First Impressions: Eden Eternal

So the other day, I heard about a reliatively new MMO put out by Aeria Games, Eden Eternal. At first glance, it looks like many other MMORPGs, but it does a lot of small things right that add up into a game that’s fun to play for those who like questing based MMOs.

Graphics: 7/10
I like the graphics in Eden Eternal. Unlike many MMOs, they’re bright, vibrant, and make the world interesting to travel through. A lot of MMOs I’ve played have had dull looking menus, sacrificing color for more realistic graphics. I much prefer the colorful style of EE. While the graphics aren’t amazing like an MMO like Perfect World, they’re much more interesting to look at. The HUD map is easy to follow, with distinct icons for major shops and characters.

Gameplay: 8/10
This game is very quest based, with quests taking up much of what you are going to be doing to gain levels. The leveling system seems to take a page from Ragnarok, having both a base level and a job level. Your base level increases by completing quests and by killing enemies within 5 levels of you. Job level increases by killing enemies withing 9 levels of you. After reaching certain milestone levels, you unlock new jobs for you characters. Once you unlock a job, you can swap to it at any time, retaining your base level but having to level up the new job separate from you old one. All job levels are retained, so if you decide to swap back to a previous job, you retain all levels and skills you gained in it. This lowers the need to large numbers of characters per player.

Travel is relatively easy, with each town and surrounding area being its own map. Town maps can be travelled to on foot, or by using a warp portal that can take you to any previously visited town for a small fee. The other convenient method of navigation is the “Go” button in the quest menu. This button appears beside every objective in the quest and when clicked, allows your character to auto-travel to the area they need to be in to complete the objective.

The game is free-to-play with a cash shop system, where equipment, outfits, and mounts can be purchased.

Story: -/10
I should probably just start rating the story as null for MMOs since most don’t have a story worth talking about.

Music: 5/10
Completely average MMO music.
Overall: 8/10
One of the better MMOs I’ve played in a long time. The game makes everything convenient, and as long as you do the quest, you should need to grind as much as other games. If you like quest based MMOs, I’d give this one a try.