First Impressions: The Saga of Ryzom

We have been getting a ton of press recently regarding the re-release of the Saga of Ryzom, a Science-Fantasy MMO which was launched, and then subsequently canned, about a year ago.

All the information we get talks about the re-reopening, and the future plans of Nevrax to revitalize the world of Ryzom, and bring players back into the game, which seems to have a fairly steady user base.

Having been bombarded by all of this, I decided that maybe it was time that I gave Saga of Ryzom a fair try. These are the subsequent impressions from my first week or so within the world.

I have to admit, I was a little excited about the game. The press releases actually piqued my interest in the this colorful looking MMO. Talk of a decent community of players, coupled with the Sci-Fi theme and some very picturesque screenshots had me pumped to try out something different.

Honestly, I wasn’t disappointed. At least, in the things that I mentioned. There is a lot to like in Sage of Ryzom, but, on the same token, there is plenty more that just confused the hell out me.

Character creation in Ryzom, like most lower budget titles, isn’t all that in-depth. The race I chose allowed me to tweak my hair, body size, and some facial tattoos. Par for the course, really. The last step in character creation is choosing what type of character your want to focus on.

Ryzom, as far as I have been able to tell, isn’t level-based, but skill-based. As in, you choose which type of class to specialize in, fighter, magician, harvester or crafter, and then use those skills in-game to increase their levels, making that skill more effective. It’s a change of pace compared to your normal level-up titles.

Once I loaded into the game, the first thing I noticed, is gee, this game is pretty. Graphics aren’t cutting edge, but the art direction in Ryzom is one of it’s strongest points for me.

Bright greens and blues dot the landscape, there are what look like floating pathways that criss cross the cloud-filled sky, butterflies and leaves float in the wind. All in all some pretty darn good aesthetics. But on the shiny exotic outside of the box, lives a very complex monster waiting to be released.

When I first started my character in Ryzom, I chose the basic of the basic, the fighter class (little did I know that not much in Ryzom is basic). I was instructed to meet my first quest instructor, and get started on getting acclimated with my surroundings.

During those first other quests, you had your typical kill and return affairs, but also some more interesting type of quests. And while going out and clicking on a few monsters really isn’t “interesting,” finding out that those monsters are designed with their own eco-systems in mind. Monsters herd together forming long lines marching into the distance.

Animals are creatures of habit, having their own AI ambitions when it comes down to their behavior. If you are attacking a predator or enemy of that type of monster, maybe it will join in on beating up the helpless creature. Or at least, that is what the game itself says. I didn’t see much more than some monsters traveling in huge herds in my time spent.

I really feel the need to point something out before this goes any further. I am not a hardcore player anymore. Don’t get me wrong, I love me some MMO, but I just don’t have the time to spend on games that I used too.

Ryzom, while not hardest of the hardcore, has quite the learning curve compared to most MMOs coming out nowadays.

As I mentioned earlier, there are no levels in Ryzom. Character advancement comes in the form of leveling up skills. Beat a yabo’s ass with sword and board and your fighting skill will go up, use some acid magic and your magical skills will increase.

Same with harvesting and crafting. The more you use those skills, the better off you will become with them, which then open up new avenues and skills. While we have all been waiting a long time for a new skill based title, all the way back to UO, it just feels overly clunky and less rewarding then ye olde fashion “ding” level up.

Beyond your basic gaining of skills, you can also go to your Archetype trainer and learn some skills to use. Unfortunately for me, beyond pick up a self heal and a taunt power, I didn’t understand a lick about the activatable skill system.

I just could not come to grip with using “stanzas” and adding and removing skill modifiers and different attack chains( I think). It’s not that I didn’t want to, but I felt the very short paragraph description on how it works did nothing more than confusing me even more.

All in all, I was disappointed when Ryzom failed to impress.

I love the setting and art direction of the title whole heartedly, but the meaty mechanics were just way to much with to llittle explanation. Don’t even get me started on crafting.

While harvesting was a pretty menial affair, just listening to the people in chat have 10 minute conversations about materials and plans and quality level made my spin.

But, it’s those 10 minute conversations that leads me to what I feel is one of Saga of Ryzom’s biggest strength: The community, something that I feel is lacking in a lot of titles nowadays.

Everyone I talked to on the server was great. There are a lot of vets out there in the game that are willing to help out with anything a newbie might ask, and it felt really good to see that again.

When all is said and done, if you are looking for a solid community, and an MMO with more meat than potatoes, Saga if Ryzom just might be the game for you.

The Saga of Ryzom is free-to-play through the month of October. Further information and a link to download it may be found at the game’s official website: http://www.ryzom.com