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15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Definately the mixed bag..., December 7, 2003
By A Customer
Horizons, as you might have guessed from the posts here, is a jumbled bag of many different attributes, both good and bad. I'll try to cover much of each, in as fair and objective manner as possible.As a beta tester since September, with a top of the line rig, the graphics engine is a memory hog, with major loss of frames per second in a scene drawn of any complexity. While some spell effects are indeed quite nicely done, other graphics, such as characters themselves, are rather lack luster at best. The world environment itself is drawn quite well, with but just a few unrealistic detractions that pop up every so often. Combat animation is very reasonable, while casting animations (seperate from the actual drawn spell effect) can be quite repetative. Races are many, but their variety is mostly in their looks. While there are differing "stats" per race, the amount of that difference very quickly proves inconsequential after 10 levels. Races also have abilities, some of which are quite potent, and lends some viability to the different races, while others are lackluster at best. The exception here is dragons. The dragon race is uniquely done in comparison to the other races, with the promised ability to fly once becoming of age. Dragons are the only race with aging (three progressive steps), have their own classed (one each for adventuring and crafting) with its quest based advancement system, and a hoard which needs attention to keep a dragon viable in combat and effects the aging process. However enticing a Dragon seems from the start, however, they are weak when young, are significantly more difficult to play and level with, and sadly, have very few options for "distinguishing" themselves from other dragons, other than by looks alone. There is also likely to be many dragons at the release of the game, until the glamour of the race begins to wear thin, when those who are looking for achievement see that this is far easier to accomplish with a normal race. The classes of all other races are available freely amongst each race. The classes, as is normal in a new product like this, range from potent to lackluster in capability ... some, at this point, lack any viability at all in the eyes of their testers. However, it can be expected that given time, these sorts of problems will be addressed, as is the nature of MMORPGS. Multiclassing is not only possible, but quite rewarding in Horizons. The system is done very well, for example allowing you to be primarily a ranger, but with some mage like spells if you wish, with little impact. Those who go for balanced combinations will find their path a bit more difficult, as their level "rating" is raised by due to their increased abilities. Note, while any class can technically be mated to another, same combinations are far more effective, while others are a waste of time. Usually classes that share similarities are the more rewarding ones, while combinations which are vastly different from each other, such as a warrior/mage combo, will wind up disabling nearly all of the abilities and spells of the non-current "primary class." (A multiclass character must always have one single class selected for adventuring or crafting each, and that current class is the one that gains experience, and likewise limits the other classes from their full potential) Prestige classes are also possible in this game... one need not be simply a warrior/mage combo, but instead might chose the prestige class of Chaoswarrior, using the abilities they have gained to apply towards a single class that uniquely combines the two, once they have reached the necessary prerequisite skills by leveling to a certain point in those two classes. Crafting in this game... from my point of view, is done extremely well. If you like crafting classes, you will love Horizons, no doubt. While not as complex as in Star Wars:Galaxies, there is challenge, and a massive amount of variety, as well as the individual tasks of gathering resources, pre-processing them, and finalizing the product. Currently, there is little in the way of customizing a product visually, or in a more complex manner than by just adding a few statistics, but at least some of this has been promised to be added some time close after the release. Monsters in the world, from the beta testers eyes, are the same models with different paint over them. However, on the final eve of beta, a few models "hidden" from even beta tester eyes were introduced, and promises of more waiting when the servers go live are heavily rumored. All models tend to be animated very well, and they usually are every bit, often more so, capable as characters. The AI has shown a tendency of severe repetition, anther feature proportedly "hidden" from beta testers eyes. However, a few observed instances, such as other monster healers attending to engaged mobs, rather than just themselves, does bode well for the game. The weather effects of Horizons, by near to every testers judgement, are just astounding in visuals and sounds. Blinding blizards exist, that arent just swirls and a blanketed snow fog that limits your visability... but instead variating with snatches of visability just as one would have in driving windswept snow. Area's known as "blighted" can have terrific miasma's of green fog, or torrential rain with awesomely well drawn and powerfully thunderous bolts of lightening. Some particularly unique creatures in game can even "carry pockets of blight" with them, causing the weather and landscape to change as they wander about their way. Hands down, I have not played a game with better weather effects, and currently could only complain that the "natural" weather always seemed to be consistant and localized in beta. IE, if you picked a spot, and it was a clear day there, it was always a clear day there. If it was a blizard at another spot, it was always a blizard there. Again, developers of the game claim that this will not be the truth upon release. While the sounds from weather are great, often the rest of the games sounds are quite repeating at best. They are done fine, with nothing sticking out as incongrous, but again, its quite lackluster. Additionally, ambient sound has yet to be seen ... er ... heard implemented. Like any MMORPG, music, particularly combat music, is dreadfully repetative. I believe it as simply the nature of most computer games. There will never be enough music in a single game to add enough variety to it, and at some point, again especially combat music, it begins to get annoying. However... what music there is, is done very, very well. Some of the music is just mind blowing in how wonderful it is; its obvious that they put a lot of effort to get a handle on an issue that plagues computer games. There are multiple scores for combat, but still far too few to sucessfully address that issue. Otherwise, the music is thematically placed, and for example, lends a strong feeling of the culture of the city you are in. I literally have gone to cities just to sit there and listen to the music run through, and then ported to another city to listen to it's score. Some cities even have multiple scores, another attempt to add to the variety. While I speak ill of music in computer games in general, by comparison Horizons does extremely well at it, easily placing as one of my top three games with regards to its music. As for the User Interface, it's quite modifiable and easy to use. Visually, its merely acceptable; funtionally it is quite nice. Text from chat and game information is adjustable in size and color, as are the background of all the windows, to your preference of the level of opacity. Multiple banks of hotkeys are displayable at once, with the ability to select the primary hotkey bar for keystroke use, while keeping other hotkeys visually acessable and activated by a single mouse click. My only gripes with the User Interface is that the area in which you type in order to chat with others or issue a command is not adjustable in size, which can make for extremely small text at higher resolutions. Also, there is an issue with the text "cropping" or having parts of it dissapear preceeding your curser as you type, making a very difficult situation for those who are not expert typists such as myself, leading to games of "guess where your typo is in the missing text." Finally, the size of hotkeys are not adjustable, again leading to issues of tiny sizes at higher resolutions. Horizons, overall, is a darn good game, with it's own bag of issues. The nature of MMORPG's lends that this is normal upon release, and will get better as development of the game progresses. For me personally, I had no qualms ordering this game, as it fits my needs. However, others, particularly those who must have an element of Player vs Player, may see the game quite differently. The best suggestion I could make is to read as many reviews as possible, or better yet, see if you can look at the game first hand with a friends assistance. Good luck, and I hope to see you in the world of Istaria, should you decide this game is for you.
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