Perfect World Entertainment has many game titles that are very popular among the mmo community but one stands out above the rest. There first and greatest creation, Perfect World International. This free to play mmorpg is unlike any other F2P mmo on the market. Perfect World is largely based around Chinese mythology of the god Pan Gu, the first immortal being who created the inhabitants of his ?perfect world?. Though the back story is only one small aspect to what makes this game such a pleasure to play.
Right off the start in the character creation menu there is so many character customizations it makes you think your playing a console RPG. Newly updated with the five races of; the Untamed, Humans, Winged elves, Earthgaurds and the Tideborns there is plenty of classes to choose from. Anywhere from a CC tank to a rouge DPS you can play whatever style you like. Then there are numerous changes that can be done to your face and body so you character looks exactly as you want it too.
The first thing you’ll notice when you jump into the game is the beautiful aesthetics, based around a Chinese look. The soft colours and articulate landscapes make this game as fun to watch as it is to play. Along with soothing Chinese traditional music the look and feel of this game are great right from the start. The only small flaw is the lack of the work that was put into the sound effects of the game. Many noises are used far to often and many don?t fit with the monster or area they are put in. For instance there is only one sound for your character running which sounds like someone running on a wood floor, you can see this becoming annoying when your running on stone or dirt and nothing changes. But for the rest the environments are beautiful with a different city and look for each race.
Combat in PvE and PvP in perfect world is better then most other mmo’s. The skill sets are diverse and interconnected allowing for balanced PvP and squads that need support and tank players. This balancing gives the game a squad aspect where everyone has something to bring to the table. The PvE can get a little monotonous during early gameplay but if you find a levelling buddy the first 50 levels hardly take anytime at all. The ability to enter in and out of PvP mode is well done. If entered into PvP mode you must stay in it for 10 hours, taking away the aspect of random PvP kills and ganking. There are also PvP events and PvE events quite often on all servers.
Player interactions in Perfect World are among the best in and online multiplayer game. The ability to be married can be fun. The large territory wars are amazing guild vs guild battles featuring your 80 top players vs the opposing guilds top 80. Fighting for control over a territory to gain bonuses each week for the amount of land your guild owns. Then after a few months the guild with the most territories wins a large prize for the whole guild. These territory wars combined with countless instances always encourage players to get away from there single quest lines and work with other to gain new levels and armour.
The equipment in the game is one of its weakest points in comparison to that of other mmo’s. Although F2P players can get good equipment to have it refined to the max of +12 and to put socket stones that will actually help costs real life money. Although grinding for coins to by the gold for these items is possible, it would take weeks to grind what a simple $10 would buy you. This results in ?cash players? being much stronger in PvP and kills the motivation for F2P players near the end of the game.
The new descent area or morai does offer more to the high level players then the game ever has before. The quests give high exp rewards and the grinding isn?t long or difficult. There is also a new 10 player squad instance for high levels that is new and challenging. This will hopefully bring back high level players and also push lower level players to get to 95+ as soon as they can!
In summary perfect world international is a stunning ?sand box? style mmorpg. There is lots of diversity and individuality for each person to look and play how they like. Interaction between people and guilds is encouraged but you can also solo if that’s how you roll. I love this game and I would suggest it to anyone who is looking for a fun easy going F2P mmo.
Review by: MMO Specialist