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Granado Espada Review from G4TV.com

Written by gyl on Wednesday, September 19, 2007

I was browsing for Granado Espada reviews over the weekend and I stumble on a few website that has given the game good ratings. I've received a couple of emails already about the Gamespot.com Review and so I thought of finding ways to present a game review on a different perspective. It is quite interesting see how G4TV's review and Gamespots' review goes (of course you can try arguing that they're reviewing - Granado Espada and Sword of the New World - two different games but seriously there isn't a world's difference between the them).

Taken from G4 - Review of Granado Espada: SotNW.

PROS

• Great graphics
• Excellent character design
• Fast-paced game pacing

CONS

• Lightweight gameplay

MMO developers want your money. These days they want it so bad they’re willing to give their games away and let you play for free in the off chance that you like them so much you’ll subscribe and throw a few bones their way. Whether or not this is a good business plan remains to be seen, but until that determination is made we gamers have some great online RPGs available to us for free … at least initially. Sword of the New World: Granado Espada is perhaps the best of those free MMOs; so visually stunning and fun to play you might just decide to dive right in credit card first.

A Different Place and Time

MMOs and RPGs in general have taken place in all sorts of eras and all sorts of locations, but few have ventured into colonial times. That’s exactly where Sword places you the gamer, but with a very heavy-handed dose of fantasy layered overtop. You start out on a ship destined for the New World and there find yourself embroiled in a typically colonial spat between fictional government entities and those who would subvert them. It’s definitely a very different sort of environment than what’s typically featured in MMOs, full of European-style towns, huge gothic cathedrals, and cobblestone streets full of characters dressed in costumes of a distinctly regal manner. Even the dungeons are interesting, with their frescoed ceilings and patterned tiled floors. What really makes the game different is the characters, both in their design and in how many of them you get to control.

Even the characters of the fresh-faced gamers limping straight off of the boat look quite stunning. Female avatars tend to wear huge and ornate dresses that don’t look very effective for battle but are quite a sight regardless. Men’s jackets have tails and their boots are turned down at the top, buccaneer-style. With a huge number of costumes, hats, masks, and other accessories to personalize, there’s plenty of variety. Even lowly NPCs look distinctive and memorable, especially the rather prissy costume maker Andre, who makes quite an impression.

And you’ll be visiting Andre fairly frequently when you get higher up, because you’ll have a whole family of characters to clothe. In Sword, you start out with a party of three characters that you control at once, making it feel a little like Final Fantasy, enabling you to have a fighter, a wizard, and a healer in your party without having to make friends with strangers. Initially you’re able to have up to four in your family at once, hot-swapping siblings into your party whenever you like. Earn enough in-game cash, though, and you can buy additional family slots, meaning you can basically create as many brothers and sisters as your finances will allow.

(Not So) Glass Ceiling

Creating your characters is fairly quick; choose a class (fighter, wizard, scout, musketeer, or elementalist – a sort of environmental mage), pick a name and sex, scroll through a few-dozen costumes to find one that offers a good mix of armor and cleavage, then click “Create Character.” After that it’s up to you to shape those characters through a series of specializations. Fighters, for example, have different stances and fighting styles that unlock new abilities, while elementalists can focus on one element or another to learn new spells.

It’s not a particularly complex skill tree system, and you’re free to jump about within it at any time should you not like the direction of one of your family members. Given the number of characters you’ll have at your disposal, the game does encourage you to branch out a bit and try for some specialization. Diverse specialization is good because, unless you pony up some cash, those branches are going to be awfully short. The reason Sword of the New World doesn’t look or feel like a free MMO is because it’s only free for a limited time. You’re able to download the client, create an account, and go about creating characters all without worrying about credit cards or monthly payments. However, once you hit level 20 with a character he or she will no longer receive experience.

This is a bit of a drag since given the fast-paced nature of the game, a serious gamer could hit level 20 inside of 10 hours of gameplay. The game definitely encourages a quick-hit style of interaction with generally short quests, quick level-ups, and flashy fast-paced combat that some may find to be a little too hands-off for their tastes. Since you have a whole family of characters to level up, plus bonus character types earned for completing certain quests, you’re not necessarily “done” at when you hit 20; there’s still plenty to do. However, those who chip in the $8.95 per month will of course find a whole suite of content restricted to higher-level characters, including most of the fancy costumes and naturally all of the good weapons.

Visually Stunning

Sword is perhaps one of the best looking MMO to hit a PC in awhile, both in terms of the quality of overall character and level design. While the world the game takes place in is not particularly huge at the moment it is immaculately detailed and universally gorgeous. More impressive is that it all runs very well on moderate hardware without resorting to ugly fogging or other tricks to decrease the workload.

On the audio front the game ships with a selection of period-sounding classical tunes that perfectly augment the on-screen action. However there’s one random drum and bass track thrown in there that just doesn’t fit. Thankfully that one’s easily disabled. Sound effects are good but not overpowering while the voiceover work is limited to quips and battle-cries and the like from your characters, which are less annoying than you might think.

Top Notch

Sword of the New World: Granado Espada is a compellingly good MMO at an amazingly attractive price. The 20 level cap is low it’s certainly more than enough to get a feel for the game and its quality, while the $8.95 monthly fee after that is reasonably attractive compared to the generally more expensive competition. While the hardcore crowd may find this twist of the sword a little too shallow, those who haven’t yet made the plunge into the world of MMOs might find themselves lacing up a bustier in no time. Give it a shot. You’ve got nothing to lose … except for your free time, of course.

Article by: Tim Stevens