Pagan Online Official Launch Thoughts

So last week I did a video with my first impressions of Pagan Online, the newly released action RPG from Wargaming. I talked about the game, what I thought about the introductory experience, the graphics, combat and the game overall.
Since I didn’t delve very far into the game as it had just launched into Early Access and I wanted to get a video of it out as soon as I could with my opinions, I figured now was as good a time as any to take a deeper look.
Thus, I spent a few additional hours in-game trying out new things, talking to some other players that recognized me after I posted my first video and.. getting my ass kicked by bosses because I was still going it alone.

Now, let’s talk about my experience.

I’ve played my fair share of action games over the years but never have I experienced such a steep increase in difficulty over such a short time-frame as I did in Pagan.
See, I love difficult games. They’re fun for me – they require you utilize strategy, timing, they promote thinking – planning your attacks out. Making careful use of your cooldowns to manage your possible need of escape.
In Pagan, every new mission I went on was slightly more difficult than the last. And you’re not guaranteed an upgrade in gear during or after each mission, either.
I hadn’t changed my weapon in over 2 hours – which initially had me 1-shotting every monster I encountered, granted, but ultimately I ended up not finding any weapons that were of improvement over what I already had.
Which lead me to having a little difficulty with some of the more.. powerful boss fights I had to get through.
But it’s boss fights like that – which took me… man I don’t even know how long I was at this one boss fight for. Over 30 minutes? It was insane.
By the time it was over my fingers were numb from mashing my long-range attacks to attempt to retain distance from the boss and conserve my resources and I was a little cross-eyed from circling the room a thousand or so times.
But it was fulfilling in a way you don’t normally experience. And it’s reasons like that that I believe this game really shines.
I’ve played some games that are similar to Pagan in genre that were pretty easy. Like, they got more difficult as the game went on but initially – were very easy.
Pagan just.. throws you right into the game and you’re left fending for yourself.

Thankfully the game does promote co-operative play because – and I can say this from experience – the game is difficult, even more so when you’re alone.
Unfortunately I didn’t have the opportunity to party up with anyone as the level discrepancy between us all was too large and my wife had too much to catch up on so I did it alone.. all of it.
But that isn’t to say that the game is solo or should be done solo – it’s multiplayer friendly and overall, I believe that every game should be experienced with a friend or loved one.
Going through games solo can be fun, sure, but personally.. I enjoy sharing first time experiences with my wife so having her along for most the rides I go on is pretty much a pre-requisite at this point.
Worth noting is that in my initial video I mentioned that only 2-player co-op was available.
However, I found out that Wargaming are working on implementing 4-player co-op into the game at a later date to allow for much more dynamic situations and hero compositions.
For those of you that were under the impression that they would only ever be allowed to play with one other person.. you’ll be happy to know that the game will support up to 3 other players.
I’m sure this will make for some very interesting encounters as there are a lot of heroes to play as.

I ended up playing as Elden because… well, he had dual weapons and threw ice-lances at enemies. I thought that was pretty sick and seemed like a playstyle I’d like to invest a little time into learning.
Thankfully, as if you recall, I mentioned I spent a lot of time long-distance kiting bosses and enemies attempting to survive.
He was definitely not the kind of hero I thought he was. I felt like he’d play as some kind of.. assassin, when in reality, he played more like an archer that could use dual-daggers close-range if necessary.
He had a ton of mobility to utilize, the ability to repeatedly freeze enemies making them not only immobile, but completely unable to attack for the duration of the status effect.
Making bosses a little easier, even if the effects only lasted a short while. Well, it made most bosses a little easier. There were certain boss fights where bosses were immune to all loss of control effects, even slows.
It was at times like this that I wished I’d chosen a tanky hero that could just sit there and tank the bosses attacks – which, I guess honestly, is definitely a possibility.
As you can unlock every single hero and change to them to suit the encounter as required. It just takes some time and investment.. which I didn’t have to unlock yet.
But that won’t stop me on my journey through the game as I’m curious to try out several of those badass looking mages as well, what being a mage main in every game I play.

Unfortunately, I didn’t play as much as I would have wanted to between the Early Access and the official launch of the game but I wanted to give you guys my opinion on what I’d experienced in my over 10 hours of playing.
That way, you can take the little bit of information and insight that I’ve offered and possibly make a more informed decision on whether or not you should go about purchasing the game.
I had a lot of fun and I plan on continuing to play the game on my journey to max level. I may start over so I can play with MrsStix if she wants to try the game out with me, or, maybe I’ll try to continue going it alone..
I dunno. We’ll see. Regardless, I hope those of you that have tried the game out have had fun doing so. Maybe you can add me as a friend and we can party up and play together.
I’m sure it’d make for a lotta fun to be had.