http://spellborn.acclaim.com/ I've heard it has some decent PvP.. but I haven't played it yet.. seems there having account issues atm.
I downloaded this game today and have been mucking about in it. Here's a screenie: The game itself has really engaging art and I am impressed by the combat system. You have to target with the mouse as in a FPS game. Skills are equipped to a hotbar that rotates - it has a total of 6 sides to it. Once you use one action out of 5 available, the bar rotates to the next set of 5 options. . . It seems like there will be A LOT of depth to 'building' the right skillset. Combat is certainly more engaging than the usual click-to-target and hit your skills approach found in WoW, WAR etc. There are currently 2 servers available - a pvp server and a pve one. I obviously rolled on the PvP server - IGN is koheeba. This is currently Open Beta. . the game is free to play until your toon hits level 7.9. There will not be any sever wipes now however as the devs have already enabled subs. . . I really recommend giving this game a shot - it really does it differently and seems to have good potential.
The game takes WAAYYYYY to long to introduce you into it. The beginner quests are far to long for the first quests in the actual town. The main first quest after the tutorial takes about 10 minutes of JUST running around, which is absolutely rediculous. The combat is very intriging however the running around should be multiplied in speed by about 3x, taking far too long to get anywhere in game. Good initiative on the game, bad judgement and execution.
Played it for about 30min. I like the combat system a lot though it feels a bit slow. The graphics feel like an improved WoW, which is good if you don't like the games that try to look real and fail. Running is fine. You run faster if you don't have your weapons out. I found 5 quests right fresh off the boat that were just fine. There is the guard tower quest but that's just there to show you around. Do it while you are doing all the other quests and its perfectly normal. I haven't done any pvp yet but the way the combat is set up I'm looking forward to it. I'm Nayl on the PvP server.
Sokar, come on, it takes like 5 minutes of running to run from the dock to the city, Sheathed and all, lol
lets just hope you never play DFO then heh. It's the same run speed as every other mmo I've played along with map size.
Hmmm. . . there seems to be some weird dual publishing deal going on? Word on the webz is to avoid the Akklaim version (linked above and the one we're all trying. . .doh!) and download the version from Frogster. . . the weird thing is they link to a site www.tcos.com which loads on my pc as the akklaim jobbie above. Shit like this turns me off. I mean seriously. . . if it isn't one thing it's another!!
The one from the acclaim site is fine. The problem people are having is that fileshack and other game download sites is that they have the UK version so its not working for US players. The link from the acclaim site is US so if you are UK then get it elsewhere.
Here is another download. I think this is the one I downloaded a while ago and seemed to work fine. (its an older client tho.. which probably need to be patched)
I don't think they advertise this game as F2P do they? What they say is that it is free to play until your toon hits a certain level (7.9) and that after that, you need to sub to continue enjoying the game. It's basically a trial.
Oh yea I found out today that whenever you increase your physique(orange boxes) you walk 10% faster. So you can get up to 50% speed increase through pep points.
I have been playing for a few days as well, in-game name is Norrak. So far I am happily surprised, I was not expecting the combat system to be that entertaining. One thing people need to understand, it is not a game-based Open Beta... the actual game got all the testing it needed. What they are in Open Beta about is the payment system, forums and servers. The game is technically released, and you need to subscribe in order to level higher than level 7. Here are a few points people might be wondering about. 1- There is no gear per say, you get armor as drops, recipes or from vendors but it's mostly used for appearance. Armor slots have what we call Sigil Slots, so yes some armor is better than the rest because it has more Sigil slots but overall if you find the starting armor to be the best looking after 50 levels, you can keep it that way. You can also Dye any pieces of armor, beside weapons. 2- Sigils are what this game considers "gear", it gives stat increases and work like gems, runes, enchants, whatever from other games. Just stick it in the armor and voila. 3- The classes are interesting, most of them are close to what other games have to offer but there are several unique ones like the Skinshifter, a rogue archetype. You take the form of different enemies to gain access to different skills, like turning into a wolf to go faster or mimic the appearance of a bandit in order to sneak into the camp undetected and backstab a boss. The "holy trinity" is more or less there, what I mean by holy trinity is the age old Tank-Healer-DPS trio. The Blood Warrior is the closest to a tank there is, and the Void Seer is the closest to a pure healer you can get. But you could easily have other archetypes tanking a boss or healing, I've heard about some European guild using a Trickster (Rogue) as tank for their instances without any problems. 4- The combat system is not something everyone will like, you can't just press 1 every 10 sec. and auto-attack the rest of the time while watching TV and realize you just finished your quest. Combat in general is long compared to most MMO, not sure if it changes later in the game. It uses a reticule and what they call the Skilldeck. I could go into details but it's really something you have to try for yourself, I can assure you though it's making PvP really great so far. I've seen some level 30 beating the crap out of some level 40 just because he was more skilled using the Skilldeck and knowing what attacks to avoid. 5- So far the PvP is limited to FFA, there is no reward system for now but they are already working on the PvP system. From what I read they are gonna have some arena fights and guild battles. 6- Leveling is based off most western MMORPGs, it's quest based with some low exp from monster killing. Quests are generally your cookie cutter quests such as killing 10 wolves but there are some very heavy lore based quest lines with interesting twists. The quests can be found on the minimap but not on the world map, you actually have to explore quite a bit to find them all. There is also no glowing indicator when doing a quest, no giant Las Vegas neon sign pointing to the mobs you need to kill. Usually the quest description is enough, just requires a bit of exploration. Overall if you are a fan of active combat, FFA PvP or just sick and tired of the current easy mode MMORPGs jump on the beta and try it out. The limitation at level 7 is more than enough to find out if you will like or not the rest of the game. Oh and buzz me in-game, name is Norrak and Norah.
What Sokar said is right, to get into more details... Frogster is the company in charge of the European version of the game that came out last year in October, they added an IP block due to legal issues with the Acclaim version "owning" the American version of it. They were allowed to lift the IP block recently but the European version never got popular because half the European countries, every Asian countries and America was blocked leaving only a handful of countries allowed to log on. That said you have to download the client from the Acclaim website: http://spellborn.acclaim.com/ There is no IP block on the Acclaim one, and the lag ain't bad at all even for European and Asian players. Use the download link at the top right of the screen and you should be able to play in less than 2 hours. Also here is a few websites that can answer various questions about skills, maps and help you quest easier. http://spellborn.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page http://spellborndb.fieses.net/ Enjoy!