Bored player

Hey everyone,

I've just recently started playing this game, and I am now in Beloveno. The game story features a very interesting setting, and the script seemed to be very good. I was especially surprised by how the conversations in Nakiridaani made sense, how they payed attention to details, how that Old Former's dungeon made sense, etc. I could really immerse myself into the game world, which I am very rarely able to do, and it was easy to ignore some complete gamey nonsense, like a 23rd century pilot being able to wield a sword and wear armor just right away, or use a bow and arrow.

However, it all started going down in Gratogel, and the entire experience started looking like a game, rather than a world I could immerse myself into. "Hello. I am Rifrako, a merchant in an insignificant little village with orchards, and I happen to have magical items. Very profitable to be dealing with such things here." And then you go off killing those bandits in order to earn enough money to buy better equipment. "What will we do today? I know, lets go to that mountain pass and wait for bandits to attack us, so we can sell their goodies, and buy better equipment. And, we can improve our magic abilities in the process." Repeat 7 times. Oh, wow, so interesting, so full of immersion, ties well into the story. Of course, you can say that I don't have to do that, but I do, because I need to survive those Animals in Arjano.

And Arjano was a blast - oh look, for some reason, there are these wild flying animals, warniaks, just lounging around in this dungeon, for 400 years, waiting for me to kill them, and gain XP. And, obviously, somebody had a knack for making perfectly logical traps - why not just make pressing this floor plate move green barriers around, while at the same time starting a fire? That just makes sense in the war that happened here - I'm sure the enemies would be bored to death by puzzles. And, it's oh so very immersing, interesting, and "in the story" to be walking next to walls in a careful search for buttons, which open rooms, closed for 4 centuries, where wild animals have been subsisting on stale air, ever since Drinno was sealed off from the rest of Arjano. And why? So you could pick up an item! Yay, I'm so very happy! It's a good trade-off: get to boost your characters in exchange for immersion.

So, I hoped that Beloveno would be different. But no. There I am, walking into a stranger's residence, and saying: "You look like a magician."

"Why yes, it's tatooed on my forehead.", said the stranger.

"Well, would you like to come with us on our quest, complete stranger?", said I, explaining in short what the quest is.

"Of course. Why not? I always accept invitations by strangers who walk into my house. Especially if it's a quest for searching for giant metal objects which fall from the sky, which makes no sense whatsoever for me.", says the magician.

"Good. Well, we just first have to go kill some krondirs, warniaks, and the like, so your magic can become more powerful. Not absoultely necessary, I know, but we seem to have such luck, you know, running into fights, so we better have you in top shape. True, you say you never were so powerful as you are now, but that's just bull. Look here, this much younger and more inexperienced girl here, Sira, is so much more powerful than you. But that's because we were in this dungeon where wild animals have subsisted on air for 400 years.", says the party.

"Well, that must have been some dungeon! Good, we're off to kill some game!", and so we go off, wandering around, camping a bit in the nature, and killing the creatures of Albion.

Then, after a while, I go to Kuonos, and realize that I cannot ask anyone about Toronto. And then I kill a guard inside a house, while the denizens around not notice anything. And I go into a dungeon, with colorful force fields, and a puzzle to open them. And then to another magician, who does not seem to be concerned that I killed his guard, and whom I also cannot ask about Toronto. Then I open a walkthrough, and read that I am supposed to go to Kariah (who told me nothing the first time), and get a quest. Fine, I load, go there, and, lo and behold, comes a perfectly meaningful conversation.

"Hello. Welcome to my house. You know, you look like you can handle yourself well. Well, I have to tell you - some of my customers told me that two of our councilors care only about themselves. Can you kill them?", says Kariah.

"Well, not quite. You got carried away, haven't you? But, we'll go ask around about them and get back to you.", which is, I am sure you'll agree, a perfectly sensible answer, to a perfectly sensible question.

"Good, do that. Yes, I do get carried away, but know that you would make a lot of people happy if you killed them.", Kariah said. We ignored her subtle insisting on us killing those councilors.

"By the way, can I ask you about this big giant metal object falling from the sky? Has any of your customers mentioned that?"

"I can't say anything about that."

"Oh, OK. Sorry to have asked. I'll be off now, to find some information about your councilors."

Poof - there went the last vestiges of the illusion and immersion I had. A living world became a map, with dots, where you can boost your stats, after you've done something else, e.g. killed raoming monsters (i.e. roaming dots). The fact that it looks like shops, gold, creatures, etc. are in play, became just a bad illusion. A living, breathing city, like I felt Nakiridaani was, became just a cover for those dots. People became points where you get instructions on how to find the next puzzle, a next dot on the map, and in that puzzle there would be, among other things, some flying balls, pretending to be fireballs (flying completely pointlessly in a puzzle like setting), which you must not touch. And some other stat (XP) boosting dots, waiting patiently behind the next portcullis, which are there just so that you can boost your stats, and to protect some other stat boosting bit of computer code (pretending to be an item).

So, what started off as a very immersive game, with attention to detail, with some thought provoking elements (e.g. the Vatican being watched by the EU, and children protected from religion, because it's harmful), believable characters and conversations, etc. just transformed into a disappointment. And, I'm really sorry about that, because Albion seemed very promising.

However, I am still interested in the main story, and, most importantly, about how they explained the magical part in the end. If somebody would care to write a few sentences about that, I would be very grateful. (I can find walkthroughs, but no story line anywhere on the Internet.) I know that I won't be able to bring myself to play Albion further, but I do want to know this part. Thanks in advance!