Asheron´s Call 2

Asheron's call 2

A new chapter is written in the history of Dereth – a medieval world of magic and dragons. Several hundred years after the time in Asheron’s Call 1, a great destruction comes down upon the world of Dereth. You start out as one of the first persons to see the surface of Dereth after this great destruction, and it is now your task to rebuild the world together with other players.

Dereth is no longer as you knew it in Asheron’s Call 1 – the magic that destroyed most of Dereth has also affected and mutated the species living in the world.

A Bit of Technical Info

AC2 is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) – other known games in the same genre are EverQuest or Dark Age of Camelot. You start out by choosing between three different races, as well as choosing your sex. Each race can choose between three different professions (warrior, archer and mage), but each individual profession differs depending on which race you chose.

The game employs a level based system, as did AC1, but unlike AC1 the game also has a skill tree based system, in which you buy your skills and spend experience points (XP) on advancing in the different skills.

You acquire a skill point for each level you attain, which can be used to buy skills. When you’ve bought your skill you then spend XP on advancing in the specific skill – thus you basically can increase your skills constantly. Some skills require that you have attained a certain level and perhaps another skill in order to buy it. Another new feature is the ability to downgrade your skills and get your XP and skill points back. This a good thing as it makes you able to correct bad decisions made earlier in the game – or perhaps a certain skill just becomes obsolete.

Graphical Wonder…

There’s no getting around talking about the graphics in Asheron’s Call 2. “Wow” is the first thought that comes to mind, when you see the graphics in the game. But because of this, you should also consider how important the graphics are, as you need a pretty powerful machine to play the game with high detail. The game will make almost any computer work hard for the money, which in return usually means that if you want to have the game running smoothly, you need to turn down the detail level – often so much that it’s actually a shame.

…or graphical memory hog

If you have the newest computer on the market with plenty of RAM and a powerhouse graphics card then this game is likely to be the best looking online game you’ve seen so far. There’s no doubt that when you’ve seen the way the clouds in the sky casts shadows on the ground as they float along, or you’ve seen the way the aura around other players pulsates from the light of different objects, then you never want to turn down the detail level again.

Microsoft has released a screenshot where they show the show the huge difference between low detail and high detail level. As the example didn’t show the lowest detail level, I’ve decided to create one myself, showing the vast difference between lowest and highest detail level.

A journey of moods

One thing in the game that seems to do well is the moods of the different areas; Foggy valleys, dark dungeons and beautiful open areas. All of this is of course backed up by music fitting the different areas. You can always hear whether other players or other creatures are near as well.

Unfortunately there are still some problems with the sound. Sometimes you don’t hear the correct sounds for the specific actions – sometimes you have sounds looping even after you’ve stopped walking and are sitting down to rest.

Elements of Role-play

One of the things I seek in a RPG and also upcoming MMORPGs, is something meaningful to do as a person in the game world, other than running around farming experience points. I’ve played too many games where you had to put a lot of effort into keeping up with the others, or else you’d be lost, and unable to hang out with your friends, because you’re not as strong as them.

There are a few elements in the game that can pull you away from the everyday XP farming. You might want to work on your skill as a smith, or perhaps entertain your fellow players with a bit of music. The game has various instruments you can find on the different monsters; there’s always a bit of fund to be had by gathering a group of players and holding a small jam session. In the long run playing music isn’t enough – you’re not developing you character.

The production system, in which you can use items and weapons found throughout the world in creating new weapons, works quite well but you can never dedicate yourself fully unless you have a guild gathering resources for you.

History Starts to Unfold

From the very beginning you get an introduction to the quest system in the game. You have the possibility of exploring the world all the while getting a little bit of background history. Some things that made quests in other games tiresome was the time vs. outcome ratio, you aren’t always able to find a group that wants to help you do the quest and so on. Though there are still some quests in AC2 that require you to be the one killing the monsters, it is for the larger part changed so that quests now are focused on you doing the quest with a group of people and everyone getting a bite of the cake.

The reward you get from completing a quest with a group is good, too. You would have a hard time getting the same amount of XP killing monsters, as you get from doing a quest.

It wouldn’t hurt the game to feature more small quests, though there are a lot of the quests that refresh after a couple of days, giving you the ability to do the quests again.

The quests you are able to do are limited by factors like your level. Though that shouldn’t be an issue, considering the fact that when you reach a level you gain access to a certain quest, you are still far from being able to do the quest alone.

History Continues

A thing that clearly makes AC2 different from other MMORPGs is the quest and history development – each month the developers release an update that will take the current game world history and give it a new turn of direction. These monthly quests gives an extra feeling of being part of a bigger picture, and it’s not just something that anybody who’s just joined the AC2 world can participate in.

One of the monthly changes I noticed when I did this review of the game, compared to the beta, was that the entire starting island was now covered in snow due to one of these major changes. Areas you once knew might now seem unknown to you, as it was now all white instead of green.

Apart from the above there’s also static story quests that upon completion gives you a little extra insight into to the history behind the great destruction. These quests are great because in other games the story is likely to go over your head either because you are not aware that it’s part of the history or because you don’t get larger bits of the story at once. When you complete a storyline quest you get to watch a number of pictures while a narrator tells the story behind the pictures.

History Ends

If you’re on the lookout for a MMORPG to try out, then AC2 might be a good choice, especially if you’ve got that kick-ass-super-ûber-l33t computer, as this game is pretty is to get started with. If you’re already playing another MMORPG, AC2 might offer you a nice change of pace, perhaps a change from the everyday XP levelling treadmill.

If you’re a hardcore MMORPG player AC2 might seem a bit empty – it’s as if the game is missing something that is hard to pinpoint. You start noticing it after a few days, even though the game itself is ok. The game also lacks some huge dungeons that aren’t easily run through, but instead will amaze you and make you go “WOW”.

The game charges $12 per month of playing - you will get a free trial month when you buy the game, but you need a credit card in order to pay.

Translated by Bo Kruse (PopNerd)