Hello, you have four messages: Review

Hello, you have four messages:

Beep

Hi, this is Asheron, please call me back ASAP. Lives are at stake!

– 10:05 am

Beep

This is Asheron again. Where are you? The land of Dereth is in dire peril

and needs your help! Monsters are running rampant, villages are being overrun,

corpses are littering the countryside, and that’s only the tip of the iceberg.

Please contact me as soon as you can at http://ww – 2:17 pm

Beep

Hello occupant, are you happy with your current long distance service?

We’ll offer you $0.01 cent a minute rate for the low monthly fee of $5,000. If

you are inter… [Erased] – 2:19 pm

Beep

This is Asheron, your stupid machine cut me off. As I was saying, in order

to save Dereth, you have to go to the Microsoft Gaming Zone. I know it’s a time-consuming

hassle and a waste of system resources, but it’s the only way to join the fight

for good. Let me know! – 2:21 pm

That was your last message

Asheron’s

Call is the latest online RPG to be released to the gaming public. After

seeing the large monthly profits made by both Everquest

and Ultima

Online, it was only a matter of time before Microsoft jumped on the massively

multiplayer RPG bandwagon. However, unlike Ultima Online or Everquest,

Asheron’s Call tries to bring the genre to a much wider audience, but

may have lost some of the original core audience in the process.

When reading the review of any online RPG, you must remember that the information

contained herein was true at the date of publication. Because of the ability

to constantly patch and improve the game, many minor details may change over

the course of Asheron’s Call‘s life span. That said, on to the review.

One of the first things to consider when playing any online RPG is the cost.

Asheron’s Call has adopted the now standard practice of selling the game

retail for about $40 with one month free. After that, the monthly charge is

about $10. Depending on how often you play the game, this setup can either be

a good deal or a rip-off. Considering that it now costs $8 to see a 2 hour movie,

most folks don’t seem to mind the $10 charge.

The other main point that has hindered all online RPG’s when they first start

has been Internet and server lag. Unlike its predecessors, Microsoft opened the

last week of their beta test to the public, allowing anyone and everyone to play

for free, thereby testing the internal lag of the game. Lag still does occur when

playing, but most of that is due to Internet noise rather than Asheron’s Call‘s

servers. Though this may change as more and more people play the game, right now

the lag isn’t that bad. We can only cross our fingers and hope.

The graphics in Asheron’s Call are decent and practical, just not very

pretty. The designers at Turbine went with the polygonal first / third person

approach that we saw in Everquest, rather than the isometric sprites we

saw in Ultima Online. When compared directly to Everquest, the graphics

in Asheron’s Call just aren’t as good. The reason for this lies in the

audience that Microsoft wanted to capture. Unlike Everquest, Asheron’s

Call doesn’t need a 3D accelerator card in order to play, but having one does

help. While this does make the game more available to the general population,

it noticeably hinders the graphical capability of the game.

Though the graphics aren’t the best, the interface is where Asheron’s Call

shines above the other online RPG’s. This is the first online RPG that isn’t utterly

confusing when you first start. In fact, it was fairly easy to begin killing monsters

within 15 minutes of starting the game. After the cumbersome interface of Everquest,

the simple controls of Asheron’s Call are a blessing.

Add to that a logical skill/attribute setup, and you can almost ignore many

of the drawbacks. Like original D&D, characters have specific levels in Asheron’s

Call. There are also several types of experience points to earn, and while

this might sound confusing, it’s amazingly easy. For every creature you kill,

every skill you successfully use, and every quest you finish, you earn general

experience points. Besides using them to raise your level, these general points

also fall into an unassigned experience pool that can be used to raise specific

skills or attributes.

Besides

just using the unnassigned experience to raise skills, your skills also gain

experience by themselves. Say, for example, you kill a monster using a bow.

Besides getting the general experience points for killing the creature, your

bow skill will also earn experience. Unlike Ultima Online where you had

to mine or make chairs all day in order to raise your attributes, Asheron’s

Call gives you significantly more control over your character. If you don’t

want to raise a skill, you don’t have to, plain and simple.

In order to promote more character cooperation, Asheron’s Call has

two additional ways to interact with each other. Fellowships can be formed and

broken at any time, and usually are made when people are hunting together. For

as long as the fellowship is intact, characters share any experience earned

by killing monsters and completing quests. For a more permanent alliance, you

can also swear allegiance to any character of a higher level. The lord will

then gain a small amount of experience every time one of his vassals earns experience.

Of course, the vassals can also have people swear to them, leading to a giant

pyramid scheme with one guy on top. It’s good to be the king.

Speaking of Kings, one of the biggest drawbacks for Asheron’s Call lies

not with the game itself, but with the Microsoft Gaming Zone. After you install

the game, the hassle begins. When you click on the “play” button (with the false

subtitle “Enter Dereth with no more delay”), your web browser gets launched. Now,

you have to download and install the Microsoft Gaming Zone software. If you thought

web browsers were easy to crash before, the Zone will show you just how easy it

can be now! In fact, one of the computers at the Game Revolution office was totally

unable to ever install the Zone software, and we’re supposed to be the professionals.

After getting the Zone software installed, you now face the tedious task of

finding a user name. Because I didn’t want a name like colin857, it took me

about 15 minutes to finally get a Zone ID. The Zone requirement wouldn’t be

as bad if it actually served a purpose. Unfortunately, all it does it take up

your system resources and offers almost nothing in return. Of course, I suppose

that’s nothing new for Microsoft.

As with any online RPG, it’s impossible to fully describe the game in a single

review. Suffice to say, Asheron’s Call is a fun, semi-addictive game with

a fantastic interface for people new to the genre. However, some drawbacks and

the lack of complexity may drive Everquest and Ultima Online fanatics

bonkers. If you happen to jump in a portal to Dereth, look me up and swear allegiance

to me . . . I’ll be a good emperor, I swear.