The Avatar
11-04-2006, 01:35 AM
A very long time ago, when I was at TAFE, I used to wake up really early to watch a cartoon called Yu-gi-oh. Weird name, but generally a good cartoon. It was about a card game where people fought each other using monsters, traps and spells. Now this cartoon card game comes to your PC with Yu-gi-oh online.
Actually, the reality is much different. Yu-gi-oh online focus's on the card game only. Nothing else. You play against other people from around the globe using your own custom built deck. This game offers a few free games to you before you have to start paying. You can only get a new card once you play a duel, regardless of whether you win or lose. Don't get to excited just yet, there are hundreds of useless cards to collect in the game. And that works great for Konami as your subscription to this game is by duels and not by a monthly payment. This means that you pay for a duel pass, which will allow you to duel for around 150 matches, before you must purchase another pass.
Also, the duel passes aren't that cheap. With the amount of useless cards this game has floating around, you would think that the subscription cost would be a little lighter.
Another thing that can wear down your enthusiasm is that this game is based entirely on luck. There is no skill involved as they give each new player certain "essential" cards that allow users of lower rank to easily compete with players of a much higher rank. These cards are quite rare, and have now become very common. Although players who have been playing Yu-gi-oh for longer would have more cards and therefore better cards, it doesn't make any difference as the game is decided in your first hand. If you have a bad draw, then that's pretty much it for you.
Of course, don't get me wrong, the odds in battle can shift dramatically at anytime with some really stupid cards that are annoying as hell, like black-hole, a card that destroys every monster on the field with no possibility of countering it. I can easily understand that these cards help to keep the balance, but there is no option to allow or disallow certain cards in a game and that can be very annoying during play. For example, once I played against three different people in a row, and in each duel I got hit with a trap card called "trap-hole" three times in each match. Trap hole destroys a monster you have just summoned onto the field. Great for beginners, because it's a powerful card, however it's annoying as hell after being hit with it so many times.
GRAPHICS Score:56%
The graphics in this game are bright, crisp and very well designed. There are some small attack animations, but don't expect any monster fighting scenes or cool spell effects. It's all just a simple card layout and that's it.
Considering the developer of this game, I did feel let down at the level of animation this game produced. With the technology available on home computers nowadays, this game seems to be a step backwards.
SOUND/MUSIC Score:12%
Horrendous is the best word to describe it. The music is just horrible, with no option to turn it off. The music tries to change in battle as the card phase's change, but fails to do so, and if by some miracle it does activate, the music comes right at the end of the phase and is turned off almost immediately.
I ask you, what is the point?
The sound effects are also really basic, with card flipping noises, card attack sounds, spell activations. That's about it. Not much variety or change in the effects. I wouldn't have minded this as much, if they had developed unique sound effects for each card. For example an evil roar when you bring out a dragon card or something like that, but I know it would have been way too much to ask of this small tiny company with almost no resources. But wait a minute, isn't the developer....
MULTIPLAYER Score:5%
I almost gave this a non-applicable score, as the multiplayer aspect is so rigid. You can duel against other players. You cannot set any form of match options, you cannot make certain cards un-useable, there are no tournaments, and there is nothing here except playing one simple type of game against another person.
You cannot practice the game against an AI bot while off line to test the effectiveness of your deck, you cannot purchase cards that you need directly, you can only have one vs one games. There are no in game tournament ladders to play. What is the point of even creating this game?
There is a simple in game e-mail system setup, which is nifty if you want to co-ordinate matches or just keep in touch with past duellists. You also have a buddy list that you can add friends onto.
(RE)PLAYABILITY Score:2%
I got sick of this game pretty much straight away. I still play it sometimes to see what's new, and also because I have around 70 matches left that I have paid for, and I will use them. But this game holds very little joy. It's a dead heartless effort that was made simply to fleece people of their hard-earned cash. Do not get sucked in with the hype.
CONTROLS
Score:50%
Point and click, that's all there is to this game. The menu system is basic and has no imagination in it whatsoever. I did like the layout of the menu, it looked rather spiffy.
Picking up the intricacies of the card game can take a while, especially with some of the really bad coding involved in the game that allows for some really stupid errors to occur. For example, and this is one that I constantly get hit with, you can have face down cards, some of these will be trap cards, some of these spells, and the others will be creatures. A face down creature card will always be in the defence position, and once attacked it will flip over. Now sometimes, I have a spell card that will raise the defence of that card so that the opponent will take damage and my card will not be destroyed. The stupid game asks you at every freaking phase of the game if you would like to activate the freaking spell card, even though you cannot use it on your freaking self because your card is face down. You can however, use it on your opponents face up attacking card for some reason that escapes my abilities of comprehension at this moment in time.
Now, when the opponent attacks, and because I have been bombarded with so many requests to activate the spell card, I click on yes after he attacks and cannot use it on myself because my card has not flipped over yet. IT ASKS YOU TWICE!!?? Once before your card flips over, and once afterwards. If I had waited for one more request, I would have been able to use it effectively. But because of the stupid, retarded design of the interface constantly bombarding me with a million requests to use the bloody thing at inappropriate times, I use it too early and stuff it all up.
I think that perhaps it's my own fault and I should learn to click on the second time and just put up with it, but why is the onus on me??! Wait, I know, it's just a small backyard effort from a struggling company looking for a break in this massively competitive market place.
Konami should program a better interface, and put much more effort into quality control.
ATMOSPHERE Score:0%
The frustrating gameplay and horrible interface ruin any atmosphere this game would have generated from the TV show.
There is nothing here to achieve either, no storyline, no major goal, nothing. There is a levelling system in the game, but I couldn't work out how it worked, as I would jump from level five to level three, then back to four and finally down to two. Made no sense to me.
Just collect cards, most of which are useless crap ones that you will never use.
WEB INTEGRATION / UPDATES Score:60%
There is a dedicated web site that shows stats of high-ranking players. At one point I was level 5, which is very high up, and I never saw my name on the list. There are no online forums and really nothing much on the website that is worth checking out except for the rules of gameplay.
You can download the client from the web site though, which is a plus because you don't have to go out and purchase a copy of this game.
It is also updated quite regularly, with the client downloading the updates automatically for you. The website and the client don't really tell you what changes have been made. It seems the customer has really been left out of the loop on this game.
OVERALL Score:28%
Do yourself a favour, stay away from this game unless you're a real card game fanatic. Don't go near it if you like the Yu-gi-oh cartoon or have any expectations of this game. It seems to me that they have specifically developed this title to make money off people with as little effort as possible going into the production of this title.
I like card games, and this game has some value as a stand alone card game. But for the money they are charging, you could play some much better card games out there. Hell, play our triple triad card game here for free, and you will have about the same experience as Yu-gi-oh online. Actually, it would be better as we have AI bots you can fight against.
I've had a bit of trouble writing this review as I have played this game quite a bit. I wanted to like the title, as I love the Yu-gi-oh idea. However, it has just annoyed me that Konami have just taken a successful franchise and exploited it simply to make a buck.
Actually, the reality is much different. Yu-gi-oh online focus's on the card game only. Nothing else. You play against other people from around the globe using your own custom built deck. This game offers a few free games to you before you have to start paying. You can only get a new card once you play a duel, regardless of whether you win or lose. Don't get to excited just yet, there are hundreds of useless cards to collect in the game. And that works great for Konami as your subscription to this game is by duels and not by a monthly payment. This means that you pay for a duel pass, which will allow you to duel for around 150 matches, before you must purchase another pass.
Also, the duel passes aren't that cheap. With the amount of useless cards this game has floating around, you would think that the subscription cost would be a little lighter.
Another thing that can wear down your enthusiasm is that this game is based entirely on luck. There is no skill involved as they give each new player certain "essential" cards that allow users of lower rank to easily compete with players of a much higher rank. These cards are quite rare, and have now become very common. Although players who have been playing Yu-gi-oh for longer would have more cards and therefore better cards, it doesn't make any difference as the game is decided in your first hand. If you have a bad draw, then that's pretty much it for you.
Of course, don't get me wrong, the odds in battle can shift dramatically at anytime with some really stupid cards that are annoying as hell, like black-hole, a card that destroys every monster on the field with no possibility of countering it. I can easily understand that these cards help to keep the balance, but there is no option to allow or disallow certain cards in a game and that can be very annoying during play. For example, once I played against three different people in a row, and in each duel I got hit with a trap card called "trap-hole" three times in each match. Trap hole destroys a monster you have just summoned onto the field. Great for beginners, because it's a powerful card, however it's annoying as hell after being hit with it so many times.
GRAPHICS Score:56%
The graphics in this game are bright, crisp and very well designed. There are some small attack animations, but don't expect any monster fighting scenes or cool spell effects. It's all just a simple card layout and that's it.
Considering the developer of this game, I did feel let down at the level of animation this game produced. With the technology available on home computers nowadays, this game seems to be a step backwards.
SOUND/MUSIC Score:12%
Horrendous is the best word to describe it. The music is just horrible, with no option to turn it off. The music tries to change in battle as the card phase's change, but fails to do so, and if by some miracle it does activate, the music comes right at the end of the phase and is turned off almost immediately.
I ask you, what is the point?
The sound effects are also really basic, with card flipping noises, card attack sounds, spell activations. That's about it. Not much variety or change in the effects. I wouldn't have minded this as much, if they had developed unique sound effects for each card. For example an evil roar when you bring out a dragon card or something like that, but I know it would have been way too much to ask of this small tiny company with almost no resources. But wait a minute, isn't the developer....
MULTIPLAYER Score:5%
I almost gave this a non-applicable score, as the multiplayer aspect is so rigid. You can duel against other players. You cannot set any form of match options, you cannot make certain cards un-useable, there are no tournaments, and there is nothing here except playing one simple type of game against another person.
You cannot practice the game against an AI bot while off line to test the effectiveness of your deck, you cannot purchase cards that you need directly, you can only have one vs one games. There are no in game tournament ladders to play. What is the point of even creating this game?
There is a simple in game e-mail system setup, which is nifty if you want to co-ordinate matches or just keep in touch with past duellists. You also have a buddy list that you can add friends onto.
(RE)PLAYABILITY Score:2%
I got sick of this game pretty much straight away. I still play it sometimes to see what's new, and also because I have around 70 matches left that I have paid for, and I will use them. But this game holds very little joy. It's a dead heartless effort that was made simply to fleece people of their hard-earned cash. Do not get sucked in with the hype.
CONTROLS
Score:50%
Point and click, that's all there is to this game. The menu system is basic and has no imagination in it whatsoever. I did like the layout of the menu, it looked rather spiffy.
Picking up the intricacies of the card game can take a while, especially with some of the really bad coding involved in the game that allows for some really stupid errors to occur. For example, and this is one that I constantly get hit with, you can have face down cards, some of these will be trap cards, some of these spells, and the others will be creatures. A face down creature card will always be in the defence position, and once attacked it will flip over. Now sometimes, I have a spell card that will raise the defence of that card so that the opponent will take damage and my card will not be destroyed. The stupid game asks you at every freaking phase of the game if you would like to activate the freaking spell card, even though you cannot use it on your freaking self because your card is face down. You can however, use it on your opponents face up attacking card for some reason that escapes my abilities of comprehension at this moment in time.
Now, when the opponent attacks, and because I have been bombarded with so many requests to activate the spell card, I click on yes after he attacks and cannot use it on myself because my card has not flipped over yet. IT ASKS YOU TWICE!!?? Once before your card flips over, and once afterwards. If I had waited for one more request, I would have been able to use it effectively. But because of the stupid, retarded design of the interface constantly bombarding me with a million requests to use the bloody thing at inappropriate times, I use it too early and stuff it all up.
I think that perhaps it's my own fault and I should learn to click on the second time and just put up with it, but why is the onus on me??! Wait, I know, it's just a small backyard effort from a struggling company looking for a break in this massively competitive market place.
Konami should program a better interface, and put much more effort into quality control.
ATMOSPHERE Score:0%
The frustrating gameplay and horrible interface ruin any atmosphere this game would have generated from the TV show.
There is nothing here to achieve either, no storyline, no major goal, nothing. There is a levelling system in the game, but I couldn't work out how it worked, as I would jump from level five to level three, then back to four and finally down to two. Made no sense to me.
Just collect cards, most of which are useless crap ones that you will never use.
WEB INTEGRATION / UPDATES Score:60%
There is a dedicated web site that shows stats of high-ranking players. At one point I was level 5, which is very high up, and I never saw my name on the list. There are no online forums and really nothing much on the website that is worth checking out except for the rules of gameplay.
You can download the client from the web site though, which is a plus because you don't have to go out and purchase a copy of this game.
It is also updated quite regularly, with the client downloading the updates automatically for you. The website and the client don't really tell you what changes have been made. It seems the customer has really been left out of the loop on this game.
OVERALL Score:28%
Do yourself a favour, stay away from this game unless you're a real card game fanatic. Don't go near it if you like the Yu-gi-oh cartoon or have any expectations of this game. It seems to me that they have specifically developed this title to make money off people with as little effort as possible going into the production of this title.
I like card games, and this game has some value as a stand alone card game. But for the money they are charging, you could play some much better card games out there. Hell, play our triple triad card game here for free, and you will have about the same experience as Yu-gi-oh online. Actually, it would be better as we have AI bots you can fight against.
I've had a bit of trouble writing this review as I have played this game quite a bit. I wanted to like the title, as I love the Yu-gi-oh idea. However, it has just annoyed me that Konami have just taken a successful franchise and exploited it simply to make a buck.