So I've been playing Eternium for about 2 weeks, and I've found it generally easy to progress. It's a good fun game for the most part, and fairly impressive for a mobile game, but there are also a lot of broken parts to it.
I know that the developers of Etermium claim to eschew the pay-to-win/pay-to-play model, but I'm still generally very skeptical and cynical towards freemium developers in general, and that especially becomes the case when I see very simple issues going unresolved, as it's a very common practice within the freemium model to frustrate players into spending money. In my 2 weeks of playing Eternium, I've observed such issues. A short but by no means exhaustive list includes:
1.) Random Inexplicable Deaths. This could be attributable to any number of bugs, but it always seems to happen "conveniently," such as when I'm battling a boss during a Trial and doing very well. I've gone from full health and at safe range to insta-killed while battling Magroth, for example, even though he was doing nothing but walking towards me. It also occurs during battles with normal enemies, but it's *very* pronounced during boss battles within a Trial.
Likewise with Elban, during battles with whom my life will start to inexplicably drain despite my not having been hit by any special attacks for quite some time. It seems very cheap to me, and again, it always seems to happen when I'm winning. Very odd timing. A similar thing happens with TBD, who will suddenly start consistently doing massively increased amounts of damage once her life drops below a certain point.
if these are the mechanics of the bosses, then it should be stated somewhere. Eternium needs a beastiary record anyway, as it's sometimes hard to determine what certain enemies actually do.
2.) Sketchy Controls: There are times when the controls start behaving downright spastically, and as with the RIDs above, the timing of such issues always seems to be "convenient." Attempts to draw spell signs/abilities start being constantly misread. One could chalk it up to user error, but if your main control mechanic is constantly screwing the pooch when being used by experienced players, then your game has bad controls. Period.
3.) Broken Bosses: Bosses defy the mechanics that apply to lower enemies. They can't be effectively frozen, for one. This breaks the Mage in many ways, specifically when a combination of Frost Nova --> Blizzard is the only way for a player to achieve the DPS output necessary to clear a Trial within the allotted time. This is the case even when they're not using their Breaking Free skill (which, if it's not limited in terms of use frequency like Player-Character abilities, really should be for fairness' sake). Another example is how Magroth will constantly advance and "glide" towards the player even when performing actions that should leave him stationary. Still another is the constant life drain during Elban battles I mentioned above.
Such issues completely undermine and undo the player's efforts towards character empowerment, leaving us asking, "What's even the point?" of grinding and advancing? There's a difference between making bosses that are challenging, and making bosses that just plain cheat; and while still legitimately challenging otherwise, the bosses in Eternium are also examples of the latter.
4.) Companion AI: To put it lightly, it leaves a LOT to be desired. For example, whenever they are trying to attack an enemy that is off-screen, they'll bounce back and forth between the PC and the border of the screen. This is quite frankly ridiculous, and comes off as the result of woefully amateur developer craft.
5.) Enemy Targeting: Possibly the most broken issue in the whole game Put mildly, it's downright horrendous at times. I'm left wondering if the developers have ever even *heard* of hitboxes, or if they just didn't care to include them for whatever reason because they'd rather us just take our chances trying to accurately tap on micron-wide pixels with our fingertips. We shouldn't have to play at 40% view with a pinpoint stylus pen just to be able to accurately target enemies, but there are times when the game behaves as if that's what is required. I've also lost count of how many times my Mage will actually target an enemy, red disc and everything, and then just run up to them and stop instead of immediately shooting from their original position. It's very frustrating, to say the least, and I've even seen my Mage start shooting, then just stop and approach without any other input from me whatsoever.
What's even worse is when outcroppings of the bosses such as TBD's wings or Magroth's sword obscure the playing field. Attempts to move turn into unintentional attacks, and this will often occur prior to the related boss animations. I'll go to move away from Magroth and tap on a part of the map that he's not obscuring, but since he had already "decided" to swing when I tapped, the game acts as if I tapped on him. That's just lazy coding as far as I can tell.
6.) Ability Ready Notices: Perhaps a small issue by some measures, but I don't see notifications for when Frozen Beam and Blink are ready to be used again. These spells have very long cooldown times, so it's important that the player get those notices. It seems to be a very easy fix, so it's hard for me to see such an issue as just an innocent oversight as opposed to the result of lax testing or intentional design. I've only played the Mage thus far, so I don't know if this issue also happens with the other classes' abilities, but it wouldn't surprise me if it did.
7.) Frozen Beam will often not do damage after switching from one target to another. Again, I'd imagine this to be a simple fix, so why does it happen so often?
8.) It seems *impossible* to Reforge the Movement Speed perk onto pants and boots. I've wasted many Gems to that end. Really, the entire Reforging and Crafting systems seem tacked on solely to get whales to make purchase Gems. As they currently operate, I find it hard to see what other actual purpose they fulfill.
Again, those 8 items are just 8 out of many, but they're pretty big issues in which I for one see the potential for a lot of player frustration and alienation.
I apologize if the tone of my first post to this forum borders on accusatory or cynical, but when ostensibly simple fixes go unimplemented in games that generate their profits from in-app purchases, then it's easy for people to assume that the developer is leaving such issues unaddressed because they are hoping to frustrate players into making IAPs. I've already purchased the Stormblade and Stormgun, I've watched a *TON* of ads, and I was considering making a few more IAPs prior to encountering such issues and subsequently questioning the developers' motivations. I have no problem supporting freemium developers who are offering a balanced product in the best of good faith, and I would easily pay $10 to $20 for a sufficiently "triple-A" and fixed/balanced version of Eternium. But when I encounter issues such as the ones above, I just have to shake my head and wonder.
Eternium is a pretty good game even by PC and console standards, and I say that as a fan of the genre. I like it and want to continue playing it and even supporting the developers, but a lot about it needs to be seriously tightened up. These are not minor issues, and I'm sure I'm not the only player who is noticing them. Frankly, they keep this good/pretty okay game from being great, and that's honestly disappointing.
Just my 2 cents. Sorry for the length, but after 2 weeks of playing and constantly dealing with these issues, I felt downright compelled to say something about them. My thanks to anyone who took the time to read it. ^_^
I know that the developers of Etermium claim to eschew the pay-to-win/pay-to-play model, but I'm still generally very skeptical and cynical towards freemium developers in general, and that especially becomes the case when I see very simple issues going unresolved, as it's a very common practice within the freemium model to frustrate players into spending money. In my 2 weeks of playing Eternium, I've observed such issues. A short but by no means exhaustive list includes:
1.) Random Inexplicable Deaths. This could be attributable to any number of bugs, but it always seems to happen "conveniently," such as when I'm battling a boss during a Trial and doing very well. I've gone from full health and at safe range to insta-killed while battling Magroth, for example, even though he was doing nothing but walking towards me. It also occurs during battles with normal enemies, but it's *very* pronounced during boss battles within a Trial.
Likewise with Elban, during battles with whom my life will start to inexplicably drain despite my not having been hit by any special attacks for quite some time. It seems very cheap to me, and again, it always seems to happen when I'm winning. Very odd timing. A similar thing happens with TBD, who will suddenly start consistently doing massively increased amounts of damage once her life drops below a certain point.
if these are the mechanics of the bosses, then it should be stated somewhere. Eternium needs a beastiary record anyway, as it's sometimes hard to determine what certain enemies actually do.
2.) Sketchy Controls: There are times when the controls start behaving downright spastically, and as with the RIDs above, the timing of such issues always seems to be "convenient." Attempts to draw spell signs/abilities start being constantly misread. One could chalk it up to user error, but if your main control mechanic is constantly screwing the pooch when being used by experienced players, then your game has bad controls. Period.
3.) Broken Bosses: Bosses defy the mechanics that apply to lower enemies. They can't be effectively frozen, for one. This breaks the Mage in many ways, specifically when a combination of Frost Nova --> Blizzard is the only way for a player to achieve the DPS output necessary to clear a Trial within the allotted time. This is the case even when they're not using their Breaking Free skill (which, if it's not limited in terms of use frequency like Player-Character abilities, really should be for fairness' sake). Another example is how Magroth will constantly advance and "glide" towards the player even when performing actions that should leave him stationary. Still another is the constant life drain during Elban battles I mentioned above.
Such issues completely undermine and undo the player's efforts towards character empowerment, leaving us asking, "What's even the point?" of grinding and advancing? There's a difference between making bosses that are challenging, and making bosses that just plain cheat; and while still legitimately challenging otherwise, the bosses in Eternium are also examples of the latter.
4.) Companion AI: To put it lightly, it leaves a LOT to be desired. For example, whenever they are trying to attack an enemy that is off-screen, they'll bounce back and forth between the PC and the border of the screen. This is quite frankly ridiculous, and comes off as the result of woefully amateur developer craft.
5.) Enemy Targeting: Possibly the most broken issue in the whole game Put mildly, it's downright horrendous at times. I'm left wondering if the developers have ever even *heard* of hitboxes, or if they just didn't care to include them for whatever reason because they'd rather us just take our chances trying to accurately tap on micron-wide pixels with our fingertips. We shouldn't have to play at 40% view with a pinpoint stylus pen just to be able to accurately target enemies, but there are times when the game behaves as if that's what is required. I've also lost count of how many times my Mage will actually target an enemy, red disc and everything, and then just run up to them and stop instead of immediately shooting from their original position. It's very frustrating, to say the least, and I've even seen my Mage start shooting, then just stop and approach without any other input from me whatsoever.
What's even worse is when outcroppings of the bosses such as TBD's wings or Magroth's sword obscure the playing field. Attempts to move turn into unintentional attacks, and this will often occur prior to the related boss animations. I'll go to move away from Magroth and tap on a part of the map that he's not obscuring, but since he had already "decided" to swing when I tapped, the game acts as if I tapped on him. That's just lazy coding as far as I can tell.
6.) Ability Ready Notices: Perhaps a small issue by some measures, but I don't see notifications for when Frozen Beam and Blink are ready to be used again. These spells have very long cooldown times, so it's important that the player get those notices. It seems to be a very easy fix, so it's hard for me to see such an issue as just an innocent oversight as opposed to the result of lax testing or intentional design. I've only played the Mage thus far, so I don't know if this issue also happens with the other classes' abilities, but it wouldn't surprise me if it did.
7.) Frozen Beam will often not do damage after switching from one target to another. Again, I'd imagine this to be a simple fix, so why does it happen so often?
8.) It seems *impossible* to Reforge the Movement Speed perk onto pants and boots. I've wasted many Gems to that end. Really, the entire Reforging and Crafting systems seem tacked on solely to get whales to make purchase Gems. As they currently operate, I find it hard to see what other actual purpose they fulfill.
Again, those 8 items are just 8 out of many, but they're pretty big issues in which I for one see the potential for a lot of player frustration and alienation.
I apologize if the tone of my first post to this forum borders on accusatory or cynical, but when ostensibly simple fixes go unimplemented in games that generate their profits from in-app purchases, then it's easy for people to assume that the developer is leaving such issues unaddressed because they are hoping to frustrate players into making IAPs. I've already purchased the Stormblade and Stormgun, I've watched a *TON* of ads, and I was considering making a few more IAPs prior to encountering such issues and subsequently questioning the developers' motivations. I have no problem supporting freemium developers who are offering a balanced product in the best of good faith, and I would easily pay $10 to $20 for a sufficiently "triple-A" and fixed/balanced version of Eternium. But when I encounter issues such as the ones above, I just have to shake my head and wonder.
Eternium is a pretty good game even by PC and console standards, and I say that as a fan of the genre. I like it and want to continue playing it and even supporting the developers, but a lot about it needs to be seriously tightened up. These are not minor issues, and I'm sure I'm not the only player who is noticing them. Frankly, they keep this good/pretty okay game from being great, and that's honestly disappointing.
Just my 2 cents. Sorry for the length, but after 2 weeks of playing and constantly dealing with these issues, I felt downright compelled to say something about them. My thanks to anyone who took the time to read it. ^_^
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