Bloodline Champions Beta - First Impressions

Recently I was given the random opportunity to try out Funcom's new arena MMO Bloodline Champions (note they are acting solely as publishers of this title). Despite the horrible experience that was Age Of Conan I decided to let bygones be bygones and lower my expectations.

Initial install was typical of any beta MMO lots of patches to download before ever getting to play the game. Probably a good half an hour worth of downloading if you have a solid broadband connection.

First impressions where underwhelming the overall feel reminds me of some sort of Blizzard game. A mix of Diablo and Warcraft, standard WASD keyboard controls and cartoonish graphics don't do much to help the game stand out either. A few of the icons look practically identical to some of the ones found in WoW too.

Unfortunately the similarities don't end there, three classes of character round out this title and cement its cloned salmon street-cred. Tanks - which absorb damage, Melee Damage and Range Damage, and of course a healer class.

Basically its a clone of the pvp games found in WoW. Not surprising considering it was developed by a company calling itself stunlock studios ( stunlock is WoW PVP jargon ).

With my expectations suitably lowered, I will give the game a run through its paces over the weekend. Who knows maybe the PVP will be so fun and addi, several times i havective that I shit my pants and squeal with glee like a Farmer John pig.

If this is the case then it will be the games saving grace. Solo player is a sad affair your teamed up with bots that have some piss poor AI and theres no way to command them. The resulting cluster fuck is a bunch of renegade toons zerging random enemy bots.