As I am starting to get a lill tired of AO both as a concept and the SL completly missing its target for me, I thought I try out another game to see what else was out there in the big wide world of MMORPG. Both to try something new, and perhaps to get some percpective. I saw an advertisment for Horizons on AO-stratics of all places and was immediatly drawn towards it (being a fantasy fan rather than a Sci-fi one).
The game-
I started out as Scout with the potential of becoming and Outfitter. Scout for the purposes of combat and exploring, and Outfitter for tradeskilling.
Outfitters specialize on gathering resources and making armour. Armour I can use myself, sell to other players or give to friends. That part looks good so far.
Battle-
Very much the same principle as AO. You target mob and start attack. You then proceed with specials or spells/buffs if you have them. teams can be made with up to 8 people I think.
Levels-
Suprise!! You gain levels by doing stuff!! Hehe. If you wanna be a better tradeskiller, you tradeskill. This would mean that people who couldnt care less about battles, could just prosper bu doing tradeskills and possibly start their own business in some town.
You also gain experience points from killing mobs. The best way to gain levels for an Andventurer (fighter/Scout/Cleric/Mage).
Graphic and misc-
To me it seems that the graphic isnt worse or better than AO, just different somehow, without being able to say just what it is. I dont feel as gloom as when I play AO, but then again, things seem to go a little slower. Not sure if that is intended or if I should upgrade my PC.
These are some of my first impressions. There are just so much to look into atm, that I am having a hard time getting the grasp of what I wanna persue or what to do.
As for servers. For now there isnt possible to log onto servers outside your region. That means there are separete servers for Euro and US folks. That will change in the future however, wich I hope will be very soon. There are people over there I am supposed to do my pioneer days together with. [/i]