Chronicles of Spellborn Client Review

A quick review of Chronicles of Spellborn, and before those ignorant twats go running back to the developers crying I'm breaking the NDA, there isn't one as this is the release version of the game (yes, it was released with barely a whisper). This is the trial version of the game which consists of a few areas in which to play, and the standard restrictions placed on any trial account to stop gold farmers.

Despite being the 'trial' version of the finished release, this version of the game still feels like a beta, but not for the reasons you might think.

But, what you all really want to know, is whether the game is any good.

To answer that, I'll have to say: Probably not.

If I had to summarise the game (so you can stop reading), I'd say this: Chronicles of Spellborn would have done really well if it had been released 5 years ago, but right now, it doesn't really look dated but it 'feels' dated. It just feels slow. And a bit weird.

It seems relatively easy to make a nice looking game these days. Giving a MMO life; that's the hard part. Which is s where CoS falls apart. While it looks very nice (the starting city looks great, and there's plenty of life in the world), cosmetics are pretty much where it all stops.

It's a fairly cutesy game, with its cartoony graphics and cute quest / conversation style (with lots of attitude), but it's all a bit devoid of character. The three class system seems empty with little in the way of customisation, and the 'revolutionary' combat system is bizarre. You find yourself impatiently waiting for your few (at 1st level) abilities to recharge so you can click on them again. And frustration isn't the name of the game...

The newbie area isn't bristling with quests and everything seems a little bit barren.

I'll give it a bit more of a play and see if my opinion changes, but after a few hours of play, I think I've seen enough. There are plenty of far better games out there on which to spend my cash, and the Chronicles of Spellborn seems insufficiently vibrant and devoid of character to capture my interest for very long.