Is it worth starting this game now?

The game is now free too play!

The graphics are amazing, only for that I recommend you to give it a chance. Also, the gameplay is really fun, like a hack and slash (no more point and click).

About US and EU versions... I'm not sure about that, I play on EU, maybe US servers have something better, but I don't know what could be xS

 

If you can put up with some grinding, this game is certainly not going to disappoint you. A lot of people pass on it just because it's Korean. I mean, come on. That's racism! It's actually really good.

 

Alright, I'm going to write a spam wall of what the game is like. If you don't want to read the spam wall, just jump to the last section and I'll sum it up real quick.​

This game is definitely not P2W, and I would recommend giving it a try. The cash shop is almost entirely vanity, mounts, and exp/rep scrolls. They sell some things that could help upgrade your gear, but it's only slightly better and you can buy it off others. Actually, nearly everything in the cash shop is tradeable. I think the only thing that isn't is the account wide mounts. You can get nearly the exact same mount that is tradeable, only it's character specific instead of account wide.

As for the gear, all of the best gear is from dungeons. Period. A very small percentage of dungeon gear is tradeable. It's the same exact gear, but there's a rare chance at it being tradeable instead of bound on pick up. The very best end game gear has to be crafted using mats that are bound on pick up and found in the harder dungeons.

Paying can definitely put a person ahead of a non playing character, but paying won't make a better character. They have a subscription that is really worth paying for. It offers a lot of perks. You get a free mount, exp and rep boosts, free teleportation, more broker slots, lower broker fees, some gift boxes with items - nothing game changing but it definitely makes leveling easier. Also, a person could pay to be power leveled and pay to be carried through dungeons to get the mats, but with the way the game is set up, if you aren't able to do the dungeons yourself - you won't be any sort of decent player. And it will be very obvious.

The community isn't the absolute best. If you find yourself a guild then everything goes fine and dandy. If you're more of a no-guild person - you'll have a lot more trouble. They have dungeon matching, but if you're under geared or inexperienced then you could be kicked out. The dungeon matching is cross server and people like to get the dungeons done fast. Of course, not everyone does this and if you're the tank/healer you'll never be kicked, but there's little leniency for DPS not knowing what to do. The general excuse is "it took you that long to que - why didn't you watch a video in the meantime?" Which is sort of true, especially at endgame.

Speaking of community, I suggest picking your server well. I've tested out a couple servers and heard stories, and personally I like Tempest Reach (pve) the best. Mount T-(something) is one of the worst. It's a pvp server, but it seems to have a lot of jerks there. I've met very few decently nice players there through instance matching. The other servers aren't as bad, most are friendly, but they don't seem to be as skilled. Either that or I'm just missing out on the good players. My information is a few months old though so things may have changed - although I doubt it. I periodically pop in different channels to read the world chat and look at dungeon listings.

My favorite aspect of the game is the combat. There is very little targeted skills. I think the healers get one or two, the sorc gets three or four. Archers might get a couple but I don't recall any at the moment. Everything is aim and hit. It's not very hard, but it definitely takes practice and skill to play that game.

Leveling was a bit time consuming if you're not a subscriber. I think I hit level 60 (which used to be max) in around 2-3 months. Grant it, I was taking it pretty slow and that was before they gave new players these amazing new weapons. The fastest I did 1-60 was in about 3 days. Now the cap is 65, and, well... 60-65 is a joke. People can do it in a couple hours. For example, you go from getting 2-5mill exp per quest, to something around 50 mill. Yea, it's a joke.

Oh and the reason the US version is preferred is because their servers are more stable (usually) and I believe we have a lower exp-to-level rate. I think those were the reasons anyways... I remember hearing about it a while ago though.



Overall though, I would definitely recommend giving it a try. The combat is wonderful, although the PvP feels a bit lacking sometimes. It's by no means a P2W game if you actually want to win, but buying Elite does help out especially in the beginning. Even if it's not something you decide to stick with forever, it's a wonderful game that's worth giving a shot.

 

To add onto this, it's not "some grinding", more like a huge amount of grinding to get anywhere near the item sets you need at the current stage of the game.

 

I highly recommend this game! It's one of the few MMOs that are actually action-based and does not have tab-targeting or (shutter) macros. It actually takes some skill to play. Plus, it just looks really good.

I'm very picky when it comes to games and I hardly stick around for more than a few sessions. But I've found myself coming back to this one again and again.

 

I think I might go ahead and try to play this game. I gave Rift a try sometime last year and loved it, so I'll see how this game is.