Yearly Archives: 2011

Call of Gods

Call of Gods takes the city-building genre to the next level by refining the existing model and adding an immersive world with exciting RPG elements.
Fans of the genre will love Call of Gods’ streamlined systems. Players can produce resources, upgrade Magic and Technology, recruit soldiers, and more, all from within the walls of their personal base. As your base grows, you gain access to greater resources to build an all powerful army.

Set in the mysterious land of Masure, Call of Gods also boasts dozens of different territories to explore, each with their own diverse cast of characters and monsters. As you travel deeper into the mainland, the plot thickens and new quests emerge. Use your brawn and tactical mind to complete the quests and reap bountiful rewards.

Call of Gods boasts a beautiful and fluid animated battle system with impressive 3D graphics. Watch as ghoulish phantoms float across the battlefield and arrows fall like rain from the sky. Beyond the pretty package, Call of Gods also boasts a sophisticated battle system which takes into account range, unit type, hero attributes, equipment and much more.

After defeating numerous hoards of monsters in the field of battle, it will be time to take the fight to your fellow players to dominate the land. Indeed, player interaction is a central component of Call of Gods which makes playing with friends even more fun! Dare to venture out into the Wild, and you’ll find hundreds of other players to befriend and attack. You can also make and join Alliances to complete upcoming team-based quests!

For a more intensive PvE challenge, the lands of Masure offer deep and treacherous dungeons to explore. Those skilled enough to complete these tests may walk away with legendary equipment to bring out the full potential of your military officers.

 

Whether you like intense battling, engaging tales of eternal struggle, or good ol’ resource management, Call of Gods has something for everyone! This innovative new title brings together the best of RPGs and strategy browser games to create a gaming experience you won’t soon forget. Join now to start playing for free!

King of Kings 3: Gods of the Seven Realms

King of Kings 3: Gods of the Seven Realms

by Mitch Baylosis-Benesa (Syllica)

 

King of Kings 3 is another brave new entry in the 3D fantasy MMORPG genre. The game takes you to a medieval world where you can become a king of your own land and defeat other realms with your power. King of Kings 3 will not mislead you with claims of new MMORPG features although it proudly bears the tagline “the ultimate PVP and clan war MMORPG”. The question is, does it live up to its promises or will it leave you a bad taste in the mouth

 

King of Kings 3 Review

 

Hotkey Smash!

In King of Kings 3, there are no other races apart from humans whose looks, facial features, hairstyles, and makeup are customizable. You can only choose from three classes at the start of the game: the Warrior, the Mage, and the Cleric-all of which has three subclasses that you can activate when you reach level 50.

 

Upon learning this, I would have to inwardly cringe and sigh at the thought of having to plod through several levels with but just two to three useful skills for combat before I could expand my skill set. When I look at the skill tree, it looks like a plant that is severely lacking leaves. I did my quests with just a thoughtless skill rotation-if you can call using one spell a rotation-making the leveling experience not only monotonous but boring.

 

The King of the World

This game touts itself as a PvP-oriented game, with some PvE aspects for character leveling purposes. King of Kings 3’s strength highly depends on its community and its response to its PvP system. To further enforce its PvP is their in-game community feature. One of the game’s main purposes is to allow any player to rise up the ranks from a mere citizen into someone worthy of founding a kingdom. This could be easily construed as a guild, although wars between a guild, legion and kingdom are altogether different concepts. In this aspect, I could say that King of Kings 3 has taken clan wars to another level.

 

King of Kings 3 Review

 

Establishing a kingdom in this game is exactly just as it says. You acquire land, you build a home, create a livelihood, open new opportunities for your guild or kingdom-it’s like playing a browser-based strategy game within the game. Your kingdom can offer a truce to other kingdoms and create alliances with them to be able to attack other kingdoms from the enemy’s realm. With the game’s community feature, you can monitor the various kingdoms around you and compare their relative strength to your own.

 

Let’s Coordinate

Undeniably, the world of King of Kings 3 is huge. The main town alone has a myriad of NPCs and the buildings are realistically proportionate. All of these NPCs appear on your minimap, and unlike most games, you will not know if a new quest has opened for you unless you pass by the character.

 

For easy navigation, the minimap is quite peppered with details but not overly so. It has useful features that will let you input which NPC or landmark character you need to find, and it will be marked on your minimap. This should eliminate the pointless running around in the area, or being trolled on the chat for being slow on finding your quest area.

 

King of Kings 3 Review

 

Pressing F would launch this window and allow you to see if there any nearby players whom you can befriend or party with. Aside from that, all the NPCs in the town are listed in one of the tabs and will provide you with not just their coordinates, but also a specific button that will take your character to where that hapless NPC is. Thanks to this I can take a bio break while my character is running from one distant corner to another and she’ll be where I want her to be by the time I’m done. It also takes the tediousness of pressing the forward key or the mouse to lead the character around. Unfortunately with how mindless the questing is, I quickly felt less immersed in the game and more focused on the efficiency of the quest grind. I stopped reading the quest lines and soon became completely oblivious to my purpose in the overarching story.

 

Graphics Fit for a King

King of Kings 3 has a-forgive me for the bad pun-royally awesome graphics. It is vivid, smooth, and will early on imbibe a solid fantasy world feel. The texture of the environment is clear and there is the kind of depth that I do not normally find in other games. In King of Kings 3, buildings cast shadow on the ground and the bar signs and festive banners blow casually in the breeze. The user interface is quite neat, although sometimes the text boxes are somewhat hard to read because most of the windows tend to pop up in the left side of the screen. I will open my quest log, skill tree, and character screen only to have them pile one on top of the other, becoming entirely unreadable in the process. While its graphics are quite laudable, I couldn’t say much about its sounds which is pretty generic.

 

King of Kings 3 Review

 

Just Get It On

Overall the storyline becomes more of a chore than an epic. There is no sense of urgency or an alarming matter at hand to think of: just get strong, rise up to the challenge, and take over the realms before you end up someone else’s serf. I guess this is very medieval in a sense. On the bright side, this is the type of game that compensates for this weakness with pure PvP action. PvP in King of Kings 3 encompasses not just rated PvP arenas, but regular Player Killing, guild wars, legion wars and kingdom battles. It also offers a dynamic system that lets you raid NPC cities or realms.

 

King of Kings 3 Review

 

In this aspect, King of Kings 3 has presented us with a whole bunch of new options for PvP. However, the experience in itself is quite lacking. Most of the time, players will just use one or two skills in PvP. Watching two ranged players duke it out is terribly unexciting with them just barely moving from their place as they launch their favored spell attack as soon as it comes off cooldown. The combat just lacks the kind of action that you would normally expect from PvP. King of Kings 3 claims and offers the ultimate PvP and clan wars experience: they certainly nailed the later, but their 1vs1 and the like needs a little more spice.

 

League of Legends Raises $160,000 for Japan!

League of Legends Raises $160,000 for Japan!

 

 

Riot Games today announced that League of Legends players have raised over $160,000 for victims of the devastating earthquake and tsunami in Japan. From March 21 to March 27, Riot committed 100% of proceeds from the champion Akali and the Nurse Akali skin to the American Red Cross, and over 50,000 members of the League of Legends community came together to contribute to the relief effort. Donations benefited the Japan Earthquake and Pacific Tsunami fund.

 

League of Legends Japan Tsunami

 

“We are nothing short of astonished by the incredible generosity of the League of Legends community,” said Marc Merrill, President of Riot Games. “The earthquake and tsunami in Japan was a tragedy of overwhelming proportion, and we can’t thank our players enough for stepping up and contributing to the relief efforts.”

 

Navy Force

Navy Force is the first web-browser based RTS strategy game focused on naval warfare. It is a free-to-play browser game, providing a great experience to players by allowing them to build and manage their own naval force no matter their computer specs.

 

There are 7 Nations available for the players to select from. Each Nation has unique characteristics related to their naval bases.

 

After you develop your naval base by selecting a Nation and continent, it is then time for you to expand your territory by occupying Secret Islands which appear randomly. Players can interfere with others by sending troops on missions such as fleet attacks, air-raids, spy infiltration, recon scouting, and more.

Forming an alliance with your friends is the ideal strategy for protecting your acquired bases in Navy Force. Also there are multiple mini-games available for you to enjoy with your friends. Besides being a nice diversion, they also offer tangible rewards such as bonus experience to your officer units.

 

A good prospect of Navy Force is that it requires actual strategy and pre-planned formations to succeed in combat. You will need to take more time in setting up your troops than the typical browser based strategy game. Battle methods are suitable for both light and competitive players.

City of Heroes’ Issue 20: Incarnates Launches!

City of Heroes’ Issue 20: Incarnates Launches!

 

Today, April 5th, marks the launch of the long-awaited free content release for the City of Heroes franchise, Issue 20: Incarnates. Issue 20 will bring two of the most challenging and exciting end game encounters the franchise has ever seen.

 

City of Heroes Incarnate Preview

 

Building on storylines from 2010’s City of Heroes Going Rogue® expansion, players will be introduced to the game’s new Incarnate Trials; group encounters featuring a series of innovative game mechanics that will test even the most powerful characters. Taking place in the seemingly utopian empire of Praetoria, Heroes and Villains will find themselves challenged with a cosmic threat that could destroy two worlds. Players who successfully pass the new team challenges will rise in power, and perhaps even surpass the legendary characters of the City of Heroes universe.

 

A complete list of features for players to look for includes:

 

  • New Incarnate Powers*: Issue 20 introduces four new tiers of Incarnate Powers, new abilities that modify your character’s powers, or even unlock all-new ones. Massive elemental attacks, unparalleled healing powers and high-tech summons are just a taste of what the increasingly omnipotent Incarnates will experience.

 

City of Heroes Incarnate Preview

 

  • New Incarnate Trials*: Firmly rooted in the lore of City of Heroes, the Incarnate Trials will use all-new tech, systems and gameplay mechanics to deliver exciting challenges and propel Heroes and Villains to new levels of power. 8-24 players can team up to fight against the power-driven Emperor Cole and his powerful Lieutenants. Issue 20 launches with the following two Incarnate Trials, with more to come in future updates as the war between Praetoria and Primal Earth escalates.

 

  • Behavioral Adjustment Facility (BAF): Breaking into Praetoria’s most secure prison will require players to use all their skills as they face Emperor Cole’s cybernetic guardians, Siege and Nightstar, while also keeping floods of inmates from escaping in a challenge that’s akin to a game of reverse tower defense.

 

  • Lambda Sector: This heavily fortified military base is where Emperor Cole mass-produces his genetically-engineered Olympian Guard troopers. By taking out Lambda Sector and its deadly warden, Marauder, players will deal a critical blow to Cole’s army.

 

  • New Task Forces: The Admiral Sutter Task Force and Mortimer Kal Strike Force are designed for Heroes and Villains of level 20-40, allowing lower level characters to participate in the overall story surrounding the invasion of Primal Earth and the mystery surrounding the Incarnates.

 

  • New Grouping Features: For the first time, up to 48 players can now team up in a single group with the new League system. The Looking for Group system has also been upgraded with the Team-Up Teleporter, a new UI feature that allows players to easily queue up for the all-new Incarnate Trials, instantly transporting characters to the event once a full group is formed.

 

City of Heroes Incarnate Preview

 

*Access to the Incarnate Trials and Incarnate Powers requires the City of Heroes Going Rogue expansion.

 

For more information on City of Heroes and the Issue 20: Incarnate update, check out the Trailer Video or visit the official website, www.cityofheroes.com. Also be sure to take a look at our recent interview with CoX producer Nate Birkholz.

League of Legends: DelightfulLee Sinple

League of Legends: DelightfulLee Sinple

Patch v1.0.0.114/5, More Tower Reworks, Champion Changes

by Jason Harper, OnRPG Journalist

 

League of Legends Lee Sin Review

 

Greetings fellow summoners! This is the patch v1.0.0.114/5 article for League of Legends, the game in which the handicapped can kick your ass. This patch includes yet more changes to how towers function, some champion changes, and Lee Sin, The Blind Monk.

 

Lee Sin is a… Okay, I’m going to admit it here. I’ve spent a few days of solid play with this guy and I really can’t put my finger on what role he’s meant to fill. In theory he’s a burly damage dealing support character that assists the team’s tank while screwing with the enemy team’s positioning. In practise he suffers from having no overall focus, and while he can be built a number of different ways, is rather lacklustre at all of of them. His overall playstyle feels a bit like Udyr, given the way he has to be played to a certain rhythm in order to be effective.

 

A listing of Lee Sin’s stats and abilities can be found in detail here. For an introduction to the character and how he plays, I would recommend checking out the Champion Spotlight (Okay, okay! For those of you who actually want to watch the real spotlight, it can be found here).

 

Lee Sin can be played as a burst damage dealer, but he will be an awful, awful burst damage dealer. The character you’re looking for is Akali for those sorts of shenanigans I’m afraid. He’s at his best when you pace him in accordance with his passive, Flurry. Trigger an ability, hit the enemy twice, trigger another ability, two more hits, and so on and so forth. This allows for his sustained damage to be rather impressive, provided the enemy will stick around long enough for you to pummel them to death.

 

League of Legends Lee Sin Review

 

As for what abilities he should be using, that’s a bit situational. In an ideal situation where the enemy champion is most likely trying to get themselves killed, you would hit them with a Sonic Wave [Q], jump into their face with a Resonating Strike [Q], hit them twice, Tempest [E], two hits, Cripple [W] to slow them as they try to run, two hits… and just keep using abilities until they die. This will never happen, and you’re going to need to use Safeguard [W] to protect yourself and allies from damage, and use its follow up, Iron Will [W], to recover all the health he’s going to be losing as enemies hurl every pointy object they can find in his direction. Iron Will is possibly his best ability, as when combined with his shield from Safeguard, it gives him incredible endurance, allowing him to use minions or monster camps as free health vending machines once it’s at a high enough level.

 

His ultimate, Dragon’s Rage [R] is a slightly altered version of Alistar’s headbutt. You don’t rush forward, but when targets are knocked back, they knock others up into the air. There is also a trick that the tooltip doesn’t tell you – If the target is knocked into something solid (walls work, but towers have not) they will also be knocked airborne as well as knocked back. Jarvan’s walls are an exception, as Riot must have found the irony of kicking Mr. Damacia out of his own Cataclysm. This air knock effect only works if they are not standing right next to the wall, and the enemy champion is pushed into it, rather than being there already and getting hit by Lee Sin’s ultimate. While this ability is meant to be used during team fights, kicking a tank into their own squishies, I’ve been mostly using it as an escape tool or as a last ditch effort for finishing off targets when just barely out of melee range (remember to calculate your damage after its modified by defenses before you hit that R key or your team is going to get very angry with you, very fast).

 

Best thing about Tempest – It reveals anything in stealth. Anything. That Akali threw down her smoke bomb? Boom! Smack her in the head. Think that Teemo’s been planting ‘shrooms in your back garden? Boom! Mushroom bashin’ time. Wards? Boo- Yeah, I think you get the idea. Having such an easy way of detecting stealth right at the start of the game really is a great tool Lee Sin has at his disposal, and should be abused at every opportunity.

 

League of Legends Lee Sin Review

 

If he’s laning, solo or duo, you need to ask yourself this question – How dumb is the person I’m laning against? If the answer is ‘Very’, then level your Sonic Wave/Resonating Strike first. Dumb people won’t realise that it moves slower than a fat guy on a unicycle, and that the hit box is… huh, about the size of a fat guy on a unicycle too, and will collide with any minion within a half mile of it. These people will get hit a lot, and take a lot of damage from flying boots to the head. Your leveling order is going to be Dragon’s Rage > Sonic Wave > Safeguard > Tempest.

 

When laning against non-stupid people who will actually dodge the slow moving Sonic Waves, or hide behind minion waves, you’re going to be using Safeguard to stop burst, and Iron Will to get your health back from the damage you’re going to be eating for dinner. Get one level of Sonic Wave, and then leave it there. Tempest is going to be your new farming tool. It does less damage, but it’s an area of effect attack for clearing waves, and slows enough for you to get hits in on enemy champions. Your order becomes Dragon’s Rage > Safeguard > Tempest > Sonic Wave. This second leveling order is also the jungling levelling order for him. Overall, it does less damage, but is more reliably damaging, and has more utility and survivability.

 

Start out with a Vampiric Sceptre if you’re jungling; His natural health regeneration from Iron Will supplemented by the sceptre allows him to be a very sustained, reliable jungler. If you’re laning, I tend to start with a Rejuvenation Bead and health potions to help survivability in the lane, but a Long Sword and a health potion would help him more with his build options.

 

League of Legends Lee Sin Review

 

Build a Sheen early, since it synergizes well with the number of abilities he’s spitting out in a fight, and start heading towards the Trinity Force. Boots are a tradeoff between Mercury Treads and Berzerker’s Greaves (The latter is more likely if you’re jungling). Wriggles Lantern is, as with most jungle viable characters, a good choice on him if you’re moving about the map a lot. Outside of that, I’m tending more and more towards tanky purchases with him rather than focusing on damage. His scaling with attack damage is pretty terrible, he gets plenty of attack speed from his passive when used correctly, and he has no real need for cooldown reduction or mana regeneration. This really only leaves building him for defense.

 

His Runes and Masteries are a complete tossup. While he has absolutely no need for mana regeneration (he has no mana) and cooldown reduction (short enough already), he can benefit from just about any rune and mastery set up. I’ve tried both a damaging set up and a defensive set up, and either seems to work out about as well as each other. The only thing to make sure you have is if you’re jungling, you should remember to grab the increased experience gain and neutral buff duration masteries.

 

League of Legends Lee Sin Review

 

In summary, if a good deal of this is sounding negative, that’s because I really can’t see a use for him in a game. If Garen is meant to be the Ashe of melee, then Lee Sin is the Cassiopeia. He doesn’t have a clear role in a team, he does a rather underwhelming amount of damage and his crowd control is pathetic. On the upside, he can take a good beating… provided it’s not against any form of burst or any dedicated damaging champion. I honestly don’t even know if buffing him would help, given his mish mash of abilities that don’t seem to have a clear focus. There just really isn’t any reason I can conceive that you would rather have him on a team over someone else.

 

Other than Lee Sin, the additions and changes are rather slim this week. The new towers will be able to better fend for themselves when champions aren’t around, hopefully meaning minion waves can get near a tower without it giving up and exploding.

 

I honestly never thought we’d see a day when Urgot was in need of nerfs, but the way things have been going with that character, I suppose it was inevitable. Caitlyn has been receiving a steady stream of buffs, and is now looking quite viable. Garen also has been getting some love, regaining his movement speed and a bit of added durability.

 

To discuss some of the changes yourselves, visit the League of Legends section of our forums, or post in the massive League of Legends thread in the free to play MMOs section. If you haven’t tried League of Legends yet. Now is the perfect time.

 

Webzen launches SUN Episode 2

Webzen Launches SUN Episode 2

Webzen has launched the largest update yet to their flag ship game, Soul of the Ultimate Nation. SUN: Episode 2 is being tested on live servers in South Korea and the initial reaction is positive. The game has been mostly rebuilt from the ground up in terms of content and playability. A recent interview with team leader Dong II Jung and Producer Man Son Jung shed some light onto the rationale between this overall.

 

Soul of the Ultimate Nation Episode 2 Preview

 

Although the graphics and large scale pvp systems wowed users initially (no pun intended), the production team recognized that there were serious problems hindering SUN from the success of other major MMORPGs. The developers decided to turn to the community to find answers for what their game was lacking, and answers they received.

 

Soul of the Ultimate Nation Episode 2

 

Episode 2 is bringing much greater accessibility and detailed tutorials to better explain the nuances of the Battle Zone System. They are also expanding on the pvp aspects to provide more interesting experiences for those outside of the guild realm who are unable to experience the large scale pvp battles. Webzen is also introducing many successful features from their other games to breathe new life into SUN; Mu Online’s Wing Upgrade system, a system useful for upgrading and customizing equipment stats and looks, is one such example of bringing tried and true innovations into the SUN universe.

We look forward to seeing these upgrades in action soon.

 

Meta’s Verse: City of Heroes’ Nate Birkholz Interview

Meta’s Verse: City of Heroes Nate Birkholz Interview

by Shannon Doyle, OnRPG Journalist

 

I know you must be wondering where I disappeared to. And yes there have been some rumors that I sold my loyalty and free time to the Rifts. But I can tell you that this is not true. I pulled myself away from Rift to go on a wild adventure that saw me captured by Praetorians and rescued by City of Heroes Producer Nate Birkholz (under cover of course as his alter ego Second Measure). I took that time to ask him a few questions which I now give to you.

 

 

What is your favorite part of the Animal Pack Expansion and why?

I love the wolf head. I have wanted to make a character for several years that is a dog that walks upright and haven’t been able to before now. My wife and I used to make up stories about how our dog snuck out at night and fought crime, so we tried to make him in the game but could never get it right. It still doesn’t look much like him, but at least it looks like a dog now!

 

City of Heroes Interview

 

Is there another booster pack lined up for us in the future?

We have a booster in development that we are very excited about. As always, we want to wait until everything is done to release details, but there will be the very first appearance of a popularly-requested costume feature in this pack. Before that, we will offer the classic Vanguard costume pack as a bonus for our seventh anniversary.

 

 

The hot topic on everyone’s mind right now is Issue 20. What part did you play in its creation and what part are you looking forward to most?

I am involved with nearly everything in development at the studio — managing the flow of what we are putting into the game and helping make sure it gets done on time. For example, when we add a Strike Force, I make sure the right people are involved in the design meetings, that the right people review the design, that we have enough time to do everything for the schedule, and that we ensure it doesn’t risk any of the other features we are working on.

 

I am most looking forward to playing in the Incarnate Trials on the live servers. We have been testing these internally and on the Beta server for many months now, but I can’t wait until everyone gets a chance to play through some of the most challenging and engaging content we have produced at Paragon Studios!

 

 

In the latest Intrepid Informer we were introduced to the floating fortress which remains rather shrouded in mystery. Can you tell us anything more about it?

In Issue 19 we introduced the invasion of Primal Earth from the alternate universe of Praetoria. In this issue we learn that the floating fortress supports some of the portals that the Praetorian invaders have used to bridge the gap between the worlds, and players have to prevent the portals from being used.

 

City of Heroes Interview

 

What is your favorite story arc/Task Force in City of Heroes and why?

It’s very hard to choose! I just played the Vincent Ross story arc from Issue 19 with my new brute character, and that story really ends with a bang. I also really like several of the missions in the Alignment System we introduced in Going Rogue, since they really make you think about who your character really is and what your character truly represents. My favorite Task Force is definitely the revised Positron Task Force, even though the new Task Forces from Issues 19 and 20 are a lot of fun, too; the Positron Task Force really is a great way for your character to feel powerful at an early level, and it is a fun tour of the early zones.

 

 

What would you say to the claims that City of Heroes is taking a step back with the new features and going from industry first to copying what other MMOs have already done?

We may be inspired from time to time by features from other games, but we always strive to innovate and expand the boundaries of everything we add to the game.

 

In Issue 20 the Incarnate Trials introduce an endgame that is designed to be friendly to casual and hardcore players alike, with easy-to-access grouping features and great missions that won’t take hours to complete. We want everyone to be able to experience the Incarnate Trials without needing to be a specific archetype, needing to be in a big Super Group, or needing to commit an entire evening to make any progress. This is an innovative approach to adding an inclusive endgame that meets our core philosophy of providing great content for all types of players and helps us stand out in the MMO space.

 

 

City of Heroes is coming up on its seventh anniversary. And now been joined by two big name hero based MMOs. What one thing do you think makes City of Heroes stand out against the rest?

 

In addition to the best player community in gaming – period — we have seven years of great missions and other great content, including countless combinations of powers and thousands of costume pieces to choose from, so that’s a big strength.

 

 

I also think the fact that we have our own world and our own brand over which we have total control gives us a lot of strength. We can make the story always stay true to the gameplay. We can let player characters become the most powerful heroes in the known universe without too many consequences. We know these strengths will help City of Heroes stay the world’s most popular superhero MMO for a long time to come.

 

City of Heroes Interview

Why do you think Super hero MMOs flourish where Sci-Fi MMOs seem to struggle?

 

Superheroes get to do the things we all want to do in a much more immediate and impactful way. I’d love to fly a spaceship or explore the unknown moons of a distant planet, sure. But far more often I want to jump across town in a single leap or solve a big problem with a well-timed show of strength.

 

 

Where do you see City of Heroes a year from now? Are you looking so far ahead to be thinking about the ten year anniversary?

 

We are definitely thinking that far in the future and beyond, planning story as well as features and content. We want every issue to have better content and more epic storylines than the issues that have come before, and we want to be able to surprise players with new directions in the story and new features that enrich the game experience.

 

One final question, is everything a Nemesis plot?

Some of it is a ruse to distract from Nemesis’ true plot. Ha ha. That is humor. In no way do I wish to impugn Nemesis as neither a super powered being nor offend his entirely benevolent organization.

 

City of Heroes Interview

 

I would like to thank Second Measure for taking time out of his busy heroing job (and you know that other job he does, producing City of Heroes) to answer these questions for OnRPG.

 

Elsword: Closed Beta Impressions

Elsword Closed Beta Impressions

By Michael Sagoe (mikedot), OnRPG journalist

A new game publisher named Kill3r Combo is breaking into North America and starting off strong with a much anticipated title named Elsword. For those that don’t already know, Elsword is the spiritual sequel of Grand Chase. Elsword promises to feature fast and easy arcade action, off-the-wall anime and manga visuals, RPG elements and all that good stuff we come to expect from free-to-play titles.

To be honest, I was a bit on the fence about giving Elsword a try since I did end up playing East Fantasy Online (better known as “Fists of Fu“) before playing this, and as I mentioned in my previous review on Fists of Fu, I didn’t really like it that much. I was kind of thinking this was only going to be slightly better than Fists of Fu, since this was not a cheap imitation of another game. But on the other hand, I did enjoy playing the original Grand Chase way back, so I decide to give this a try after all.

From the get-go, the connection this game had with Grand Chase became more clear, as the main heroes available: Elsword (The male swordsman whose name is the same as the game’s title), Aisha and Rena all bare resemblance to Grand Chase’s first generation of heroes, Elesis, Arme and Lire, respectively. Well since I liked playing as Elesis and my first intention for any MMO is to pick the first class I see, I went with Elsword.

ElSword Closed Beta Preview

After I selected my character, the game’s tutorial started off with a few comic book pages and a few cutscenes of Elsword about to beat up some punks. I controls were intuitive right away since it retains the same exact feel of Grand Chase’s control scheme. Getting through the tutorial was simple and only took around a minute to blow through.

ElSword Closed Beta Preview

When I was dropped into the newbie town, I started to take in the scenery a lot more. The game definitely presents itself better than that rip-off game did, because the game sure has a lot of colorful and beautiful backgrounds that almost made me wish I could pop into the background for a bit and explore. The newbie town seemed a bit empty during my first play session, as I could only find a few players to try out the beginner dungeons with.

ElSword Closed Beta Preview

When I finally managed to get a full group together, lag issues started popping up. When my party started the mission, there was so much lag that no one could perform combos properly. Five minutes into the mission, everyone lagged out and I had to finish the mission solo. Yeah, connections issues are pretty bad at the moment. But that is to be expected in a closed beta so I carried on.

Doing a few more missions by soloing, I started to get a better feel for my swordsman and managed to learn a couple of slick juggles despite the lack of branching attacks available. I also started to get a bit of a Super Smash Bros. vibe when playing some of the beginner dungeons on higher difficulties. Along with the light platforming, there are a couple of power-ups you can grab that will give different stat boosts, as well as others thrown in for comical effect.

I’m not too sure if the EXP curve during closed beta is intentional for live service, but it seems pretty light and easy to level up. I managed to hit level 15 in a couple of days, and the current level cap is set to 30.

After completing all of the beginner dungeons on all difficulties, I moved onto the next town. That is where I found the rest of the closed beta testers hanging around. The next town was a rather large city called Elder Village, featuring several pathways and cute NPCs full of quests.

ElSword Closed Beta Preview

The place was also filled with commotion from players talking about which characters they wanted to play as when the game goes live. Many of them were anticipating the arrival of such heroes as Raven and Eve. Personally, I’m interested in the arrival of Chung, a hero that uses a giant cannon weapon like a tonfa. Only problem is that Chung was recently released in the foreign version, so I’m probably going to be waiting a long time for him…
It was time to get my hands dirty with a little PvP. I went down to the PvP channel in Elder Village and then picked some battle rooms at random. I did a few 1 on 1 battles, a couple of team battles and a few free-for-all item matches.

ElSword Closed Beta Preview

After several matches, I started getting a pretty sour feeling in my gut that this was going to turn out to be Grand Chase’s PvP all over again. While the game shares a lot of Grand Chase’s good qualities like its fast pacing, it also shares some of its bad qualities. Combat is primarily focused on offense with little to no defensive options available other than general zoning. With combo strings relatively easy to pull off and invincibility frames all over the place, PvP in Elsword may turn out be another case of swapping hits and going through the motions. Damage scaling also feels awfully low to the point where matches feel like they could take forever if not for a limiting timer.

The biggest issue I have with PvP was that matches with more than four players can feel like a real clustering mess. Kill stealing happens often in free-for-alls and it’s a real pain when you finally get your opponent’s HP down, only to have another player swoop in and take it.

ElSword Closed Beta Preview

My face after getting a kill stolen

Despite all this, I still enjoyed what Elsword CBT had to offer even with the very little content available for us to try out. I do look forward to what Kill3r Combo has in store for us with Elsword, I just hope they do something about the PvP.

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