Thoughts on the game after 8 hours of gameplay

[painable5466]

Hello.

So for a couple of days I've been playing CENTURY AGE OF ASHES and I have some thoughts as someone who is just coming into the game on PS5. 
Let's get the good out of the way, because while there are great points to the game, they are very few in comparison to the negatives.

Since I saw dragons, I thought I would jump in...because DRAGONS, and this part does not disappoint. The game is fun. Combat is great, I like the classes, although they are only 3 available, the 4th one you have to play to unlock or buy. Now for the negatives...

A) This does happen often so I have to mention it. Sometimes you get matched with players with bad internet connection. This happens a lot in multiplayer games, which usually comes to a slow start of the game, basically everyone is stuck waiting for 1 player to load. This however is not the issue. The issue is when you die and that player decided to either disconnect or leave the game. During this time if you are dead, you get a 5 sec re-spawn countdown, which turns in anywhere from 20 to 45 seconds for a respawn, and this is a fast paced game where rounds last from 4 to 6 minutes.
I have no idea if this is a connection issue with the game/servers or players but it does happen very often and it's easy to make the connection because when you finally spawn, you see at the bottom right of the corner who DC'ed. 

B  ) Playing ranked matches is an absolute abysmal experience. In order to unlock ranked mode, first you have to play 14 unranked games. This I like, since players have a chance to get familiar with the controls before jumping into ranked mode. The problem is, from what I can see PC players and PS5 players have cross play. So...someone with 100  hours, gets matched with someone with 5-6 hours, and people don't like that so during the loading phase of the game, they DC and the ranked match starts anyway. So far 6 out of my 10 ranked matches have started where we have fewer players than the other team, so it's just a loss. Last match, the game started 6v3.
If there is a DC before the game even starts, while it's loading and it's a ranked match, I believe the devs should implement a system where the match is cancelled, and I hope there is a penalty for the leavers.

C) This is where the free to play model comes in. In order to unlock the 4th hero, you have to get 20 000 points of the in-game currency or buy him. I haven't checked the actual cash price, but you do get daily quests, 4 daily's to be precise and each gives you 25 points, and you need 20 000. I might be missing something here...but you do the math.

Trophies:
So we have 33 trophies in total, but the devs couldn't bother to put in a platinum. What what I understand, this is a financial issue since it costs money for your game to have a platinum trophy. Please correct me if I am wrong, but this just comes across as the team is not committed to the platform and support of the game.
As for the trophies themselves, they aren't as bad as you would first think looking at them. And this is the most disappointing part. The trophies come naturally as you are playing, rounds are quick so you can jump in and out and the combat and gameplay is fun.

Unfortunately the lack of a platinum, proper matchmaking, balancing, rewarding F2P players, leavers and disconnects, issues with re-spawn....

I really hope since the game has been out only for a few days, changes and improvements are made, because despite all this, I will continue to play. I am having fun as a F2P player, but A LOT of improvements need to be made before I would consider being invested in this game.

As for the 100% completionism, you might be able to do it now in the start while there are players, but if you cant bother, I would suggest playing on a guiest profiles or w/e and give it a try. Sadly...the game is fun.

These are my two cents, hope it gets better.

Cheers

[lordzeze]

Console players playing with PC players is the biggest issue right now. But from what I see the game needs the console players to survive as from what I read the daily player count was under 1000 for PC players. That is also why there is no skill based matchmaking. The isn't enough of a player base there to support it.

[theSpirae]

If the game is already dead on PC it's not going to get the playerbase on PS. The release date was 2021 on PC and there are only 13K reviews on Steam, currently online players under 400.

https://steamcharts.com/app/918570#All

 

I'm going to give it a shot but my expectations are low.

[theSpirae]

Here's a short update after 8 hours of gameplay.

 

The core gameplay is sweet and tons of fun. So far I haven't noticed any p2w elements, all items in the store seem to be of cosmetic nature only. Well, I can't really see anything in the in-game Store. The UI is an atrocious-mobile-piece-of-shit design. 

 

To address OP's points:

 

A) Yes, that unfortunately does happen. If a player leaves the match, it takes 2-4 minutes to get back into the match for some players. The matches are very short so basically, the whole game is ruined if it happens to you. There doesn't seem to be a punishment in place for leavers. I tried to leave a match, there was a warning "you will lose all the progress and won't be able to queue up for some time". I was able to queue up again right away and the matchmaking didn't take longer than usual. Maybe you would have to leave more than once to be correctly flagged.

 

B ) There's an option to disable cross-play but I'm not sure if it works. Our team is mainly people with the PS logo the enemy team is all [XXX]Name so a grouped clan wars of high level, no PS logo so I assume PC players. I've tried looking those people on PS App and they never show up but I was always able to look up players with the mentioned PS logo. The ranked games often end up with one team completely dominating the other. A score of 60 vs 5 is nothing unusual. Simply put, matchmaking is absolute garbage as often is the case in these games.

 

C) 4th hero being locked behind 20K Coins or 800 Gems. I don't think that's going to be an issue. You can get it for either the mentioned 20 000 Coins - a currency you get for leveling up, daily/weekly quests, and other quests. There's a Starter Pack for $5 with 800 Gems. I already made 25K+ just from doing quests and leveling up.

 

Since the game came out on PC a year ago and all the mentioned issues are also listed on Steam reviews posted months ago, I have no hopes devs are going to fix any of that. This is a typical cash grab f2p game infested with, luckily only cosmetics, and microtransactions. It's a vehicle to sell you a game pass. This is especially sad because the gameplay is fun. Oh, and the game already crashed 10+ times but only in the menu right after the match.

 

I'm giving it 4/10 due to terrible matchmaking, far from user-friendly UI, and often crashes. If the technical issues were fixed, this would be a solid 7/10.

[poetic_justice_]

On 9/30/2022 at 4:09 AM, painable5466 said:

While there are great points to the game, they are very few in comparison to the negatives.

Since I saw dragons, I thought I would jump in...because DRAGONS, and this part does not disappoint. 

Playing ranked matches is an absolute abysmal experience. From what I can see PC players and PS5 players have cross play. 

A LOT of improvements need to be made before I would consider being invested in this game. Sadly...the game is fun.

 

On 10/1/2022 at 5:45 AM, theSpirae said:

The core gameplay is sweet and tons of fun. So far I haven't noticed any p2w elements, all items in the store seem to be of cosmetic nature only. 

I'm giving it 4/10 due to terrible matchmaking, far from user-friendly UI, and often crashes. If the technical issues were fixed, this would be a solid 7/10.

Thanks to both of you for posting your thoughts after giving the game 8-hours of playtime. I had the same reaction as painable5466: DRAGONS. Yeah! Let's do it! A fun F2P dragon game while HBO is airing House of Dragons seems like a sure-fire winner, and yet, this title is failing to gain an audience.

 

No one I play with said a peep about Century, which made me wonder why. Now I know. PC vs. console in PVP games tends to be a mixed bag, and often console players get the short end of the stick. Century seems like a great jump that can't stick the landing. Hopefully over time they can resolve the issues crippling it, because this could be really cool.

[Riiszk]

So why are the trophies so rare? If you can disable crossplay, the games are relatively short, and the game is already dead, shouldn't that make it easy to boost? Yet the 200 kills and 100 wins are both under 1%. Going by the info everyone's given, it sounds quite easy.

There has to be something I'm missing..

[Yoey_666]

1 hour ago, Riiszk said:

So why are the trophies so rare? If you can disable crossplay, the games are relatively short, and the game is already dead, shouldn't that make it easy to boost? Yet the 200 kills and 100 wins are both under 1%. Going by the info everyone's given, it sounds quite easy.

There has to be something I'm missing..

Talked to someone yesterday who said the 200 Kills trophy is bugged since the tracking is not really working. This makes it kinda unobtainable right now. He contacted the devs months ago about it already. No idea about the wins tho.

[theSpirae]

I stopped playing the game because the matchmaking is pure garbage and because most of my remaining tracking trophies (kills/wins) the tracker stopped working so the trophies are unobtainable, at least for me.

Oh, the trophies are also rare because the majority of the trophy hunters are a bit an** about "no Platinum? Wouldn't waste my time on it"

Edited December 26, 2022 by theSpirae