Watch the official trailer:
I played PW (Perfect World) for a few months in the beginning of this year as a Blademaster. I got to level 63 and then I quit, not so much because I didn’t like the game, just that I didn’t have the time anymore (exams at the horizon etc). Anyway, I restarted last week and I was pretty shocked when I logged in. The game has changed drastically. It has turned into more of a P2P (Pay-to-Play) than a F2P (free-to-play). The economy is ridiculous! The in-game coin per gold ratio (1 gold = 1 dollar) is nuts! Seriously, when I left a gold coin was like 95-110k IG coins, now it is 475-550k… But of course the game is still free, you just need gold coins to buy stuff from the Boutique. You can survive without, but other players with money will have an edge over you. That said, let’s take a look at the game.
Races & Classes
When starting the game you’ll start in any of 3 different beginning areas depending on which race you choose to be. Humans and Elves are a fairly standard fantasy race, but the Untamed are more an unusual race of half-animal humanoids (something like Taurens in WoW). Male Untamed are half animal and can hardly be customized; they're either tigers, wolves, pandas or lions walking like humans. The female Untamed look human, but have animal tails, ears or even antlers.
Next, PW has six classes. Class selection is linked to the race you pick: Humans can only be Blademasters (Support/Dmg Melee Class) or Wizards (Dmg Caster), Winged Elves can only be Clerics (Healers+buffs, but can also do a nice amount of dmg) or Archers (Ranged dmg), and Male Untamed can only be Barbarians (Tanks) and Female Untamed only Venomancers (pet user). For people who have played WoW: Venomancers use of poisons, tame pets and have the the ability to take on animal forms. So, they are like a mixture of a Warlock, a Hunter and Druids.
QuestsThrough all the levels an annoyingly high percentage of quests are of the "kill sixty of this, collect seventy of that by killing this" sort. What's worse is that the quests are often not grouped to get a higher efficiency. When I was about level 20 and got to Archosaur (the biggest town), I was pretty annoyed by the quests there. You had to run for at least five minutes, then spend thirty minutes killing twenty-thirty of something then running back for five minutes to the NPC that gave you the quest only to be told that you have to run back to the same area again and kill thirty of something else…
At higher levels you will have mounts at your disposal, I bought my onyx jaguar (ground mount; you also got fly mounts) pretty soon because I hated the running all the time. But, back to the quests. As you progress in level you will have to kill more of something each time and to be honest it’s not the most fun way to spent your free time. Having a friend with you like I did helps a lot! Get on Xfire, TS or something else and chat, joke, laugh… really anything fun to kill time while you do the quests. Also having a look at the awesome environment helps… unless you’re in the swamp. :P
Of course there is always some easy xp to get, and this in the form of daily quests. You got your “crazy stone” quest each day which requires you to buy some gems from a merchant (at higher levels you’ll have to combine them to make better gems) and then you drop the gems off at the requested NPC. And then… you go take a break, yes, you do! Go to the toilet, get a drink, it don’t matter! Just do something because you will not get your reward right away, you will have to wait 10 minutes (!) and then you can go to the NPC that gave the quest to get your reward.
There is also another daily quest named “Bounty Hunter”, which is fairly new. For this quest you will have to go to the
“HB” (Dungeon) 10 levels below yours and kill the requested boss there. You’ll have to find a party for this quest, but in general 5 to 10 minutes of yelling ‘LFS for …’ in the centre of Archosaur does the trick. Then when you got a party you get on your way. Depending on the dungeon and whether or not you use wines (you’ll learn about it when playing), this can take 10 minutes to a lot more… but the reward is very good. Absolutely a good addition to the game and a nice way to level quickly.
Chat & EmotesOf course you can’t find a squad without the usual grouping mechanics, friend lists and a chat system with World, Trade, Whisper, Squad and Common chat as well as the option to create or join private chat rooms. World chat will require you to buy something from the Boutique before you can actually say something there. It should prevent it from getting spammed, well, it should… you’ll see rich players talk and waste money on the most stupid messages there.
The emote system is also extensive and includes some hilarious animations like “embrace”. This specific emote lets you pick up and cuddle/kiss the selected person near you. But I suggest you just watch the short video. You will also see in the video that players have the ability to wear fashion over their armor (it looks better often + armor cannot be dyed, fashion can). These clothes can be bought from the Boutique or from other players.
PW also has a complete marriage system. Both players will have a wife/husband title above their heads so everyone knows they’re married, and they’ll also get some other stuff. Marriage requires two items for the bride and groom from the Boutique for 30 gold in game. So, you got to be rich IG or willing to spend irl money for it.
Trading
You can buy/sell stuff by your usual means in PW. You got an auction house like in any other game: you place your offers and continue doing whatever you were doing or log off. And then of course you got the yelling in your trade channel or local.
Though in PW there is also another way to sell stuff. Players can set up their own shops, named cat shops. You put in your sell offers, and you can also buy as long as you got the money for it. Though as a cat shop your character won’t be able to move anymore, so this is either done with alts (alternate accounts) or just when you go afk for a long time. Most shops are localized in the West District of Archosaur. If you go there I suggest you lower some setting etc for lag reasons. If you look at the screenshot you can see an example of some cat shops, I also suggest you look at the mini map: all green dots are players and most of them are shops (just to give you an idea of how many there are).
So, I think that was more than enough to give you an idea of PW. Should you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask them in the reactions. And if you have played PW as well or have any comments, don’t hesitate to share your opinion with us!
Now I checked the video's of their skills out, and I can't say I like the class. Ok, the stun and then one-shot is a nice one, but the other skills don't look that great. Putting a shield in front of you may seem useful, but it looked small and faced only one way. So, in a fast battle with flanking and all, you are going to be nothing with it... The Imperial Agent also can call in for air support; it's the usual bomb that area sort of thing. Can't say I like the animation on it, seems like the enemy will see they're going to be bombed and the area of effect seems small too, so I fear they'll just run out. Of course it might be a totally different thing when playing, just how it looks to me for now.
