With XL Games' upcoming "dirty juries" MMO ArcheAge hitting in the next few months (I'll eat my glider if we're not hearing a release date at PAX this week), yours truly got to take a gander at the fourth closed beta this weekend titled "Conflict and Conquest".
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Considering the characters in closed beta will not be retained for launch, I decided to take a little sample of all starting zones, creating a character with a different skillset for each. The four races are the human-like goddess worshipers Nuian, the lyrical Elves, the feline Firran and the portal-using Harani. Two characters I made, and my wife who also got in on the closed beta made three. Keep reading for a run-down of our experiences.
Rannih the Harani
After fiddling around in the character creator a bit, I entered the continent of Haranya, home of the Harani and Firran. Utilizing the deadly skillset Shadowplay, I created a dark assassin type who, uh... did melee and ranged attacks. This junk character was mostly me trying to get a feel for the general UI and controls of the game, so my experiences with her shouldn't be taken too seriously.
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Upon discussing the game with my wife (who'd made a Nuian, an Elf and a Firran), we also came to the conclusion that the races felt fairly generic. I kind of know what each of them is about from the narrated cutscenes and the official game site descriptions, but a lot of quests seemed pretty interchangeable among the four races. There's of course a limited amount of quest types any MMO can have, but there was surprisingly little character in these. Age of Conan's starting pirate town of Tortage, the Shire, Ironforge, Rata Sum - all these MMO locations tell a tale of their own, and ArcheAge's starting zones unfortunately do not. Immersion is a player-driven affair for this game.
For a completely free-to-play experience (you can always buy three different tiers of Founders Packs, or become a subscribing member after launch), ArcheAge certainly isn't a bad choice. I never ran up against any paywalls in game - though those may pop up at later levels, of course. The game's "Find out for yourself, scum!" attitude and player-instigated conflict (all with tongue firmly in cheek, as I had noticed, at least) mark it as an MMO different enough to stand out from the crowd.
We'll be keeping an eye on this one.
