Hello everyone! I am here again with the brand-new review of the fresh title: Bless Unleashed. If you want to read more of my game reviews, don’t forget to check the Game Review Category!
At a Glance of Bless Unleashed PC, for Lazy Readers
Is Bless Unleashed a masterpiece, good game, just an ordinary game, bad game, or a disaster?
Bless Unleashed seems to be a good game. Sadly, I can’t find a good cause to claim this game as a masterpiece.
Positive Sides:
- Two new races unlike classical MMORPGs: Ippin and Varg
- Rich character creation page
- Rich story even has a serious nonsense at one point
- Crafting, gathering, mining, mounts were included like many popular MMORPGs
Negative Sides:
- Some bug or lack of affordance welcomes at the beginning
- Tutorial scene was not enough to learn skills
- NPCs don’t have proper talking animation implementations
Neutral Observations:
- Bless Unleashed has standard language support
Game Trailer
First Impressions of The Game Trailer
I cannot say that the game trailer impressed me too much. It looks like a game from the 2000s. I don’t underestimate their gameplay features; however, I expect a game published in 2021 has more graphical value.
Bless Unleashed PC Release Date
Bless Unleashed was released on 6 Aug 2021 in Steam. You can download and play it for free.
Language Support Before Starting Bless Unleashed Review
Bless Unleashed has a limited supported languages option. I cannot claim this is a negative side, because this -unfortunately- is the general approach chosen by game companies.
Negative Impressions
1. Lack of Affordance at The Just Beginning
Affordance at the server screen is so bad. It prompts me to push “X”; I spammed X, nothing happened. Therefore, I logged in with my Google account online on Bless Unleashed’s official PC website. However, I could not link my account yet. I came up with this guidance from the official site: click. However, I cannot click this banner on the right:
Update!
Still not sure, but I guess my account was automatically linked.
2. Lack of Skill Explanation in the Tutorial Map
Providing a tutorial for new players is a common and valuable method to prepare them for upcoming gameplay mechanics. Bless Unleashed also provided this scene. Though I appreciate this choice, unhappily, I must say that there was a real problem: We did not have proper guidance on our skills’ features in the tutorial map. What are our skills’ features? Are they healing us? How much damage attack skills hit the enemy? They are important questions for even the tutorial scene. If you don’t provide answers to those questions; we just end up spamming keys. Unfortunately, that is what happened in the tutorial map for me.
3. Dubbing and Lips: Still a Problem for MMORPGs?
Recent MMORPG games still have this problem. I know that generalization is wrong, however, I cannot remember a game that doesn’t have this problem. If you implement dubbing for NPC, then their lips should follow the text. If you don’t implement voice for NPCs, then don’t make them move their lips. It is just annoying. NPCs in Blessed Unleashed have no proper dubbing, too. For example, Foy just moving his lips without any voice; or telling something pre-recorded even if the subtitle is something else.
Positive Impressions
1. Two New Races: Varg and Ippin
Variation in terms of races is critical nowadays if you want to create a unique game. That is what Bless Unleashed also brought us: two new races. It is good to see different races in the Bless Unleashed. Didn’t we bore from seeing classical orcs or humans in the majority of these games? Well, we have humans in this too :), however, we have two not-common races: Ippin and Varg. For more information about the races of the game: click.
2. Huge Character Customization Options
Character customization has become a necessity in today’s new generation MMORPGs. People love to customize their own characters. Players, including me, want to show their personal preferences like hair color or volume of the belly. Bless Unleashed, too, has wide customization options for your character. Even the eye position:
3. Nicely Implemented Story Video
MMORPGs are generally built upon similar loops: level-up, farm, face other players. If MMORPGs want to stand out among others, there should be a true feature. Providing an extraordinary story is one way to make a difference in this loop. Video is a better choice comparing texts for narrating. Therefore, Putting a story video at the beginning is a well-thought feature.
4. Good Tutorial Covered at The Beginning, Essential to Teach Bless Unleashed Gameplay
I criticized the affordance of skills in the tutorial map. I insist on my claim. However, there was a good other implementation that I can’t ignore. The UI on the top left of the screen and some pop-up UI show how Bless Unleashed is successful on this topic. Options affordance at the beginning of the game makes it easy for you to play.
5. Wide FPS Choices Available
Today’s technology brought us some fresh-new needs. High-end computing technology is like a blessing to the gaming world. Current FPS rendering capabilities of monitors have the ability to show 200+ frames per second. Combining two of them allows us to view this refresh beauty. Bless Unleashed has up to 200 fps support. It is a good value for an MMORPG.
6. Interaction With The World
The game allowing its players to interact with the game world is a step ahead of others. If the game makes it without side or main quests, it becomes great! This also means that the world is carefully designed to make you a part of the game world. Interaction with the environment -without main or side quest- is a rich feature that enhances the world’s influence.
7. Narration of Teleportation Feature
In many MMORPGs, there are teleportation locations that help players explore the huge open world of the game without walking too much. Blessed Unleashed implemented this feature too. Moreover, in Blessed Unleashed, this teleportation feature is really well-narrated, therefore appended to the story instead of being only a game mechanic.
8. Swimming Feature Was Implemented In-Game
Swimming is nowadays’ one of the popular features. It allows players to conquer the world as a whole. It makes the game more realistic. Suppose that you can kill dragons and cast devastating magic but cannot swim. Isn’t it funny? 🙂 Thankfully, you can swim in the sea, unlike many other MMORPGs.
9. Exploration of Chests
Exploration of the world should also raise players’ curiosity about the game. Player should wonder what more the game hide for himself/herself. Chest is a way to keep players excited. Bless Unleashed also uses this feature. Chests scattered over the world enrich the exploration feature of Blessed Unleashed.
10. Salvaging, Gathering, Crafting And More
Salvaging, or recycling, an item has recently become a popular feature. It gives players another option apart from selling unnecessary game items. Salvaging has found itself a place among this game’s features.
Gathering, tree cutting, and mining mechanics were also implemented in the game. They are features expected to be implemented if you are planning to implement a rich crafting economy.
We have recycled our unused game items. What are we going to make with recycled material? This salvaging mechanic requires crafting, of course.
11. Cinematics are getting more impressive!
Through the game, I am facing relatively insane in-game cinematics. They are interconnected with the main story. Though I am opposite to spoil the story, if you don’t mind you can see screenshots I took during cinematics!
SPOILER ALERT* – Intense Cinematic Screenshots
12. Loading Screen changes according to your current story theme!
Loading screens reflect the part of creativity that the art team working for a game company possesses. In these loading screens of the Bless Unleashed, we also see a good example of this creativity. Your loading screen’s artistic image changes with your current theme of the story!
13. Personalized battlegrounds
Yes, you heard me right. For some quests, blue wave spreads and altering the environment just for you. I don’t remember any example of the combination of single-player and multiplayer as smooth as this one. Actually, I don’t remember any example at all.
Blessings
There are collections of passive skills you can unlock and use their powers. They are called blessings. They can be acquired (if you completed certain requirements) via the Altar of Physera.
There are 4 Combat Blessings and 5 Livelihood Blessings. You should have completed certain requirements to be able to use them.
Attendance Rewards
Rewarding players’ attendance to the game is today’s popular game feature that improves retention rate. Bless Unleashed also uses this method to get players’ attention. There are two main attendance streaks can be achieved: in-game spent time & daily logins.
Salamander Solstice Event
Bless Unleashed crew seems to want to be a long-lasting game. I am telling that because even the game is recently published, they brought a new event: Salamander Solstice. In this event, players kill monsters having Salamander Icon next to their name to get Salamander Coins. After collecting enough amount of coins, players can spend theirs to buy special goods from the event merchant Jinjin.
Marketplace – Main Economy of the Game
You know, MMORPGs require an economy between players. This mechanic in Bless Unleashed is created with the global merchant Marketplace Manager. The main economy in this grant bazaar is based on the currency of Star Seeds. This makes star seeds more valuable than gold. If you want to sell items, you should list them. To list them, you should pay a listing price.
What are Bless Unleashed Classes?
In Bless Unleashed PC, there are 5 available classes. Here, I explain classes clearly without redundant verbs. They are:
- BERSERKER
- Melee Warrior – Area Control
- CRUSADER
- Melee Shielded Warrior – Balanced attack & defence
- MAGE
- Ranged – Elemental Magic
- PRIEST
- Ranged – Support oriented
- RANGER
- Ranged – Archer
If you want to read more, take a look at the official page I used while creating this section: Bless Unleashed PC Classes.
Trivias
Self-identified Gender
Well… This feature really surprised me. I don’t even remember any example of this feature among games that I played. I don’t even remember seeing an example of this gender selection in any video game ever :). Everything is normal when you select a human. You have two choices: Male and Female.
However, if you select Ippin, the Self-identified gender feature is the only choice. Isn’t it magnificent? It is so important for me because of this innovation. As I mentioned, it is a really new approach to the world of games. It is an LGBT term and you can read more of it from this link: click.
Made with Unreal Engine!
Leading game companies are generally thought that they use their own customized game engines. If you are an indie game developer, you would probably be excited of seeing an example of the game made with your preferred game engine. Yes, you heard me right. This game is made with a game engine that you can use. Bless Unleashed was made with Unreal Engine!
Elves have engagement tradition in this universe
Yes, it was weird but true 🙂 I figured it when I finished a quest of returning a necklace. She was telling me that the necklace was a gift from her old fiance.
Graphics Settings Advice for High FPS and Acceptable Quality
If you don’t have a high-end computer to run Bless Unleashed, you can still get a good amount of FPS without sacrificing graphics quality too much. If you don’t have enough GPU power, always keep in mind that lighting computations are really heavy for your GPU. We will also aim to decrease the quality of this feature in addition to the number of rendered components. Therefore, you can try to set View Distance and Lighting Quality to Very Low. You can keep other settings as Very High!
Game Ambiance
Medieval fantastic open-world. This could be the best definition sticking to the short definition. To be honest, we see so many examples of medieval themes. Therefore, it gets a bit boring. Let’s skip this commonness and talk about the world itself.
Bless Unleashed has had a bright and sunny game world so far, in general. Unlike I mentioned in my Path of Exile game review, Bless Unleashed has a much more peaceful atmosphere. If it changes dramatically, I will mention this as an update in this post.
Emotion I feel while playing
Started with a peaceful and cheerful atmosphere. I loved how it twisted in “some” point. Don’t worry, I won’t spoil it :). Later on, while doing quests and leveling up, It was a bit boring. You follow quests, level up, follow quests… It is the deadly loop that MMORPGs should get rid of themselves from. What is the feature of this game that differentiates it from single-player games? Do other wandering players make any difference? If we don’t find a way to interact with players in the Massively Multiplayer Online game, we rapidly lose our will of playing. If I encounter any different way of interaction apart from the features below; I will write them in the title of Multiplayer feature and player community below too.
Multiplayer feature and player community
Since I didn’t explore enough, I cannot tell enough. But it is sad that ads spammers dominate the chat. I hope developers would find a way to stop them.
Update
I continued playing and noticed two mechanics that bonds players:
1. Powerful Bosses
To defeat some powerful bosses, players should attack together. You don’t need to worry much about finding other players, since there are so many. Because the game is new and popular, I cannot claim they are bots. I hope I am not and it stays that way; for the good of the game.
2. Dungeon Fights
Sadly, don’t expect a raid mechanic in Blessed Unleashed. Instead, you team up with a player -may be players for other modes- and fight against an NPC. Another PvE mechanic.
Sound & Music
Festival sounds and background music was reflecting the proper emotion. Following background pieces of music that you hear through the game, are also appropriate for the environment you are in.
Story
It has a rich story which is a necessity for great MMORPGs. The only negative criticism I can do so far is beginning of the story is appropriate for single-player adventure instead of multiplayer. You can read my observation if you don’t mind spoilers:
Spoiler Alert
The whole island was wiped off of the map, and our player is the only survivor. But, how can we explain other players of Blessed Unleashed?
Bless Unleashed Best Class
In this game, no one can claim that she/he knows the best class of Bless Unleashed. The game is new and we don’t know if any nerf will take place for any class or not. Just watch gameplays, look at features of playable characters. Then choose the best possible choice for your heart. Play with what you want, not with what others want!
Bless Unleashed Server Status
If you cannot connect to the server, the game may be in maintenance. You can review the server’s status from the official maintenance feed:
Bless Unleashed PC Official Maintenance News
Is Bless Unleashed Crossplay Available?
No, and there won’t be. The official Twitter account of Bless Unleashed answered the question. Link for tweet: click.
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