Hack and Slashing your MMO
Guardians of Ember is a hack and slash MMORPG that has been brought to western audiences by Insel Games. It is a rebrand of a Taiwanese MMO known as Emergarde.
Runewaker, the developer behind Runes of Magic and Dragon’s Prophet have been the developer behind the title, which is now available in early access. The game is mostly feature complete, mechanically speaking and only lacks content later down the line, acts 3-5 to be precise, with their respective content additions.
Intended to be similar in style to the highly successful Path of Exile, Guardians of Ember sets players off into a stylized fantasy world, leaving you to hack and slash your way to glory, fame and of course, max level.
Gameplay
Performance and Graphics
Aesthetically, Guardians of Ember has a nice art style that sets it apart from the likes of Path of Exile and Diablo 3. Those games are grim and dark creating very doom and gloom atmospheres, where as GoE opts for a more vibrant visual style that is fairly eye pleasing in nearly all respects.
The game runs well on the technical side but its early access nature comes to bite it in the rear, leaving servers having lag issues and the occasional bug pop its head from the grass. On a good day however, the game does run smooth and encounters very little problems especially for an early build.
Minimum System Requirements:
o OS: Windows Vista or newer
o Processor: Core 2 Duo 2.4G or better
o Memory: 2 GB RAM
o Graphics: GeForce 9800 GTX+ or Radeon HD 4850
o Network: Broadband Internet connection
o Storage: 10 GB available space
o Sound Card: DX11 compatible
o Additional Notes: Recommended Resolution: 1920 x 1080
Character creation is fairly solid but limited
Release Date
Full launch of the game is estimated at some point in Q1 or Q2 2017 with the developers looking to stay in early access for around 3 to 6 months and releasing the planned content over that period before full release.
Additional Thoughts
Guardians of Ember blends ARPG mechanics with MMORPG mechanics but doesn’t really execute either well. The combat is the biggest let down with sluggish animation and attack times leaving the game with a distinct oddness compared to the sharp and crisp combat of Path of Exile.
Skill progression is pretty solid but the limited hotbar falls into the same trap as guild wars did, where by you’ll end up using a select few of abilities that become your personal favorites and ignore everything else, leaving a distinct lack of ability variety when translated to the combat.
GoE does have redeeming features such as its crafting, player housing, and loot system, but is markedly let down by the combat and lack of multiplayer focused content. Its dungeons can be solo run through the entire game at the moment, which is a let-down for an MMO.
Enviroments do look nice
Most Anticipated Feature: Hopefully the new content additions will add multiplayer focused content and maybe, just possibly, a rework of the combat.
