SUN: Soul of a PvP Nation
By Remko Molenaar (Proxzor), OnRPG Journalist
Soul of the Ultimate Nation also shortened as SUN has been a long anticipated game in the MMORPG community because of its great success in Korea. The game was launched by ijji for a while but unfortunately they had to close down their services. It got globally launched in 2009 by the known gaming portal of Webzen. Due to so many game releases recently I didn’t notice SUN had been reborn under the Webzen banner. I finally had the time to check out this long anticipated title.
When creating my character I got the choice between 5 different classes. Each one of these classes have a predesigned gender so do your research beforehand if this at all impacts your choice of what to be. All of these classes are specialized in the use of one weapon and their own unique abilities. I chose to go for the Elementalist which is the master in the use of magic but the other classes are summed up as follows:
Berseker
The Berseker is a fierce warrior that has transcended human boundaries through training of unimaginable magnitude. They handle their great swords and two handed axes effortlessly to pulverize any foe with overpowering strength.
Dragon Knight
The Dragon Knight is another warrior class that is equipped with swords and two handed spears. This pride race has the blood of the Dragonskin coursing through their veins. Members of their honed bloodline are known to grow quickly into powerful Dragon Knights when faced with extreme adversity.
Shadow
This Half-Human, half demon dark assassin possess the accursed blood of the Helrons. They are the masters of using the dagger to their advantage, and it is said that the only thing more dangerous than facing one head on, is losing track of their presence in a large scale battle. Their tainted blades can deliver fatal wounds cursed with black magic.
Valkyrie
The Valkyrie is the master of the crossbow, and she is able to silence her enemy with an arrow sharper then a hawk’s talons and faster than light itself. This deadly class is able to put an arrow in everyone’s knee so watch out when facing one.
Finally after resolving which class to choose I was ready to go and take my first step into the world. I was set back a bit with the control system since it doesn’t follow the standard World of Warcraft system that most F2P games emulate these days. Using the mouse to both move my character and control my camera view was a bit clunky so I mostly kept to WASD. Another option to get around is simply clicking on your destination and letting the pathing take over. After getting familiar with the controls I grabbed my first quests and was pleased to see the simple but effective UI in place. Quests are easily tracked on the world map so I never felt confused about where to go. They can also mark locations on the map of interest to completing your quest so you never get lost looking for collectables or mobs related to your objective.
For any Player versus Player fanatics, Soul of the Ultimate Nation has the Battle Zone system. Players are able to set up a battle zone with plenty of customization options depending on what you’re in the mood for. They are able to choose the map, difficulty, number of participants and the reward to personalize the battle and dungeon. The dungeon is the second possible option to test your skills versus other people. In the dungeon there is no limit on the amount of participants that are able to join the area. There is also an Arena specially made for people to test their individual skill or team play with options ranging from 1v1 up to 5v5.
There is also a crafting system in SUN for players that like to fiddle around with resources and create useful tools. You can create all sorts of items that actually seem valuable and effective to equip. Players are able to create accessories, special accessories, jewels, potions, special items and mission quest items. The crafting system is pretty stock standard but has a nice twist to make it feel unique. Each attempt to craft your gear costs x amount of cash but there is still a chance your concoction will fail. This results in losing your materials which is a total bummer, forcing you to gather up a new batch of materials to try again. The player is also able to enchant their gear to make the piece of equipment stronger. This system also has different success rates that become progressively more dismal the more refined your gear becomes.
Graphics
SUN Online is remarkably good looking for being an Asian styled game that has been on the market for a few years. Like many Asian games the Glow effect is also favored in SUN Online. I actually despise the amount of glow common in Asian games and wish there was an option to make characters look more natural and less like guest stars in Twilight. Unfortunately there aren’t many settings that you can change in SUN Online, but thankfully the game runs pretty smoothly and doesn’t need them. To play this title you will need the following system requirements:
Minimum:
Pentium 4 1.8 GHZ or Higher
512 MB RAM or higher
Geforce TI4200/Radeon 9200 or higher
Directx 9.0c or higher
3GB Free HD space
Recommended:
Pentium 4 3.0GHZ or Higher
1GB RAM or higher
Geforce TI6200/Radeon 9600 or higher
Directx 9.0C or higher
3GB Free HD space
If you aren’t that knowledgeable about your rig’s specifics then just assume that any PC purchased in the last 7 or 8 years is able to play this game just fine. Even though the recommended settings require a processor that is clocked on high speed I think everyone with at least a Pentium 4 computer is able to run this game just fine.
Conclusion
SUN Online is a solid complete title that earned quite a large following prior to its launch for good reason. Things have only gotten better since launch with plenty of features to keep a player busy. I personally liked the emphasis on PvP and felt this was the defining feature that sets SUN a step above the competition. SUN Online at its core is a PvP game with just enough standard PvE features to keep the game from feeling 1 dimensional.
