dunno why i keep comming back to the game but that shows it's doing a good job :D

only thing i hate is the healing sound (silkwings and gremlin menders) xD oh and the lack of a 4/5* piercing antigua hahaha

I'll chime in here too and second what Traevelliath said. Three Rings has hit a great balance between F2P and P2P. Anything you can get quickly with $$ can be achieved with time and patience.

Another feature I like is the player driven economy and the Auction House.

I would also second a lot of what has already been expressed. I would particularly highlight, however, the importance of the SK community--that's really the big thing that keeps me, and a lot of other people, playing. It's true that the forums community represents a specific subset of the community at large that can sometimes be rather... caustic, let's say, but the community in-game is one of the very best I've experienced. There are some of the same problems as any other MMO community (beggars, griefers, etc.), but far fewer of them compared to many games, in my experience.

As to what I would rate as a problem, as has already been expressed above, going totally f2p does require a fair amount of grinding. While I don't think having to grind to get everything for free is inherently a problem, it does mean that you run out of playable content way before you run out of gear to make, and therein lies the real problem: needing more, and more varied, content in-game.

I recommend getting into the game yourself if you have not already for a better experience and understanding of what you review. Cowboy.

The Good

Energy. A lot of people complain about it without knowing the energy cap is what keeps inflation down for the majority of players. It also means people can simply burn their mist for the day in a couple hours worth of floors and be done to do other things in their lives as opposed to grinding for all eternity. Mist is regenerated for free constantly at around one every 13.2 minutes and caps at holding a hundred at a time. You get a full tank every day. We also have two different forms of energy, the other being CE/crystal. Unlike mist, crystal is solid and can be stored far beyond one hundred, but never regenerates. The only way to get it is from buying energy packages with real money but it can be traded and sold to other players which creates the energy market. CE works the same as mist but since you can hold a lot more of it at once you can craft things that consume more than your mist can supply at once, making it very important for progressing through the game. Energy is also used to revive in the Clockworks (though if you are in a party your teammates can revive you by giving you some of their health), access floors in the Clockworks (source of crowns, heat, materials, and minerals), and activate things in the Clockworks (extra areas for some bonus loot, powering up machines to help your team, and especially that extra kick in the morning without the effects of caffeine). It can also be used to revive in Krogmo minigames though unlike the Clockworks you will revive for free when a timer completes upon defeat.

Equipment variety. This is going to show up again later so pay close attention. In this game we have three different weapon types: bombs, guns, and swords. Bombs excel at area of effect, guns excel at distance based attacks, and swords excel at close range combat and not being a mix of bombs and guns. Nick only says otherwise to cover his mistakes. There are various mechanics within each weapon type. Troika and Sealed swords have the 'heavy' mechanic with longer and wider basic swings but their basic combo only has two swings. Caliburs and Brandishes have the 'standard' mechanic which has three swings and moderate swing range. Alchemers (upon upgrading to 3*+) have bouncing bullets which can be used in crowds in an opening for consecutive hits from a distance. Catalyzer charge attacks fire a sticky explosive which detonates with a basic bullet from the same kind of gun and can be detonated by other players with any kind of Catalyzer. Vaporizers create a large cloud which has a high rate of inflicting a status but has significantly limited damaging ability outside of the status. Graviton creates a suction field which pulls enemies into it then spits them out and dealing damage. However in spite of all this variety there are certain weapons which are overpowered or underpowered. Blitz deals significantly higher damage compared to any other weapon. Winmillion has horrible damage and very dry attack mechanic. Pulsar bullets are effectively bombs with range. I can list every single weapon in the game and at least half of them will have something wrong.

The Arcade. An ever changing system of gates which creates varied scenery and enemies. All the players have to do to create that variety is deposit minerals collected in previous expeditions into one of the several inactive gates to the right and it affects what themed stratum happens. This complex system also houses the infamous Basil, the original supplier of high ranked recipes required to craft high ranked equipment. Both Basil and the Arcade are also going to show up later.

The new tutorials for new players. It includes using a bomb. It may not do it well, but it involves new players using a bomb in a scenario where there are multiple enemies gathered together. Whether they can figure it out is questionable but plausible. They also added the Razwog storyline, though like most storylines it has minimal content and has no relevance outside itself. Do we see anything from it again? Nurp. Was there any purpose to having that there? Give new players an incentive to keep playing. This is yet another thing which will show up later.

Separation of premium and non-premium players. If you decide to open your wallet to this game, what do you expect to get? The energy packs mentioned earlier so you can progress through the game faster (by buying the energy yourself you do not have to buy it from other players with precious crowns, not that doing so is particularly difficult)? Cosmetic items? Yes to both of those. What about exclusive weapons, armor, shields, or trinkets? Nurp. Practical equipment involves energy and/or crowns. You can still use that energy you bought to trade for equipment, but from the direct transaction you only get energy and depending on the package cosmetics. There are also other things money can buy (excluding happiness) like elevator passes (sets elevator fees to 0E instead of the normal 10E per floor; this item is not permanent and has a time limit which can be extended by buying more) and the one expansion pack we have known as Crimson Hammer. That expansion is the only time something which costs money also has practical equipment behind it. You have to earn the equipment by completing the tiers, which is another good feature of this as opposed to simply handing you the equipment for purchasing, but there are only three kinds of items: a hammer, a bomb, and a helmet which gives great bonuses for guns. Both the hammer and bomb have unique mechanics not seen in any other equipment in the game and is currently only obtainable if you purchase the expansion in this server. If you go overseas they have the expansion available for purchase using CE which can be obtained and/or traded for by all players whether they use their wallet or not. Back to the equipment briefly, there is a version of each of the three in each of the three tiers. If you complete T1 of the expansion you are rewarded with the T1 hammer, bomb, and one special material for the T1 helmet (which are untradable and you need three to craft the tier relevant helmet). Each tier has its own bomb, hammer, and helmet. The weapons are untradable but the helmet may be unbound at Vise for a fee to trade with other players. Back to the normal premium package content before moving on, cosmetic items. Costumes, accessories; think of hats in TF2. Does nothing for you, but it looks different than what you normally have. Whether you want it or not is up to you.

The Bad

The mission system; more specifically, easy access to high paying missions like bosses. Boss missions which also give tokens. The mission system itself is fine, a storyline for players to follow along with, but it also involves the Hall of Heroes. Remember Basil from before? How he was the only source of high ranked recipes and you had to work to find them? Halls have almost all recipes as long as you unlock them by attaining higher ranks. By the time you complete the mission storyline you have access all the way to 5* for the majority of recipes. The only recipes not included which are often sought by players are boss token equipment recipes. The missions are not particularly difficult while the rewards are plentiful. Players still have to give up crowns for the recipes, but it crippled the recipe market which rewarded Arcade explorers for their efforts. Missions also give the complete recipe line of the Cobalt set and its three weapons (one of each weapon type) all the way to 5* for free. You may think this would be a problem, but it actually helps players learn how recipes work without forcing them to work for it first. Why is this bad? The Cobalt armor set is awful. Its only redeeming quality is how cheap it is to make. Not to say everything else is perfect in comparison, but if you want the bottom of the barrel this is it. The weapons, on the other hand, are good. Not great but still decent. The sword, Calibur, is as standard as a sword can get. Think of the sword Link uses in Legend of Zelda. The spin attack. Same idea. The gun is debatably good or bad depending on who you ask and how they use it. It has modest knockback and attack interruption, good projectile speed, average projectile range; the knockback applies even at close range, by the way. Whether Blaster is useful depends on whether you benefit from its effects. The bomb is great for aggressive demolition, but its animation involves shaking your screen and a giant bright blue flash. Same as the sword and gun it deals pure normal damage, but with bombs that means only needing one damage type to attack in a large area of effect with rapid succession. Take out the obnoxious parts of the animation and a lot more people would be using it.

Straightforward gameplay. We have Haven, a town to derp around in and do merchant stuff. We have the Clockworks, kill stuff. We have Krogmo, do minigames and whine. We have the recently added guild hall place, derp around and jump on all the beds while people look at you funny. What about that combat again? Not the stupid minigames, the Clockworks? What do we do there? Kill stuff. What else? Kill stuff. What about the world? Why do we confine ourselves to a small town and going underground? Because that would be a lot of work to create content in the whole world of Cradle. Why not start small and grow from there? Because that would take away from working on the next fifty energy promo packs with more cosmetics to make money without creating solid content. For a lot of players what we have is satisfactory, but if someone tells me I was marooned on an alien planet I want to walk around and see what else is here. A main point of the storyline is to find the detected energy source at the center of the planet. Hundreds of players have done that already, seen what was there, including myself. What happens now? They told us just to keep getting minerals from the Clockworks and dump them in new gates. Is that the point of the game? To collect minerals only to put them back in the world? What happens after that? What else is around us? There might be something better in our backyard. Are we going to at least look? Does anyone care about the game being entertaining or is it all about dressing up now?

Unsatisfying teamplay. If you took a poll on how many people prefer going solo as opposed to having a party, even with people they know, guess which is going to have the majority. In a party materials are delegated to only one member as opposed to the soloist getting all the materials. In a party enemies have more health with every additional member. In a party you might be stuck with some idiot who keeps getting in the way or doing things wrong. That same idiot might steal all the health vials and waste them, then constantly dying and sucking out all your health. In a party each member carrying a mineral shares it with all members but not by simply cutting it up and handing out the pieces, it multiplies it so everyone gets the full amount each player is carrying. In a party if someone gets killed you can simply give some health to them instead of using their energy. In a party more people are using more weapons at once. In a party there are more bodies to take hits and a larger health pool. Sounds like parties are great, right? Here comes the punchline: the game is easy enough to play solo without losing out on much. Worried about reviving with precious energy? Wolvers were nerfed to uselessness months ago, just kick their heads and move on. Want to get more minerals? You only get 1~5crowns per piece anyway. Need people to tank for you? Just dodge the attacks. Worried things have more health and take longer to kill? Us knights do immensely high damage, it would only be a couple seconds longer with a full party.

The Ugly

The players and clones. This game has been advertised on other gaming sites which involve a lot of very young players. What happens when a swarm of children come into an environment like this? Think of what happens when kids play Call of Duty, Halo, or whatever generic FPS game involves playing online. Now imagine giving them a mic and/or power over other players in a party. You do something they may not like, maybe you grabbed the huge chunk of red mineral instead of the tiny purple chunk and purple is their favorite color, booted from the party. Their energy is low but they think you have an infinite supply, they demand you pay their elevator fees. Things like that. Now imagine them using their mic now. There have been several occasions where I was completely convinced a child no older than seven was leading my party. Not convinced? I listened to them slobber all over it for two floors. I heard them scream at their mom to make them a PBJ sandwich. I heard him scream at me for picking up a mineral that was their favorite color when they were already carrying the same color. I know there are people who would do all this at any age, but if they were any older they put on a convincing show. I also heard his mom go on the mic and I told him to apologize to her for screaming. It was pretty funny. Fortunately that was the end of the tier so I cut and ran from that party. Speaking of...those people, clones. When I was still new to this game, around the first couple months of derping around here, I had a hilarious loadout. Guess what it was. Go ahead. You can stop guessing now. My first armor set which I built up to 4* was Plate. My first weapons were Calibur which was crafted to become a Vanquisher, the 'inferior' branch to Leviathan for its lower damage and knockback on the charge attack, and GFaust. Plate armor gives a penalty to attack speed. Vanquisher has less damage than Leviathan. GFaust is inferior to DAvenger in damage output from the charge attack which deals high damage to a large area. And you know what? Even with that derp loadout, I did amazing. In parties I defended teammates. I kept my allies alive even if it meant giving up my own health. If I was the first into a mineral room I would break all of them to spare others the effort. Now imagine the opposite of all that. Clone. If you ask people what a clone is the majority are going to say someone who uses Skolver, the Snarbolax shield, Brandishes, Sealed line swords, and Flourishes. Want to know what I think a clone is? Someone who thinks they are the most important because they can deal the most damage at once. That implies the clone equipment, but does it necessarily mean by using that equipment automatically being a clone? No. People can use Skolver if they want. People can use Brandishes if they want. I have a Combuster with a +2 charge UV myself but I stopped using it months ago, and even when I did use it I was mostly using the basic swings. Why would I do that when using the charge deals more damage in less time? Because when I was still using that Calibur and GFaust I almost exclusively used basic swings. Everything was about using combinations of attacks in various situations. Adaptive combat. Not annoying my teammates. Not getting in the way of others. Not interfering with what others are doing. They were my allies, not rivals. Why would I want to one-up them when we help each other? Why do I care if I deal more damage than them when I could be helping everyone stay alive? Because the combat is easy. It was made even easier with time. The game was more difficult when I was using that old setup. Now we have enemy nerfs and knight buffs. If I tried my old loadout now, though I upgraded everything to 5* now, the only party I would not be kicked from because of my loadout would be if I made my own. People kick me for being me anyway, but Plate means not damage bonuses which means not good which means kick from party. What if the party was three incompetent clones who died and wasted all their energy on revives? Nurp, not-clone means not useful, get them out of here.

Misleading introductions. Remember that bomb tutorial mentioned earlier? I never mentioned it made bombs necessary, just available. When faced with those four very easy enemies, do you think a new player would use the weird new weapon that makes them vulnerable to attacks and unable to counter to prepare only for a small area of effect and damage rate, or use the sword they are already familiar with? What about the energy system? A couple months ago they changed it so while in the newb area the energy meter is invisible. They think they can access floors without any problem. They may have seen the 10E in blue letters when they went on the elevator to do the Razwog mission, but what about after that? Suddenly the game has limited gameplay. Then it tells them they have to pay to get more energy? It mentions how mist works for a little bit. Suddenly the entire energy system feels like a trick to them. They were fine in the newb camp, why should they keep playing when they think they have to pay to continue? Quit. If they decide to stick around instead, missions give them a lot of free stuff for doing very easy tasks. Go talk to this guy. Free stuff! Go talk to that other guy. Free stuff! Go fight these stupidly easy things. Free stuff! Use all your mist for the day. Free stuff? Where is the free stuff? Go annoy other players for free stuff. Must have free stuff! The game gave me all this free stuff, so all these other players must only exist to give me free stuff! Why? Why is this happening?

Equipment imbalance. I can go on for hours discussing this. No, not hours; days. There are far too many things wrong. Want to know what they did to balance things? Gave all bombs +20% damage and all guns +15%. What about the overpowered guns? What about bombs that are still underpowered? What about underpowered swords? Nurp, problem solved, time for more promo packs to sell. Thanks. Thanks for spitting in our eyes. Thanks for not caring enough about fixing existing content and instead going to create new stuff. Because that somehow fixes the original problem. If you want more of me ranting about this topic go here and see how I would fix things. With a wrench to the face. The faces of whoever decided fixing the game is a bad idea while more accessories and costumes is genius.

Lack of communication between the people who run this game and those who play it. You see that page address up there on your web browser? See the number part? Replace it with a three digit number. In fact, I did right now, and this came up. Now try to do that with a five digit number. Those numbers are created by how old the thread is, smaller numbers being older. Notice how in the past they talked to us more, and now they only tell us to shut up or defend themselves. Did someone assassinate Nick, peel off all his skin, and now wears it as a disguise? What about that time Nick promised old content like Tortodrone would return 'eventually' when they were taken out over two years ago? Is 'eventually' a filler term for 'if I feel like it'? What happened to this? Did he stop caring? What about this? Locked for "bumping"? They posted to tell us to shut up, but not to actually answer? That thread was taken down for a day at one point which received a justified response, and was returned with the explanation "it was an accident". What happened, were they watching it sit in its grave and decided to urinate on it by "accident"?

The Bottom Line

This game is still enjoyable. Non-clones still exist and thrive. Sometimes they fix a few minor bugs, other times big ones like stun which was broken for over a year. Sometimes they answer questions. Sometimes we get a real update to the game. Sometimes you jump in a pickup group and the team is good. The problems are what happens the rest of the time.

This game has a lot it could improve on. There are many things which can be brought from unworthy to scrape the gum off your shoe to running for mayor. What stops that kind of progress? Ask them. If they choose to answer you.

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