Preview | Swords of Legends Online

LifeisXbox’ Swords of Legends Online preview | A new MMORPG coming to Steam? Well, count me in! Swords of Legends Online (SOLO) is an action MMORPG set in a breathtaking fantasy world with sophisticated combat mechanics and a unique storyline based on Chinese mythology. Explore the world with 6 different classes, engage in epic PvP encounters, take on challenging dungeons and reach the fascinating endgame.

Over the past weeks, two beta’s were available: one at the end of May and another one at the beginning of June (which ends tomorrow, by the way). I dived into the wonderful world of SOLO ahead of its release this summer, and I’m here to share my thoughts with you. Spoiler alert: Swords of Legends Online is absolutely amazing!

A little background

SOLO is based on Chinese mythology and this game was actually released in China two years ago under the name Gu Jian Qi Tan Online. Developers Wangyuan Shengtang & Aurogon teamed up with Gameforge to bring Swords of Legends Online to the west. This new version will not just be a copy-paste of the Chinese one. We’ll get a fully remastered and improved game for PC. You can actually already pre-order your prefered option: standard edition (39.99), deluxe edition (59.99), or collector’s edition (99.99).

A masterpiece when it comes to the graphics

The first thing you’ll notice is that the art style in Swords of Legends Online is absolutely stunning. I very much enjoyed the characters and the surroundings at all times. You’ll be traveling through some beautiful Chinese environments that are just breathtaking, honestly. The cut scenes were always very pleasing to look at. I never once skipped one, partly so I could follow the story, but mostly because I just enjoyed looking at them! On top of that, the customization of the characters is quite brilliant as well. I do have to admit that the initial customization options that are offered when creating your character are less interesting than the possibilities in-game. There are plenty of details you can adjust, but the basic adjustments were really just that: basic. Hair colors didn’t really differ that much, and I couldn’t even make my hair bright pink or blue. The dressing abilities in-game are splendid though, I absolutely adored how I could dress my character!

Clear gameplay, most of the time

Now, on to the gameplay itself. I never felt lost, not for a second. Everything is explained very clearly and thoroughly, so you’ll never find yourself wondering what you’re supposed to do or how to do it. There is A LOT to see and discover in this game, but everything was so obvious thanks to the correct explanation. However, I did feel like the screen you were looking at was a bit chaotic sometimes. I expect this from an MMORPG, definitely, but it’s still something that sometimes made me lose ‘balance’ somehow. There was quite a lot of information to be found on your screen and it felt a bit overwhelming at times, making it hard to focus on just one thing. That being said, you’ll get used to it after a few hours, just know that some chaos may arise at the start.

The story was even harder to follow. I was very excited about a story based on Chinese mythology, but there was so much information, that I felt a little lost in it. As you can read on the Steam page, it says: The story weaves together belligerent gods, an ancient war between peoples, and the eponymous legendary swords that were once wielded by celebrated heroes of a bygone era, and which now inspire the quest for peace. I hope I get un-lost moving forward, since I’ve only put a few hours into SOLO so far, but right now, it’s all a bit fuzzy to me.

What about the sound?

Seeing as Swords of Legends Online is still in beta, not everything was optimized yet sound-wise. This became very clear, very quickly. The original game was obviously in Chinese, so not everything has been translated yet. Parts of the conversations were in English, while others will still in Chinese. Luckily, everything got English subtitles so everything that was being said and told, was understandable. I did notice that, while in dialogues NPCs were fully voiced, I myself was not. My part of the conversation was always dead silent. My character’s lips weren’t even moving. I’m guessing this part was not implemented yet, which I understand, but it made dialogue lose its touch a little. The overall soundtrack is very pleasing and adds to the overall cute feeling SOLO offers, so nothing but positive notions to mention here!

The typical ones: quests and combat

The quest hunting in Swords of Legends Online is pretty standard. You get an objective, like killing 6 enemies of a specific type, or talking to someone special. The objectives are always very clearly depicted on screen and are easy to grasp. I found myself having no trouble to find where I needed to go because the direction was always clearly indicated by a line on-screen or on the little navigation bar that was shown on top of the screen. It all reminded me of typical MMO games like The Elder Scrolls Online.

Combat is also pretty basic, where you get different attacks linked to different buttons on your keyboard. I usually found myself smashing the specific keybindings over and over again in order to win, and it was all just typical stuff. You’ll definitely need to keep moving, but I didn’t find anything groundbreakingly new to write about.

So, should we keep an eye on SOLO?

In short: yes, for sure! Swords of Legends Online is a wonderful MMORPG that fans of the genre will definitely enjoy. There is so much to see and learn in SOLO, this preview only covers the basics. There is a housing system to discover, a ton of dungeons and mounts to ride on! I cannot wait for the full version to release myself!