Bless Unleashedhas recently been unleashed on the PC after stewing for some timein the consoles. How did it fare? Well, lots of people playedthe MMORPGas usual but its reception was less than stellar– more polarizing, to be exact. Its current rating on Steam is nearing a 50/50 positive-negative split. As far as Steam reviews go, that doesn’t look too promising.
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What certainly didn’t help improveBless Unleashed’sstanding on Steam is the plethora of issues it carried over from the console releases. It prevented what could have been a smooth and generally enjoyable release from happening. Some of these issues have easy solutions while others are rooted in the game’s core system, all of them preventBless Unleashedfrom being a blessed experience.
10A Non-Mandatory PvP
One of the most common complaints aboutBlessed Unleashedis thatafter players reach level 30, the mandatory PvP flaggoes on. That means anyone can just about kill anyone, essentially providing abreeding ground for griefers. This is also present in other games such asBlack Desert Online.But even there, the penalties are appropriate and can dissuade ill-mannered players.
There is an option to turn the PvP off but that only shuts down a player’s capacity to kill someone, not to be killed. The safest solution is by purchasingPvP immunity scrolls in the microtransactions shopin-game. That one has a limited time and the cost can easily add up.
9Better Optimization
As always with MMORPGs featuring big open-worlds with a high player population, optimization issues come as with the package deal. While the game does perform better compared to older MMORPGs and has better graphics overall, the system requirements are a little too steep.
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Some players even report having to turn their graphical settings to"low"with hardware such asNvidia GTX 1060orAMD Radeon RX 580. For a game with graphics such asBless Unleashed, that’s too demanding. There are better-looking games that run on the same hardware more smoothly.
8A Platform-Specific User Interface
The user interface forBless Unleashed, coming originally from a console release, makes it a bit rigid on the PC version. It’s a console port and for that matter, plenty of console elements have been ported over. The most notable of these are buttons and control schemes more suited for controllers. These can beradial menus,odd mapping, or lack of more button options.
Over time, this issue can be fixed gradually. It’s not really that detrimental to gameplay but can function more as obstacles. At its worst, the console-based UI can be a frustrating hurdle, especially for players in a hurry.
7A Less Aggressive In-Game Cash Shop
As mentioned earlier, the game offers players some PvP immunity scrolls in the in-game cash shop. Since PvP is mandatory after a certain threshold, this cash shop commodity can be seen as aggressive peddling. That’s not where the aggressive cash shop items end.
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There are tons of other materials andboosters that cater to player progression. There are around 10 tabs in the microtransactions shop and plenty of the items being sold there for real money cangive the players a huge advantage. Since PvP is mandatory after a certain level, then anyone who has money to spare can get ahead of others in open-world PvP.
6It Needs More Content
The endgame inBless Unleashedis about the same as other MMORPGs except here, it’s even more glaring. Lots of dungeons and events or challenges are just re-skinned versions of earlier content made harder.Repeated dungeons and other content, for that matter, are one of the biggest issues in the game.
To that end, the game suffers from a lack of content — at least content that would have introduced something new instead of forcing a repeat of older content for progress. While the game did introduce new dungeons or arenas to the game periodically, plenty of them is recycled stuff that is by no means unique.
5Star Seed Scammer Banning
This one’s a problem in most MMORPGs with unregulated chat lobbies but it’s rather rampant and blatant inBless Unleashed. Upon logging into the game and peering at the global chat, players don’t usually have to wait long before someone startsspamming Star Seed purchasesandlinking to a third-party website/store.
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This also happens via in-game chat. Players won’t find a shortage of Star Seed scammers in the game. It’s not clear how the developers or moderators handle them but they’re too persistent. Other than that, global chat is also generally useless and full of trolls or people who flood the chat lobby.
4More Generous Crafting System
Since it’s afree-to-play game, players can expect a Herculean amount of grinding involved inBless Unleashed’s progression system. Such is the case in leveling and gear improvement. This is understandable and often tolerable but one aspect where that kind of grinding becomes nigh-unbearable is the crafting system.
It takestoo much time and RNG gambling in order to level up the crafting skillsneeded for item forging and creation. If players are also using crafting in order to enchant their gear, then they can expect this kind of challenge to become rise two-fold. The game’senchanting system can be unforgivingsince it can break items.
3More Generous Bag Space
Bag or inventory space is also where the game can feel like it’s all but forcing players to purchase slots in the in-game cash shop.The bags inBless Unleashedare too limitedonce you reach a certain point or once your level starts going into double-digits.
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By then, the number of loot and other items that can be picked up can quickly bloat up one’s inventory. Most of these items also don’t help with the progression significantly so players will need lots of them. Evenboosters also consume precious bag slots.
2A More Versatile Combat System
Bless Unleashednotably uses atab-targetingsystemwhich, based on MMORPG standards, is heavily outdated. As of now, it’s one of the most uninspired and dull combat systems for an online game.Bless Unleashedapparently didn’t bother innovating in this department.
To make matters worse, the lethargic tab-targeting combat systemdoesn’t allow animation canceling.That makes it feel cumbersome since a lot of theskill animations are too long. Such an issue could have been alleviated if one can queue their skills but that’s also not allowed. Overall, don’t be surprised if the combat induces sleep.
1There Are Many Other Versions Of Bless, Some Of Which Have Failed
One big reason why many players expectBless Unleashedto fail is that it isn’t exactly the firstBlessgame. The originalBless Onlinehas been developingas early as 2011and was released several times already in Korea and Russia.Its formal western release, Bless Onlinewas also released on Steam back in 2018. However,the game didn’t meet expectations andwas shut down.
Bless Unleashedwas released under a different name and seemingly under a different developer but community speculations point to it being the same game with the same developers. Meanwhile, the originalBless Onlinewas shut down and abandoned as a failed project. Hence, it’s only fair for some layers to expectBless Unleashedto suffer the same fate since, at its core, it’s more or less the originalBless Online. Hence, the developers would do well to not repeat the same mistakes that causedBless Online’s shutdown.
