We got the chance recently to try out the new MMORPG fantasy themed from developers and publishers R2 Games. In its first Open Alpha test phase Nova Genesis brings a familiar level of gameplay to those players that already have much experience with many of R2 Games’ other titles. The similarity between titles and a continuous use of the same reskinned mechanics has brought them much success and a strong following of fans eager to try out the new game, whilst not bringing much new to the table with many of the features and systems being used by dozens of their previous games it at least offered the same type of gameplay to its fans.
For our First Look we embarked into this new fantasy realm we could choose from one of six available characters (three classes with both gendered characters), each of which fell into the Trinity of classes that R2 Games MMORPGs so often follow, so much so that as ever there was no description at the character selection as to what each class could do or the role that they would play in combat. Presumably the developers expect players to either check the official website for information on classes or rely on players already having some familiarity with these types of games; either way we always feel it is a bad thing to overlook for those that are completely new to these types of MMORPGs.
We started out with the Psyon character, a powerful caster able to perform area damage spells and attacks to enemies; combat, as is always the case with these games in the early levels, was uninspired and unchallenging. As we’ve never played the games long enough to get into the high levels we can only presume it becomes more difficult and challenging as players start to reach the level cap, but for a learning curve and a first impression it always leaves much to be desired and combat seems pretty futile as enemies die with a single attack and even the main named bad guys seem unable to do much damage on our hero.
The biggest negative that we faced in the game was the graphics. On the one hand they are as beautifully rendered as ever with some amazing digital scenes and backgrounds that really do set the tone of the game and create a more immersive experience. Unfortunately this is spoiled by badly placed text fonts, which stand out as some terribly placed comic books style dialogue. The lack of animation on scenery such as fires that don’t animate completely detracts from the immersion and life that the rest of the artwork is able to conjure. Finally pixelated graphics when an area is loading (even though you go through a loading screen first from many areas, yet still enter without everything been loaded).
We can only presume the majority of people play these games over and over (as they are essentially the same game) for the new story arc and lore that is created with each game, as well as having a chance of working your way further up the player leaderboard if they managed to get into a game early. As far as the story goes the dialogue was trite and extremely cheesy for what is essentially a more serious themed RPG, whether or not it’s bad translation from the original language (as all of R2 Games titles are published in Asia first and then translated for a western market) it makes the enemies seem laughable and the heroes seem like imbeciles.
As an Alpha we imagine that most of the game is as we will expect see with the final release, so often these Alpha and Beta tests seem more like a server stress test or a phased entry into the game as opposed to any actual testing (although they do ask for bug reports) but at the core of it the game probably won’t change all that much; for better or worse. The players that like these games will probably find Nova Genesis enjoyable, if you haven’t hopped on the bandwagon of these types of MMORPGs already, or have played similar titles and not enjoyed them, the game offers very little in the way of new content that is likely to convert such a player.
