SUN Review: Great features and some really weird quirks
By Jeffrey Kerkdijk (Hyarume), OnRPG Journalist
Soul of the Ultimate Nation a.k.a SUN is a MMORPG created and published by Webzen. SUN, unlike most other MMORPGs uses a hack and slash style of combat combined with a story to progress trough. With unique mechanics and a different approach in terms of gameplay, what makes SUN worth your time to play?
A Rebellion group, you are part of The Guidance!
The story is a little vague, players start as a part of a rebellion group called “The Guidance” to set the world free from evil beings. Basically the average setting. The world belongs to an evil emperor who possesses the power of the Dark Ether and uses that power to maintain control over the continent and over his enemies. With Demons, Dragons, Dark Knights and the Undead scattered all over the land with all sorts of power that the Dark Ether possesses, no power in the world seems able to stop this force.
A rebel leader called Ignis, Declared War to the empire and formed “The Guidance”. The rest of the story is up to you to discover as I won’t give any spoilers.
Let’s get started about the game
There are four classes to play, and remarkably they all have a gender restrictions. The Dragon Knight and Beserker class are both male and the Elementalist and Valkyrie are female. The Dragon Knight gives you several spear or blade techniques and is more of a DPS class; the Beserker more comparable to a tank class and can focus either on offence or defence or if you like a little of both. The Elementalist is basically just a mage, but this time around you can choose to be offensive or focus on healing abilities. And finally there’s the Valkyrie, who is just a ranged class. In short there are several classes for several play-styles and there’s a new class on the way. There is no release date set but the shadow is going to make its appearance in SUN in the future.
The gameplay is mostly linear, you follow the path that the story takes you. However this is not a bad thing: the majority of the game is fairly interesting and the story is also not too bad. You start off in a town called Esod, which is the tutorial zone. After completing the tutorial quests you get to a town called Walzen, from where you will begin your journey through the lands. This takes you all over the lands, back and forth. SUN online is heavily focused on party play, and that’s not a bad thing either.
From regular quests to instanced dungeons, SUN has it covered. As you follow the storyline of the game you will get to certain instanced quests, which you complete by gathering up in parties. These quests are fairly challenging.
There are several mechanics worth mentioning as well. There is an in-depth crafting system, and the option to create a room based party for either PVP, hunting or the several missions that the game is full of. There is lots to do and lots to play and there’s even a good combat system to make everything work.
Although the combat feels sluggish at first, the more you progress through the game, the more it will make you appreciate the mechanics of the combat. It has a nice pace and the character stops for a fragment of time after a move, there is also some great skill animation to be found in the game. It is worth some getting used to, and it is great!
Dark Knight in Combat
What about the graphics, and sound?
The world of SUN, it is just amazing. From forests to lakes to snowy plains- SUN has it, there is some incredible detail to the scenery. Not to mention the dungeons and places you will discover along the road.
Various Landscapes in SUN
The music in SUN is awesome, it just feels right and it is composed by no one other than Howard Shore which is the person that also composed the music for the Lord of the Rings movies. It sounds great.
But?!?! BUT?!?! There’s always a but!
But! SUN isn’t the perfect game: there are many flaws in the game too. For starters, the WASD movement isn’t perfect. Next to that guilds costs a lot of money to set up and after that they cost even more to expand slots for more members. The graphics aren’t too adjustable without having to edit a certain “3dconfig” file in the games installation directory. Yeah, exactly, I would rather not mess with the files either.
Personal Recommandation
Overall SUN online is a welcome addition to the MMORPG market. The gameplay is unique and the quality sometimes matches that of the things you can find in Guild Wars. The game is story driven and I love that (though it may not suit all MMO gamers).
Soul of the Ultimate Nation Visuals
The PvP system works pretty well, which includes -like most games- a PK system. In most out-of-town zones you can PvP, however this doe increase your murderer stat and it gives you a red name too. The PvP features are not the best when compared to other expansive MMORPGs but it’s not bad either. It covers the basics of PVP, nothing more.
Armor has certain stat requirements so you aren’t always free to decide how you want to build your character but for most stats there are different items so you are freer than in other games that have this mechanic of character progression.
The quests give you a lot of XP and there isn’t a big noticeable grind. The game takes you all over the lands so there is a lot of variation in the game. However, most of the quests are kill quests or collection quests. Next to that, there are of course the instanced dungeon (or area) quests. Most of the mob quests allow you to kill a certain type of mob or an elite mob. This is a thing that keeps you going, and the change of scenery just makes it worth doing. You feel that you are getting stronger, you just feel rewarded all the time for doing the quests. And following the storyline is fairly rewarding. There are also several sub-quests that just cover the easier parts of the game, talk from NPC to NPC for rewards, kill some easy monsters, etc.
If you like games with a in-depth focus on storyline and with a bit of great combat, SUN Online is a game for you!
Pros:
– Storyline driven PvE.
– Great combat system.
– In-depth crafting mechanics.
– Awesome scenery.
Cons:
– Linear, tho this isn’t a concern to a lot of people it is a concern to some.
– Controls can feel a bit awkward in certain situations.
– Guilds can cost a lot to maintain.
