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- ArtCraft Entertainment
- ArtCraft Entertainment
- ArtCraft Entertainment
- ArtCraft Entertainment
Crowfall
Released On: Jul 6, 2021
Metascore
Available after 4 critic reviews
3.2
All Platforms
A deep but fragmented PvP MMO that's not nearly as original as its early promise suggested.
Crowfall is a hardcore PvP MMORPG that doesn’t do much to draw in anybody beyond its most loyal and dedicated players.
User Score
Generally Unfavorable
Based on 24 User Ratings
3.2
21% Positive
5 Ratings
5 Ratings
17% Mixed
4 Ratings
4 Ratings
63% Negative
15 Ratings
15 Ratings
User Score
Generally Unfavorable
Based on 24 User Ratings
3.2
21% Positive
5 Ratings
5 Ratings
17% Mixed
4 Ratings
4 Ratings
63% Negative
15 Ratings
15 Ratings
Highly recommend you try the game if you're into MMOs, PVP, and/or crafting. It has a steep learning curve, but the combat is intuitive enough to get into quickly. One of the best and most in-depth gathering/crafting systems I've ever seen. Reminiscent of SWG-level of complexity (though not quite). Definitely not a solo-friendly game, though I am OK with MMO games not catering to solo players. that said, you can play the game solo for a lot of the end-game activities you're going to do. But at the end of the day, you have to join a guild. If you want to really do end-game crafting, you have to focus HARD on it. Really enjoying it so far!
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PC
I think you need to understand this isn't a pve game.
What people call pve is just a long tutorial, thats why you can't instantly level a character to skip this content and go straight to the core game.
Which is pvp and resource collecting, its less about the individual and more about the group (Guild).
I was initialy out off, all the bad revuews and i looked kinda bad to play. But when you get your hands on it, the moves make logical sense in pvp and it feels great.
Its one of those games you have to try for yourself, don't listen to anyone else, i think alot of people had expectations, and it wasn't what they expected.
There are odd quality of life decisions, and the servers can be unstable when things get crazy, so its not perfect, but it is fun and thats what a game should be.
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PC
The game lacks clear direction for players and relies entirely on its player base to help recruit new players. The problem with this approach is that you need players to bring players and there doesn’t seem to be a lot of those out there. In addition, Crowfall suffers from a dull combat system with rough animations and spell effects, a terribly paced end game progression system and the longest tutorial I’ve ever played. All of this coupled together makes it hard for players to want to stay engaged. I’ve been playing MMOs for almost 20 years. I struggled to keep playing Crowfall because of the issues listed. I can only imagine how a new player with little experience in the genre would feel. Crowfall wants to be more than it currently is and I do hope ArtCraft can work through some of these issues to present players to a solid PVP offering.
I only learned about Crowfall a few days ago. After watching some streams on Twitch, I decided to give it a go, the PvP intrigued me.
All the advertising for the game doesn't really lean into PvE much, but the 3-5 hour tutorial definitely gets you used to your class, skills, UI and such in a PvE setting. The tutorial is, however, long winded. There's a point where you just next through the prompts unless it shows you a screenshot. By the time the tutorial is done, you will be at the soft cap of level 30. The tutorial definitely does it's job, but could use some streamlining.
The UI attempts to be somewhat innovative in it's approach to menus, but ultimately feels a bit clunky and a step backwards. For instance, my hotbar disappearing when I open my inventory is frustrating. A friend invite or group invite forcing my inventory open, even while in combat, can certainly be abused. A majority of the guild implementation appears outside of the game, which would be a welcome feature if it were also inside the game as well. As it is, the guild joining/searching just feels tacked on, which is not great for a game claiming that guilds are a centerpiece. Chat is also a bit cumbersome, and doesn't make a lot of sense. There are tabs for different forms of chat (some examples are: general, faction, kingdom, group, etc.), but there's not a single tab where you can view everything. This makes watching faction/kingdom/group chat at once impossible. It's also frustrating that chat disconnects from the server at random, clearing out your chat history. Porting also clears chat history.
Another sticking point is, when creating your character, you need to choose what kind of world to join. The game does a very poor job at describing these and I feel new players will simply join a campaign world without any idea of what that entails. That's what I did, after about 8 hours, I still can't tell you the difference.
Factions. This is a fun mechanic, and is not something I knew about before getting the game. Everyone said you need to join a guild, or you simply won't have a good time. This isn't true. While guilds are definitely helpful and can expand your fun within Crowfall, the faction system by itself is reminiscent of realms in Dark Age of Camelot. The first time a group of us Moon faction members rolled up on a group of sun faction members and put them down was definitely a fight to remember.
If you take the game for what it is, a $40 pay to play forever mmo, it's actually quite fun. Rough around the edges, definitely room for improvement, but would still get a recommendation from me. Especially if you have a group of people to play with already. I will probably be playing this until other titles I plan to try are released, and maybe afterwards as well, because it's still there, and I can play at any time.
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PC
Honest review from an "Earliest Bird" backer, as well as someone who dedicated a decade to Eve Online.
This is a beautiful game with great concepts, implemented to stay true to it's core, and target audience. Therefore, it's not for everyone . . . just as Eve Online was in 04-05. People looking for a game that are not part of this group will review Crowfall negatively.
As the time of this review, there are only 2 servers available, Starter Worlds and the Guild Wars. Solo players and small guilds will feel very left out with only these two choices. You will only be able to do skrimishes for smaller outposts, and trade skills. Once Factional Wars start up, these players will find themselves a part of much larger teams . . . as long as ACE can figure out how to stabilize the server code for larger battles.
I understand the frustration with trade skills, but Eve Online players are used to having advanced resources available to only those willing to risk (or pay) more. The system is easier to understand than tech 2 and tech 3 trade skills in Eve Online. With a true economy coming from item decay without repair, no "insurance", and lost items due to wars and wear, I see trade skills playing a greater role here than in Eve.
Being in a very small guild (We can barely fill a single murder when everyone is online), we are still in the top 20 percent of conquest points on our guild war server. Small guilds absolutely CAN skirmish each other for "campfire" outposts at the last minute, leaving the larger rewards to the big boys to fight over. Discretionary warfare is absolutely needed, and expect to play stealth and ambush classes to have any chance at success. This is similar to taking stealth bombers or interceptor teams into 0.0 Eve Gates, as taking show fat battleships is a great way to get pod killed.
ACE is doing this right, one step at a time, concrete core gaming systems, grow slow, and establish a core community. It's only a question of if the current generation of "instant gratification" gamers can stomach holding on for this game to reach full maturity.
I am giving it an 7 because I am not sure ACE will be able to address the issues of 1000 person player battles without having to give into similar solutions such as time manipulation or population queues that other games have resorted to. Slide shows never make for good war stories.
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PC
As a day 1 Kickstarter of this project (upgraded to Silver) I had very high hopes for this game. I played here and there during development but ultimately decided to hold off and wait for the finished product.
The problem with high hopes is that all too often they come crashing down (Cyberpunk 2077 anyone?).
I was looking forward to an evolution of the World vs World vs World PvP of Guild Wars 2. While there are echoes, this is far from the advancement of the concept we were promised. GW2 WvWvW devolved into mobs of players roaming the landscape, this game pretty much does the same despite putting a lot of effort into creating a more involved fort system.
The PC Gamer review gets it mostly right. The tutorial is PAINFUL, poorly crafted, and ultimately fails to teach many important elements of the end game, especially crafting. If their intention was to make one hate PvE they certainly succeeded. Seriously, you are better off jumping your toon to level 25 and learning the game from Youtube or Reddit Q&A.
Once you hit level 25, you are now able to FINALLY get your teeth into PvP except the PvP zones are EMPTY. What few folks you find are either mobbing around or farming NPCs. The Good Stuff is all in the Dregs. So if you plan on playing Crowfall, joining a good guild is PARAMOUNT.
Gear matters a whole lot less than one thinks considering how involved and demanding crafting is. So don't worry too much about your gear. One you won't find any major improvements between gear levels, and two, your gear will degrade to nothingness. Especially your harvesting gear! My god, it's like cut down a dozen trees, make a new ax. And that is the "upgraded" runic ax! I get that as one develops experience in the specialty it gets better but out the gate, it is a SLOG. You have to be a true masochist to think this process is "fun".
Crafting, oh my lord. I do hope you LOVE grinding! I mean I spent many soul-crushing nights circling Sholazar Basin in search of enough Saronite to build my chopper in WoW, but at least THAT was worth it in the end. In Crowfall, you will find yourself grinding monotonously for insane amounts of raw materials only to rely on luck and RNG to produce something mildly better than the crap that drops off NPCs. Nothing like hours, and I do mean HOURS, of grinding only to wind up with a crummy product because RNGesus hates you. This is NOT as good as Star Wars Galaxies crafting by a long shot.
The artwork catches a lot of heat but it is decent enough. I am an eye-candy ****. I play CP2077 with it ALL turned on, same with Assassin's Creed etc. But I also love Valheim. Crowfall's art style isn't the problem, it's the sameness of it all. Zones have NO flavor, no sense of place or wonder. Unlike WoW which has a similar aesthetic, one zone in Crowfall looks exactly like the next - instantly forgettable and dull. Heck, MINECRAFT does a better job of worldbuilding!
Crowfall's UI is abominable. The chat is atrociously bad and feels like something from 1998. Inviting players and trying to build up parties and raid groups are exercises in frustration. This is a particularly unforgivable sin in a PvP MMO. I suppose the designers were content to let Discord do all their lifting on comms. Oh and NO MINIMAP! Ok so when every tree looks the same, when every rock formation is a variation of the same basic polygons and skins it becomes easy to get lost on the map and lose your references. If you have to keep opening up the map screen in a PvP game just so you can figure out where you are going then that is a huge problem.
Ultimately there will be those who love this game, and I say more power to them.
But for anyone who is considering buying Crowfall, be warned, it is a LOT of grinding, in a dull world, with PvP mechanics that are better delivered elsewhere.
When all is said and done, the biggest problem with Crowfall, despite all I have written, is that in the end, Crowfall is BORING.
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PC