Game Review: Eden Eternal

Eden Eternal id a Free to Play MMORPG published by Aeria Games. It falls under the class of games I like to think of as cutesy anime style and is full of flash and simplicity. It is set in a fantasy realm much like most MMOs but offers a fairly rich looking world full of the standard fare of Asian type monsters to hunt and hack and slash.

One area Eden Eternal stands out a bit is in its somewhat unique features. Starting out you have the basic fare of class, it might even feel a bit limited at first. However, as your character advances new class choices open up and you can use them interchangeably pretty much at will. Your limitation will be how you distribute your skill points and upgrades as you progress so you want to be sure not to spread yourself to thin.

There are only two races to choose from which are Mice and Humans. Seems like an odd combination but I understand new races may be available in the future. I'm not really sure why they picked mice for the first non-human race, I never saw a single piece of cheese while I evaluated it. 'winks'

Probably the most unique feature in the game is towns. In many MMOs if you are in a guild they might have a Guild Bank, or even better a Guild Hall or house. In Eden Eternal they have Guild Towns. Unfortunately I did not get much time to see a Guild Town but they are out there and I will update this if I see one and it is worth noting further. Still, it really is a refreshingly unique idea.

Eden Eternal has beautiful well rendered graphics, typical of Aeria Games other realms with lots of color and scenery to tease the eye. One complaint I had when first starting the game was the Blur feature. I've personally never cared much for blur because it tends to make things look fuzzy rather than crisp and clear which is how real humans tend to see things in the real world. Of course that just might be me and if you like blur you'll be pleased. This feature is easily disabled in the graphics options but I think blur is a poor default choice that a lot of games use these days. Oh well, I turned it off and now I am happy. It really is a beautiful world.

Skill effects are flashy and in my opinions a little overstated. When firing off spells as a Mage or Cleric, they swallow up your character in bright spinning and undulating colors. Don't get me wrong, I do like a certain amount of flash, but it seems a bit overwhelming and really makes it hard to take screenshots when playing the Mage, which is my personal class of choice.

The games audio is pretty standard, with lots of grunts and smacks and spell effects and the music, while original and well orchestrated, is typical of this kind of game. Meaning you probably want to keep your favorite playlist at hand because repetitious music has a tendency to get pretty old after awhile.

The gameplay in Eden Eternal is pretty straight forward, go out, kill monsters, get loot, which seems rarer than other games but less important, and turn in the quest. The interface is familiar like most any MMO and skills can be cast either by mouse or keyboard.

While the game itself is pretty laid back, combat is fast enough to blitz through quests killing plentiful mobs where camping seems pretty much unnecessary. I have a difficult time deciding if this a good or bad thing. Less is more challenging but lots makes for a nice quick get a quest done in a few minutes kind of game. As such you can get a few things done even if you have limited time to play.

Movement is mouse driven using both buttons, which for an old arthritic gamer like me is a plus. Mashing keys is hard on these old hands, but the standard keyboard commands are there for the key punchers as well. It is fast and smooth on my low to medium range gaming PC so you should be able to enjoy with a minmal trouble and a few tweaks in your graphics if needed.

I enjoyed trying out Eden Eternal, its a nice fast paced change from some of my other staple games in my arsenal. I will continue to play on occasion. This in no means should be an indication that I don't like it enough to play more often, I just have so many to test and try along with giving my favorite game the attention it deserves. This is definately worth a look if this is the genre of game you enjoy.