Avery
I really wanted to like this one.
I've been searching for a VRMMO story that can replace the hole that finishing The Ripple System left in my life.
This one is not it, unfortunately.
It started off strong with the audiobook cast + production (with the possible exception of the way that Xan is read, though I think the way she's written is as much at fault there).
Unfortunately it suffers from several issues. There are frequent time skips, which are immediately followed by heavy handed ("As you know...") exposition, frequently as awkward dialogue, about what happened during the skip. The magic abilities are super same-y.. everyone starts off with the same gun ability and many subsequent spells are just.. better guns? Any deviation from this is either fire/ice blasts or some flavor of game breaking super-magic. There's very little in the way of interesting game mechanics. The fact that the characters are explicitly unable to grow and develop unsurprising results in.. very little character development (not to mention weird interactions between characters of vastly different ages, though thankfully this is largely glossed over).
Open to suggestions for a better VRMMO!
I really wanted to like this one.
I've been searching for a VRMMO story that can replace the hole that finishing The Ripple System left in my life.
This one is not it, unfortunately.
It started off strong with the audiobook cast + production (with the possible exception of the way that Xan is read, though I think the way she's written is as much at fault there).
Unfortunately it suffers from several issues. There are frequent time skips, which are immediately followed by heavy handed ("As you know...") exposition, frequently as awkward dialogue, about what happened during the skip. The magic abilities are super same-y.. everyone starts off with the same gun ability and many subsequent spells are just.. better guns? Any deviation from this is either fire/ice blasts or some flavor of game breaking super-magic. There's very little in the way of interesting game mechanics. The fact that the characters are explicitly unable to grow and develop unsurprising results in.. very little character development (not to mention weird interactions between characters of vastly different ages, though thankfully this is largely glossed over).
Open to suggestions for a better VRMMO!
I really wanted to like this one.
I've been searching for a VRMMO story that can replace the hole that finishing The Ripple System left in my life.
This one is not it, unfortunately.
It started off strong with the audiobook cast + production (with the possible exception of the way that Xan is read, though I think the way she's written is as much at fault there).
Unfortunately it suffers from several issues. There are frequent time skips, which are immediately followed by heavy handed ("As you know...") exposition, frequently as awkward dialogue, about what happened during the skip. The magic abilities are super same-y.. everyone starts off with the same gun ability and many subsequent spells are just.. better guns? Any deviation from this is either fire/ice blasts or some flavor of game breaking super-magic. There's very little in the way of interesting game mechanics. The fact that the characters are explicitly unable to grow and develop unsurprising results in.. very little character development (not to mention weird interactions between characters of vastly different ages, though thankfully this is largely glossed over).
Open to suggestions for a better VRMMO!
I really wanted to like this one.
I've been searching for a VRMMO story that can replace the hole that finishing The Ripple System left in my life.
This one is not it, unfortunately.
It started off strong with the audiobook cast + production (with the possible exception of the way that Xan is read, though I think the way she's written is as much at fault there).
Unfortunately it suffers from several issues. There are frequent time skips, which are immediately followed by heavy handed ("As you know...") exposition, frequently as awkward dialogue, about what happened during the skip. The magic abilities are super same-y.. everyone starts off with the same gun ability and many subsequent spells are just.. better guns? Any deviation from this is either fire/ice blasts or some flavor of game breaking super-magic. There's very little in the way of interesting game mechanics. The fact that the characters are explicitly unable to grow and develop unsurprising results in.. very little character development (not to mention weird interactions between characters of vastly different ages, though thankfully this is largely glossed over).
Open to suggestions for a better VRMMO!
Continuing to enjoy this author!
The narration by Sophie Aldred was also great -- really expressive dialogue without feeling exaggerated. I'll have to find more read by her.
I feel like Shroud is story that lies on a spectrum between The Martian and Blindsight -- more interesting than the former and more readable than the latter (I'd still recommend them all, maybe the Martian a little less).
There was a bit in the middle that felt a little slow and the end kind of fizzled out for me, but worthwhile overall still, I think.
Continuing to enjoy this author!
The narration by Sophie Aldred was also great -- really expressive dialogue without feeling exaggerated. I'll have to find more read by her.
I feel like Shroud is story that lies on a spectrum between The Martian and Blindsight -- more interesting than the former and more readable than the latter (I'd still recommend them all, maybe the Martian a little less).
There was a bit in the middle that felt a little slow and the end kind of fizzled out for me, but worthwhile overall still, I think.
I wasn't sure what things would be like going into this one, but there ended up being more going on than I expected, which was nice.
I wasn't a huge fan of the constant family drama though. Made it feel like things took a long time to progress. The stakes really feel lower right now.
The way that abilities are described has improved a lot from the previous books, far fewer repetitive stat blocks (still reading the audio book so it makes a big difference).
I wasn't sure what things would be like going into this one, but there ended up being more going on than I expected, which was nice.
I wasn't a huge fan of the constant family drama though. Made it feel like things took a long time to progress. The stakes really feel lower right now.
The way that abilities are described has improved a lot from the previous books, far fewer repetitive stat blocks (still reading the audio book so it makes a big difference).
I wasn't sure what things would be like going into this one, but there ended up being more going on than I expected, which was nice.
I wasn't a huge fan of the constant family drama though. Made it feel like things took a long time to progress. The stakes really feel lower right now.
The way that abilities are described has improved a lot from the previous books, far fewer repetitive stat blocks (still reading the audio book so it makes a big difference).
I wasn't sure what things would be like going into this one, but there ended up being more going on than I expected, which was nice.
I wasn't a huge fan of the constant family drama though. Made it feel like things took a long time to progress. The stakes really feel lower right now.
The way that abilities are described has improved a lot from the previous books, far fewer repetitive stat blocks (still reading the audio book so it makes a big difference).
I think some of the economics stuff has improved. Still enjoying many of the characters.
Some complaints are probably a result of listening to this as an audiobook. I like Heath Miller's narration. The voices are differentiated but not over the top, and it's generally very easy to listen to. I also appreciate that full character-sheet level stat readouts are very uncommon.
Unfortunately, every time anyone uses any ability, the entire description of the ability gets read out. This gets a little painful, as the clearly tabular style doesn't read very well while being pretty repetitive, especially where there are like 4 levels of nested effects being defined. Of course, the fact that abilities (especially Jason's) have pretty vague names means that I frequently DO end up needing to listen to the description.
That said, I don't think all the blame lies with the format. Jason's ability set causes to his fights to be super predictable so far. 1) Give afflictions (yes, even a scratch is enough), 2) do damage scaling with afflictions, 3) absorb the afflictions to deal more damage and set up 4) execute. Like, I get and that's fine, but you don't need to explain it to me every time.
The fight predictability gets a little better near the end, and thankfully they start to be described in a little less detail. We'll see if it continues to improve in book 4 (which I guess I'll be reading next)
I think some of the economics stuff has improved. Still enjoying many of the characters.
Some complaints are probably a result of listening to this as an audiobook. I like Heath Miller's narration. The voices are differentiated but not over the top, and it's generally very easy to listen to. I also appreciate that full character-sheet level stat readouts are very uncommon.
Unfortunately, every time anyone uses any ability, the entire description of the ability gets read out. This gets a little painful, as the clearly tabular style doesn't read very well while being pretty repetitive, especially where there are like 4 levels of nested effects being defined. Of course, the fact that abilities (especially Jason's) have pretty vague names means that I frequently DO end up needing to listen to the description.
That said, I don't think all the blame lies with the format. Jason's ability set causes to his fights to be super predictable so far. 1) Give afflictions (yes, even a scratch is enough), 2) do damage scaling with afflictions, 3) absorb the afflictions to deal more damage and set up 4) execute. Like, I get and that's fine, but you don't need to explain it to me every time.
The fight predictability gets a little better near the end, and thankfully they start to be described in a little less detail. We'll see if it continues to improve in book 4 (which I guess I'll be reading next)
Still entertaining, and I've just started the third.
That said, there are a few annoying things.
Everyone keeps talking about how Jason just is who he is, and some people like it and some people don't. That's true, but it feels convenient that most of the ones that like Jason tend to be more powerful and influential than the ones who don't. It would be nice if there was some meaningful interaction where his attitude results in a bad outcome, otherwise it starts to feel rigged.
I also don't really get the deal with the awakening stones. Who cares that it's a high rarity stone if you don't know what it gives? It's not like it will be more powerful, as is often repeated. It ends up feeling like a meaningless choice that conveniently works out well in cases, but there's a lot of talk of which one to pick.
Related to the relatively unexplainable purchase of expensive stones, the economy feels super broken. It feels like the main characters can buy just about anything without saving up or making tough choices. Jason's gold coin looting seems way too powerful, considering it basically lets him buy the best gear he can use. Hopefully this will stop being the case if they move on to a larger town.
Still entertaining, and I've just started the third.
That said, there are a few annoying things.
Everyone keeps talking about how Jason just is who he is, and some people like it and some people don't. That's true, but it feels convenient that most of the ones that like Jason tend to be more powerful and influential than the ones who don't. It would be nice if there was some meaningful interaction where his attitude results in a bad outcome, otherwise it starts to feel rigged.
I also don't really get the deal with the awakening stones. Who cares that it's a high rarity stone if you don't know what it gives? It's not like it will be more powerful, as is often repeated. It ends up feeling like a meaningless choice that conveniently works out well in cases, but there's a lot of talk of which one to pick.
Related to the relatively unexplainable purchase of expensive stones, the economy feels super broken. It feels like the main characters can buy just about anything without saving up or making tough choices. Jason's gold coin looting seems way too powerful, considering it basically lets him buy the best gear he can use. Hopefully this will stop being the case if they move on to a larger town.
Quite enjoyable. Most of the characters are very likable, which is nice.
One weird bit was how the nomadic group is almost treated as subhuman, especially given how thoughtful and forgiving Jason is with everyone else.
Quite enjoyable. Most of the characters are very likable, which is nice.
One weird bit was how the nomadic group is almost treated as subhuman, especially given how thoughtful and forgiving Jason is with everyone else.
Some really cool ideas grounded in (as far as I can tell) real biology. I wasn't expecting it to focus so much on the political angles involved in an important scientific discovery, but that was neat too.
I did feel like it dragged at times and could have maybe been a bit shorter -- apart from the cool ideas, not much important happened plot-wise.
Some really cool ideas grounded in (as far as I can tell) real biology. I wasn't expecting it to focus so much on the political angles involved in an important scientific discovery, but that was neat too.
I did feel like it dragged at times and could have maybe been a bit shorter -- apart from the cool ideas, not much important happened plot-wise.
