Ashes Of Creation Is Finally In A Proper Playable State, And It Looks Fascinating

November 1, 2024

Ashes Of Creation has just entered its Alpha 2 phase, with the first full wave of players entering the game on November 8, and it’ll set you back $120 for a code. The Alpha 2 is set to last for around a year and will provide the developers with a live test environment to make changes based on player feedback. As someone who has followed the game’s development for years, the MMO is looking better than ever. I haven’t forked out the $120 to get access yet, but the more I hear about the game, the closer I am to opening the wallet.

The trailer for the first Alpha.

There have been some understandable frustrations with Ashes Of Creation over the years – mostly that backing for the game started in 2017 and yet it still isn’t out – but I’m cautiously optimistic about how it’s going. I’ve been as skeptical of Ashes Of Creation as anyone else, but after getting a glimpse of gameplay, I’m starting to feel a bit better about it all. Yes, the Alpha 2 access is expensive, but you don’t need to pay for it. Games of this scope take money to keep running, and if there are people willing to splash the cash on being able to actually play the game they’ve waited years for, I can see why the developers would put such a hefty price tag on the EA. And this isn’t a bad thing. Bugs will be squashed, exploits removed, and gameplay refined. The feedback has already started to roll in from creators and eager players, and I’ve been following with interest.

An Old-School MMO

Ashes Of Creation - Character with staff, in the woods.

One of the biggest talking points from those who’ve played Ashes Of Creation so far is that it feels very much like an old-school MMO. What exactly does that mean? In my opinion, it’s a game that harkens back to the slower pace of games like Archeage, Lineage, and the early days of World Of Warcraft. Browse through Reddit and you’ll find multiple posts from people detailing an epic adventure they’ve had in the game. The map is enormous, and in its current state, there is no fast travel. A journey to a world boss on the other side of the map is an arduous undertaking, something that feels like a real adventure.

The experience has been compared to Dungeons & Dragons by many. You establish your party, load up on the resources you’ll need to make the journey, and then head out into the wilderness to deal with the challenges of the road. This could be challenging monsters or other players on the hunt. If you die, you’ll lose some of your carried resources – it’s balanced enough to the point that dying adds risk, but not to the point that you feel like you’ve just wasted several hours of your life.

Plenty of people have been discussing the old-school way of grinding mobs for drops. This seems like such a simple thing, but after playing Throne And Liberty (which has time-gated dungeons and mob grinding) the idea of a game that just lets you farm goblins for 15 hours, if you want to, is so refreshing. I love the mind-numbing grind.

Combat And PvP

I was never that interested in PvP in older MMOs, but since playing New World and Throne And Liberty, the full-on guild-versus-guild combat has become one of my favourite ways to spend my time in an MMO. The developers at Intrepid have clearly spent a long time developing the combat system for Ashes Of Creation – I’ve watched a number of developer diaries where they’ve tweaked and changed a single mage spell a dozen or more times.

So far, general feedback is that combat is good, but the animations are still a bit lacking. It’s an early build of the game and I suspect animations are the sort of work that trickles along steadily alongside other bigger updates.

World, Lore, Atmosphere

Ashes Of Creation - River city from above, multiple bridges and spires.

A huge map always sounds promising but only if it’s full of interesting things to do. Pax Dei has a massive map but it’s almost completely empty. Ashes Of Creation definitely looks like it still needs work on this front – Intrepid has mentioned that it does have lore prepared for the game, but it’s currently not implemented in any form. From all angles, Ashes Of Creation looks like a pretty generic medieval-fantasy world. Again, this is the sort of thing that will likely come after the game’s core mechanics have been fleshed out.

Having watched hours of streams and trawled through discussions about the game, and now having written this piece getting my thoughts all in order, I think I’m probably going to go buy access for Ashes Of Creation. I don’t think I can stop myself. The bizarre compulsion to play the newest MMO goes on. I can’t stop myself. It’s just my fate.