Yearly Archives: 2012

(Sort of) Early Access: Continent of the Ninth Seal

(Sort Of) Early Access: Continent of the Ninth Seal

By Darren Henderson (DizzyPW), OnRPG Editor-in-Chief

 

 

(Like our article? Please vote for OnRPG on C9’s Editors’ Awards Contest so we can continue bringing you more up to date news directly from the devs in Korea!)

 

Hey this is DizzyPW bringing you another edition of my OnRPG column, Early Access. I hopped into C9 earlier this month expecting a simple instanced based action MMO, and ended up spending a lot more time delving into the C9 world than anticipated. Webzen’s Continent of the Ninth Seal is an odd beast. The concept seems simple at first, gather all the quests you can find in the hub town, then leave town to queue up in one of many dungeons where your quests reside, then return to collect your rewards. Off of this simple concept though Webzen has built quite a complex game that has a much higher skill cap than most any MMO I have played in all my years of gaming.

 

 

Aesthetics

Before I get directly into the features of the game though, I have to talk about their beautiful character creator. Even though C9 has been out for quite a few years over seas, the graphics in this game still rival some of the top competitors currently available in the western market. You can currently choose between three classes: the fighter, the hunter, and the shaman. Even though each is gender locked I guarantee you can adjust your avatar enough to make you stand out from your peers. Just look at my Shamans for example:

 

 

Yea my amazon bunny girl with a bad suntan stood out in a crowd without issue. Thankfully the customization doesn’t end there as each new piece of armor you acquire is rendered on your character in beautiful detail. This gives you a real sense of progression as leveling up in this game is fast and you will constantly be acquiring new gear to equip. If you’re worried about everyone looking the same at end-game then don’t worry as they even have a system to alter the appearance of your equipment to look like other gear you’ve acquired!

 

 

The maps are also beautifully animated and quite diverse. Just getting up to the level 14 dungeons I came across jungles, forests, beach towns, and even the inside of a volcano. Some maps even offer different routes to get from A to B, though the mini-map is well designed so that you’ll never feel lost or confused.

 

 

Something that really hurts the production value of the storyline though is the cutscenes. Cutscenes are done with ingame models and no CGI, which works well except for that the timing doesn’t seem to have been redone for the western version. This means you’ll often have cutscenes jumping around too fast to read the text. I found myself confused as to what my purpose was because 3 paragraphs of text whizzed by before I could finish reading the first. But while the cutscene timing is terrible, the actual dialog is localized with painstaking care. I’ve played a lot of freshly westernized games from Asian recently, and C9 is definitely among the cream of the crop in terms of translated dialog. Though expect the annoying ‘words being cut in half because a line breaks’ issue, like is common with most freshly westernized titles.

 

 

Character Progression

Of course the key feature that makes or breaks any MMO is how character progression is implemented. I don’t want to sound like I’m overly hyping the game but C9’s character progression is some of the best I’ve experienced! The system is simple but smooth. As you level up you will acquire skill points and unlock new skills within one of three categories: active, command, and passive. Active skills are your typical hotkey skills that you can assign to your 1-0 keys as well as other keys like z and x.

 

 

The command keys pull a page straight out of fighting games, forcing you to memorize simple key combinations to unleash some pretty cool skills on the fly. While the combos may seem simple, once you have around 12+ of them, you’ll start to see the difference between a novice and expert. Memorizing them all AND knowing the proper time to use each is quite a task, but makes the combat system beyond rewarding. A nice feature is implemented in which you can watch a small cinematic showing you how to use each skill in combat, as well as what key stroke combination you use to throw out the skill.

 

 

The passive skills are pretty self explanatory, helping you increase max hp, mp, and so on. However the nice part of the system is that your skill acquisition isn’t limited to economic factors like in most games but actually by the number of skill points you acquire. About every 3 levels you’ll gain the ability to upgrade skills you already know, and more skills are constantly thrown at you. There’s a lot of variety in how you build your character, though for comboing purposes I found knowing level 1 of everything and then powering up my favorites on the Shaman was the way to go.

 

 

In terms of the classes, the current three are pretty simple to summarize. The Fighter is beefy, packing serious defense but mostly only specializing in hand to hand combat. His sword and fast movement speed allows him to close distance quickly and dish out some serious damage. The Hunter I think is better described as a ninja. They can deal some wicked long range aoe damage with their bow, but their melee dps is just absurd. Of course they aren’t as tanky as the Fighter so you have more risk involved with the higher reward of going in for close combat knife play.

 

 

The Shaman on the other hand is a really unusual class. They can’t take much damage but specialize in mid-range aoe magic. Their staff gives them about the same range as the fighter but the Shaman’s attack speed is pretty slow so getting into melee range to fight is only recommended against slow AI opponents. They do have a few devastating long range spells but they have long charge time, slow particle animations, and are difficult to land on an opponent in PvP. A truly good Shaman will have to utilize spell shields, dodge mechanics, and perfectly executed combos to unlock their full potential.

 

 

As you play your class though you’ll probably find a specific style of combat that suits your taste. At level 20 you’ll be able to class up and follow a dedicated new style that can maximize the effectiveness of your playstyle.

 

 

Gameplay

As I mentioned in the intro, the basics of the gameplay are nothing you won’t have seen before. Missions are entered from the lobby and offer you normal, hard, expert, and master mode to choose from, though you’ll have to unlock each difficulty before jumping straight into them.

 

 

At first I was getting a little bored with the missions as they were all simple go from point A to point B and kill everything in your way tasks. But as the game progressed I saw a glimpse of some real fun. One mission had me defending points in a beach town from a mermaid and crab invasion. The towers had HP bars that the mobs quickly chipped away at if unopposed, and I was forced to think through each aoe skill I had to maximize damage in order to keep the mobs distracted and tower standing. The quest I had to do on expert mode in particular was the hardest challenge (outside of PvP) that I faced in the entire time playing. This is a good time to mention the fury bar, a small purple bar that fills up under your avatar image in the top left corner. Once the bar is full, you can go all out for a short period of time, drastically upping your damage and movement speed. Without the potions that allow you to fill this meter instantly, there’s no way I could have held off the Mermaid’s minions solo. I can honestly say soloing this mission at level 14 was on par with some of the challenges I faced in Guild Wars, and yes it’s been that long since I’ve felt this kind of pressure in an online game.

 

 

Another interesting dungeon had me racing to save a group of hunters from the servants of Hannaman. While it wasn’t necessarily difficult as the hunters weren’t vital to my success, it did add a sense of urgency, and the fun factor goes way up in C9 when you’re in a rush to destroy your foes. Speaking of this, every dungeon you run is graded based on number of foes you killed, your skills used, the combos you performed, and your overall speed. Some awesome items might be waiting for you at the end of your run if you do well in each of these categories, and it really got me motivated each dungeon run to not slack off and give it my all.

 

 

At the end of your run you are graded and given 2 keys to open a number of boxes. This is one of the reasons I highly recommend you bringing friends while playing as it not only speeds up the dungeon run but each player gets to select two boxes. With a bunch of people selecting boxes you have a great chance of getting an item useful to someone in the party, so you can trade and grow stronger much faster.

 

 

One major complaint I have with C9 is the difficulty of missions doesn’t seem to scale much as the number of people in your party grows. Going solo in this game can result in some seriously epic confrontations, especially with some of the later bosses. However with a team the challenge nearly disappears and it becomes more of a frag fest to see who can kill steal the most monsters from the other players. Here’s hoping this gets addressed as this game is amazing but only when a real challenge is pressuring you to go all out.

 

 

Controls

Though I haven’t tried using a gaming pad, the keyboard controls in C9 are smooth as my Shaman’s silk. As I’m sure most people reading this by now know, C9 is among a new genre of online games in which every attack and skill is aimed rather than auto targeted to a selected monster. Even so, I found jump attacking, skill spamming, and melee comboing all performed excellently.

 

 

This might not be so readily apparent when first starting out, as the gameplay can be quite slow before you’ve picked up a good number of skills and commands. However once you have around 9 options under your command, you’ll find transitioning from one attack to the next to the next and racking up 50+ combos is doable on most any class.

 

 

One issue with the controls though is sometimes your character has issues stopping on a dime. A lot of skills will have you flying forward as an uncontrollable wrecking ball with no way of canceling the animation, such as the Shaman’s rolling front kick. This is fine under most situations but can get a bit dicey when fighting on cliff sides or in tight spaces between spike traps. I’ll never forget laughing at JamesBl0nde when he dove off a cliff and died from fall damage because he got greedy and tried to kill steal a final monster from me on his Hunter.

 

 

Crafting and Social Interaction

The crafting system in C9 is simple but effective, and one of the primary reasons I see people coming together as a community in C9. The reason I see this bringing players together is you can create some really powerful equipment and items through crafting, but each player can only master a single profession out of the five available.

 

 

Tailor: Tailors are your armor makers. They specialize in handling all types of cloth materials and can also build tapestries for your guild house.

 

Metalworker: Metalworkers specialize in weapons as well as more hardy guild house items.

 

Chef: Chefs put together ingredients to make dishes that can power your team up for long durations.

 

Alchemist: Alchemists are similar to chefs but more about creating fast acting potions.

 

Wordworker: Wordworkers are a bit of a jack of all trades class, allowing you to craft bows for Hunters, firewood to quickly restore hp/mp, and guild house items.

 

 

The actual process of crafting items is pretty tough. Expect to spend many hours gathering items, or purchasing them from other players to complete some of the higher level recipes in the game. Basically if you want to get good at crafting, make sure to break all the pots and boxes, and open all the chests on each dungeon run to start getting a good supply of crafting materials in your bank. Believe me, you’re going to need all of them.

 

 

The actual guild system itself is pretty impressive just due to the amount of customization it offers. Guild leaders can do all the basics such as assign rankings to members (currently I have the option of making members officers, diligents, commons, newcombers, or guests). Also you can choose to ban someone’s ability to speak in guild chat, which is a godsend to anyone out there that’s had the pleasure of running their own guilds before.

 

 

As you play the game you will earn guild points for your guild that can be spent by the guild leader to level up the guild or purchase special guild buffs. Leveling up your faction allows for special perks like adding a guild logo next to your guild name, or purchasing guild housing as the ultimate status symbol. The most useful feature though is guild buffs, in which players can acquire guild-wide strength boosts to give them advantages over normal players.

 

 

PvP

Currently C9 only has two real PvP modes, though quite a few more exist in the Korean version that haven’t been transitioned into the Global client yet. The first PvP mode is your basic dueling system. Unlike most MMOs where you walk up, click a player, gain an orangish glow and start fighting right on the spot, C9 initiates the duel a little differently. You and your accepting opponent will actually be transferred over into an official dueling map, consisting of a beach side island with only a few obstacles and a large amount of land to kite across. Duels consist of a best of three rounds system, with each round consisting of three minutes.

 

 

I found the three minutes fly by rather quickly and a lot of my matches would be decided based on who had the most hp left, rather than who knocked out who. Anyway while duels don’t mean much, there is a ranked version that is tracked by Webzen through a ladder system. At the time of writing this it seems a player is in the lead with 100 wins and 12 losses, so people are definitely getting a kick out of dueling to have played so many matches in such a short period of time. I can’t blame them as dueling is pretty addicting! Even at level 20 without my 2nd job update I found each match against James to be intense. You really feel like the proper timing of your skills makes a difference and it’s not just another spam till everything is on cooldown while standing still facing your opponent type of PvP action. This is real action combat as you shield, block, roll, and flank your opponent trying to get a 5+ combo in to seal the match in your favor.

 

 

The other type of PvP in the game I unfortunately haven’t had the chance to experience yet. This is called intrusion and from what I understand, involves invading and conquering another player’s instanced dungeon run. Now I complained about the lack of challenge when traveling with a large group earlier in this article, but if I had to fight against another team of players while completing the dungeon, that complaint would instantly disappear. Needless to say, while the PvE elements of C9 are well made, it’s the PvP systems that seem to have received some real love by the developers.

 

 

Conclusion

C9 is one of the most well rounded titles I have tested in quite a while. Character design, dungeon variety, and fine tuned PvP combine to make this a prime choice in the action MMO market for 2012. While the number of features in the game might be a bit too much to take in all at once, an extremely detailed help menu exists if you hit F1 that can teach you just about anything you need to know in the game. Brutal framerate lag was one of the main issues I had with the game, and thankfully it seems to have been resolved in the last few weeks of the beta test. I think once the text and cutscene issues are patched up a bit, this game will be ready for a strong commercial launch to the global market. And with Team Deathmatch and Relay PvP on the horizon along with a fourth class, I see nothing but good things in C9’s future.

Wakfu: For the Love of Gobballs

Wakfu: For the Love of Gobballs

By Jerrico Tan (JetSet), OnRPG Journalist

 


 

Wakfu is an online fantasy MMORPG developed by Ankama Studios and its final open beta test just recently came to an end in preparation for the final version set for release February 29th. The latest patch just out this month has provided us with some changes to its gameplay and community and with the prejudice of Dofus aside, we’ll take a look at some points and features that await the future players of this game.

 

CLASSES

 

 

Once you have downloaded the game and chosen a server, you will be given a choice between 14 classes (previously 12) that you can customize and power up throughout the game. Players can save and level up more than one type of class that they prefer. Customization of the character may seem very limited but this will not matter much later on as equipment will eventually change your character’s appearance. After choosing your preferred class, you will be introduced to the world of Wakfu together with a short tutorial to its gameplay, battle sequences, ecology and community. There is also a short history about the world of Wakfu and Dofus but it’s wholly irrelevant.

 

 

All classes have their own pros and cons and the tactics to be used for combat vary accordingly. Each class has 25 available spells to power-up, yet not all of them are practical and effective in battle so you’ll find yourself repeatedly using the same set of spells, especially if you’re still early in the game with only 6 Wakfu Points. In other words, climbing the Wakfu ladder could be a struggle, especially to lone newbies.

 

 

Either way, it is all up to the player to use an effective strategy that will maximize the power of his chosen class. Battle controls are quite neat with keyboard shortcuts provided for every spell; usage of these shortcuts is significant for acquiring speed bonuses during attacks.

 

 

THE WORLD, MAPS AND INTERFACE


The four corners in the map signify the four nations that you can choose to be part of.

 

 

After learning the basics of the game and familiarizing yourself with how your class works, you can choose to join one of the four nations: Ankama, Bonta, Sufokia and Brakmar. Every nation has a unique clan member to guide you through the laws and whatnots of your nation and from hereon, you can commence PvP battles against players from other nations (or even players from your own nation if you want to be an outlaw). After choosing a nation though, you won’t be able to transfer to any other nation any longer, though you can still visit other nations through canons or boats scattered all over the map.

 


 

Battle Sequences and Community

The turn-based battle sequences for Wakfu are rather simple and easy to understand but can seem to become a drag in the long run. After a few days in the game, it could be very repetitive and boring, especially if you’ve only managed to level up a number of spells to put to good use. If you want to level up and maximize these spells, you’d have to slowly and patiently grind your way to kingdom come.The increased experience progression rate in the recent patch is also a very bad idea. Monsters of the same level as your character are difficult and give very little EXPs to level up.

 


 

The fun part in every battle however, lies behind your own strategic planning because every placement choice and spell choice could either make or break you in combat. Engaging in team-based battles or PVPs also lessens the boredom.  In this way, you get to challenge both A.I. and real players and face opponents with different combat strategies. Of course, it’s always more fun with a guild or a set of friends to help you through and to minimize the frustration in grinding.

 

 

Profession and Ecology

Unlike usual MMORPGs, there are no NPCs to provide you with quests in Wakfu. Instead, there is a player-driven ecology system where you kill mobs then harvest their seeds to kill more mobs. Monsters don’t just regenerate on their own in Wakfu. A harvesting profession lets players keep this balance and a Clan Member in every area informs you if he’s running out of creatures for everyone to kill.

 


 

Every character can learn more than one profession. Gathering or crafting professions let you produce items that you can trade for Kama,(the game’s currency) which you can later on use to buy high-level equipment and other important items. Learning and leveling-up a profession is fun and easy and gives you a break from all the frustrating monster-grinding needed to be done, though it can take quite a long time before you can craft anything of value to other players. This process joins the cycle of the Wakfu world: grinding, leveling up, harvesting/crafting produce to sell for Kama to be used to buy equipment then grinding again. Reaching the maximum level cap of 200 sounds near to impossible with the extremely slow pace of the game, but with patience, anyone can power up at their own pace.

 

 

The absence of NPCs in Wakfu makes the overall experience a stark contrast to other MMOs. Some players like how they can just focus on leveling-up instead of running on errands. Some players however find the absence of quests demotivating. Wakfu does not give players much reason to go on and keep wanting to progress deeper into the game because there is nothing else important to do but fight. The entire system seems more circular than directional and some players might find themselves quitting early on.

 

 

Graphics

For one thing, Wakfu’s latest patch on graphics is nothing but eye-candy with smooth, clean designs accompanied by a charming musical backdrop. Area decorations could still be improved though to achieve a more distinctive look to every different place in the map. The new zoom-in function is handy and the overall visual appeal gets a two-thumbs up.

 

 

General Impressions

Wakfu’s gameplay seems enjoyable enough for a wide range of audience, but I think it’s trying to target a younger market with its playful designs, simple mechanics and cutsie-packaging. Players looking for the usual MMO challenge could get bored with this one though because somehow, it doesn’t have much of that element that will motivate its players to keep on playing. It lacks any other things to do aside from just grinding and harvesting (lack of quests etc.), the rewards and sense of satisfaction it gives to players after completing a difficult task is very minimal, and the rate of player-progression is painfully slow and frustrating.

 


(Planting monster seeds balances the monster ecology so there’s always enough Gobballs for everyone.)

 

 

But with Wakfu being a massive-multiplayer-online game (with online being the keyword), interacting with other players will surely make the game more exciting. The system of its community is very healthy and looks extremely promising so play and mingle with other players instead of going solo.

 

 

Wakfu was constantly evolving through its long beta test to cater to every gamer’s satisfaction. And despite some flaws (that I’m sure they are working on as of the moment), I think the game still has a lot of potential to be a great MMORPG. The game is launching next Wednesday with a freemium type of model so players can get a taste of the action before signing up for premium membership. I suggest if you have a good group of friends that like tactical combat games, to hop in together because the fun factor goes way up with friends on this one.

 

 

THE GOOD:

–   clean designs, smooth graphics, delightful world map

–   healthy community

–   easy gameplay and controls

–   player-driven system and economy

 

 

THE BAD:

–   very slow paced progression for players

–   monsters give minimal EXPs to level up

–   lack of quests

–   increased difficulty in the recent patch

 

 

Graphics                  4/5

Controls                    3/5

Features                    3.5/5

Customization         3.5/5

Community              4/5

Meta’s Verse: Spring Fling

Meta’s Verse: Spring Fling

By Meticulous Meta, OnRPG Paragon Reporter

 

 

Love is in the air. It is the fourth anniversary of the wedding between the beloved heroes Manticore and Sister Psyche and the sixth Spring Fling event hosted by everyone’s favorite DJ, Zero from Pocket D. As with any other City of Heroes event, every so often something new is added to the event to make it bigger and more exciting, with the exception of the wedding ceremony which was done only in 2008 and I sadly missed while I was on assignment to the west coast. This year has seen, what I think is easily the best thing to come out of City of Heroes for a very long time, the Valentine tip missions. Of course what would an event be without new badges too? Well we’ve got that this year too. There is a little of something for everyone no matter what your interest is.

 

 

“You have to know the past to understand the present” –Carl Sagan

 

 

I was actually going to say something along those lines, but then I realized that it had already been said and I would only be repeating the words of Carl Sagan. It’s a simple saying that can apply to just about anything, including the Spring Fling event. It began in 2006 with the very first cooperative missions in the game which to this day are obtained by talking to Ganymede or Scratch depending on your alignment. While today heroes and villains seem to team up quite often it was once a very big deal to have to work with the enemy. It was then that the toga, laurel and Hellenic Sandals were added to the game. Though how you got them was much different than it is today. The toga was a gift just for logging in while the laurel and sandals were rewarded after getting a friend to subscribe to City of Villains using a special trial code. Today all of those costume pieces are obtained by completing the Snaptooth portion of the Valentine’s event. Snaptooth is a particularly nasty Red Cap who is trying to destroy a dimensional portal and during the winter event quite regularly kidnaps Baby New Year.

 

 

2008 brought the wedding which was played out live on the test server for all to witness. With it came a mission to retrieve (or steal) wedding gifts. A mission that is still available today though nothing else relating to the wedding is. That was also the year the first in game item pack was released. And of course, it was wedding themed. It proved to be so popular it was directly responsible for the next issue being released so quickly. Something that has always been a part of the Valentine’s event that I had never even heard about until I was researching this article are three amazing temporary powers. They can only be purchased in Pocket D during this time of year. Each one can be used on someone of the same alignment for a small buff or they can be used on the opposite alignment for what are honestly HUGE buffs. Have a look at the chart below to see the differences for yourself!

 

 

Why would people not use these things!? I plan on loading up on them personally!

 

 

I tried finding a good quote about the present day but nothing really seemed to fit in right. So, its 2012, new things have been added to the Spring Fling for the first time in a few years. The first part is a bad plan, a very bad plan. The second part though is AMAZING. When you first log in you’re contacted by Jessica Megan Duncan (Ms. Liberty) for what can really only be called a bad plan. She asks for your help in resurrecting the long dead lover of Lord Recluse named Red Widow. Why? She hopes it will distract him from his goal of taking over the world. A similar mission can be obtained for villains from Arbiter Hawk who looks remarkably like Arbiter Sands. Only time will really tell how bad of a plan this was.

 

 

Now I finally get to tell you about the best part of the event. Ok, at least I think it is the best. Valentine’s Tip! DJ Zero decided this year it would be a good idea to play messenger and take valentines to various heroes, villains and Praetorians. Only he’s in over his head so he wants you to help! And while there are nearly 40 different possible valentines you can deliver I’m only going to highlight my favorite three.

 

 

3. From Sally to Lusca. Written on a plank from a ship is an invitation to capsize fishing boats and eat until they can’t move. I can’t help but think of a very not PG joke this may be referring to that has to do with sea men. Of course delivering it to Lusca is impossible so you just take it to DJ Zero instead.

 

2. From Citadel to Luminary. The entire message is written in binary but basically Citadel is proposing that he and Luminary make a little robo family together. I guess standing across from each other in Talos all these years they’ve developed a fondness for each other. I, and so many others really hope they continue this storyline.

 

1. From Numina to Positron. This is a love that has been blossoming for some time now. And sure, it’s between a ghost and a man who was trapped in a suit. But it is clearly true love. And the letter you deliver is what makes them finally come out and tell everyone how they feel about each other. My inner fan girl is squeeing so hard right now it’s hard to contain myself (SQUEE!!!)

 

 

Of course you don’t have to deliver the messages to these people. Most of these delivery quests have two options. Giving them to the intended person or delivering them to the completely wrong person. Delivery to the correct person seven times gets you the badge titled Match Maker. Misdelivery seven times gets you the badge Missed Connection. Getting Missed Connection was difficult for me because I just kept wanting to see what sort of love was going on in our little world. Randomly while delivering valentines you can get arrows. They both can be used on allies or enemies. If you use the Arrow of Romance on an ally they receive a temporary regeneration increase and if they are used on foes they get placated. Using the Arrow of Jealousy will give allies a small boost to damage or will confuse foes.

 

 

The event is on until February 27th so if you haven’t experienced it, get in there this weekend!

 

 

Spring Fling went from being one of my least favorite events in City of Heroes to possibly my favorite. Even over having the chalet during winter. So thank you devs if you’re reading! Which brings me to my last bit of news. Double XP Weekend!!!! I don’t know about you but I’ve been waiting for this for a while. And it will start on March 16th lasting through that weekend. So request that time off now!

Microvolts Launches the Spectate Mode

MicroVolts Launches the Spectate Update

 

MicroVolts

 

Rock Hippo Productions Ltd. announced today the launch of the Spectate Update for the popular cartoon style third-person shooter, MicroVolts. The Spectate Update features an all-new Observer Mode which offers an up-close and personal view of every MicroVolts match, along with new items in the Capsule Machine and the item shop and a new server called “Nickel”.  Players can visit www.MicroVolts.com for all the details!

 

 

With the new Observer Mode, players will have a front row seat to watch some of the best MicroVolters at battle!  Players can now watch-in on each and every MicroVolts match as top teams duke it out! Players can even scope out the competition and pick up new strategies for their own matches! Players can now also experience all-new items in the MicroVolts Capsule Machine as well as in the game’s In-game shop and Web Mall!  Naomi flaunts her new “Floral Kimono” on the battlefield while Knox shows the Micro World that he’s a real team player in his new “Baseball Catcher’s” uniform. Due to the high amounts of traffic in the game,the MicroVolts team is making room for more MicroVolters with the addition of the brand new server “Nickel” to go alongside their existing “Alkaline” and “Lithium” servers!

 

MicroVolts

 

“MicroVolters are a competitive bunch so giving them the chance to observe other players in battle will allow them to learn from some of the best while formulating some great new tactics for their own matches,” said Howard He, President and CEO of RockHippo Productions.  “We also invite players to enjoy the new server and check out the new costume items that our most popular characters, Naomi and Knox, are sporting.”

Eligium First Impressions: Stylish Yet Unrefined

Eligium First Impressions: Stylish Yet Unrefined

By Remko Molenaar (Proxzor), OnRPG Journalist

 

 

Eligium is a free-to-play MMO in which players strive to protect the expansive world of Eligium from demons. Along the way, the players experience different adventures and face countless dangers from the perspective of their personalized in-game character. Play alone or play with friends and battle mighty opponents and complete innumerable diverse and exciting quests. Eligium stands strong among fellow F2P MMO’s by offering an opulent range of features to give the game far more depth and plenty of tricks for you to learn along the way. These are my impressions of the game during closed beta.

 

 

Because I was given a press account I had a little present waiting for me on the account; I was actually quite pleased to see my sexy Christmas elf even though it’s already the middle of February. Supposedly I had the choice between a Male Hunter or a Female hunter but their art department made this a simple decision.

 

 

 

When my character spawned into the game and I got to look around my first impressions were mainly about the graphics. Boy this game looks really clean and beautiful for a free-to-play game. Shanda has made some pretty pixels in the past but they really stepped up their game in Eligium. I also found a really nice feature which might be useful when you are in a crowded place or even behind a big object. If anything ever gets between your avatar and your camera, your character will appear as a highlight so you still know your position at all times. When moving around, the controls felt really weird since turning and looking around is not really that smooth and reminds me of console games that usually have fixed directions for the character to go in. Since this game is a free-to-play PC MMORPG I doubt the general audience will enjoy this feeling of limited movement. In the end I found it more convenient to point and click to your destinations and I decided to stick with that for now. After killing many wolves in the first few quests and mastering basic controls, I came across my first trading town where players can set up stalls to sell goods. The town had all the other basic features you’d expect from an MMORPG, namely skill trainers. In addition to an endless pool of NPCs with quest problems, I also found a convenient billboard with tons of quests to choose from. I gathered up as many requests as I could and made one last trip to the crafting section before setting out for adventure!

 

 

 

At level 10 a player is able to choose Professions. Currently there are ten Professions to choose from and each seemed valuable to me. You could for example get herbalism to get better crafting items for Alchemical Refining, and you can get fishing to get some nice fish as food.

 

 

While in the middle studying various crafts I was started by a shadowy something in the sky that blocked out the light where I was standing. What could it be… the shadow looked like some sort of flying contraption with wings but unfortunately it is impossible to look up with your camera. After back tracking for a while and getting up on some higher ground I found out a zeppelin was flying above me at outrageous speed. The environment is so nicely made I easily got distracted by its nuances and really wish there was more freedom in the camera controls so I could enjoy it fully. But enough of my random outburst, let’s return to the crafting system.

 

 

It is also possible to Reforge weapons and equipment. By adding Soul of Augmentation you can add extra soul attributes to the weapon. To forge equipment you will need to insert equipment into the Augmentable Equipment Forging window and add several other materials. This includes a Soul of Augmentation to start the process. The third slot needs to be filled with a Craftsman’s Core or a Blacksmith’s Core and last but not least the player will also need to put in crafting stones and blessed crystals to  forge a new item.

 

 

In addition to the diverse quests and huge world, Player versus Player is a major highlight of my experience in beta. There are a variety of server types for people to choose from depending on how they like to enjoy MMORPGs. If you are a big fan of fighting against and with other players there are special made PvP servers to give you full freedom to do so. PvE servers exist for the more laid back player that just wants to experience the game without worry of harassment. Beyond normal PK based PvP there also exist battlefields with various victory objectives. It is possible to play one-on-one PvP action but there will also be guild-versus-guild and even faction-versus-faction battlefields with up to 200 participants per side.

 

 

 

Graphics

To play this beauty of a game you surprisingly don’t even need that high end of a computer. It offers plenty of graphics settings and even different types of camera options (2.5D locked camera, fixed 3rd person camera, free movement camera. You will need to meet the following system specifications to play:

 

Operating System: Windows

Minimum:

CPU: Intel Pentium Dual Core 1.8G and above

RAM: 1GB

Display: GeForce 7600 or equivalent

Disk Space: 4GB

Recommended:

CPU: Intel Pentium Dual Core 2.7G and above

RAM: 2GB

Display: GeForce 8600 GT or equivalent

Disk Space: 4G

Broadband Internet connection

Keyboard and mouse

 

 

If you have no idea what kind of computer rig you are running then I predict everyone with a 4 year old computer or newer should have no frame rate issues playing Eligium.

 

 

Conclusion

I wonder how the game will work out when the open beta is live and it is open to everyone to test and play. This game is really Asian styled and I feel more should have been done to adjust it to western tastes prior to public testing. The controls are also clunky and I hope this will be patched up a bit as it’s a real deterrent to my enjoyment of the game. I still have high hopes for the game despite its flaws. There is a lot of diversity of monsters and each region feels really well crafted and different from the others. The attention to detail in the environment and character graphics are superb as well. Hopefully they keep this beta operating a bit longer, at least until the movement is ironed out as I can’t stand playing an MMORPG that feels and plays like a console game.