving the PVP players some PVP content, here is a overview of all it’s features it boast to offer.
PVE Gameplay
Swords of Legends follows a very traditional level path where it’s story quest after story quest. In fact, to reach the current max level, Student 1, is just going from one story quest to the next until you finish. The story quest content is brain-dead and isn’t challenging at all. Unless you take breaks and do some dungeons or PVP along the way, you will be running around for 12 hours from one quest marker to the next.
The dungeons are actually solo-able to a degree, even some of the “Hard Mode” ones, very fitting for it’s name SOLO, that was until they made it a lot more challenging putting in “DPS Checks”. Then came the “Extreme” difficulty dungeons and Raid which were even more challenging making PVE a lot more worthwhile to play. Further, as Gameforge is heavily invested in making PVE right for SOLO, you can expect constant stream of dungeon and raid updates every so often.
If you are a PVE player, looking for a MMORPG in the wuxia fantasy, Swords of Legends may just be the perfect one for you.
PVP Gameplay
PVP in Swords of Legends Online is a different story. While they are a lot of different PVP modes offered. There is absolutely zero incentive to do any Open World PVP outside the Faction zones. When we talk about Open World PVP, there is always the Risk vs Gain, taking Black Desert Online for example, you risk losing all your Karma and going red and losing enchantments, durability or gems while you may potentially gain a farm spot. While in SOLO, there is only consequences for Player Killing.
However, that as far as the negatives goes in PVP for Swords of Legends. In fact, class balance has been quite spot on for PVP so far making Arena and battlegrounds super enjoyable if you are not from Oceania. Also, the fact that PVE and PVP gears are completely separate meaning, PVE gears has diminishing returns in PVP is one of the best features this game has to offer.
If you are a PVP player, looking for a MMORPG that isn’t reliant on PVE/Raid gearing, Swords of legends may just have what you are looking for.
Customization
Character Customization
Swords of Legends has quite a decent customization system, it is up-to-date and has lots of options and sliders to choose from, although some of it’s designs could definitely be improved such as more color variety. Shown in the screenshot below the options you have in SOLO.
Build Customization
Swords of Legends does not really have a in depth and complex build customization system. There is only a few options here or there in the Glyph and Astral system. It’s so minimal it’s a complete joke. Nearly all players of the same class will have the same gear and same build, there is near-zero variety at all.
UI Customization
Swords of Legends does well in this area, although it still can be improved, there is an above average UI Customization for the players. While saying that, there is no mods or addons available and it is strictly against Terms of Service to use third party applications.
State of Game
Servers/Connection/Ping
Before we speak about the player base or in-game events, let’s just speak about the servers.
The servers in Swords of Legends Online is absolutely trash. That is me being nice here, in fact, calling it trash is an insult to the trash itself. As an Oceania player, despite many promises to do something about it during Alpha and Beta, Gameforge has changed it’s stance and completely stopped caring about the SEA community. Playing Swords of Legends from Oceania is near-unplayable with its constant fluctuation of ping jumping between 200 to 400 every second. This is for both the US and EU servers when connecting from Oceania. Further, while players do use GPNs such as Exit Lag, it is actually against the Terms of Service to use such 3rd party applications. They do help stabilize the ping to a degree making it more playable however, you always run the risk of being banned.
While for a player on the US or EU side of the world, the game is in a much better state. Kiwi has mentioned that he experience near-zero issues with ping/delay and is able to execute the combos without issues at all. Among with other reviewers on both discord and Steam, both sides of the story has been shown, some complains about having ~70–120 ping while living in the US, others have no issues.
Localization
The translation in this game is just awful. It’s a no brainer that is is straight out awful as it is translated from Chinese to German to English. Lots of context and meaning has been lots along the way and at times, google translate directly from Chinese to English would make way more sense than the tooltips provided in-game. Unlike typical MMORPGs, Swords of Legends Online has a very deep lore, branching from single player RPGs Gu Jian Qi Tan and even a TV series Swords of Legends.
I am actually completely amazed, Gameforge hasn’t fired whichever employee who was in charged of saying it was “OK” to release such a story-heavy MMORPG with such terrible localization.
Playerbase
Swords of Legends has it’s own launcher making steamcharts not very accurate at all. However, we can clearly see a heavy decline from to July in average players dropping by half with further decline in September. However, that is completely normal for any newly launched MMORPG, and if you think otherwise, you are very mistaken. It will take a few more months before the player base stabilize and you will see it’s core players, at least from the steam view side. While in-game, you shouldn’t have issues finding players to do daily, weekly content or guilds to raid with as the game is still very much active.
Cash Shop
Is Swords of Legends Free to Play Friendly
There is not a single Pay2Win elements I can see in-game. I would personally say, after spending 300+ hours during launch and countless more during Alpha and Beta, if we don’t factor in the server/ping issues, the game can be enjoyed and played on a competitively level without paying besides purchasing the game. The cash shop very functional and does show a full view of what is offered and Gameforge has speculated many times what is to come in the future; that’s if they stick to it. Swords of Legends Online also has a Battle Pass feature, which both paid and free versions are non-pay2win and only filled with cosmetic benefits.
Free to Play players will have no issues staying at the top of the game as long as they do they daily grinds. This is an Eastern MMORPG, the grind will never stop.
What Makes SOLO’s Cash Shop Stand Out
Costumes and Mounts in the game are account-wide. You won’t need to purchase the same costume for each character like you do in Blade and Soul or Black Desert Online. Mounts have the same move & flight speed as mounts obtainable in-game meaning it is pure cosmetic only.
You are unable to purchase more character slots nor inventory slots in the cash shop & there is nothing in the cash shop that will boost your stats in one way or another making the cash shop completely optional and cosmetic. In fact, everyone only has 6 slots, which is 1 slot per class, no more, no less. With the new classes coming out eventually, Gameforge has mentioned, they will give us new slots as they become available.
Swords of Legends Online’s cash shop monetization is one of it’s biggest if not biggest sell point that attracted it’s community. As long as Gameforge stays true to it’s promise being non-pay2win, I can personally see SOLO lasting for the few more years to come if they do switch over to Unreal Engine 4.
Graphics
Swords of Legends Online graphics isn’t outdated by all means, while it isn’t the realistic style most games nowadays, it is absolutely gorgeous in it’s own right. You don’t need the latest GPU to access it either. Playing on normal graphics is already beautiful. Further, Swords of legends have a “minimal graphics” settings for lower-ends computers which is always nice to see. Unlike Bless Unleash minimal graphics settings, it is actually playable and still looks visually decent and not a complete blur.
Is Swords of Legends Online Worth Playing
So… Is Swords of Legends fun to play? I would very much like to say yes, however, it really depends where you are playing it from. If you are trying to play Swords of Legends from Oceania, no, stay away from it completely, don’t even come close with a 10-foot pole. Go take a look at Elyon, New World or even Blade and Soul Revival instead.
However, if you are looking to play Swords of Legends Online whether in USA or EU or somewhere close to it’s data centers, then yes, it is a fantastic game that has lots of areas to be improved but still quite enjoyable. You will be able to throw in hours of playtime even after reaching max level and still enjoy yourself whether it is through PVE or PVP content. Swords of Legends Online has a place for everyone whether you are a lifeskiller, PVPer, PVE, Raider, achievement hunter or a collector.
Originally published at https://fayiette.com on September 13, 2021.
