I got the game a few weeks after release on PlayStation (yeah, I had JUST missed the Day One addition, bummer). The reason I picked it up was because I had heard about the building customization. I had come from heavily customizable games like Fallout 4 and APB Reloaded where I could infuse my own personality into the games I played. I had no major interest in combat or survival or anything of the sort. I just wanted a sandbox I could create a “second home” in. In Fallout 4 I use to take breaks and lounge in my created settlement and feel like I was part of a community that I created.
Anyway, I asked a friend to SharePlay with me so I could see what it looked like, and then decided to buy it. Because my interest was mainly in building, my first feeling of immersion was when I had my walls built up—so that damn bear that killed me several times over couldn’t get me anymore lol—and I had a cozy space (out of sandstone mind you) that I could just feel at peace and appreciate the fruits of my labor. I had practically leveled up to 60 on building alone. Once I had a few thralls around my base, it felt more lively. Sure, it was no FO4 with settlers walking around and doing tasks, but even them standing around was an improvement. It was at that point that it started to come together for me. I was on a private server with no loot drop on death, so I was spoiled, until my friend who owned it decided to change it to loot drop. I was scared, especially with my first venture to the volcano, but I quickly got use to it.
Since then, I moved over to an official server, then dragged @Marylambs (sometimes kicking and screaming with frustration lol) along with me after many of my other friends abandoned the game for other fleeting pleasures. I’ve seen people come and go, but I’ve stuck around, refreshing my bases between small breaks for the better part of 4 or 5 years… even going through the dreaded server merger. I’ve been suspended and rebuilt. I’ve lost many things and begrudgingly replaced them and/or cut my losses. I’ve moved entire bases to new locations.
In short, the game is great! However, it’s also not great. There’s plenty of things that need work. The game has never been the best on consoles, PlayStation ESPECIALLY. Sometimes it feels like the dev team just doesn’t understand what we want. Sometimes I feel like they want to do stuff, but are afraid to make commitments so they leave us in the dark, often resulting being Guinea pigs because they don’t want to say what their true goals are down the road. It’s often “we made X change because we have plans that will conflict with Y feature. You’ll see down the road.” I’d like a bit more transparency (sure, they’ve gotten better than the previous years) over why said changes no one asked for were implemented. AoW Chapter 4 just takes the cake. So many issues, so many changes. Many of which were met with absolute disgust from us, the player base. The inventory was improved after a few patches, but dyers bench? Come on, that was a dumb move on their part. No one asked for it and it was an all around silly reason because they made a uselessly large bench they now want to force on players. Then there’s the bugs. Oh man, the bugs. The game has gotten to be too much to fix and bugs just happen now. And of course, on PlayStation we can’t even get a PS5 upgrade like Xbox did so we’re getting even more brokenness and bugs. Why do I do this to myself? I love the game, but I don’t. I continue to come back to it, but I get angry sometimes. So yeah. And then of course we got Dune, which I have only a fleeting interest in. I love sword and sorcery far more than sci-fi, but then there’s also the fact that Funcom is making it. CE isn’t a good example of what they can do because how are we supposed to embrace a game that may screw us over all over again?