Nowadays, as long as a domestic online game mentions the words "fairy", "martial arts" and "open world", players will unconsciously have some stereotypes - because similar products on the market are too homogeneous.
No matter what the background, what the theme, as long as you enter the game, the introduction of the eyes must be bamboo forest streams, ancient buildings and pavilions and other elements, although they are indeed an important part of creating a sense of immersion, but when everyone looks no different, aesthetic and psychological fatigue will become an inevitable thing.
So, before I was invited to the closed demo of World of Immortals with other media and KOLs, I was a little skeptical that the game could make something different. However, after a series of experiences, the game's improvement in graphics can be said to be very amazing, and after pairing with the classic MMO gameplay, the current "Immortal World" is not the same as last year's version in terms of look and feel.
Is it worth spending a year upgrading the picture?
For "The Immortal World", the most obvious highlight is its upgrade in picture quality. According to the official introduction, after last year's showcase, they decided to make a series of improvements to the game, among which upgrading the game engine from the original Unreal 4 to Unreal 5 is the highlight of this series of changes. This not only means a complete reconstruction of the game's existing assets, but also means that the game can support more physics and more specific graphics, and ideas that were previously impossible due to technical reasons can become a reality.
Specifically, through the upgrade of the engine, the fineness of lighting, reflection, and water processing has been greatly improved, and whether you are day or night, you can see more realistic scenes. In a town on a rainy day, fine raindrops fall from the air and penetrate the surface of the wooden plaque, forming delicate water traces, which seem to be exactly the same as being baptized by rain in reality.
On snowy days, the player's footprints can also be accurately represented on the ground, and when the character moves, the ground is no longer a simple texture effect, but will generate realistic vector footprints based on the movement trajectory. This makes the game richer in detail, and some scenes that could only be made into simple textures in the past can now withstand careful observation, and the look and feel of the graphics has been greatly improved.
In addition to this detail, the game's special effects have also been fully upgraded. The burning of flames, the flow of water, the sparks of explosions, every detail has been carefully designed and optimized to make the entire game world more lifelike. Coupled with the ever-changing weather system, players can experience changes that approximate the real world in this world full of details, and get a more realistic gaming experience.
In addition to the environment and weather, the characters controlled by the player also have more detailed movements and details. On top of the original custom face pinch, the development team has added more movements and facial expressions to the characters in the game, whether it is anger or joy, you can find the subtle movements of the characters' facial movements.
In addition, in terms of the action details of the characters, "The Immortal World" also added some designs that were not originally available. In the game, if you zoom in on the perspective, the character's actions of manipulating weapons and making various gestures are clearly visible during combat. In addition to beauty, through these actions and details, players can more easily feel the character's identity as an "immortal cultivator".
In this fantasy world, their movements are not only for combat, but also for the embodiment of their unique identity and style. This not only diversifies the options available to the player, but also makes the character's performance nuanced, with the player controlling the character, and the character being part of the fairy world.
In general, after changing the engine, "Immortal World" has significantly improved in the game's graphics and various movements of the characters, whether it is a rainy city street or traveling in the ice and snow, you can clearly feel the huge difference from the previous Unreal 4 version.
With the continuous advancement of engine technology, the development team can not only polish every detail in more detail, but players can get both visual and gameplay enjoyment from it. Although the game took a long time to replace the graphics engine, in terms of actual results, the improvement in graphics quality is indeed really amazing, which makes people look forward to the final performance of the game on the screen.
A classic MMO experience
In addition to the improvement of the big world and character details, the upgraded "Immortal World" has also been reflected in a series of copies on the copy. During the playthrough, I experienced several quests that required a team of five with my peers and KOLs, and the one that impressed me the most was the quest "Yellow Spring" with a bit of "netherworld" mechanics and overall style.
Calling it "netherworld", first of all, is reflected in the overall art style, the eerie atmosphere, black and green tones, and the floating ghosts and the familiar bosses such as "Meng Po" and "black and white impermanence" encountered on the road allow players to directly feel the atmosphere at the junction of life and death, and in the actual battle, players are not simply and rudely kicking the door and fighting, but by turning into "ghosts" to go deeper into the copy step by step, which makes this copy provide a sense of immersion at the same time. It has made its own characteristics in terms of look and feel.
As for the boss battle part, the game adopts a step-by-step setting, the first and second of the copy are "Yellow Spring Ferryman" and "Meng Po", which will give players a test in the mechanics such as positioning, fire transfer, and sharing, and the final tail king "black and white impermanence" is the existence that brings together all the previous two boss mechanisms, which makes the final tail king battle very much eating the team's execution and proficiency.
While dealing with all the mechanics of previous bosses, players also need to move flexibly, change fire and distribute damage in time, and deal with various roll call mechanisms, which combine to make the whole battle full of challenges and tension. Once you miss the opportunity to turn hot because of greed for output, or accidentally move when dispersing the eating skill, and let your teammates eat multiple DeBuffs, then the boss's harsh punishment will quickly throw the already high-pressure battle into imbalance and directly lead to the annihilation of the group.
Therefore, although "Yellow Spring" is a five-player game, its actual difficulty and experience can be said to be close to the team base stage of some classic MMO games, the design of the copy not only tests the player's combat skills and strategy, but also requires teamwork and tacit understanding between players, even if you have rich experience in MMO games, you must fight the spirit of twelve points when facing these bosses.
Multiple genres are also standard for games
In addition to the very distinctive PVE mode, I also briefly experienced the PVP mode that is still under development, in addition to the "standard" mode of multiplayer combat, the game also provides a new 5v5 mode, compared to the traditional arena or team battlefield, the 5v5 mode of "Immortal World" is more like playing MOBA: a circular map with special mechanics, the grabbing of neutral resources, and the gameplay of not relying on kills all make this mode very playable. If you like to arrange lineups and tactics and win through collaboration rather than individual abilities, then this new mode is definitely worth looking forward to.
epilogue
After deciding to spend a lot of effort to upgrade the engine last year, "The World of Immortals" was once misunderstood by players as "running away" due to the lack of new real-life demos. However, after the closed trial, the classic gameplay and excellent graphics are still difficult not to make people shine, although the big world and life gameplay, the main line and side quests and other content did not appear in this live machine trial, but for now, with such excellent picture performance and game quality foundation, the final quality is still very expected.
With the arrival of 2023 ChinaJoy, "Xianxian World" also provides a live demo of the game on the spot. With the delicate graphics and exquisite gameplay, the front of the stage quickly attracted a large number of players, and players who want to experience the game can be said to be endless. If you also want to experience this fairy masterpiece blessed by Unreal 5, then this CJ exhibition is the perfect opportunity for you.