My Personal Thoughts about Riders of Icarus

Riders of Icarus represents Nexon Entertainment’s ambitious foray into the creature-taming MMO genre. This fantasy massively multiplayer online game distinguishes itself through its comprehensive beast mastery system, where players capture, domesticate, and collect various creatures throughout their journey. The game’s standout feature enables adventurers to partner with their tamed mounts to explore the most treacherous regions of its expansive fantasy realm. As an experienced MMO player with hundreds of hours across multiple titles, I’ll provide detailed insights into this unique gaming experience.

The class selection in Riders of Icarus follows traditional MMO archetypes without extensive specialization options. Despite this limitation, the gameplay remains engaging and thoroughly entertaining. I found particular enjoyment with the Guardian and Priest classes, though the Guardian aligns more closely with a standard warrior archetype rather than the paladin-style hybrid I had anticipated. The Rogue class (sometimes referenced as Assassin) provides satisfying gameplay despite its relatively fragile defensive capabilities. These core classes establish the essential holy trinity of tank, healer, and damage dealer roles. Regional disparities exist where the Eastern version includes additional class options, creating frustrating content gaps for Western players. Overall, the class system delivers solid performance with visually appealing designs, though non-healing classes face significant dependency on health potions and regeneration mechanics.

The game’s most compelling aspect emerges through its extensive creature companion system—though ‘pet’ scarcely captures the depth of these partnerships. Players can domesticate nearly every wildlife creature encountered, with notable exceptions like foxes that remain puzzlingly unavailable despite player demand. The creature selection proves remarkably diverse with straightforward taming procedures for standard mounts. However, acquiring elite-grade mounts necessitates purchasing Riders of Icarus Gold currency. The taming process involves a simple chance-based minigame requiring minimal skill, making it accessible to all player skill levels.

The mount taming mechanism underwent significant improvements following initial patches that addressed previously broken systems. Post-patch implementation functions substantially better with engaging cinematic sequences, though the narrative currently rates as average. The aerial combat and exploration systems deliver exceptional enjoyment, particularly the innovative altitude mechanics. Mount variety and capture difficulty create complex progression systems that establish the game’s unique identity within the MMO landscape.

The game offers both Action and Standard control schemes, allowing players to select their preferred gameplay style. I personally favor the Action Mode for its responsive controls and appreciate having this customization option. However, a persistent bug resets the control preference upon logging in, requiring manual reconfiguration each session—an annoyance needing developer attention. The artistic dedication evident in mount designs demonstrates remarkable visual craftsmanship and attention to detail.

Character creation provides substantial customization options, though I would have preferred more lengthy hairstyle selections for female characters. Players creating multiple characters can bypass the introductory tutorial. The seal system enables players to convert tamed mounts into seals that can be applied to weapons, granting statistical bonuses to associated equipment—an innovative progression mechanic.

Comparison to Closed Beta

My initial experience during CBT2 generated tremendous enthusiasm for the game’s potential. While it contained typical beta imperfections, the foundation demonstrated promising quality. I eagerly anticipated CBT3 and Open Beta releases to experience the evolving content.

CBT3 delivered a disappointing experience with pervasive performance problems, latency issues, and numerous glitches. The regression between CBT2 and CBT3 severely diminished my excitement and confidence in Nexon’s development capabilities for Open Beta—assumptions that ultimately proved incorrect!

The current beta demonstrates remarkable stability with minimal glitches encountered. While my Founder’s Pack displayed minor issues, the included Elite 900m mounts provided exceptional value. I acquired both Blue and Ruby Bloodwyrms at Level 17—creatures typically unavailable until approximately Level 25 due to their 500m altitude requirements. Following the removal of pack mounts, I retained both dragon mounts capable of reaching 450m altitudes, featuring impressive visual designs.

The audio landscape provides competent background immersion without standout musical compositions that demand attention. Sound design serves its functional purpose adequately, though the repetitive voice lines from spellcasters become noticeably grating during extended play sessions. Each time magic users activate their abilities, they deliver identical canned phrases that lack situational variety, diminishing the combat’s auditory diversity.

Through extensive testing across multiple beta phases, I’ve developed deep familiarity with four core classes: Berzerker, Assassin, Priest, and Wizard. Currently maining Priest has revealed its sophisticated gameplay depth and rewarding complexity curve. The initial 15 levels demonstrate minimal class differentiation in damage output and survivability metrics, creating a homogenized early experience.

Wizard gameplay presents a challenging risk-reward equation during early progression. Their extreme fragility often results in frequent deaths that feel disproportionate to their damage potential in the initial tiers. Assassin class mechanics initially appear underwhelming but reveal significant depth once players master combo sequences and unlock advanced skill trees. Berzerker assessment remains ongoing as I continue through its leveling progression.

Post-level 25 dungeon content reveals Wizard’s true power scaling. Their astronomical damage output justifies the glass cannon design philosophy, making one-shot scenarios in Heroic difficulties logically consistent. Observing Wizard specialists demolish Elite 5 content with Lavalight normal dungeon efficiency demonstrates their late-game dominance potential.

Player versus player engagements highlight Priest’s crowd control supremacy. When coordinated with additional team members, Priests can create nearly inescapable CC chains that often decide encounters before they properly begin. This dominance in control mechanics makes strategic target selection crucial when facing Priest compositions.

Mount movement mechanics prioritize weighty, deliberate pacing over rapid traversal. This design choice creates a grounded feel that some players may interpret as sluggishness rather than intentional design. Combat responsiveness features significant animation commitment, where initiating an attack locks your character into completing the full sequence before executing subsequent commands.

This deliberate combat rhythm generates a methodical, tactical feel that contrasts sharply with reaction-based action MMOs. The Guardian class particularly accentuates this system, making animation timing and predictive play more valuable than twitch reflexes.

Application stability issues include failure to properly terminate processes upon exiting the game, requiring manual intervention through task manager. Random crashes during gameplay sessions are noted, though these are expected within the context of closed beta testing and will likely be addressed before official launch.

The core gameplay loop follows traditional MMO conventions with linear quest structures and familiar progression systems. Mount mechanics serve as the primary differentiator within this established framework. Coming from Black Desert Online’s sandbox orientation provides contrasting perspective on theme park MMO design philosophies, highlighting different approaches to player engagement and content delivery.

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