Developed by Korean studio NCSOFT Corp. (Lineage, Wildstar), Blade & Soul is an action MMO from 2012 that is just now making it to the West, and despite a few launch week hiccups, the game has rapidly developed a large following, consistently staying in the top 20 most watched games on Twitch since it released on January 19.

The game has its share of its hits and misses, so here are our first impressions of the best and worst aspects of the game for newcomers.

The Good

Combat

The basic fighting mechanics in Blade & Soul are not especially different from more familiar MMOs like World of Warcraft (WoW), so it should not be too hard for some players to jump right in. There are a few features that will be very familiar to MMO players. You build up resources with some abilities and spend them with others.

There are single target attacks, area of effect attacks, damage over time effects, and so on.

What separates Blade & Soul from games like (WoW), however, is its emphasis on dodging, blocking, and evading enemy attacks. This makes combat far more engaging and reactive than your average fight in WoW, which generally saves the “get out of the way to not die” moments for raid bosses.

As an example, one Summoner ability activates temporary stealth and increased speed if you activate it within 2 seconds before being hit by an enemy skill.

There are also numerous abilities that can only be activated through combos, either by requiring other abilities to be used first or by only being available in response to certain events, such as a blocked attack or a knockdown. This leads to a bit of a learning curve when first playing the game, but it also increases the skill cap of most classes, allowing good players to really shine.

Perhaps the biggest difference between Blade & Soul and almost all other MMOs is its lack of defined class roles. In particular, there are no healers in the game, which means that it is primarily up to individual players to keep themselves alive. Whether that is a good or bad thing depends on the players.

World Design

The look and feel of Blade & Soul are exquisite, and the setting is a bit more interesting than the standard wizard and elf type of RPG.

If you have ever played BioWare’s Jade Empire, then the world of Blade & Soul will feel very familiar, as both are heavily influenced by Chinese wuxia books and films (perhaps the best known example of wuxia in the West is the film Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon).

Rather than using mounts to travel, you sprint and flip across the terrain in one of the more enjoyable travel modes I’ve seen in an MMO. Unfortunately, this travel mode can only be used for a limited time, which is somewhat frustrating since there does not appear to be any reason to limit its use.

The classes all feel distinct and fit well with the setting, although I do wish the Summoner class had a cooler looking pet. You are essentially stuck with a cartoon cat. Maybe that’s a bonus for some people.

The Bad

Performance

Blade & Soul looks great when you are standing still, but unfortunately the game suffers from a few performance problems even on high-end PCs.

Even on lower settings, frame rate hiccups are common, especially when sprinting. This is likely caused by the game loading new terrain and characters, and while the average frame rate generally stays fairly high, it frequently dips down into the forties or lower, which is almost more jarring than if it consistently ran at 40 FPS.

There are also numerous clipping issues with character hair, weapons, and clothing.

None of these issues make the game unplayable by any means, but they can be frustrating if you value consistent performance in your games.

Premium Currency

Being free-to-play does not necessarily make a game bad, and Blade & Soul certainly does it better than some, but there are still a few issues with the way NCSoft prices items in its cash store. Rather than allowing players to buy items directly, they first have to purchase NCoins in set amounts, which can then be used to purchase in-game items and services.

Premium currencies are nothing new to free-to-play games, but the way items are priced in Blade & Soul makes it very difficult to determine exactly how much real money you are spending, and several are priced so that it is impossible to spend the last of your remaining coins without purchasing more.

For example, NCoins are available in amounts of 400, 800, 1600, 4000, and 8000, and the cost for each is currently $5 USD per 400 NCoins. There are several items that are priced at amounts like 399 NCoins, 2699 NCoins, and so on.

Fortunately, you can get by without ever spending money on the game, which is what makes NCoin pricing only a minor annoyance rather than a serious issue.

User Interface

While the user interface in Blade & Soul has plenty of customization options, the stock UI feels rather cluttered and unintuitive.

The item inventory is especially lacking in polish, as there are very few ways to keep your items organized. There is only one sort by type option, and there does not seem to be any way to keep certain items where you want them when sorting.

The inventory is also extremely small, and even after numerous upgrades of increasing cost, most players will find themselves constantly fighting for space. Users who pay for premium membership have a bit of additional storage thanks to a wardrobe that stores costumes, but particularly nostalgic players who like holding on to old weapons or other items will find themselves faced with some tough choices very quickly.

Another particularly annoying issue is the fact that users can only add up to 50 people to their block list, which is a serious problem since the chat is full of bots spamming gold-selling websites. Eventually, you will run out of space in your block list for new spammers.

Verdict

Overall, Blade & Soul is a very enjoyable game with engaging combat and beautiful world and character designs. While it is certainly not without its flaws, the game is worth playing if you enjoy MMOs and have been looking for something new.

And of course, since Blade & Soul is free-to-play, there is no reason not to give it a shot and see if you like it.

Screenshot by Eric David | SiliconANGLE