Darkfall: Eurogamer Slams Game with 2/10 Review

Darkfall Online has been handed its keester in a review by Eurogamer. Reviewer Ed Zitron panned the game with a 2/10 review. Check out a bit of the review and a fiery comeback by lead developer Tasos Flambouras below:

First the bottom line in the review at Eurogamer:

While other MMOs have relied on their players to fill in the content to an extent - Star Wars Galaxies being the most notable example - few have abused the sandbox mentality so readily as Aventurine. It's the emperor's new clothes of 2009: such a marvellous game that only an idiot wouldn't realise the beauty of the gaping holes in its content, its wonky control system, and its seemingly decade-old engine.

Even if you were so inclined to take part in this painful experience, it's rather difficult to actually buy it. The subscription page is buried within the forums, apparently hidden from public view in the hopes that internet loud-mouths would leave it well alone (the few Darkfall servers Adventurine is running have been mystifyingly over-subscribed). In fact, the only clear description I could find was from an external site that linked to the subscription page - which was not available through the official site. We'll spare you the link. Use your credit card at your peril.

First response from Tasos Flambouras:

When we read the hostile review by Ed Zitron, one thing became apparent: he had not played the game at all. Eurogamer readers and Darkfall players are posting bullet lists of factual errors in the story. The reviewer hadn't even figured out the very basics of the game before he wrote about it. We checked the logs for the 2 accounts we gave Eurogamer and we found that one of them had around 3 minutes playtime, and the other had less than 2 hours spread out in 13 sessions. Most of these 2 hours were spent in the character creator since during almost every one of the logins the reviewer spent the time creating a new character. The rest of the time was apparently spent taking the low-res screenshots that accompanied the article. At no point did this reviewer spend more than a few minutes online at a time.

To which Eurogamer responds:

I did tell Flambouras - as he writes on the forum - that Ed is a contributor rather than a staff writer, but the implication is that I said this to distance Ed from Eurogamer. This is wrong. Ed Zitron has my full support.

...

I've already contacted another one of our PC writers, Kieron Gillen, who has agreed to review Darkfall. Kieron is a vastly experienced, award-winning journalist and one of the founding editors of Rock, Paper, Shotgun. I'll publish his review as soon as it's ready, and we will see whether he agrees with Ed or not.

And the drama continues from Flambouras:

We also don't believe that the 9 hours of MMORPG playtime Eurogamer is satisfied with, is anywhere near enough to review a MMORPG game of this size. It's not even enough to get first impressions and these say very little about the game experience. Most gaming sites understand this and they're using actual Darkfall players logging 100s of hours before they review our game. We believe that this is the only way to go in writing a complete review of an MMORPG like Darkfall.

Each quote is part of a much larger posting so be sure to head to both Eurogamer and the Darkfall forums to read more.

So what is to be taken from all this? I'm not sure but we'll certainly keep you posted "AS THE MMO TURNS".

Permalink

Well I personally think that the first fifteen minutes of playing a game should be just as good as when you put 100 hours in. Hell to me if any entertainment medium takes longer than an hour to grab me, then it is failing miserably. The observations made in the article could easily be made in three minutes. It only takes a few seconds to realize the graphics are bad and the controls stink.

I tend to agree with you, BL. If a game isn't intuitive and isn't 'entertaining' in the first hour or two, I won't pursue it. That said, Darkfall has always been marketed as a niche game and one that "isn't for everyone". It probably would serve -any- site doing a review to make sure of two things:

1) The reviewer likes PvP since DF is based on it.
2) The facts are true and straight. This review, while IMO is spot on, does have some pretty glaring factual mistakes as have been pointed out by the fanbois and even some not-so-fanboi-ish types.

Wtf? Is Tasos high? He states: "We checked the logs for the 2 accounts we gave Eurogamer and we found that one of them had around 3 minutes playtime, and the other had less than 2 hours spread out in 13 sessions."

Then says:"We also don't believe that the 9 hours of MMORPG playtime Eurogamer is satisfied with, is anywhere near enough to review a MMORPG game of this size."

Does that not add up to you guys? He is a complete idiot.

9hrs is PLENTY of time to tell if a game sucks or not.

I agree with you...sort of.

I have played almost every P2P MMO that has come out since UO(and most of the major F2P as well), some it took me awhile to get tired of. Because the game was "decent" I continued until I was sure that I did not like it(AoC). Some games I was able to tell within minutes that it was terrible(AutoAssault).

So, if a game has SOME redeeming qualities, it can take some time to make a descision and rightfully deserves an in depth look. When a game is subpar in almost every respect, like Darkfail...well, I give the reviewer props for playing as long as he did.

-Hemi-:
Wtf? Is Tasos high? He states: "We checked the logs for the 2 accounts we gave Eurogamer and we found that one of them had around 3 minutes playtime, and the other had less than 2 hours spread out in 13 sessions."

Then says:"We also don't believe that the 9 hours of MMORPG playtime Eurogamer is satisfied with, is anywhere near enough to review a MMORPG game of this size."

Does that not add up to you guys? He is a complete idiot.

9hrs is PLENTY of time to tell if a game sucks or not.

Yeah but as he stated he spent most of his time int he character creator.

mrcheese:
Is it just me who finds it funny that Tasos points to reviews written by "Darkfall players logging 100s of hours before they review our game".

If you've already invested hundreds of hours into a game, you're instantly biased towards it. Nobody wants to admit they wasted that much of their life on something bad so they hunt relentlessly for anything good within it.

MMOs really don't lend themselves to reviews, most require a massive time investment before seeing the best of the game content. That said, I don't think anyone can argue that you can tell a bad MMO within minutes of your character entering the world. Doesn't matter if you have the best endgame content ever, if nobody finds it fun to play at first they'll never see it.

I will fully admit to wasting 100s of hours on Ragnarok Online.
Also it turns out the reviewer didn't have that good of a time. As the players were constantly killing him.

Tasos is being completely childish. So someone thinks your game is crap and published those opinions, okay: perhaps pay attention to what they have said and look at how to avoid those comments being made again in the future.

Take it on the chin like every other games developer has done instead of being so butt-hurt by it.

If you put something on the shelf, expect it to be scrutinised, and don't pretend its shit doesn't stink. Making acceptance to only the good things you hear about your product is not going to make it better; just stale.

Cop it sweet, Tasos.

LivemeLifefree:
Yeah but as he stated he spent most of his time int he character creator.

I highly doubt he spent the majority of 9 hours in the character creator.

My post was to point out the obvious discrepancies by Tasos himself as to how long the reviewer played. Was it "less than 2 hours" or "9 hours"?

That guy is an ass an should be getting sued. But like most MMO's today, companies are able to sell you a product that has a fraction of the advertised content and get away with it. Hopefully, some day an up and coming lawyer will smell class action lawsuit and we will see fewer of the AoC/Darkfall bait-and-switch tactics that are becoming the norm.

I agree less contant then advertised is BS, but when reviewing an MMO 9 hours really isn't much to go by.
That reviewer spent 2 hours, while as a total, all of eurogamer spent 9 hours. That's what he was saying.

Perhaps Hemi you should read it again and see the *around 3 hours* palyed claim is Tasos and the *at least 9 hours played* claim is that Reviewers point of view.

I know you're not a Tasos fan as i dont think anyone is, but at least get your facts straight then.

Ontopic
More popcorn ftw,
I am interested in seeing the next review though, as i like Kieron's usual reviews :)

That was quite a thorough ass whuppin'. I mean, theres being harsh, and theres being harsh (Yes, the italics make a big difference).

If you have read the full thread of Tasos's argument, instead of the part cut out from here, you'd understand a bit more.

They recorded 2 1/2 hours full play, etc etc. But when they alerted Eurogamer of it, Eurogamer persisted that it was 9 hours. They had records directly from their server proving that it was less.

Furthermore, this game, as I have began to play it, seems to be directed more towards experienced gamers, and is unforgiving to newbie players upon death. The death penalty is very steep in this game, so the 'reviewer' could of merely sucked, and it has been fairly clearly stated that this game was not meant to be as easy as eating cake.

Eurogamer almost put down their low rating, but they told Darkfall that such an action would make their reputation go bad. So they allowed the loss of sales for Darkfall for their own public image. Darkfall is a massive in size game, a free expansion upon purchase made it even larger. That being said, the game can very well turn you off after 2 hours of gameplay, if you refuse to adjust to the unique combat system. It's indeed unlike many MMORPGs of it's Genre, so the casual gamer of said genre could easily suffer from having a mono-type thinking pattern.

Finally, the game's monsters, since being so difficult, oftentimes promote players teaming up, and perhaps the reviewer found a place not so common to team up at. Or as one has said before, which I had not heard, he got ganked. Him being ganked could of been the reasons that he was in the character creator so much. Since the death penalty is steep, by steep I mean anything you have on you except the starting weapon, he might of restarted repetitively merely to get his 'gear' back. But only a foolish gamer could ganked so easily in that game, and if he got ganked that much, he was a careless gamer in mentality, assuming like many other MMOs that you simply rush in blindless unaware of whats approaching you.

The reviewer was not the correct person to rate this game, this game should be given a longer playtime, since endgame can be quite different in games than start. Just because the world is cruel for that of a newbie, one must make friends. 2 1/2 hours is not enough playtime to rate any game of this day and age.

So play the game, if you're a decent gamer, and enjoy the concept, it could be the game for you, but don't judge by a foolish gamer who cannot understand the combat system.

- Javiolanti (If you wish to contact me asking me of the game and my experiences, breif as they might be right now, do not hesitate, Xaine667@yahoo.com, I'll give you my initial experience of the game and as I play the game more, I'll be able to give you a full run-down of the game)

Edit:PS:When the game was rerated by Eurogamer, this game recieved a 4/10. (Of course, looking around at many other gamers ratings, it is much higher on average.) There were several severe reports that the rating this time was so low due to ganking, which is inevietable as they played the game when it was released to the public. The game is still playable, once again the reviewer fails to understand the concept of being able to survive difficult gameplay.

So since everyone is entitled to an opinion, the reviewer's opinion is not wrong. No, instead, it seems DF fans and devs would rather attack the person by saying he's a bad gamer. He can't take the difficult gameplay or raw social pvp environment, that DF takes a special kind of player to enjoy it. Those all may well be true in the reviewer's case, but that's also a little like saying dogshit doesn't taste bad, it just takes a special kind of person to enjoy it. Someone tough enough to wolf down the greasy exterior so they can enjoy the succulent inner turd.
Not everyone wants to eat crap, or pay for it. And if in someone's opinion something is crap, shouldn't it be okay for them to say so?

Really, if the reviewer thinks the game sucks, so what? Reviewers give bad reviews to games all the time. It reflects very poorly on the DF devs' maturity that they would be so up in arms about a review. Not only that, it reflects very poorly on them professionally that a review that would've been gone and forgotten within a matter of days, will live on until DF finally goes offline for good, whenever that is.

In the same way, here is a DF fan resurrecting a thread that's been forgotten for over two months.

Seems DF devs and customers are--intellectually speaking--a match made in heaven.