Recent reviews by normalize

This game is truly a remarkable MMORPG. The fact that a development team of only two or three people could make a game of this magnitude is nothing less than astonishing, even if it took them several years to do it.

While there's very little 'story' to speak of, the world itself is full of character and lore. I found myself actually interested in reading the NPC dialogue, books, and other various scattered background text. I can't remember actually caring about this stuff in WoW, or any other MMO for that matter. Yet this game does not take itself too seriously. It makes fun of itself in countless ways. It strikes a perfect balance between humor and mythology, and the result is an extremely approachable and fun environment. Perhaps most importantly, there's a LOT of content here. You get your money's worth with the game. I'm 20 hours in and I can already see how so many people have spent 500+ hours in this world.

This game is truly about figuring things out for yourself. From the moment you're dropped onto the "beginner's island", you're left with almost no hints as to where to go or what to do. But miraculously, through some good game design, making it off this island isn't really that hard if you pay attention to the dialogue and explore things for yourself. This is, I think, what people mean when they call this an "old school" MMORPG. If you grew up with games like Everquest or Ultima Online, this game will give you those moments of pleasure that come from having discovered something entirely new, and it feels entirely possible that you're the only one besides the game developers that actually knows about it. The feeling of accomplishment doesn't come from getting to max level or grinding for that rare armor, it comes from actually carving out a niche for yourself in the game's world and having some nugget of wisdom to offer other players.

It seems like half these reviews are throwing a fit about the graphics. I really don't understand what all the fuss is about. Look at the popularity of pixel art 2D games like Terraria, Starbound, Rimworld, Factorio, etc. Look at Minecraft, or countless other games which have a cult following despite having extremely primitive visual effects. I can't find a single review complaining about the graphical quality of these other indie games, yet for some reason people won't let up on Project Gorgon. Why? Perhaps it's because this game is, on some level, competing with AAA titles like Guild Wars 2 or Elder Scrolls Online. But if you're the type of person that misses the unique golden age of the MMORPG, those other games won't satisfy you in the same way as this game. In Project Gorgon you won't get the sense of malaise from having walked the same path as millions of other players, of being left in a theme park of focus-group-tested quests that have been optimized to keep you playing and spending your money on endless microtransactions. No, Project Gorgon respects your intelligence the way that computer games used to. I don't know about you, but in an MMORPG that I'm entrusting countless hours of my life with, that's more important to me in the long term than photorealistic textures and lighting effects. Regardless, it really doesn't look half bad, all things considered.