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Review:

20th October 2004:
The Saga of Ryzom
The ambitious Multi-player game from Nevrax has burst into the shops. Time to see what is under the hood.
Posted by Chris Snook - PC - UK and Europe

The Saga of Ryzom has the potential to break the mould of Massive Multi-Player Online Games, potential which may or may not be realised. MMPOGs are tricky things to review, they can change quite a bit over a week or so, problems that are apparent now may not be there by the time this is read. It is even more awkward when the game in question has just launched.

The Saga itself takes place on the planet of Atys, a planet which has thousands of years of history behind it, history that held war for the Homins, four related races that trod the earth. Until they one day unleashed the Kitin menace as deep in the earth miners from the Homin race of Fyros found a nest and with a simple strike of a blade, ignited their near destruction. And the destruction of all other Homins, who were overrun in short order. Now two powerful races, the Karavaner and Kamis, who with horror had watched the Homins slowly be ground into death, joined the fray and poured their arts of magic and technology unto the Kitin foe. Still it was not enough. In the darkest hour rainbows came and took the Homins to sanctuary and safety, for two more years, the Kitin struggled under the firepower of the Karavaners until they could sustain losses no more and withdrew to the deep roots of the world, a place where neither the Karavaners or Kamis could travel. The homins returned and claimed new lands, each to what they preferred, forest for the Matis, Desert for the Fyros, Jungle for the Zoraļs and water for the Tryker. Now they strive to rebuild and reclaim that which was lost, even as the enemy watches and waits.

The scope of what the developers Nevrax wish to achieve is breathtaking. SoR has an eight year lifetime, unless players manage to perform certain unknown tasks and locate items and relics that may help, then if this is achieved the game will continue. This is backed up by the way skills are developed with multiple trees to select from all branching from a basic start. Each segment of the tree is twenty levels, then branches so a level 18 miner is a level 18 basic miner with further levels in each follow on segment and so one, allowing for a truly staggering array of potential characters.

This is something that is evident right from the start, character creation is smooth and easy, select race, gender and then customise your looks, height, features and everything else that will make you unique and there are quite a few options to select from too, more than enough to make each character different. One downside is that there are only five slots, a minor gripe but a lot of people like more than just five alternate characters to play with. As a final task along with selecting a name, is selecting your starting Action Packs, ways of defining what your role in the world of Atys will be, fighter, magician, scavenger or a mixture of any of them. It is entirely feasible to be completely non-combatant - though at that point grouping is a must.

Which currently is a problem. When trying to do so, no one was willing to group at that time and is not a fault of the game, merely a reflection of the learning curve and that it is a new environment to be explored. A very steep initial curve but one which becomes easier to follow and progress along as time continues. A nicely handled element.

Stunning is the word for the visual feast that is presented. Everything is fluid, character animation is a highlight as is the way the background also moves, again fluid and smooth giving a real impression of a living world, with weather, trees bend in the wind and bend further in high winds. The elemental effects push things to the limits, with the storms being one of the most elaborate and most satisfying effects as the creatures all run to ground and rain is lashing you even as the sky splits with lightning. Awe inspiring is what it must be to the homins and adds to the feeling of a re-rising culture. The user interface can at times become cluttered and menus lost, though the number of elements on screen can be set by each user.

The immersion is further accomplished by the environmental sound effects. The closer you are to the source of the sound the more of it is heard, from a distance the sound of waves are gentle but as you move they get louder or fainter as they would in real life, a clever touch that can be very useful. However the sounds that indicate you have done something are nothing special and are more functional than anything else. However there is no in game music, which for someone who enjoys in game music a bit of a disappointment.

Gameplay runs as expected, crafting and mining are initially fiddly to get the hang of but over time these they become more familiar. There is also tons of things that can be done and the impression is that there is a lot more to be discovered, literally only the surface has been scratched. Tasks to be completed are handled well, with the lone exception that materials already 'in stock' in your inventory do not count towards any task set, so if you have more than enough hides to fulfil an objective, they do not factor in. Which is irritating. In game options and help are excellent and informative. One oddity within the gameplay is if a lag-spike occurs as you try to mine resources. It is possible for the 'lag ghost' to arrive, start mining and mine the resource before you actually arrive. At which point the resource is gone but you actually have none of it in you inventory.

Otherwise play was smooth, and easy once that initial few days is over. Soloing was easy up to a point and there are a lot of things to do other than combat - an often overlooked part of MMPOGs.

In terms of size, by its very nature The Saga of Ryzom will keep people looking for what is next. There is a long term concern however that needs to be mentioned. That is the straight jacketing effect of the timescale set. There is a possibility that one section of users will be short changed. Eight years is a long time for any game to be popular, certainly for those which are online. There is a real possibility that if many characters survive six years they will dominate the game, unless new characters via expansions are brought into broad level - which will annoy long term players. There is no easy solution to this

Whilst over all there is as said earlier potential and that Saga of Ryzom is a young game and is certain to be updated over time there were problems. On one system Saga was run on, there were a series of crashes, some severe enough to freeze the PC or just simply rebooted the machine. Even after patching. Setup and patching is long a broadband connection is a must and registration for the members notice boards has only just been enabled, admittedly small things but one which can have a major impact on the total experience, certainly in terms of troubleshooting problems.

This is certainly a game of breathtaking ideas and execution with only time telling if it will live up to the initial promise.

Chris Snook

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Review Summary:

The Saga of Ryzom is a game of immense potential, a grand idea and a vision that is as ambitious as is bold. Whether an eight year lifespan, an intricate plot and visuals that can knock your socks off can be balanced against the problems of interest and balance of power with old and new over the years. The uphill curve is great but if Ryzom makes it to the top there will be little to match it.

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