Ten Ton Hammer - Taking MMO Gamers to the Next Level!

By Danny "Ralsu" Gourley

The normally perfect land is filled with monsters in Perfect World.

Skills and Spells
Perfect World uses the common skill tree system found in almost every game since World of Warcraft. My Mage started with a single fire spell. I could upgrade that spell at higher levels. Other spells opened up at higher levels, too. I could see ice and earth spells in my future.

The newbie fire spell was nothing flashy. My Mage would move her arm to sort of trace a rune in the arm, and then she'd thrust out and unleash the power. Even with particle effects cranked up, I did not really see a whole lot to the spell--a little orange and nothing more.

Game Play and Interface
Perfect World lost a lot of its momentum for me once I'd made a character and started playing. Movement was handled via a combination of WASD keys and mouse look controls. While this system is very familiar to Asian gamers, I found it utterly disorienting. I tried in vain to find a way to change it and then just struggled through.

The interface was a little large and not what I'd call optimized. Combat animations were smooth. If my description of a fire spell sounded underwhelming, allow me to note that melee was better. Perfect World impressed me the first time I saw my scrawny Mage double-strike an opponent with a sword (yes, I found a sword she could wield).

Quests I encountered in the early stages were generic kill quests, but I'll admit that the attempt to weave a story was apparent. My newbie trainer named Guide led me through a brief tutorial that ended with slaying a few beetles before sending me to the nearby city to meet with a guard. She advised me to kill a few more critters before I met him to curry his favor. From there, the real story began. Overall, I got the impression that the game tries to connect quests in a way that reveals the story in broader and broader strokes...but there was a problem...

Translation

A change of clothing can make your character look different.

Perfect World suffers from the typical imperfect translation of a free-to-play game. I had to reread the opening line of the first tutorial quest multiple times before I could finish the translation attempted there. As I played, hints and tips popped up to help me learn new things about my character development. Most of these were either roughly translated or insufficient to tell me what I really needed to know. Most of the time, I just clicked through the tips and tried to investigate whatever menu was just introduced on my own.

It's not all bad, but rough spots in translation make it really hard for me to get into a game. At just the moment when I can start to feel the grand scope of a gaming world, one quick "All your base" line of text reminds me that I am playing a video game. Who knows, maybe the effect is intentional. The launcher does remind people that prolonged play periods are a hazard to their health.

Parting Thoughts
Perfect World is not what I'd call perfect, but I am not ready to write it off either. I will continue to explore its features to see if it is worth diving into for the casual gamer looking for a free game to play. I can already say that the character customization is top-shelf in quality. It might be worth a download just to play with that feature.