Rating: 
Summary: There should be a law against incomplete MMORPGs
Review: Why did I let myself spend $50 on this game?! ARGH! I've been playing for 2 weeks now, and there is downtime aplenty, bugs, no maps, and item disappearance galore. They even have an item replacement policy on the homepage it happens so much. I am so completely disgusted with this game. Star Wars Galaxies had problems, but there was something to *DO*. There are ACRES of non-content, and server lag will have your characters and MOBS rubber-banding all over.. And I have a fast cable modem. Further, when trying to engage MOBs, you have to chase the thing for 15 feet before you finally attack, usually in the middle of a camp. You never have any idea where you are, there are no maps, no locate "/loc" coordinate system, no "/where" to find NPC's.. I HATE THIS GAME! GIMME MY MONEY BACK!!
Rating: 
Summary: Reflections of reviewer Kore Breach
Review: I have read the review by Kore Breach & agree that it was a fairly accurate review of this product which does hold the promise of reaching the next level in Multiplayer Online Gameing.
I do wish to caution shoppers that there seem to be some continuing problems in the gameplay. Game loading time on dialup can be long-it is not uncommon for it to take 8-10 minutes just to get into the game. Dropoffs are frequent and customer support is, well, I have yet to receive a response to any of my queries. This promises to be a very good experience if Artifacts is ever able to provide for reliable play. Once again, it appears that a software producer has rushed a product to the market to let the purchasers de-bug it.
Rating:
Summary: Not bad, So Far
Review: After about 6 months of nothing but extreme disappointment and let-downs from star wars Galaxies, I cancelled my account, and decided to try Horizons. This game seems pretty cool so far. Although It seemed like a buggy, crappy, mess in the beginning, after making a bunch of adjustments in the options menu, It plays quite flawlessly except a few disconnects. First thing you need to do is to turn off the shadows, because, like SWG, they cause extreme lag, even with extremely fast graphic boards. Next you need to change the resolution to 1024 X 768 if your graphics supports it, and change the other graphics settings to the highest they can go without slowing you down. You also need to set up your interface (HUD) and lock all windows in place where you want them or they will reset on restart. After that, most problems seemed to be solved. You can then change the keyboard settings as you would like, because the pre-programmed ones aren't the greatest. I basically made my keys and interface the same setup as everquest. The graphics, overall, seem to be a little better than Everquest, but not as good as Star Wars Galaxies, but the ideas that went into this game seem to be better than both. The web interface used to log on looks like it's gonna be great. From the start, you get your own page, and you will be able to check personalized messages, maps, view your characters, inventories, auction and trade items with other players, and view your account info, or even cancell your account. All of this can be done from the very first web page the game brings you to. These are all web options that other MMORPG's make you pay extra for! The game interface is entirely customizable, with movable windows, you can change the opacity, lock them into place, or even set them to auto-hide (although sometimes they disappear, don't come back, and are very hard to find). Unlike Star Wars Galaxies, where the mouse lag and interface make you feel like your gonna puke, the mouse and interface in Horizons are very responsive and no different than in any other Windows based programs. In fact, you actually use your original desktop mouse cursors, which gives you the added feeling that this game is incorporated into your Windows desktop, especially with the popup help menus. You can also play windowed or full screen, and in window mode it is very easy to switch between the game and your current desktop without any problems (just move the mouse away from the game, it's great!). The job system seems to be awesome, you can basically pick anyting you want. Although you can only pick one adventure school and one craft school at a time, you can switch, work on another, gain new abilities, and then switch back to the old school. You can't cast spells outside your adventure school, but you can still use the abilities (some abilities are as good as spells). Horizons broke away nicely from other MMORPG's that are entirely "hack and slash". The problem with other games is that everything, including earning cash, completing quests, and even gathering resources, revolved solely around killing monsters. Horizons (and Galaxies) broke that mold by allowing you to gather randomly spawned resource nodes(without killing monsters). Also, the creatures seem to be plentiful, unlike SW Galaxies, and create just as much loot as everquest (also ulike SW Galaxies, where nothing drops any loot for you to sell!). You have tons of equipable weapon slots on your characters, such as back, chest, arms, wrist, shoulders, hands, head, ears, fingers and so on... You also have the ability to hide two hot menu bars far in the corner of the screen (I think, like 15 slots total) and you can put all of your spells, and abilities there for very easy access. The journal is great, and organized for keeping track of quests. In fact, all or the menus are extremely organized and you have tons of organizing options, customizing options, and filters. And at last, ther are no death penalties (except you go back to bind spot). Basically, unlike Sony Online, this game seems to have taken the approach where fun gameplay and the end user were taken into account first, rather that worrying about hooking more and more monthly users with poorly thought out junk and empty promises, in order to collect more monthly fees to line there greedy little pockets. All of the annoying problems that Everquest and Galaxies contain seem to be taken out of Horizons. Everquest and Sony Online make you pay for tons of expansion packs (on top of the monthly fees) in order to get rid of these flaws over the coarse of like 6 years! The Sony and Everquest expansions always promise to add new elements that make the game easier to play, but when you actually buy the expansion, you soon realize that there is always some other added element, that still makes it difficult to play (hence making it longer to do stuff and making you still pay more $ every month, and buy the next expansion that claims to fix these issues). This is why they call Everquest "Evercrack", because it is a very expensive habit and a waste of money! I believe Galaxies is headed down the same road and will suffer the same fate. Even though Galaxies doesn't yet charge for their expansions, they still add no content to help gameplay whatsoever, only fancy, sugar coated "mounts" and "vehicles" that don't work and are only to hook more monthly subscribers. All of these fixes that people have been paying for in Everquest expansions over the years(Over $200 in expansions sets and the issues still aren't resolved), plus many more great elements are all included in Horizons for only $49.99 and $12.95 per month. The only issues in the game seem to be with minor graphics flaws. Another thing Horizons seemed to have done correctly is to worry about fixing the main issues (that effect gameplay) first, and then go back and fix minor graphics issues. They will probably go back and make this game look alot better after all of the other flaws have been worked out, so this game doesn't turn out like Galaxies, which looks amazing, but plays like trash and is extremely boring.
Rating:
Summary: My early review is good.
Review: Not sure about the people having the game issues. I ve never experienced any Lag or problems logging on at all. Currently have a lvl 14 Dragon and have found the game fun to play as there are lots of things to discover in the early stages. Graphics are nice but in my opinion not as good as say SWG. In fact some of the Armor i see on others isnt even as detailed as Old Everquest which has been around forever it seems. The game has a nice feel though and would recommend it to someone that might be tiring of EQ or other mmorpg
Rating:
Summary: Actually a decent game.
Review: I was pleasantly surprised when I bought horizons, since there is no pvp there are very few "l33t d00dz". Crafting is excellent, and you can actually (gasp) multiclass in this game.
I have played SWG, and this game is superior in nearly every respect.
Horizons actually has quests and other content. SWG was one gigantic grind.
Rating:
Summary: Billing issues
Review: I have tried for days to create an account and all I get is this rather generic message:
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An error occurred processing your billing information. For detailed information on this error, please send an email to horizons@ibill.com. Your email will be answered within 24 hours or less. It is important that you contact customer service before you attempt to make a payment again. Repeated attempts to submit this credit card may result in a temporary freeze of funds on your account.
---- Doesn't really explain anything, does it? I tried contacting their billing support but only got an automated response. So far nothing has worked. Even tried different credit cards but got the same message. I really can't rate it higher than one if I can't even manage to get in. They obviously have organization issues. I suggest all looking into buying this game hold out for at least a few months while they resolve their problems.
Rating: 
Summary: Potential, but well worth waiting a year or so.....
Review: mmmm ok let's start by saying the game is on version 7.something now and it's still slow on a high end system. You can walk around for a while and not find anything to kill in the world that is if you survive the updates and the loading wait. When you finally get into the world your greated with your character on a grey background as it finnishes loading, then you see the same sometimes in the background as distant objects load. Secondly the billing is through ibill, which meaans Horizons does not have it's own billing system. This could be the reason why everywhere you look about the game you never see the freaking price of a monthly subscription which is currently $12.95. Not an unreasonable price given the recent MMORPG prices but we would like some prior warning as to how much each month before we buy. Secondly since the billing is through ibill you have to call ibill to cancel the account which I have decided to do, I'll have access till January 11 and then I'll wait a year or so for the beta version to be updated enough to play without wanting to chew your arm off.
Rating:
Summary: Has the World Gone Crazy?
Review: Have I lost my mind, or is it the rest of the world that's gone insane? This game is not finished, pure and simple. I (like many reviewers) was extremely excited about all that Istaria claimed to offer. But I'm not going to sit here and make lame excuses for the developers just because I wanted this to be a great experience. Istaria is barely at the beta level. It was released to capture holiday sales. The servers are constantly down. The billing / logon / account creation are all slow, unreliable, and just really poorly done. This I can all live with (though I don't see how the developers can claim to have stress-tested Istaria thoroughly, when even a moderate player load breaks EVERYTHING). What's upsetting is that even when the game "works", it sucks. The graphics are terrible and clunky, even on a high-end system. The framerate is awful at even the lowest detail settings (which are pitifully ugly). The quests (even the beginning quests that everyone has to do) are often broken. There are only a handful of monster types, poorly distributed across the maps. Both the billing and the customer service software are done by third parties, and both rarely work properly. People have complained of multiple credit card charges, and the support system sucks. Perhaps most disturbing is the fact that the support team has not addressed the pathetic non-gameplay. The knowledge base contains no articles about the bigger issues that plague Horizons. I've been playing computer games since 1984. This is the most upset I have ever been about game quality. I am cancelling my subscription and will attempt to get a refund for the (overpriced even if it worked) software. Just in case I haven't made this clear, Istaria is vile, utter crap. It is not worth the two CD's it is burnt to. People claim that we should be patient and that the developers will fix these problems. Whether that's true or not this game should not have been released in it's current state.
Rating:
Summary: Sigh...
Review: The funfactor in this game is low and I think I can put my finger as why and let me be clear this just my opinion so Im not trying to be the be all, say all about this. Crafting is fun for the first two or three weeks but now Im starting to get really bored and tired of doing the same quest over and over again for such a small amount of experience. Also they punish you if you find a quest that you can do quickly and easily which really ticked me off. I dont know if any other MMORPG does that. If you try to do one quest over and over again to get somewhere faster they divide the experience you gain for that quest by half. Combat is boring also if you're trying to solo so I highly recommend finding a good guild to hang out with if you wanna have any fun doing that. Finally, I haven't seen any real change in the world other then some players putting up buildings and nerfing so the excitement isn't there. I haven't seen any holiday events either. These are the other problems it still seems to have as well: lag (I think it's getting a little better now actually), lack of customer service (...), lack of open conversion in the community. As for the graphics I think the developers wanted a sorta cartoonish look and in that measure the game looks good but they are definitely much better looking MMORPGs coming soon. The colors are vibrant, and the environments are well-designed though I suppose the geometry of both the environments and the models could be a little better. The music is still amazing and I also still think this game has one of the best class system. The class system hands down is nearly flawless. Now I guess it would be better to wait for something else like maybe Saga of Ryzom or World of Warcraft (which I must admit is the safest bet as far as polish and execution this generation).
Rating:
Summary: What's unique about this game is...
Review: Many MMORPG's have been released and most go through similar stages. Horizons is no exception when it comes to standard problems during a launch for games of this type. People have come to expect a lot from these games so I will skip the similar aspects of the game. What's unique about this game is the class and crafting system. Characters are free to choose from an adventuring class and a crafting class. The adventuring classes are similar to other games of this sort, except you can choose to switch classes at any time. You will accumulate a higher rating (character level) if you dabble in multiple classes. You only gain experience in your current class. Some schools require a certain skill level from one or more basic schools to join. These are known as prestige schools. The only drawback to this system is the fact you cannot surrender levels that you have gained, therefore you may end up with a few levels of a class you don't need or use that add to your overall adventure rating. The crafting classes have the same basic system as far a levels go. Everything in this game is crafted, so people who play to collect uber loot will have nothing to gain in this game. Items are crafted by players who must gather resources, refine them and assemble them through the use of formulas and techniques to enhance their items. Even buildings can be crafted and placed on plots of land spread throughout the world. There is no PvP... yet. If you enjoy challenging your fellow players, you will have to wait. The story is well done and it explains and fits into the current world surprisingly well. The potential of players banding together to rid the world of oppressors and to free an entire race (or races) of beings which will become playable characters later sounds exciting. Only time will tell if this game becomes one of the contenders or become a shard for a small following. The game has potential and I will definitely give it a fair chance.
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