Eurogamer finally posts Darkfall re-review, game now 4/10

Hands up who remembers the Darkfall/Eurogamer scuffle about a certain low score? If you didn't and just to recap: reviewer Ed Zitron gave the game 2/10 and dev Tasos let forth his unhappiness with a vengeance. He accused Zitron of only having played the game for a few hours, most of which were spent designing characters or screenshotting. Eurogamer's editor-in-chief, Tom Bramwell, then promised to re-review the game, this time entrusting journalist Kieron Gillen with what had to be a very unenviable task.

I admit to taking a personal interest in this since the story broke; like many other British games journalists I've done a stint writing reviews for Eurogamer and I know both Ed and Kieron both professionally and personally. Indeed within the British games industry, Kieron Gillen is something of a minor celebrity whose opinion is trusted and respected.
So fast forward, Darkfall is out officially and everyone had just about forgotten the whole kerfuffle. Earlier today, they finally posted an epic (and very entertaining) four page review which has to rank as one of the longest the site has ever run.

It's not just a review, but a glimpse into the process and the scandal surrounding the last review (in the form of witty interludes). It's also the time when Gillen explains why editors should back up their journalists which is quite revealing for those of you who do not work as professional games reviewers.

At the end of the day though, not much has changed. The game is awarded 4/10, which is probably not the marked improvement Aventurine were expecting, but I'm quite curious to find out what the company will make of it.

Reader Comments (36)

I was an acquaintance of Ed for a couple of years in college. As far as I could tell, he was a pretty good guy. As entertaining as it was to see all the DF fanboys have a nervous breakdown over the bad review, it sucked to see people threatening him and even going so far as to try to contact him at his unrelated day-job.

It's good to see a second opinion from a well-known critic which essentially confirms that Tacos be damned, the game is indeed garbage, and Mr. Zitron wasn't that far off after all.

OOOOOhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!

Burned!

Now I'm going to sit here and wonder if that comment was worth all the legions of angry players that will be coming to reprimand me.

Probably, no. (is hoisted onto a stake and burned alive while prodded with pitchforks.

They have improved 100% since their last review from 2 to a 4 thats double their rating!

lololol

Hard to argue with that, the math is right there. Maybe they can put that on their website...

DARKFALL: 100% BETTER THAN BEFORE!

Hahahahhahahahahahhahah

I have no interest in Darkfall, but I will say this: If you're interested in it and weren't sure about the first review, but this second review is somehow confirming to you that the game sucks, you're crazy. There was no chance the second reviewer at the same publication wasn't going to back up the first with a similar score.

I love Darkfall.

I've been playing it since the EU launch (well I took a break before NA server came out).

I found this review to be very fair. I think he does a good job of actually ASSESSING the issues with the game rather than SMEAR it like the previous editor did.

I'm saddened to see that any reviewer of a game like this can't really experience the greatness this game has to offer (sieges really are the heart of this game). But based off the first 30 hours of gameplay, this game sucks. But once you get beyond it you see what was intended.

I hope people keep an open mind about these things.

You actually feel it's okay to ask players to slog through thirty hours of terrible gameplay to glimpse some of the potential Darkfall may have? Come on.

I think a score of 4 is generous, if anything.

How open of a mind does someone need to get past 30 hours of sucky gameplay? I'm sorry, but at most I'll give 10 hours for a game to hook me. If it fails by that point, I'm moving on before I waste any more of my time.

I think MMOs get a lot more leniency than any other media, even other games. Imagine putting out a game where the first five hours of gameplay is dull, but the rest is great. Would you be as forgiving if it didn't grab you at go? How about a movie or a book, or a TV show? Most TV shows don't make it past one or two poor seasons.

To tell someone they have to put in 30 hours of boring and headache so they can get a big payoff should be unrealistic. The fact that Darkfall does this consistently with everything, to the point of making even purchasing the game a challenge, and people defend it still shows that if you hype something enough as the "real, true hardcore experience" then the easily-lead will endure anything without complaint, lest they seem not hardcore enough.

Besides, if Darkfall is some spiritual successor to Ultima Online.. I have to say that UO was fun from the start.

I tried Darkfall because I like the big concepts, but the interface was the biggest killer for me.

On a tangent, back in UO days we had text over our heads when we spoke, and if you wanted guild chat, you needed IRQ (or whatever it was called). That simple limitation made it so that people talked to one another and it was actually easy to see who was talking.

Some games, like WoW, City of Heroes, etc.. have kept the bubble chat over the heads. Some remove it. But one thing that I think kills MMOs (for me) is the chat box. It is hard to read when you are doing a task (fighting, running, etc...) and limits random social interaction hugely. In most modern MMOs, the chat box is the equivalent of everyone being on a cell phone at once.

I would really like to see an MMO developer put some thought into player-player communications and invent something new with the goal of moving the chatbox back to being a chat log instead of the actual interface to communicate.

As others have said, expecting people to play something completely un-fun for 30 hours so they can have fun in a siege is beyond stupid. If a game isn't fun from the start, I don't play it.

Hehe, yeah it takes patience. I think thats a perfect example of why it is niche. Casuals want action here and now cuz they only play 10-20 hours a week. I play Darkfall way more than that.

Hardcore vs Casual, and I totally understand why.

@s_kick

And Playing WoW for a month + before getting to level 80 when the fun starts is ok?

I'd personally say I found it more like 5-10 hours in DF for the real fun to begin, which is proberbly one of the quickest for MMO's ive tried (i.e. your not grinding to a end game, your not forced to do quest after quest and so on)

You're not level 80 and raiding right from the start in WoW, but the consensus is that it is FUN from the start. I'm not sure that any MMORPG is regarded as giving a better first impression.

@Prometheus

Who said anything about WoW only getting fun at level 80? I had some of my favorite moments in WoW take place long before any of the level caps, such as pushing through dungeons with a ragtag group in Westfall and exploring Outlands for the first time. If you want to go outside of opinions, look at the sheer amount of content that exists outside of level caps. You may not find that content fun, but there's no way you could ever insinuate that WoW's only worthwhile content lies in raiding and end-game dungeons without bringing your own opinion into the mix.

Btw, you're the first person in this little sub-thread to attack WoW. Maybe it's MMO envy, whatever. I have no issues with Darkfall. I have issues with current subscribers thinking it's perfectly fine to slog through 30 hours of crappy gameplay for the actual game to start, and getting mad when the majority of gamers fail to see the same reasoning. If you found Darkfall fun after 10 hours of gameplay, all the power to you. Keep enjoying your game, and I wish you all the best in your future online endeavors.

I said they deserved a 4 all along.

The re-review didn't read like a 4/10, to be honest. Sounded more like a 6 coming up. At least it wasn't full of errors and indecent slandering. I find it somewhat comical that he hadn't read the original.

Either way, this is from the website that gave WoW a perfect score. Clearly not the same "niche", if one can refer to 11 million subscribers in that manner.

An entertaining review, if not exactly saying much I didn't already know - the cliff-running and underwear-fighting are strangely strong dissuaders though.

| 1 | 2 | Most Recent | Next 20 Comments

Eurogamer finally posts Darkfall re-review, game now 4/10

Reader Comments (36)

Posted: Jul 17th 2009 4:19PM Aetrix said

Posted: Jul 17th 2009 4:19PM Snow Leopard said

Posted: Jul 17th 2009 4:45PM Thac0 said

Posted: Jul 17th 2009 5:01PM Halldorr said

Posted: Jul 17th 2009 5:11PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jul 17th 2009 4:49PM Anatidae said

Posted: Jul 17th 2009 5:02PM Jenks said

Posted: Jul 17th 2009 5:05PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jul 17th 2009 5:15PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jul 17th 2009 5:23PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jul 17th 2009 5:25PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jul 17th 2009 5:46PM Anatidae said

Posted: Jul 17th 2009 6:21PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jul 17th 2009 8:21PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jul 17th 2009 8:30PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jul 17th 2009 9:15PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jul 17th 2009 9:15PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jul 17th 2009 6:01PM Keen and Graev said

Posted: Jul 17th 2009 6:41PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jul 17th 2009 7:15PM Minofan said

Info

Description

MSRP

Release Date

Genre

Developer

Publisher

Rating

Breaking News

The Secret World launch delayed to July 3rd

Featured Stories

The Mog Log: The Legacy rewards and what they mean

The Tattered Notebook: The passing of Ribbitribbitt

The Firing Line: PlanetSide 2's Matt Higby on the MMOFPS revolution

Engadget

Joystiq

WoW

TUAW