By Vincent Haoson (Vincenthaoson), OnRPG Journalist

So here you are fancying yourself a pet and you cannot really decide what kind you want. You drop by various games that supposedly offer you different kinds of cute and uniquely designed cyber-pets. However they fail to grasp your attention because you want something small, unique and bug-eyed, something like an alien. That’s where Alien Adoption Agency, or A3 comes in. As the title says is a web-based game that gives you the opportunity to adopt a “little green man” of your own. You get to own your own bug-eyed outer space wonder and it is your responsibility to take care of the little tyke.

Yes you get your own little alien!

As in every adoption procedure, A3 lets you choose what kind of alien you would adopt. Sadly you cannot customize how your alien looks, so no weird shaped mega-scary aliens for you. What you get though is the stereotyped bug-eyed, slit nosed, big headed alien that kids would often draw if you asked them how they would picture an alien.

Given that you cannot make a freaky alien as your pet you are given the alternative of choosing the color of your alien. You are given a wide range of colors to choose from and the game puts a little zing to the colors you can choose. Imagine getting an old-school green, angry red or ugly purple colored alien for you to adopt, now that is something you do not get to have every day.

Now unto the fun part

As a ‘parent’ of your adopted alien it is your responsibility to take care of your little space baby. You can train your space wonder to become one of the meanest, strongest, smartest little bug-eyed man in this side of Sol Prime, the planet where your alien lives. Or you would have a sociable alien that would rather talk than fight. You have the freedom to choose how your alien grows in the game. This adds to the fun factor of A3 because you are not really constrained to follow a set path on how you want your alien to grow.

To help you along the path of nurturing your alien, A3 gives you various ways of how you want your alien to live in Sol Prime. You make your aliens work, study or you can even get your alien to have his or her own alien partner. To provide for the basic amenities of your alien, your alien must work for a living. Like in real life an uneducated alien would only earn a measly amount. This is where studying comes in. The more your alien studies the more it rakes in and of course the more your pet “develops”. Developing your alien pet means more stat points. This in turn makes your pet meaner, badder  and smarter where you can try to duke it out with other aliens in the PVP arena the game has.

Real life for your alien

As you progress through your game in A3, the game feels more like a simulation game, with the arena system as something of a bonus and “bragging rights” thing you have. A3 is not really much of a PVP centric game and it gives more importance to how the in-game community grows.

Welcome to the family

Upon entering the world of A3, you are immediately welcomed by the staff. The first thing you would notice is the chat where most of the action is happening. Of course this depends on the people who are online at the moment you join the game however the staff does its best to welcome you into the game like you are part of one big family. You are smothered by members asking you to join their guild upon beginning of the game. This may seem a little daunting if you are the type you want to test the water first before immersing yourself into the game community.

Getting the hang of the game is easy to do because almost everything is given to you in such a casual manner. The tutorials are in comic-style so that anyone can easily comprehend what you should do. The drawback however of this game is that the target audience of A3 is the teenagers, so it is kind of difficult if you want to find someone you would like to talk if you are in your 20s.

Conclusion

A3 is an upbeat and fun web-based game where the only thing that limits you in enjoying the game is your ability to imagine. A browser-based game is already a game limit in itself but A3 circles around that limitation by giving you a lot of things you can do and enjoy even if the game is strictly browser-locked.

One of the drawbacks A3 has is that if you have prior experience on browser games like Neopets or Gaia Online, there would be times that it feels like you are playing like Neopets or Gaia minus the flash games. The thing about A3 is that it has lessened the cutesy factor that turns off most people from pet browser games and gives the this genre an edgier and more mature feel. Think of Hobo wars, a game application in Facebook and pet aliens as your basic gameplay and you have A3 pegged to the dot.

The game is first and foremost a community based game and you would not really truly enjoy your game experience with A3 if you would play this game solo. Nurturing your alien to its highest potential is only half the total fun you can have in A3, if you do not have buddies where you can share your achievements in the game then it defeats the purpose of Alien Adoption Agency altogether. There is a saying that goes no man is an island, the same is true to aliens.

Pros:
– You get to own your own little green alien
– The character designs fit with the cartoonish-feel of the game
– The game makes you feel like you’re taking care of an actual pet though it’s an alien.

Cons:
– You can’t customize the look your alien has
– The games sometimes feel a little too casual
– You can’t help compare the game to Neopets.

By Kei Beneza (Dividelife), OnRPG Journalist

There’s been a lot of flame wars throughout the net about 4Story being a World of Warcraft (WoW) Ripoff. I personally believe that despite awkward similarities, these games are still fantasy RPGs and would more or less be quite like each other regardless of their story or interface. When I started playing 4Story Online, I was surprised as to how WoW-like it was. Then again, if this type of gameplay makes this MMO work then I guess it was a good choice for an interface. People have debated and argued about the game’s so-called “Lack of originality”. But then again, There’s been a lot of click and attack games that look more similar to each other than this game does to WoW. Let’s dive in and see what this game has to offer.

Some Similarities

Referring to what I stated above, If you like World of Warcraft then you’re definitely going to love this game. Some people scurry around the net for free-to-play games that cater the same features of the highly renowned game World of Warcraft. After seeing this game, I surprised as to how WoW-like everything was. It’s as though every aspect of the game from questing to combat has been based on its pay-to-play (P2P) counterpart. A poor man’s WoW? I don’t think so. Despite its similarities, 4Story online still has a lot of things that makes it loved by MMO players worldwide.

4Story online focuses on the world of Iveria where three kingdoms (namely: DeFugel, Craxion and Broa) suddenly waged war on one another. The game doesn’t really cater much of a storyline aside from you being the legendary hero who was bound to change the cruel fate that beheld Iveria (yeah… you, me and everyone who plays this game).

Characters

Upon creating a character you’ll be prompted to choose one of three races. The three races (Human, Fairie, Werebeast) are there to amplify your class’ playstyle. A Werebeast for example has a high strength rate and low mana. This makes them formidable melee attackers while the humans get a perfectly balanced stat that can do less damage in that field. If you’re gonna choose a class, then why not boost its efficiency through your race?

The ingame classes are pretty much the same as that of World of Warcraft. Although they are referred to differently, you’ll be seeing a lot of similarities if you’ve played both games. This however doesn’t kill the fun since even though it’s practically guilty about mimicking a game, at least it mimicked a pretty good one. The classes are as follows: archer, assassin, priest, summoner, warrior, or wizard. Yeah it’s pretty easy to see that they’re practically re-sculpted versions of WoW classes but hey, no complaints here.

Oooh nice!

One amazing aspect of the game is how sorcerers or spell casters can acquire magic through special items known as Tears of the Godess or Sealed items. Unsealing them may cost a lot, but it’s worth trying over and over again when you know what you’re looking for.

The game also lets players open their own personal shop. Not really the Auction house type but at least people know whom they’re buying from. This is made for quicker transactions in the field. At least you don’t have to go to a mailbox just to check if you’ve earned something. Banks, portals and other World of Warcraft features have been renamed despite their similar services.

We didn’t mind this before… Ooh! Good job!

Once a feature merely called “Change target” has now been emphasized further and is now a  FEATURE known as “Hunting”.  Remember when you used to press tab to scroll around the mob just to allow you to hit a specific creature throughout an angry mob? Yeah, 4Story managed to turn this into an actual game feature. By pressing TAB, you can scroll around mobs allowing you to further enhance your ability to target things. This was merely a default action back in World of Warcraft… but I guess not everyone managed to use it. Maybe that’s why it’s quite emphasized here.

Visuals

Yeah, the grass alone reminds me of World of Warcraft. The visuals are pretty much the same as its counterpart. Brightly lit, high contrasted, moody and ambient are some of the words that would mostly describe the visuals. It’s all a bit cartoony, which is good since there’s too many realistic looking MMOs to go around. Something new for a Free to play (F2P) game I suppose. Mental Note: Having F for a loot button is kinda awkward.

I’ve seen this black and white world before

Upon dying, you’ll be forced to enter the spirit world if not resurrected. In order to get back on the road, you must either find your dead body or ask the Chaos monk to resurrect you of course with a couple of side effects. Yes, quite familiar isn’t it?

Sounds

The ingame music lacks a certain ‘oomph’ to it. Sometimes it’s quite mellow which doesn’t really suit a place where combat is most likely to occur. The battle sounds are quite extravagant though. Hearing your sword pierce through your enemies has never sounded this intense. Even the spells sound a bit more fiery than World of Warcraft itself. Sounds serve as the chain that binds the visuals together. Might I say that the ingame sound effects managed to bring this game to life.

Should I play?

Quite frankly, Yes you should! The game has a good amount of players. If you’re tired of normal Grinding then this game is quite good. I’ve yet to grind so far and it looks like I wont be doing so any time soon.

Verdict

There’s not much to say, it’s pretty much like World of Warcraft in almost every way. Then again, it’s free. So if you’re looking to play a game thats pretty similar to WoW then this game would do you justice. The visuals are easy on the eyes and yet it doesn’t demand much from your computer. This game is heaven sent for almost every MMO gamer out there.

Pros:
– WoW like interface
– Good character balances
– Good sound effects
– Nice visuals.

Cons:
– Looks too much like WoW?