Dawn of Darkness is a side-scrolling turn-based MMORPG on Facebook where players can choose from one of three classes including Barbarian, Hunter, and Rogue to explore the world of Asland by following the quests initially, or customize your play style when you have the basic quests completed. Along the way, you are required to fight against monsters, collect items like herbs, and recruit new heroes, as well as craft and enhance weapons and armor so as to win more battles and acquire more rewards.
Preview:
Not long ago, I had a chance to play NGame’s Pockie Pirates, which, according to the developer’s note, draws inspiration from Japanese one-piece animation series. I was indeed all through how level-up is effortless and how Chinese developers come up with such mechanism that stimulates players to feel accomplished when acquiring such a swift leveling-up that ends up being mind-numbing.
I cannot understand why so many people participate in Pockie Pirates, especially they are seemingly so happy to do that grinding and clicking without thinking anything.
Till now, I am still utterly confused as I was. Perhaps, that kind of game is coming into fashion.
All of sudden, I came across Dawn of Darkness on Facebook. I did a quick search and found out that the game is developed by China-based IGG, previously known to publish MMORPG, and now Social MMOs such as Moonlight Online and Age of Titans for Facebook platform.
Full Review:
Dawn of Darkness: Glory Calling! is anything but a truly new title. It is simply a resemblance of Pockie Pirates and especially 神仙道 (Shen Xian Dao), a popular RPG that has millions of players in China now.
Players will accept mission from NPCs scattered in a small town, go to the scene switching spots on the rightmost, click the involved quest dungeon and walk to the right to encounter, converse with, and battle against monsters and enemies. Among them, some are taken advantage of and can be incorporated in your team once defeated. All the battles are turn-based and automatic. You may not alter the battle results unless you change your formation, enhance weapons, or improve your skills.
All the three aforementioned games are like that. But it is extremely difficult to tell the difference between Dawn of Darkness: Glory Calling and Shen Xian Dao despite the fact that the latter is currently in Chinese exclusively and contains ancient Chinese Taoism philosophy.
Yes, those two titles are similar not only in gameplay but also in details. Both have the mission tracking system also working in the dungeons, which means that, players can still discover the enemies by clicking the targets or objects underlined in mission panel even when the characters are in the dungeons. In main quests, you might be asked to defeat one enemy, but before encounter it, you will have to take down all the enemies in the way. If you ever fail, you can adjust your formation and enhance weapons and skills in the dungeons instead of returning to the safety zone. Interestingly, both games allow players to add a panda in their team and protagonists adopted exactly the same poses in both games and run in the same way.
You would chat with enemies between battles all the time in both games. Those dialogues help make the story more engrossing and immersive and in the meantime justify the subsequent development.
Unlike most MMORPGs made in China, Dawn of Darkness offers smooth progression only at the very beginning and upgrades grow difficult before you reach level 10. And I get stuck after reaching level 22 when level-limited quests present themselves and I have to accumulate experience and level up by finishing Side quests and Elite quests, which respectively engage me in slaying boss monsters for several times and defeating formidable monsters.
And disadvantages of Shen Xian Dao are also embedded in Dawn of Darkness. For example, whenever you are defeated by any enemy, you are advised to enhance the weapons and armors of your heroes, which might come in dozens. And those endless enhancements come at high costs of your silver coins and each adds the enhancement cooldown time. Once that time exceeds one hour, you would have to wait for its end before you can proceed to a new enhancement. That indicates you have to test your luck in battles in the following sixty minutes or so.
Modifications have been made in the pictures but that doesn’t change the overall gaming experience. The graphics are beautiful in Dawn of Darkness but the characters are ugly, which is quite different from Shen Xian Dao. If there is any major difference between Dawn of Darkness and Shen Xian Dao, it would be its failure in offering the same enjoyment that Shen Xian Dao has managed to give. For example, characters in Shen Xian Dao stand out with their intriguing remarks while due to the limitation of translation, Dawn of Darkness can hardly entertain anyone with its awkward sentences.
Anyway, Dawn of Darkness is lacking in originality and those who crave for similar experience might as well try Pockie Pirates (or Shen Xian Dao if you can understand Chinese).
MMORPG, MMO, Online Games for free
Second Channel! www.youtube.com Nerd³ Twitter! twitter.com Nerd³ Site! nerdcubed.co.uk The eleventh episode! Gummy Bunnies, pro gamers and a nice, simple pub quiz. Games! Mushbits: bartbonte.com Pro Gamer: The Game: catavento.art.br The Impossible Quiz: www.newgrounds.com End theme by the incredible Dan Bull: www.youtube.com All other music is in-game music. It makes me want to seal or no seal.
Video Rating: 4 / 5
