Rating: 
Summary: What could have been...
Review: Okay so you want to play AO? Save your money and wait for Asherons Call 2. The game is plagued with bugs even after over a year of non-beta play time. The leveling is only fun for the first 40-50% of your characters life and the it gets dull and monotonous with absolutely no storyline whatsoever. THEN you spend hours earning the xp you need to level and just before you level you die to one of the thousands of bugs and you lose EVERY bit of xp you had earned. You will get absolutely no help on anything from the in-game advisors. The other really sad part is that AO is NOT a large continuous world like real mmropg's are. Its divided into zones that you have to load when u enter each area of the world and alot of them you wont be able to get into because of these stupid invisible walls that make no sense whatsoever. Exploring the world on Asherons Call was super kewl because there were dungeons and areas with unique monsters everywhere, AO has made exploration stupid and pointless as you have to have a mission to access a particular dungeon. The playerbase is constantly shrinking as more and more people get tired of FunCom...and even getting a team now takes alot of time (and u have to have a team after level 50 because you cant solo anything worth killing anymore). I bought the strategy guide FunCom put out for the game and it was utterly useless and uninformative. Every time they do a patch to 'upgrade' or 'fix' things it always, without exception, creates even more problems and more player frustration. Buy a game thats gonna give you enjoyment do not waste your time and money on something that will simply make you want to turn your computer off.
Rating: 
Summary: It was *almost* superb..but spiraled into dismal..
Review: I got on AO shortly after the announced "end" of its Beta test.. except the truth is that it is *still* in its beta test.. the fact that this game was released with rampant *basic* technical problems, and concepts left unfinished and the *total* lack of support, and the total disregard and *arrogance* of Funcom towards the *paying* customers who have to put up with lag and crashing and having our inventories dissapear and thier NO RETURN policy.. well I played my doctor for 157 levels and gave up in dispair and disgust- I was waiting for the story to start.. its not there.. I doubt it ever will be. Thers very little in the way of Role Playing, especially if like me you want to be a "support" player who doesnt want to KILL everything 24/7, because basically they've stripped the game down to that, taking out or just not getting around to any of the plot elements that dont involve killing... I could go on but I wont.. it had *SO* much potential.. and the graphics are beautiful... but its just an empty letdown everywhere else..
Rating: 
Summary: Overwhelming
Review: I was anxious to play this game since the first time I heard of it. However I wasnt able to actually start playing until about a week ago. I havnt been able to put it down since then.I signed up for their 7 day trial thinking, "what's to loose?" It's an overwhelming experience at first, it taxes my system a bit, but i'm amazed at what depth and special features can be added to your character. Reguardless of what race/profession you choose nearly every character looks unique in a way, and underneath the shiny suits, and power armor there is an even more hand customized internal organ structure. Being able to modify not only my outward apearance, but also enhance the characters body by adding 3 types of powerups to each limb, truely means to me that no character could really be the same. You can always jump online if you only have an hour to get a few experience points reguardless of what level you are. It's not a group dependent game, though traveling in a group really rakes in the XP. Despite my computers underpowering of the game, I havnt been able to stop playing I've made level 26 within my first week of playing.. and it's not going to stop there.. I dont see nearly what all the fuss was about this game being problematic.. There are always issues... but nothings detered me yet!
Rating:
Summary: ultimately, a great dissappointment
Review: I had hoped that this game would be to the sci-fi gaming world what Asheron's Call was to the fantasy gaming world. From the moment that I got this game in the mail and was not able to play due to technical problems for over a week, I was let down. The bugs in the game continued and Funcom continued promising patches and fixes that only introduced more bugs. After 6 months of sticking with it, the bugs were reduced and I was left with a rather stale and dull game. Most of the combat is against human opponents so that aspect gets old. The PVP part of the game is HORRIBLE. The events driven by Funcom are nearly unplayable due to insane amounts of lag that left my screen frozen. The storyline was non-existent unless you purchased the book they published (what a scam). And there were no quests or special items to obtain...
Rating:
Summary: Great Potential, Bad Execution
Review: It's really a game that *could* have been fun if it delivered everything you'd expect, but dependance on missions, lack of areas to hunt with friends or groups outside of towns with little to no knowledge beforehand, and a myriad of errors and screen lag soon suck the fun out of it after 20 lvls.
Rating: 
Summary: DAZZLING... yet flawed
Review: I tried the 7 day trial and ordered it. It's a great game if you love to solo, and the diversity is impressive. You look around and there is so much to see. I have yet to see two players that look the same. Right now I am at the stage of trying different race/class/alignment combinations to determine which one I will level up. I have yet to engage in PvP or group for that matter. I am anxiously awaiting implementation of team missions. I have also found the intricacies of the game fascinating. It will be a while before this bores me. I find this game stimulates my imagination. The flaws are many, disconnects frequent, but in spite of that still worth the time, as I believe Funcom is doing their best to rectify many of the problems.
Rating:
Summary: Sure it has some flaws, but I don't think it's THAT bad...
Review: Ok, I haven't had AO very long, but I think that it's definetely not the horrid game that many people deem it.
AO is the first MMORPG I've seen that takes place in the future and not the dark ages, or somewhere around there. There are lots of features, such as a club and bar, an apartment system (you get an apartment the minute you sign up, you don't have to camp for one or anything), missions (quests, anyone?), and others. One thing that AO does fairly well is character customization. There's a clothes-only store- not that far from a typical mall shop, if you replace the shop terminals with clothes racks- where you can buy everything from boots to sunglasses to a wide range of trenchcoats. When creating a character I was able to find a head I liked almost instantly.
While there -are- many things that Anarchy does wrong, there are plenty of things that Anarchy does right.
PROS AND CONS...
Pros
1. Oh come on, can you really resist laughing at a burger stall with a giant dino head on it named 'Bronto Burger'?
2. Character Customization is great
3. Money is actually valuable, something that other rpgs have messed up. (Diablo 2, anyone?)
4. Wide variety of items
5. Imaginative features
6. Many bugs have been fixed...
Cons
1. Areas are sometimes fitted to handle 500 people, when really only 100 people are ever in the area.
2. Guards are almost useless to ask for information (in my experiences, anyway)
3. In ways, money is almost a bit TOO valuable. From the get-go, you need to buy stuff, and you start out with 0 credits while some things you need are in the thousands of credits.
4. Some items aren't really good for anything
5. You enter new zones a fair amount, and unfortunately this causes a LOT of crashing. The only time I haven't crashed on a ressurect or a zone is when once I couldn't res. (the game noticed that and sent an autoemail to funcom)
I do realize I don't know everything about the game yet, but I do know it's not that terrible as people make it out to be.
Rating: 
Summary: This game now Rocks!!
Review: When this game was first released it was a nightmare! I quit playing after about a month of suffering. I started playing again about 5 months again and IT IS GREAT!! The developers have really worked hard and have improved the games playablity. It is also apparent that they have been listening to the players. Once you begin playing and reading the forums, you'll see the changes they have made and how they really seem to care about the players more than the other current MMORPG's out there. Plus, the response times of GM's and the helpfulness and friendliness they diplay is far superior than in other MMORPGs as well. Trust me! I've played them all! It's really bad having to wait 30 min to 2 hours for a response as I have been told to in the past in other games. All in all this is currently the best MMORPG out there for your money and with the current storyline playing out, it should continue attracting players.
Rating:
Summary: Just Buy
Review: Fo rthis game I only have two words: BUY IT!
Rating:
Summary: GREAT GAME!
Review: OK, not all the bugs are worked out, but this is a great game.
The graphics are gorgeous, the world is huge, character development can be tailored to your wishes, etc... It has all the good features of Everquest and more. The only bad part about this game is that the user interface takes a long time to figure out. I was getting very frustrated with the game by the end of my first hour, but then started to really figure out how things are supposed to be done. It was well worth the effort!!!
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