Yes, dear fans! By popular demand, the 4K footage of Ashes of Creation is here! Raw, uncut footage of the gameplay where the team of GMs takes a trip around Verra to show us the open-world PvE, mini-bosses and world bosses, open-world dungeons, construction tasks in the player towns, and trading caravans!
Um… uh… Steven? My friend, you might want to look behind you.
We can’t quite cover all of the little things discussed and demonstrated in the new video (open-world PvP, for example), so do make sure to check it out yourself!
(However, we will hit on the major PvE highlights in this article, so if you don’t have 105 minutes to spare — we got you!)
Questing, Mobs, Bosses – How’s the PvE Combat Looking?
Considering the footage we are seeing is from a pre-Alpha build, there are a lot of things coming together! You can interpret what you see depending on your experience with MMO and your expectations, but here is our take: Ashes of Creation already looks like a fair 2015 MMORPG, but with flashier graphics and unique sandbox features we are all eagerly awaiting!
Good news are, there are elite mini-bosses and world bosses already in place. And some of them are looking pretty badass.
For your viewing pleasure: the Brood Queen world boss!
GMs took us on a trip to the Underworld to show us some higher-level mobs and the Sorrow’s Hunger elite mini-boss there. Highlights: the mobs and the boss unfortunately took out their 10-level party, so they had to come back there later with some more players.
Then, they even had a 40-player raid on a Pyroclastic Wyrm inside the lava den of an open-world dungeon! Now that one went pretty darn awesome (psst, GMs didn’t cheat a bit… not at all…).
By the way: open-world dungeons are looking pretty great as well, if a little empty for now.
Now let’s talk some drawbacks brought up by other players and the ones we have noticed ourselves. Remember how I said “a fair 2015 MMORPG”? Yeah, that also shows in how mobs mindlessly stand around and re-spawn, or how rigid some of the ability visual effects and animations look.
Sadly, fluidity of combat, variety in abilities and their animations, and immersive enemy AI don’t seem to be there yet. This is not helped by the fact that the Quest UI and tracking system are still bare-bones and are being worked on.
The top-performing MMOs we have as of now do have something to show for most or all of these features, but it might not be fair to be expecting to see all of these executed pre-Alpha. After all, Ashes of Creation has its settlement nodes and player construction to worry about, and we are going to touch on that next!
Settlement Infrastructure and Trade Caravans: What to Expect?
While what GMs have shown us in regards to citizenship, mayor election, and node construction within the node is likewise not complete and often quite glitchy, what we could see is looking pretty promising.
Some of the in-node houses GMs purchased on screen are looking quite spacious inside (even though we don’t quite know what we will be able to put inside of it yet), and the UI for citizenship, voting in the elections, and mayor’s ability to set taxes (up to 100% on all purchases made inside the city!) is already here.
GMs could show us how constructing an Armory and a Blacksmith would look like. Money was raised via taxes (hence the sudden but temporary increase of 100% that poor citizens of Winstead had to suffer!), and GMs moslty had the needed resources on them, which could simply be dragged from the inventory into the construction panel by anyone who wanted to help.
The scaffolding of the building will be around until all of the required resources are deposited. Then, take a step back and watch it get completed and populated with signs and NPCs right before your eyes!
It might not look polished and shiny yet, but devs have something to show for their promises. Players electing mayors, getting their own houses off the street, and customizing infrastructure of their own city — all of that seems to be on the horizon!
Now, let’s talk supporting the city and its construction projects: trade routes. After all, for the settlement to prosper the resources must be coming in. So, how can one assemble a caravan?
The way it is implemented right now, it’s pretty simple: buy your caravan with the cost of some resources and higher-tier lumber, secure your mount to the front a-a-and…
Try not to die by mobs or PvP. Probably worry more about PvP than mobs. Oh, did I mention you might want a party around to protect you?
Which sounds fun, actually! The stability and security of trading routes in Ashes of Creation is an important part of the development and the economy, and are a major opportunity to collaborate with others towards a shared goal. Whether you are here to deliver goods or to loot, of course.
So, let’s summarize.
Are some of the edges still seem to be rough? Absolutely. Is this to be expected? Absolutely. Is what we are seeing in the pre-alpha build of Ashes of Creation delivering on the milestones and quite promising? Oh yeah!
About a month ago we have talked about all of the amazing features we have been looking forward to seeing in the game since its successful Kickstarter campaign: players being in control, management of settlements, and a populated open world for players to explore.
We see a lot of progress being made, and these features are coming into life with every new update posted. If this is what we are seeing right now, imagine what will happen when the placeholders get dropped, skills get reworked, UI gets developed, and polishing graphic touches get implemented.
Developers, despite the pandemic, are actively working on the project and with how things are going I am sure we will have a lot to see even before Alpha One begins.
What are your thoughts on how the features are coming along in the Ashes of Creation? What are you feeling particularly excited about? Do you have any strong reservations about the state of the pre-alpha build? Let us know in the comments below!
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Mila Grish
Dedicated contributor at EIP Gaming and a part-time collector of books she will never have time to actually read. Jumps on the newest releases just as quickly as on the uncovered dusty collections from the basement. For her, shiny graphics can never be an excuse to not have a polished player experience or an immersive story.
