Wednesday, April 7

Spellborn Free to Play

From the site...

Spellborn Goes Free to Play While in Redevelopment

It happens sometimes; a really good game will slip through the cracks. There are a lot of reasons why this happens and I know you will have opinions, but I�m not here to talk about that.

I feel like Spellborn was one of those games. A solid MMORPG with a twitch combat interface that meant that player skill actually mattered in PvP. Most of those who played it enjoyed it. And it did pretty well in the reviews online. It was originally a subscription based game with servers in EU and North America, and is now in redevelopment to be converted to a F2P. Acclaim still has servers running the original version and that is why I�m writing this.

We felt like people missed out. They didn�t get to see what Spellborn was really like. And we are going to fix that.

Today, as you read this, Spellborn as it currently exists is now free to play. Keep in mind that there will be no upgrades and no patches. It has become in effect, an Action RPG with superior Multiplayer. The only thing it will cost you to play is the time it takes to download.

So play it.

Now because it is frozen in time, we will be creating events for the players and we will help support any players that want to make their own events.
And if you have thoughts on how we might make this version more enjoyable as we wait for the New free to play version, we are glad to listen.

David Historian DeWald
Community Manager
Acclaim Games Inc.
community@acclaim.com


I was a part of the closed beta for this game for quite a while and when I could play it, it was rather enjoyable (if you could get past some of the bugs, but heck, it was still in beta then). When I quit, it was in an enjoyable state (I think it was open beta at that point), and will be checking it out again...when I once again have internet access at the house.

11 comments:

  1. *stumbles backwards*

    it's.... it's....

    *points feverishly*

    it's ...

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  2. Oh my Gosh!

    I know who gave that guy his Closed Beta access :-)
    I'm sorry, but Spellborn makes Vanguard look like Triple AAA quality engineering and operations.
    I might be enticed to see the remake, but the current version that's the work of the bankrupted Spellborn NV is damaged goods to me. partly because I remember too vividly its train-wreck-waiting-to-happen style development cycle.

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  3. Hehe... No need to act so surprised Phe. :) I've watching you while you sleep. Er... Uh... Ok, not like that. Like lurking... Yeah, that's it. Lurking!

    Lani, I always knew you had good judgement. ;)
    Have you tried it since the closed beta? The open beta was actually playable, just that once you hit a certain level, the content kind just stopped. Obviously, since they hadn't put it in yet. I'm sure they've added more since then. Then again, maybe my expectations have just been destroyed over the years.

    I remember playing in the closed beta for Vanguard as well. From my perspective, they both were about equal as far as development problems go. They both had game killing bugs in the code they just couldn't seem to get worked out on their own.

    I think the only thing that "saved" Vanguard was that they got Sony on board much quicker than Spellborn got Frogster and Acclaim to "help them out." I remember the difference was almost like night and day from before the Koreans (it was Koreans, right?) showed up to help fix the network code and after.

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  4. I have to admit, a lot of the hints and clues the Vanguard community got regarding the behind the scenes soap series during development at Sigil and afterwards at SOE were hauntingly familiar. I bet a lot of the same mistakes were made. Spellborn NV's excuse was they were new at doing MMO's, Sigil however....

    But to me Spellborn will always be tied to a rather dissatisfying career step I can't really talk about because the NDA I signed prohibits such for another 2.5 years if my calculations are correct. That's something which will forever spoil the fun of the game for me.

    Hey maybe we could do a game of chess sometime while watching Phè sleep? I always wondered about that other shadow on the window pane :-)

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  5. One day. One day I do want to try it out. I have yet to enjoy any F2P game since Anarachy Online, so I am not that eager. And besides I am thoroughly enjoying Fallen Earth. And I really want to play Mass Effect 1 and 2. And that pile of other single player games too.

    Oh, and I have to go shopping for curtains!

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  6. I know Lani. I almost didn't post this. Didn't want to dredge up some repressed memories for ya.

    Phe, what's so exciting about Fallen Earth? I looked at it, but I don't think I could get into it. I'm not much into post apocalyptic landscapes. Post searing and the desert area were my two least favorite areas of the game in Guild Wars. Oh, and then Factions came out with the huge run down city area...gag me with a fork!

    Still, I been checkin out some screenshots...looks kinda interesting.

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  7. /me pokes Fractured with a fork wondering what's the point

    No worries mate. It's not a trauma really, just that Spellborn's not something I can just look at and enjoy without strings attached.

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  8. Hmmm, one thing about Spellborn.
    A lot of the content you didn't get around to see was Post-Apocalyptic in nature. Remember that the whole background of the game is about a Post-Apocalyptic culture and a large part of the game's end-game would have been semi-PvP Shard Conquest. THose would be drear

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  9. Oh, so it's like Guild Wars in reverse? lol

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  10. I tried this game after they patched in all the newbie tutorial stuff, quite enjoyed it. Thought I'd go take another look, things to note are that the official patcher/installer doesn't work, you need to hunt around the forums to find an alternate download, I found some links that gave me a good download speed. Then, after patching, you have to face the evil that is gameguard, again as is it wouldn't launch, the forums yielded a really simple fix that took 5 minutes.

    It's a shame there are so many obstacles to getting in the game, if you can be bothered to look for the fixes it doesn't take long to get it running but most will be put off straight away.

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  11. Love the combat system in this game and the Tim Burton ish graphic style is lovely. Heavily story driven with quests you need to pay attention to unless you like running around aimlessly hoping you'll kill the right mob or bump in to the right NPC.

    Seems the US like it more than us EU players as there seems to be a peak in activity as I'm about to hit the sack. Sadly the Japanese didn't like it, the plug is being pulled there, I hope that doesn't mean the death of it here, despite its current short comings it could shine as a F2P title. Reports are the Japanese cash shop dealt mainly in potions and PEP restoring items, didn't sound too game breaking.

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