ArchLord

The chance to rule the world – that is the premise behind Archlord, Codemasters' massively multiplayer online title for the PC. Players can fight other players, take control of castles and, through the guild structure, the leader of the top guild can be known as the Archlord – enabled with a special mount and powers … well, until someone else comes along and dethrones him or her.

However, it will take a lot to achieve that status. Becoming adept at fighting is paramount – not only the mobs that populate the world, but other players. Kill too many of the later without justification and a bounty is likely to be placed upon your head.

Archlord is an Asian MMO, translated to English. There are marked differences between MMOs that are successful in Asia and those that can carry the North American market. Archlord, though it has some good points, may ultimately fail at establishing a foothold in North America. Why? Because the game – much like RF Online, or even Lineage II – is a grind. Sure, you can move from one quest to the next with ease. The NPC quest-givers are easily identified. You can get drops, reward loot or upgrades along the way, but the bottom line is that you are grinding out levels to get better skills.

Should you become Archlord, you can hold the position for several weeks, before the next tourney. Yep, there is cool stuff associated with the office, but there are only three servers and only two of those are currently open. Logging in at various times has shown that even with only two servers, there is not much of a player base. There are three races – humans, orcs and moon elves. The latter has a strong likeness to anime characters and are, for lack of a better description, rather prissy in animated attitude. Gender is associated with profession. For the humans there are three professions – knight (male), archer (male) and mage (female). Orcs also have three classes: berserker (male), hunter (female) and sorcerer (male). Moon elves are female and only have two professions – elementalist and ranger. The customization options are scarce.

Once you pick your race and profession, you are dropped into the world of Chantra. The missions are all easy to find – just look for the NPC with an icon floating above its head. As you level, you will get more and more missions, in a progressive format, and you will also unlock more skills.

Potions are vital in this game. Health and mana potions auto-slot in hotkeys 1 and 2. Combat outcome, at times, is determined by who has more potions and can stay in the fight longer. Ranged attackers do use arrows, though there is no draw time for the weapons. Mages are powerful and very squishy (which is done right). The game does have mounts available once you reach a certain level.

The game controls are decent, using a combination of the keyboard and mouse. You can navigate the interface with a mouse, but movement can use the WASD keys with the mouse free-look determining direction. Where the game has one problem is in the finite space for picking up some drops. You can grab coin or potion drops easily enough, but when it comes to boxes or quest drops, the radius for using the mouse to grab them seems to diminish markedly.

When a player is given a quest, a marker is placed on the map to allow players to find the location of the quest. Drops can be sold to NPC merchants, put into a common bank vault for access by other characters or sold on the world marketplace. And there is a death debt. Players will lose 3% of level experience (not to go below 0%), and you will revive in the last town visited.

The mob AI is suspect, with some mobs isolated and others bringing friends. Fighting at your level or just below is wise – especially if you are a mage class. The game also has minor crafting skills available. Don’t expect the depth of crafting that a game like Vanguard or EverQuest II has and you should be fine. This game is more about combat than crafting.

Problems? Yep. On one occasion the computer was left standing on the character creation screen for 30 minutes and the program hung up. Using task manager to exit the game resulted in the computer shutting off completely. That is not good. Maybe there was another glitch that happened at the same time; maybe not. There is also the occasional rubberbanding that occurs.

The graphics are fine. No bump-mapping but the textures give the illusion of three dimensions. The character models are also fine. There are some clipping problems and pathing problems, though. And some of the animal/mob animations just look funny – like deer with human-like knee action.

The sound has a grand effect, but loops and so can be a bit old after a time. The dialogue is a combination of voice and text. The voice narrative is merely Ok, and the combat sounds are typical.

Archlord recently announced that, as of January, the game will be free to play. That should draw in a few more players. Overall, Archlord is a fantasy game that is built on the same fundamentals as Lineage II or RF Online (sans the tech elements). The game seems like a mish-mash of some ideas, with no defining traits – which is unfortunate. The endgame, that of attaining the rank of Archlord, will require hours of grinding to get to a high enough level (after 50) to be able to participate with the reasonable expectation of success. The formula of “kill/quest, loot, sell/train” loses its appeal long before that.  

Gameplay: 5.0
The Asian community apparently likes the grind – it’s a tough sell in North America. The game has some rubberbanding (where you bounce back a dozen yards or so while running) but that does not occur all that often. The controls are easy to learn – especially if you are a veteran of MMOs.

Graphics: 7.0
The animations are passable and the environments are decent. The effects are nicely done.

Sound: 6.0
The musical score is much grander than the game and the voice characterizations seem – at times – out of place.

Difficulty: Medium
The grind will get you, not the combat.

Concept: 4.0
There is nothing here that truly stands out as original.

Multiplayer: 5.0
The community online during the times that this review was being formulated seemed unwilling to answer questions. There was a flurry of chat selling items, but little helpful information offered up.

Overall: 6.0
The game is somewhat generic for a PvP MMO. That only two servers are active with “few” listed as the server load, plus the fact that the game is going to be free may be two signs that Archlord is not doing well and may not last a long time. The game is pleasant to look at, and veteran MMO gamers should not find it much of a learning curve. There was a sense of anticipation for this title, and a desire to really like it. Unfortunately, the game was a letdown.