Albion Online is a game I've been anticipating for a long time, and it's finally almost out. They're in a pay to play beta right now (June 8th) with full release scheduled for July 20th, and they've just released their last major game patch, called Hector, to the server. Now I want to tell everyone what I've learned about the game to try and encourage people who would enjoy it to give the game a buy and join me in playing!
Albion Online is a single-server sandbox MMORPG set in the fantasy world of Albion. The game focuses primarily on Player vs. Player content and Resource Gathering and Crafting, but there are also always options for solo or multiplayer PvE.
The content of Albion Online is actually both structured around and gated by a Tier system. You begin the game in your skivvies and gradually learn to create Tier 1 equipment, then Tier 2 equipment, but you'll likely find that you can't equip or craft Tier 3 equipment until you've spent some time playing the game. In order to equip higher tier weapons and armour you must do combat wearing the previous tier for some time, gaining a resource called Fame. Fame is the primary resource of progress in Albion Online. You get some Fame for doing just about everything, from resource gathering to combating monsters to defeating other players.
There are eight tiers in the game in total, and while you should be able to use Tier 4 equipment after one or two days of playing, depending on how much time you spend, it will take a long time to be able to even equip higher tiers of equipment. However, Tier 3 equipment is enough to survive at least the weakest PvE creatures in the Black Zones where most of the game's exciting PvP is played.
Albion Online offers up the promise that "You Are what you Wear" and in my experience this is true. There are no strict classes in the game, but there are soft classes put in place by gear designed to syncronize with eachother. There are three types of armour and three weapons at Tier 2 to choose from, but you can mix and match whatever you want of the three armour slots, weapon and offhand slots, as well as a mount, bag and back slot later on. Your Weapon and Armour set gives you six activated abilities and a number of passive boosts, and most items have more than one option you have to choose between. For example, the bow lets you either fire a strong single shot or unleash an area of effect spread shot for one of your three weapon attack powers. Your three armour pieces also give you abilities, usually suited to the game's soft classes.
As a player reaches Tier 3 the game opens up further weapon choices and you gain access to all of the different weapon types. There are five Mage Staves, five Hunter Weapons, and five Warrior weapons. At Tier 4 the game opens up further armour choices, giving you six options each for Cloth, Leather and Plate. While you can be a plate wearing wizard, you will probably find the cloth armour abilities better match your wizarding playstyle.
Crafting follows a similar path of expansion, gradually allowing the player to craft more and more specific types of equipment, and every piece of equipment in the game is crafted by players from resources harvested from the world. Even items dropped by PvE enemies are crafted by players, sold to a special Black Market in the capitol city of Caerleon.
In addition to the three groups of combat equipment, there are five types of gathering and four groups of equipment crafting that branch out even further. The gathering families are Stonecutting, Logging, Mining, Hunting and Gathering. These connect to the resources Stone, Wood, Metal, Leather and Cloth. Each resource can be gathered at any of the eight tiers, though the highest tier resources are only available in the Black Zones where PvP is at its most brutal. There are also six types of gathering clothes to wear that will give you abilities and benefits to the five basic gathering types, as well as a set of farmer's clothes for gathering on your own private island.
As a player progresses along their chosen weapons and crafts, they unlock small bonuses over time that not only allow the use of more advanced Tiers of equipment, but give small stat upgrades. So the more you focus on a single weapon or craft, the better you get at it, down to the individual item types.
Now let me talk about what you do with all the weapons and armour you craft and tier-up to use. There are PvE playstyles and PvP playstyles for both solo and group players. I'll start with the PvE content. The safest place in the game is the Royal Continent, which is made up of Blue, Yellow, and Red zones of Tier 3 to Tier 6. There is no PvP in the Blue Zones apart from standard MMO one-on-one Duels so they're the safest place to do PvE activities. There are areas within most zones where you can hunt PvE mobs that drop silver, the game's primary currency, instead of resources. You can use this silver to buy equipment from auction houses that other players have created, or on a number of in game services like buying and upgrading a private island or paying for long distance fast travel. These PvE zones can also have dungeons within them either for solo players or groups of players, and they have bosses at the bottom with great rewards. There are also small groups of PvE monsters out in the zones of the world, guarding chests full of silver and items! If you're having trouble because the PvE hunting areas and dungeons are full of players, you can also go on instanced "Expeditions" for solo or five player groups. These scale with your tier and have challenging bosses at the end.
While there is always some PvE task you could be doing if you're on your own, the game is made for Player vs. Player combat and activities. The most basic PvP activity is hunting other players in the Yellow, Red and Black zones of the world. These are regions that allow PvP with various penalties for the loser. In Yellow zones you can flag yourself for PvP and attack other PvPers or even innocent passers-by! Players drop a small silver reward when defeated in yellow zones, generated by the system, not taken from their pool; your money is always safe. But your equipment is damaged by 10%! In Red zones you can flag yourself for PvP just the same and when defeated you're "Killed", drop all items you're carrying and equipped with, and are sent to the nearest city. In Black zones, everyone is automatically flagged for PvP so everyone is on equal footing, otherwise it's the same as the Red zones, with full loot pvp.
The main PvP content is in the Black Zones. There are territories for Guilds to fight over and there are more resources there than in other regions, and more 'enchanted' resources as well that are slightly better than their tier. The Black Zones are also the only place to find Tier 7 and Tier 8 resources, so controlling these resources are vital for the highest Tier players.
In addition to the PvP zones there is one more important type of PvP content; Hellgates. These are special portals to hell that open at certain locations around the world, and allow a PvP Dungeon competition experience where two groups of players will raid at once. Hellgates come in three varieities, Ashen, Ignited and Infernal. Ashen Hellgates appear in Blue zones and allow for 2vs2 group PvP. Ignited Hellgates appear in Yellow zones and allow for 5vs5 group PvP without full loot. Infernal Hellgates appear in Red and Black zones and allow for 5vs5 group PvP and have full loot. The two lower tier hellgates also have soft "Power Caps" where if you equip higher tier equipment, it'll be downgraded in power to roughly T4 and T5 respectively.
Finally I'll tell you about the game's financial model. It's buy to play, so you have to pay, but only once. After that, there's a premium currency that you can buy vanity items with, and you can also buy Premium status with. Premium Status makes you get more fame from doing things in game, and increases resource drops when harvesting or PvEing. It has no effect on PvP, only on PvE. But the good news is that you can also buy Premium Status with silver, the basic currency of the game, so you only need to pay real money for gold if you don't play often enough to afford the silver price of premium status. You get a month of premium status when you buy the game. It's also a per-character stat so if you make two characters, only one gets the premium status. So that's their financial model.
All of that put together is Albion Online.
I'm loving this game and if you think it sounds interesting I encourage you to try it. I put my referal link at the top, and here it is again. https://albiononline.com/?ref=D7FTSZE341
If you join, look me up in the city of Lynhurst. I'm part of The Myrmidons guild!
