ArcheAge Chronicles Early Access Day 1

A little tardy getting these thoughts out a week late here but here they are... 

 Stepping into the Early Access launch of ArcheAge Chronicles this week reflected on my initial demo impressions. Last month, I walked away from the demo feeling like combat was floaty but functional, the world layout was hyper-cramped with back-to-back camps, and I was surprised to see so many players running around an open world instead of a session-based lobby. Now that day one is officially in the books, the floaty combat is slowly growing on me once you get into the combo rhythm, but the map density flipped completely. Once you leave the starting zone, the world feels dead, the main city is a ghost town, and the lack of basic local chat or speech bubbles leaves all those nearby players feeling like silent NPCs.

 

Here we go again, again

 ArcheAge Chronicles definitely lands in MMO-lite territory, even if that definition remains a bit fuzzy. When you start out in the new player areas, there are plenty of players running around you, but there aren't any obvious local chat options, speech bubbles, or local VOIP that I saw. It makes for a surprisingly quiet shared world right out of the gate. You see the player density, but there is zero immediate social connection to make it feel like a living MMO community.

 Combat is floaty and still lacks grounded weight for the size of the strikes, but it is slowly growing on me. While heavier setups like the greatsword felt clunky at first, once I started getting used to them, I began learning more and more of the combo-based system. Having target lock isn't a problem for me, but it does create some odd spin-around moments where you attack through an enemy and then violently spin 180 degrees to re-face them.

The main town of Seaglass Harbor

 The inventory screen is usable, but I would still like to see simple quality of life changes like drag-and-drop into equip slots and clearer visual prompts for when you can double-click versus needing a button press. Most actions require a button press, giving the whole interface a very console-driven feel, which is pretty odd considering the game is currently only on PC. That disjointed UI design shows up in combat presentation, too. Standardizing healthbars across the board would eliminate unnecessary confusion. Expecting a normal enemy healthbar over a target's head only to realize it is an open-world boss with a giant healthbar stretched across the top of your screen just feels inconsistent.

 Questing and progression are also a mess right now. My biggest gripe is that quests aren't obvious. That can lead to some neat moments when exploring as you unlock things to do just by running around, but some quests will only trigger if you run by a very specific point on the map. At one point while following the main quest out of the main city, nothing was happening. An hour later, I accidentally happened to run down a specific road and hit the exact spot that triggers the quest, even though I had already fully explored the area where the quest takes you. I like the push to explore to find stuff, but better markers and tracking are needed. At minimum, put floating names or indicators over NPCs to clean up the navigation clutter.

A mostly lifeless and empty-feeling main town

 As you get further along, the content density drops off fast. Outside of the newbie areas, the world feels empty, the main city was a ghost town, and there are lots of dead areas. It is too early to judge the full Early Access value, but my ultimate feeling is there is a couple of weeks of content to play here before running out of steam. The game is in Early Access and is a polished enough experience to be worth playing, but it will be one where you play for a bit and then wait for the next big update to land before returning. I haven't tried PvP yet, but I am interested to see where that goes and may check it out after exhausting some of the leveling content. The old man PVPer in me just isn't up for open-world PvP while leveling anymore.

Note: this post was edited with the help of AI (Gemini Flash). The thoughts are my own. The grammatical correctness is the AI.

Additional screenshots:

Back in the newbie zone

Fighting the open world turtle boss in the starting area

Inside a detailed building in the main town

Crafting a sword

Doing some parkour exploration in the main town

Ah yes, chopping down some trees

The first new story quest after what we experienced in the demo