Recent reviews by Noblesse

A classic f2p fps game that was filled with p2w elements and was a broken mess most of the time while having some very fun modes and gameplay moments. This re-release of the classic version has not fixed any of those issues and in modern times, is not worth playing at all. Even if you decided to give it a try, the player base is basically dead.

Earlier on the game was a decent f2p with some p2w elements, but they could be bypassed fairly easily with the player market and was thus not as big of a negative as it is in most other games. In my opinion, this has changed.
The gameplay itself is not unique, nor is the chibi-ish anime style of graphics. The world is not that memorable and the story is... well, I can't remember much about it at all despite making it to max level(at the time, it was like 80). The Eidolon system is quite honestly pointless and forgettable, when if it had more emphasis, it could have gave a more unique feeling to this game. The combat, while active, is extremely easy and can get very repetitive.

The biggest reason I cannot recommend this game is that it is an mmo with an almost extinct playerbase, which as an mmo, is a massive negative.

Fixing one of the biggest issues with the previous version, the overpriced lackluster DLC, I can actually recommend this for Yu-Gi-Oh! fans who just want to casually play the card game against AIs. I mean, you technically play through the duels that appear in the various anime series... but the decks aren't correct a lot of times and there's basically no real story to it, so that's basically the only real purpose for playing it. The online play is horrible and pointless when Master Duel exists, especially with the flawed card acquisition system through a shop which you can only buy 1 pack of at a time... when you'll need to buy hundreds to have a chance of collecting them all. The decks I mentioned previously, also have the issue of being very heavily rng-based(heart of the cards sadly did not bless me most of the time) and can be very frustrating.

This game would previously have been a "Yes" if you didn't bother with the overpriced lackluster DLC, but with the new version out with all of those included, there's absolutely no point in buying or playing this.

In my opinion, this is probably the best aim trainer on Steam. It does have a few issues such as bugs though.

For starters, the main reason I don't recommend the game is due to three main reasons. One is the age of the game, the second is the population count, and the third... which in my opinion is the most annoying; if you don't have a membership, it is essentially a demo pretending to be a f2p game. The free content can be done in a day for your average mmo player.

If you get past that those three reasons and actually buy a membership, the game is decent with a few annoyances here and there. It remains that way for almost the entirety of the first arc(quite a lot of content). The graphics are decent for the age, the world is really interesting from a kids-perspective, and the most important, the actual "card battles" are fun enough. It is well-worth one month of membership(Which is about how long it could take to fully clear the first arc) just to pass the game and have some mild engagement. Once you get to the last world of that arc, it starts going downhill. It is full of extremely lengthy, repetitive, and boring quests. The "card battles" have gotten stale by now with no new twists or spice thrown in, and sadly.. from what I've seen, this trend continues on into the second arc. That's about as far as I could manage to get before giving up out of boredom.

Then there's the more mid/late-game p2w elements in what is essentially a subscription game. High end gear drops from what is essentially the game's version of lootboxes, and quite a few are best in-slot for a lot of level ranges. Then there's also a system to enhance certain cards, but the method to do so is also acquired through the cash shop. This, in my opinion, should be a big no-no in subscription based mmos or just in general, honestly.

Overall, if you buy a membership, it's a good way to pass the time for a few weeks. If not, don't bother. It's definitely not a long term mmo for most players outside of the old classic players who have played since childhood.

To start with, this is a re-release of the Alliance of Valiant Arms international release(If the name didn't convince you). It does, however, have multiple welcomed changes... primarily the removal of most(If not all) p2w aspects of the game. The core gameplay itself, just like a decade ago, is solid so that change was one of the few, yet biggest weaknesses of this game.
BUT.
I still cannot recommend for three reasons. One, just like another attempt at remaking/re-releasing AVA called Dogtags, I'm not entirely sure how long this game will actually stay live. Two, they still use the exact same ♥♥♥♥♥♥ anticheat. A good anticheat is extremely important in a f2p pvp game. Lastly, which is also the most important reason, the playerbase. You might have two to three lobbies going during prime time, but outside of that, it is difficult to find a match.

While I loved this game when I first played years ago, I can't in good faith recommend trying this outside of the nostalgia. The game feels like a mess compared to modern standards, and has aged extremely poorly. To even get the game to run at all on most modern pcs/laptops, it requires you to jump through hoops like editing .ini files which is something an average player should never have to do.

I really want to like this game, but once you get past the early game enjoyment, this game just becomes a tedious, frustrating, and poorly thought-out bore. So here's just a rant about a few of the problems I have with this game.

- The game limits your possible diplomatic relationships via a debuff once you get too many, but also makes client states take up one of those slots. Also, if you gain tributaries from a nation because they lose power in a region, you can't integrate them unless they become a client first which causes issues due to the problem above....

- War score cost and overall peace treaty system makes no sense. If I occupy an entire country, and their losses are over 200k, why is it that I can only gain a fraction of the territory in a peace deal due to exceeding the war score? Why, in that very same case, does demanding them to become a tributary/client/satary/whatever without ceding any territory at all also exceed the score limit? Another... more realistic and historic issue with it is that I can only demand territory, subject status, or releasing subjects? I can't demand any monetary and pop compensation.

- One of the end-game goals of the game, in my opinion(from a purely gameplay perspective/ not historical), is to reach the state rank of Great Power. The issue is that it can actually be a negative to you to do so. I've noticed a tremendous difficulty spike in maintaining provincial and character loyalty after reaching sad rank. In addition, the amount of great families increase... but a lot of the time, they do not have enough members, let alone competent ones, to fulfill the job goal in order to prevent them from becoming scorned. I've also experienced my ruling family, which had great prestige, plenty of successors, and members(which I purposely had children in a way to increase the special bloodline bonuses) randomly get replaced and a dynastic change decision was forced without a civil war. I had just increased my territory count to around 800 at the time, and the ruling family didn't have enough members of age to even fulfill the job goal. Another weird thing occured, where the previous ruling family was still around and just became a great family.

Lastly, playing as a republic, specifically Rome which should be the main country of the game, is a pain in the ass.-.
Rant done.

Oh, but the biggest issue with the game lies in the fact that without using mods, the interface and gameplay is rather poor. It's too heavily dependent on those, which shouldn't be the case.

If you don't mind the extra effort, then the game can be made fun... I just can't recommend a game that essentially relies on mods to be good.

Going to make this short.
Graphically, it's mediocre which would normally be fine except they decided to mask that mediocrity with a lot of shininess and glare that kills your eyes. It's like they thought "Oh, hey... we can hide the fact that it's a Dark Soul's clone by making every gold and shiny, no darkness".

The combat is, as noted above, meant to mostly copy Dark Souls. It has some unique aspects, but those are generally worse than the copied basic combat. Unlike in the SoulsBorne games, they lack the interesting bosses and enemies to make combat feel enjoyable. It just get's extremely repetitive within the first few hours.

Outside of combat, it's just a bunch of running around linear pathways which seem to be put together like somewhat of a maze and you're just sprinting around looting.

So basically, a boring attempt at a Souls-like game.