As one of the ordinary Asian adventure online game, Swordsman Online is similar to Age of Wushu in many aspects. After playing the game, I figured out the similarities are not all bad. Swordsman Online integrated the martial arts MMORPG scene, colorful garb, plenty of swordplay, and straightforward leveling and PvE as well as PvP.

From the start, Swordsman Online has a delicate, nearly anime-like visual experience with lower equipment and clothing, and then both equipment and clothing become a bit more variety. Although the combat animations may be a little exaggerates, if you take the circumstance and history of such online games in to consideration, you will understand it. While exploring this game, I noticed that many areas ended up roughly, and numerous misspelling in the description of equipment and in-game narrative. Anyway, I still enjoyed the beautiful scenes in the games.

In most areas, the soundtrack of Swordsman is decent. And in most Japanese, Korean, or Chinese-origin MMOs, some players enjoyed the dubbed audio over the original language. Especially when there were abundant things to read or the screen is very busy, some players can’t stand these in original language, and they will choose to ignore it. And both the cut scenes and in-game voice of Swordsman are dubbed, so this might be a selling point of it.

When I began to play Swordsman Online, I was shocked that I can do little except follow the constant handholding. But I believe it will get better, so I continue rise my level. And later the leveling and grinding remained very simplified; this was a little beyond my initial thought. Until I rose tolevel 25, I leveled up with handy auto-pathing and NPC search when I try to find a specific person to complete a quest. Then when I found the grinding after level 30 become very intensive, I was glad that I took a break and did some other things in real life before that. And I began to miss the simplicity and no-frills combat a little.

When reached level 30, no more handholding, and the combat becomes very complicated and entertaining. From then on, you will begin seeing world PvP which can’t see below level 30. Players can see multiple PvP battleground and arena modes, and players can normalize their stats through these skill-based matches, and also look for group play. There are PvPs in most of Swordsman, so if you want something more than simple grinding or farming, you can make effort to gain new gear and make friends during the process. There is no rule about whom or what people you can live with, so it’s your choice.

All the gameplay of Swordsman Online is traditional. Every gameplay complied with“how to MMORPG”style guide. And it seemed that the characters dressed up with eastern clothing go down a little easier. And the quests are really simple, you can even know the variety of enemies by seeing what color outfit that character wearing. Before level 25, you are always playing on-rail quests over and over again, so if you are look for a game changes in genre, then Swordsman Online may not be the best choice.

And you will also found that Swordsman is not a typical adventure as well. A typical adventure means everything runs smoothly and works perfectly, while in Swordsman players and items overlap with each other, auto-running option finding people running into and over NPCs in many scenes. And the automatic mounting doesn’t work smoothly, your horse may appear suddenly, and then you rode it and run into the sunset.

For example, I was caught in a loop when I try to control my character away from continually run up a vendor and stand on the vendor. Then I have to quit the game to end this loop. When I entered again, I found Ilost a level, it quite frustrated. Both collision detection and item collection are off. When I tried to absorb orbs by holding down the Z key, it appears a long time delay and the whole game look like it would crash, but later, everything go ahead smoothly. Such delay will happen in some specific areas, so I think publisher may solve it in the near future.

Although there is no handholding from level 30-89, but can still level up if you grinding a lot. And other players might impede you via PvP arena, so it will take longer time for you to level up. Generally, it takes at least 30-50 hours to reach a really high level.

If you are already devoted a long hours in an MMO, then Swordsman Online may not the better choice for you to try. But it is still a competent and engaging adventure game that worth a try. And if you are looking for something less stressful or just want to do some grinding and farming, then Swordsman is a good choice. Maybe when you got a free week, give it a try.