Angels Online is one of the newer titles released by IGG. Just like all of their other titles, it is free to play with an item mall. The premise behind this title is that you are playing an Angel that is trying to prevent heaven from being destroyed. Yup, apparently Lucifer loved an Angel, was cast off, and now seeks revenge. To prevent this from happening you must choose a class and take up arms against him.
Right off the bat you will notice that it is done with 2D artwork. It is nicely done and there is really nothing wrong with it at all. My concern though is that it is now 2008 and most computers can handle an independent client that is full 3D. If this were a browser based game then I would not even have a gripe at all about this, but with a stand-alone client I have to feel that we need something a little more appealing.
The sound was a bright spot for Angels as I really got hooked on the music that plays. Catchy little tunes that repeat themselves after a short time, but are a drastic improvement over the music in other IGG titles. This was one time I did not have to mute the music to enjoy the game. While the sound effects were fitting for the most part, I would have liked to have heard some different ones. There are gigantic robots you get to ride in that have huge engines, yet I did not hear any noise from them. A minor complaint, I know, but one nonetheless.
When it comes to the gameplay, the best I can describe it is “varied”. Depending on the job you choose when creating your character you can either do a lot of combat, or a lot of crafting. In playing I found that there was no effective way to do both on a single character. Fighters need skills for combat while crafters need skills for gathering materials and turning them in to something useful. Ultimately it leads to someone making multiple characters if they want to do both and detracts from the game itself. On top of that, there was nothing really compelling about the game. It was not bad, but it was not good either. If I was forced to describe it, I would best use the word “mediocre”.
Another let down was the community. With a game that has such a large part of it dedicated to a player-driven economy there was little interaction with other people. Few took any time to answer questions and the chat box barely ever moved. This is not IGG’s fault, but it would benefit them if they can figure out a fair way to reward good community members then the game would be a lot more enjoyable for all.
Overall, Angels Online is a very average game. It does some things right, some things wrong, and other things it just…does. This is no fault of IGG as they are merely publishing the game. That being said, to bring this game up from being average they need to work with the developer to make the game more compelling to play.
