As I said in my last blog, I have been playing other games during my away stint from FF14. And would you believe one of the games I have been playing is Roblox? Yes, THAT Roblox.......
WTF, my haters say. REALLY you stupid blonde ditz? That lame ass KIDS game that attracts annoying snot nosed young brats? WOW you have sunk to a new low Anna dear!
Yeah yeah, I know. But my son plays it and I was bored, and well you know what boredom does to people.......
Since it is totally free to play, I went and made a character and was off to the weird, WEIRD world of Roblox.....
First off, characters.....
If you know the online gaming world, I am SURE you have seen Roblox advertised and what it looks like. You know, the blocky lego-like avatars one plays in it. Or HAVE you?
This is what you think a Roblok avatar should look like. Blocky, right?
But WAIT, they can also look like.....THIS!
Surprised? I know I was. Yes, there was actually an upgrade to the engine and character creator a year ago to make more realistic avatars. If you are into Legos, think 'Friends' minifigs instead of the normal Lego minifigs. There are now avatars, both of which are free and for money, that give body parts to create more humanlike characters.
Is this a good thing? Wellllll........It depends.
First off, you WILL stick out like a sore thumb. Why? Simple, because hardly anyone ever uses the realistic look. Most prefer to stick to the original, blocky looking characters. It is VERY rare you will see one of the new look.
Second, there is a reason for One and it hits home hard for those who use the realistic look. Because of the way the parts are designed, A lot of stuff can't be used on them. IE: Stuff looks like shit on them. (Accessories, I am looking at YOU!)
Yeah, just forget about using about 90% of all those cool addons you see in the store. They were made for blocky lego avatars and just will NOT work on your thin body. It's a real shame too, because there are some REALLY cool things in that shop to deck out your character with. Seriously, if you can think it, it's on there!
3rd. Some of the time, when you pick a game to do, it will not support the newer bodies and you will end up looking all broken. Yeah, you will not load properly and will look like crap. Let me tell you it is REALLY annoying when that happens, and when it does I will just dump the game or resort to my blocky character if it works. (Some games don't even with with THAT one either!)
Speaking of designing and dressing your avatar, unlike other games, in Roblox, you can have up to 6 layers of stuff on your avatar. SIX layers! :O
This means you can have an undershirt, then a shirt, then a coat or jacket, then jewelry, THEN something like a backpack or purse over that. This also works with the head so you can have hair accessories AND hats over your hair, up to SIX layers of them!
(Note, you need to be sure the items were made to be all on a different layer though, or it will take the place of something else. It can be tricky finding the right combo.)
And for you Anthropomorphic lovers, yeah you bet you are covered in Roblox. If you can think it, there are ears and tails for probably ANY kind of humanish animal look you can think of on there. So go to town! ;-)
But if you do a realistic avatar, sadly you are limited. But you CAN have some nice looks.
Oh, cost. Yeah, to make your characters look pretty you are going to have to shell out money, but it's not that bad. I made my avatars for about $15 in Robux and I still have some money left over from the $18 i spent. I did do a premium month for $10 which gave me 1000 robux, plus I bought a 10$ card for $8 online that gave me 800 robux
Of course you don't HAVE to buy anything if you don't want to. There are some free bodies and clothes to use so you have something for your character. But once you see the store and the choices in there, you will probably be tempted to buy SOMETHING to make your avatar look cooler. (Or MANY somethings!)
Speaking of robux. besides avatar stuff Robux can also be used inside instances, (games), themselves to 'enhance' the experience. Give items, powerups, effects, and access to stuff to make the game easier as well as stuff like continues if you die.
Now, you don't NEED any of that junk to actually play the game per say, but it's there if you are a Whale and like to 'pay to win'. Oh, some of the instances also have cosmetic designs you can buy for your avatar too.
And that takes us to the other part of Roblox, the instances themselves. There are a ton of them and I do mean a TON! There are games and simulations of all kinds, both in 3rd and first person, have not seen any overhead ones yet. FPS shooters, various racing games, crafting games, housing and cultivation, chase and avoid, obstacle and matching, Flying, running, and driving, fashion and life simulation. If you can think it, it's probably in there somewhere.
I have tried a few of them and I will say some have rather surprised me. They are of various quality, some pretty stable, some very buggy. Some are pretty barebones, others are REALLY well done with a lot of work put into them. Some are pretty easy, others are damn hard, especially for the usual audience that plays Roblox. It's honestly like a box of chocolates; you don't know exactly what you are going to get until you go in and try the game. Most of them are really not THAT involved, kind of more like bite sized mini games you play until you beat it or get bored. Some you can win at, some are just endless. The puzzle ones can take a long time though, and if you don't finish them in one sitting you can lose your progress if the game is not designed to save it. Yeah, it SUCKS when that happens.
Oh the ones I tried, I really like the color matching ones. A color is shown and you have to get to the matching tile as quick as you can. If you don't you fall off. Fun quirks like rides, low gravity, multi-tiered levels, etc, mix things up.
I also play the maze ones, where you have to get through mazes while things hunt you down or seek you out .Some of them have nasty obstacles you have to do WHILE being hunted. It's crazy but fun. I have finished all the ones I have tried.
The hide and seek ones are also rather wacky with weird levels to hide in and soooooo stressful. Watching that clock tick down hoping you won't be found before the time runs out and starting to panic when the distance from you to the seeker starts decreasing as they head your way. I can only play so many rounds of those, just WAY too nerve racking! LOL Though getting picked as the seeker is rather fun to do. Kids just don't seem to know how to hide well. ;p
I have also played some of the horror ones, where you are either being stalked and have to escape or have a series of puzzles to solve to get out of the place and survive. Some of the stalker ones are AI, others are actual players who are picked to be the baddy. Another type of game that can get stressful and surprisingly, pretty scary.
A rather interesting one my son showed me was a zombie survival simulator. In it you are a student going to school and actually go to classes and do school stuff. Then things happen, your teacher dies by a zombie horde invading the school, and suddenly you and the other players who are classmates find yourselves climbing up into the ceiling and need to find a way to survive the mess you find yourselves in. It was quite long, first trying to find a way to get out of the school, then heading to town to find somewhere safe to go to. I don't know how it ends because I screwed up a jump and fell into a building that was on fire. Oops! LOL I will have to try that one again.
There are also the lava ones where you have to climb up on things to avoid the rising lava. Those are ok, but they got old quick.
I have not done too many of the obstacle ones. My reflexes are not that great for them and my timing for jumps sucks. I did like the 'hole' one, where you fall into a hole and avoid all kinds of crap on the way down to the exit. I actually finished all 120 normal levels on that one AND 110 of the expert level ones. The later ones get REALLY hard though.
I tried 'Royale High', the super popular fashion fantasy school simulator. But sadly AND surprisingly, it is one of the ones that DON'T work with the realistic body parts. My avatar looks like crap in that, even the blocky one for some reason, so I can't play it. :( I may just try a basic newbie character to see if that will work. (You can make new looks for yourself whenever you want using your collected
Lego, er Roblox parts. I have like 8 different looks.)
So as you can see, many different experiences to try out; and like I said it it totally free to play them. You only spend money if you want to look better or get things to make the instances easier.
Oh, and if you are good are doing it, you have the ability to create and build anything in the game you want to. Clothes and accessories, buildings, instances, anything you want. Everyone gets their own personal instance to play with with their account, and you can pay for more of you need them. Obviously that goes into the realm of creation and 3D design, but if you can do it and want something that is not in the game, make it! ;-)
My final impressions? Yes it is simple, yes some places are buggy. Yes, there ARE some annoying kids in there. and yes, many of the games are silly time wasters. But I will say, for something that is free, it can be rather fun to play at times. Plus some of the games on there are really well done and interesting experiences. You just need to find them. LOL
