Fractured – 2020 Alpha Impressions

So Mrs Stix and I had the opportunity to participate in the Alpha test for the new upcoming Fractured MMO, and you know what? It was a very interesting experience.

Fractured is a very interesting MMO. I’ve only played a handful of isometric MMOs in my life, and that’s perhaps because they’re just not a very popular type of game. Fractured is very different to what I’ve experienced in the genre, though.
This game has a very large emphasis on crafting, on gathering, and surviving the wilderness. Yes, at its core it seems to be a survival MMO which I know a lot of survival games claim to be, but Fractured really seems to be capable of accomplishing this.
There are hundreds of other players all gathering, all attempting to craft, all fighting and occupying the same large, open world.
This is where the game shines, but also at the same time, where I feel the game really let me down. I’ve never invested much time into Albion Online – but from what I gathered, it, and Fractured both, are very sandbox-oriented.
They provide you a giant world to level in, to obtain gear, to make progress in mostly your own way, and while I understand that sense of freedom can be.. well, freeing for lack of a better word, I find that I enjoy myself more when there’s a set story and path.
So I guess depending on the side of the fence you’re on here, you’ll either love the ability to freely tackle every aspect of the game at your own pace, or hate the lack of direction.
Fractured is going to be a buy-to-play MMO – requiring a single purchase of the game to play forever. While I’m not sure how well this will ultimately sell, I feel like buy-to-play and pay-to-play MMOs are much less likely to end up pay-to-win, something prevalent in the free-to-play market.
Ultimately I had some fun in Fractured. Its action combat was alright – it wasn’t anything great, not as good as something like Diablo 3 or Path of Exile but I feel like that could be improved over time.
I look forward to seeing how the game ends up over the next Alpha test phases, Beta test phases, and then going into full release.
Fractured definitely has potential to be something pretty solid in terms of an isometric MMO, hopefully they listen to feedback and actually produce it.