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MMORPG Spotlight: Atlantica Online
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Atlantica Online is one of an army of free-to-play MMORPGs that support themself via item malls, but it's also the most promising of them. Despite the near-solid blackmarks this genre contains, AO has a few good qualities—accompanied by a wealth of bad ones.
The game is built around turn-based strategy where, in a 30-second window, players control their character and up to eight mercenaries. There are 17 types of mercenaries, most accessable only at certain levels. For bosses or for mass-scale zones, players can join with two other 9-person parties to fight simultaneously. As you can imagine, this becomes draining even on higher-end systems unless you turn your graphics down to gumby mode.
The game follows an extensive quest system, but in an unswervingly-linear format. Every quest is connected to the main storyline and most of them, in addition to being brief and poorly-written, are the classic, "Go and kill 20 rats and bring me their tails as proof. They scare my wife and she won't do the chores until they're gone." This quickly becomes monotonous.
Like most F2P games, comfort perks and bonuses are available only via the item mall, where they're purchased using real money. This is a renewable source of income for the game because your access is limited. For example, an armor set you purchase access to for seven days.
There's good news, though! The game has redeeming qualities that make up for the limitations of solo play, including guild-controlled cities, well-balanced PvP and graphics that are a step above most F2P MMORPGs. Of the three, PvP is the game's true ace. There isn't a true beat-all build and the variety of mercenaries and formations that can be played over a 3x3 grid are nearly limitless.
Your choice of placement and skills, your ability to move and think fast and sometimes luck will determine whether or not you win. Mercenaries have weaknesses and bonuses against certain class types, some cross-class skills work to release a combination attack and all have to work together to defend your hero/main character. If your personal avatar is beaten, the round is over, despite whether or not you were winning overall.
The game has an automated tournament system that is broadcast worldwide. When the arena is opened, you simply have to confirm your registration to be teleported the moment matches begin. Matches are determined by 18 divisions and your division is representative of how often you win. Levels and builds are irrelevant, so at times a level 50 may end up being pitted against a level 100 (where you've no chance to win) if they're within the same division, but generally you're kept within a 10-20 level range. The learning curve is par with Eve Online for difficulty.
If you're looking for a game that's worth blowing a few hours, take a look. The arena strategy is one of the best out there, even if the supporting world falls short. With a good writer devoted to quest content, this game could easily rival most of its pay-to-play competitors.
Atlantica Game Guide
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