What makes the game? Ashes of Creation is a sandbox MMORPG that aims to appeal to both PvP and PvE fans. As a great innovation, it relies on the so-called node system.

The entire open game world is divided into zones, each containing a city. This city starts as a small collection of tents and can grow into a huge metropolis. To do this, players must complete tasks in the city and its associated area. However, the cities can also be attacked, destroyed and conquered at fixed times.

A special feature of the game is the boss, Steven Sharif. He is not a skilled developer, but made millions with a snowball system. He was passionate about playing ArcheAge, but was bothered by many things and wanted to implement his own game. He took a few million into his own hands to finance Ashes of Creation.

What about a release? Actually, Ashes of Creation was supposed to be released already in 2019, but was postponed again and again. Alpha 1 was then launched in 2021, which, however, showed that the MMORPG is still far away from a release.

A first glimpse into the alpha version of Ashes of Creation can be seen in this video from streamer Asmongold:

Separation from Russian publisher and many revisions

What is the current state of the game? Ashes of Creation is still in alpha, whereby the MMORPG cannot be played at all at the moment. Alpha 1 ended after a few weeks on August 15, 2021. Since then, the servers have been permanently offline again.

However, there was strong criticism in Alpha 1:

• The quests were very generic and simplistic.
• The character editor offered too few options.
• Many of the playable races and classes were not yet included.
• Some of the animations still looked very raw.
• Many promised features were still missing.
• There were several technical problems, bugs and rubberbanding.
• The world was not really big yet.

Many were disappointed mainly because Ashes of Creation was considered a great Western MMORPG hope, but after four years of development it showed too little progress.

There was also a discussion about the topic of alpha in general, because while many MMORPGs already present a kind of demo version of the game in the alpha, the alpha of Ashes of Creation was actually meant for testing and finding problems.

Why is the game developing so slowly? For years the boss Steven Sharif was looking for new employees for his studio. However, some positions were filled only after years. With the expansion of the team, new office space was also needed, which took some time, according to Devblogs.

In 2020, the company also parted ways with the Russian publisher MY.GAMES, which is viewed critically by many MMO fans. The developers of Intrepid said that they now wanted to publish in Europe and Russia themselves. This is likely to have taken up resources as well.

The Corona pandemic, which has been with us for two years, may also have had an impact.

But overall, there’s a lot to suggest that the developer has overreached itself in terms of features and game systems. On paper, Ashes of Creation still sounds extremely ambitious – which costs a lot of time in implementation.

There is regular progress, but a release is not in sight

What has changed about the game since Alpha 1? Quite a bit. Since August, new mounts, areas, assets and content have been presented. October was all about weather effects in the game world.

Then, in early January 2022, the adaptation of the engine from Unreal Engine 4 to the new Unreal Engine 5 was announced. This should make the MMORPG prettier overall and strengthen performance.

In addition, the character editor has been completely overhauled. There are now more sliders for various settings, more options for hair, beards, tattoos or scars, as well as interesting features like the “family system”. This is supposed to let you take the presets of two characters and create a new character from them, but based on the basic bodies of these characters – as if they had fathered a child.

This video gives you an insight into the new character editor:

In the last studio update in April, dynamic events have now been introduced. These should be able to happen anywhere in the world. In such an event, goblins attack the cities and the players have to defend themselves against them.

These events are supposed to announce themselves via various preliminary events, such as when a plague slowly spreads through a region. Players can prevent these events early on, but if they don’t react, the danger is supposed to increase. The events run according to a scheme and timer, but there should not be a big board with an event notice, but they should integrate naturally into the world.

With such events, PvE players should also get their money’s worth.

When can we finally play? Although there are regular updates from the developers, but when the Alpha 2 starts and the players themselves can lay hands on the MMORPG again, is currently unknown.

After Alpha 2, several beta events will follow, which will probably run for a longer period of time. A release in 2022 is virtually out of the question. There are many indications that Ashes of Creation will be released in 2023 or even 2024.

Ashes of Creation is still considered a great hope, but the hype is flattening out

Why is Ashes of Creation so eagerly awaited? MMORPG fans are still waiting for the next big game. New World failed to convince many at release, and Lost Ark doesn’t appeal to every player with its iso-perspective and unfamiliar controls.

Ashes of Creation, however, offers the typical third-person view, relies on a more colorful world, promises a combat system for every type of player and a lot of freedom that appeals to sandbox players in particular. In addition, the social interaction in the cities should lead to players binding themselves to the game and their guilds in the long run.

However, it has become clear to many players that Ashes of Creation also has to make compromises. In addition, there is the large PvP focus in the end game, which was underestimated by many at the beginning.

Due to the alpha content, the hype around the game has flattened out for the time being, but Ashes of Creation will definitely be an exciting MMORPG at release and will certainly attract attention.

What do you think of Ashes of Creation? What do you think about the latest content? Does the MMORPG appeal to you?

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12 new MMORPGs still to be released in 2022