Grace Online is a Fantasy MMORPG, developed and published by Overlight Studio. Once we get into the game, we’re given a choice of what class we want to play, and we’re able to choose between Holy Knight, Archer, Mage, and Warrior, but we’re not given any information about these classes.

We’re also able to choose a faction, and once again, we’re given zero information about if our choices make a difference during our gameplay. Currently, there is only one playable race in Grace Online, Humans, but during the character creation, there is a customisation feature that allows us to customize our characters the way we want. Unfortunately though, there aren’t many options to choose from, so our options are once again limited.

After finishing the character creation, we’re directly thrown into the gameplay, with no tutorial or anything of the kind to really teach us how to play. When doing a quest, there isn’t really a way of knowing where to go to complete it, other than using the map, and you’d expect to be able to zoom in/out while reading it, but there currently isn’t an option for this, and it makes things more difficult when trying to figure out where to go to complete your quests or to know wherever the player is going. I had other issues with the map during gameplay, with the standout being after I left a certain area, the map was completely black. All I could see were the quest markers.

You’d expect to have some skills unlocked so you can do PvE when needed, but the only skill you start with is Magic Shield – not a single offensive skill, just a basic attack. When I first played Grace Online I started as a Warrior, and during a quest I was doing, which involved killing enemies in the wild, my health was super low after a single fight, and if I went to do another fight I’d die, even in the starting area.

The second time I played the game I tried out the Mage class, and during the same quest I’d fight the same enemies, yet I’d not lose any health and I’d defeat the enemies in a matter of seconds. This is during close-range fighting, which doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. After a certain amount of EXP is gained, you level up, and with this, you are able to use a skill point to either unlock or upgrade a skill of your choice.

Each class has different skills that they can unlock, the Mage, for example, can choose to unlock Fireball, whereas the Warrior can learn Falling Sky. As expected, the Mage has primarily ranged skills and the Warrior has skills that can be used at a close distance.

The controls are great, with pretty much everything you’d expect for an MMORPG title. The only issue I didn’t like is that there isn’t a button to expand the map. This can make playing the game a bit difficult as you can easily find yourself moving in circles while trying to figure out where the exit to an area is. I got lost a lot when first playing, as I wasn’t able to see where I needed to go to start or complete quests.

For a game in Early Access, I can understand why the graphics might not be the best in the starting area, the ground is primarily brown, which I believe is to represent dirt, and there is also grass and mountains, but these areas don’t really feel complete. They seem to be missing textures and are predominately one colour. On the plus side, the houses and buildings placed throughout the map do have nice textures.

The character models do look okay for a title in Early Access. It’s not too bad, but it also isn’t the best, but the clothing and weapons do look quite good. Out of everything I was able to see, the weapon model had to be on the top 3 of the best-looking things in the game. The enemies, on the other hand, can sometimes be glitchy, and when they are, they tend to flash on the screen and are unable to be killed, and it’s a little annoying when they do flash about because they’re actually quite interesting to look at.

Sounds in the game can be very hit-and-miss, such as when walking around, the sound of your footsteps is way louder than it should be, but it also doesn’t match the surface you’re walking on. Even in combat, the sounds of hitting the enemy don’t feel like they match up, and I noticed that even if I missed most of the hits, the sound of hitting the enemy is continuous and can be annoying over time, however, a redeeming factor would be the music. It’s really relaxing, and it never gets that repetitive feeling that other games seem to have, regardless of whether you’re playing for half an hour or several. You will definitely enjoy the music.

Grace Online can very well be a good game in the future, but right now, with the graphics being the way they currently are, and the audio being quite annoying at times, I don’t think I’d replay Grace Online until after the Early Access ends. The controls were quite easy to understand, but with some key buttons and key binds missing, it makes it feel like things were overlooked. The character customisation was decent for a game in early access, allowing you to choose what you want to do in the game, and even if it’s very limited, it’s a good start, but the most enjoyment I got was from the music. As frustrating as it all felt, the music kept me relaxed whenever I was playing.

Written by: Mitchell Batchelor