Thoughts on DBZ Xenoverse network test

 

 

Well, it started off with about ten minutes of "failed to connect to the server" messages. I gave up. A few hours later I tried again and got in after five minutes of server issues. Yeah, we are starting to get somewhere.

 

First, you'll be at a character creation screen. Fairly simple. You get a choice between saiyan and namekian with male and female variants for saiyan. Not much to choose from at the start, but there are shops and such where I'd assume you can customize further.



 

 

After I made my character, the game tried to connect to the sever again. I say try, because it failed. Surprising, I know. At that point I was somewhat committed to it. I made my badass character and wanted to try him out. I spent the next twenty minutes trying to connect to the server. Once that was done, I was set down in a hub city. It showed me where to buy things, but no other tutorial to speak of here. You'd assume as much since this is a barebones version just to test the network.

 



 

 

I went to the shops first and saw there was a shop to buy item, equipment, synthesize, and most importantly, buy skills.

 



 

 

I went to try out the modes. There was pvp of 1v1, 2v2, and 3v3 available. I tried a 3v3 first. I was alone on a team verses 2 on the other team. I had some bots to fill out the team to 3, but it was over quickly. Fun. Next, and perhaps the reason to play, are the parallel battles. You and up to 2 others fight specific opponents in a fight from the history of DBZ. You can be the character you created or actual character from DBZ. I chose Yamcha

 

 

I played for a little over an hour total. Overall, the servers are a mess. Disconnecting and even crashing at times. The game play had a good deal of lag, but nothing game breaking. The lock on left much to be desired as well. It really just felt like a button masher or a beat 'em up rather than a fighting game. I was not particularly impressed. The game will be released in about six months, so still plenty of time to smooth out the rough edges on their take of a mmoish fighting game.

 

Overall score: s'all right