I’m aware that the old forums had Bless as one of it’s games, but it was dropped due to lack of interest. I decided to start a topic here because things have changed dramatically for Bless and it deserves another look. When Bless first came out on Steam in Early Access it was buy to play and with the reviews it was getting very few people were willing to pay the fee (myself included) to give the beta version of the game a try. However Bless had it’s official launch on October 13th and it went free-to-play. I downloaded the game and I’ve been playing it for a couple of weeks now. Frankly I’m quite impressed. The game reminds me of Rift and Aion, but with much better graphics. Basically there are 2 opposing factions the Heiron and the Union. At about level 30 your main story quest line takes you into the disputed area of the map where you can be attacked and killed by the opposing faction. More often than not if you see a member of the other faction they are following their quest line as well and have no interest in attacking you or being attacked by you, but of course ganking is possible.
Over all I find the story engrossing and the feel of the game quite entertaining. All main story quests are voice acted and while not all translations are perfect, it is in no way the debacle that is Revelation. For anyone looking for a new game to try, this is the one I recommend. It costs you nothing but the download time and it is quite fun to play.
I’ve been playing the game now for just over a month and still very much like it. Max level is 50 and I am now at level 48. I’m paying for Premium because I feel the game is worth supporting, and the reusable gathering tools that come with Premium make life so much easier.
I have been taking part in PvP in an instanced 70 vs 70 battleground. We seem to win in the afternoon and lose in the evening; so everyone gets a turn on the winning and losing side of things. Once you get a feel for the combat it sorta grows on you. I find combat to be similar to ESO with Blade and Soul mixed in.
One of the stranger things to get used to in the game is the lack of trading. This is intentional to combat gold spammers. At the moment the only way to get something from another player is to buy it on the market place. It is also possible to mail things to your own alts. All of this means that if you want good gear you are going to have to earn it. Personally I like it, it means that when you see a guy well geared out, you know he had to work his butt off from the start of Early Access to get to that point.
The mount and pet system in the game is another great feature. About 95% of all open world creatures are tameable and all of those you capture are upgradeable. There are numerous buffs that pets and skills that mounts can have. For mounts its things like being able to fly (for 60 seconds) or move 40% faster at night. For pets there are defence, experience, crafting, gathering, and attack buffs, so you find yourself changing pets to suit the situation. Consequently, at night you’ll find me riding on a mammoth with a fairy pet trying to keep up, whereas in the day time during a PvP battle I’ll be on the back of a demon being chased by a crow. And since the buffs are random and not specific to the creature, the guy next to me might be on a wolf being chased by a rabbit.
Again I recommend this game. If you check the reviews on Steam you’ll find that most of the ones that came out since the games release as F2P are now positive. Obviously, I think this game is worth giving a try. You may find that this is the game for you, especially if you get with a group of people that you enjoy playing with.
If you want to find me in game; I’m playing Brogg on Hilon server with the Union faction. (Note that when you create a character on a server, your faction is the same for all your characters on that server. If you want to try the opposing faction you’ll have to do it on the other NA server.)
I am going to check it out because of your post. I’ll join the Hilon server and Union faction in case things work out. Is there more group content besides the 70v70 group battles?
All dungeons after level 30 require a group and are simply suicide without one. For PvP there is also a 15v15 battleground and a 3v3 arena. The guild I’m playing with (BlessYou) does monster hunts together. Some open world areas of the map have dailies with bosses that are impossible to do without a group, often of raid instead of party size. While parties have only 5 people, simply switching it to a raid allows you to have up to 25. This is not available in most dungeons, but it is available in battlegrounds and open world. So it’s possible to do an open world monster hunt with most of the people online in your guild joining in. Monster hunts are used for fast leveling and for leveling the guild. Also much of your time is spent in open world contested areas so it is possible to find yourself in a fight with members of the other faction. This is a really good time to be in a party with friends. As well, even when we are doing completely different missions in complexly different areas of the world, we are often in party together for the buffs. There are party buffs based on the number of people in your party, the race of those people, their class, and whether or not the party has a healer. When you get in the game, add Brogg and Broggette to your friends list. I am never so busy that I can’t find time to help a friend.
