Warspear Online is a classic mobile MMORPG where players must choose a side in the War of the Spear, as one of four playable races and over ten character classes.Lead your army into battle with open PvP or challenge a variety of dungeons with friends.
[singlepic id=54465 w=428 h=240 float=right]
Publisher: AIGRIND Playerbase: Medium Type: Mobile MMORPG Release Date: August 8, 2011 Pros: +Tons of quests to complete. +Active player base. +Multiple playable classes. Cons: -Pay-to-win elements. -Grindy gameplay. -Pixel graphics may not appeal to some.
Snail Games announced yesterday that the global version of its mobile action RPG Kingdom Warriors has launched on both Android and iOS. The game allows players to step into the shoes of one of four "iconic legends" from the Three Kingdoms era, including Guan Yu and Zhao Yun. Players can also collect AI sidekicks known as lieutenant generals and build armies, taking into account each lieutenant general's unique abilities.
Kingdom Warriors boasts the following features.
4 playable generals along with 40+ upgradeable lieutenants to build a powerful army
Innovative mixture of traditional ARPG elements fused with modern strategy game mechanics
Stunning visuals with countless on-screen characters engaged in iconic battles straight from the Three Kingdoms novel
High-quality visual effects utilizing the full power of the U3D engine
You can find more information on the official website. Also be sure to check out the teaser trailer embedded below!
Master X Master is NCSoft’s attempt to break into the MOBA market. It’s a fresh take on a tried and tested formula, featuring a WASD control scheme and a unique tag mechanic that allows you to swap between two characters instead of just controlling one. I usually don’t bother with new MOBA releases but Master X Master caught my attention with a rather uncommon feature: PvE.
I was skeptical at first, but after spending a good 20 hours playing the game I can safely say that Master X Master takes its PvE seriously. It’s not an afterthought or a tacky add-on that was included to give NCSoft’s marketing department an extra feature to harp about. It’s well-designed content that feels like it received more love and attention than the PvP modes that were available in the alpha test.
[singlepic id=54548 w=600 h=338 float=none]
Let’s start with Master X Master’s whimsical cast. There’s a stereotypical sniper girl and soldier guy, but there’s also a wobbly orange blob, a camera-wielding journalist, and a cutesy pop star. If you’re a fan of NCSoft’s MMORPG lineup then you’ll be pleased to know there are several crossover characters from games like Aion and Blade and Soul.
If you prefer playstyle to looks then Master X Master invites you to customise your character loadouts with a choice of four active abilities. You can only pick two to take with you into missions but they can be upgraded to provide more damage or extra functionality. Your basic attack has 3 variations that can be leveled up for even more customisation. There are common variations such as increased damage and attack speed, but there’s also character specific ones like increased movement speed on attack and extra critical chance. Each character also has their own defensive ability. Some have invincibile dodge rolls, others block with shields, and some can even submerge into the ground.
And then there’s Master X Master’s signature mechanic: mid-combat character swapping. Experimenting with different skill and master combinations is incredibly fun and part of the game’s charm and replayability. Swapping has a lot of different uses in combat: you can tag out wounded characters to restore their health, swap to single-target oriented masters to deal with bosses, or change into a support character to heal up your teammates.
[singlepic id=54549 w=600 h=338 float=none]
But the skill system isn’t without its flaws. With so many well-constructed PvE elements it’s easy to forget that Master X Master is also a MOBA. Skills are shared between PvE and PvP modes so you’ll often find abilities that are lackluster for dungeon crawling. Certain characters are completely shafted because of their PvP focus and as a result, they feel completely useless on harder difficulties. Trying to balance two separate game modes isn’t impossible, but it’s a difficult task that could be avoided by splitting the skill upgrades into separate PvE and PvP paths so they can be balanced without hurting the other game mode.
Fortunately it doesn’t take long to unlock new masters. They cost a modest amount of in-game currency but there’s also an achievement requirement attached to each character. Achievements in Master x Master are surprisingly fun despite their simplicity, and there’s a myriad of fancy titles to unlock. I unlocked a couple of short titles like “The Merciless” and “Ruthless” from regular play, but I quickly found myself achievement hunting for quirky titles such as “Middle Class” and my personal favourite: “Vermin Extermination Squad”. Some titles even give you small stat boosts so there’s a lot of encouragement to try out different modes and characters.
You could shell out a bit of money for each character and bypass both the achievement and currency cost, but certain crossover characters can’t be unlocked by paying. I suspect it's to retain their exclusivity because the unlock conditions are tied to special event dungeons that appear to be on a weekly rotation.
[singlepic id=54550 w=600 h=338 float=none]
Most of your time in Master X Master will be spent dungeon crawling and experimenting with different characters, but none of that would be enjoyable if the combat wasn’t fun. Master X Master nails it with a unique blend of action RPG and top-down shooter elements. The result is fluid, responsive, and often frantic combat that’s a lot of fun to play.
Weak enemies charge at you in groups and it feels great to mow them down with a well-timed weapon swing or AoE skill. Regular enemies are much tougher and possess abilities that range from simple charges and cleaves to crippling AoE patches that litter the floor. There’s also a surprising amount of synergy between weak mobs and their tougher friends. Caster enemies frequently spawned walls around my character so their weaker friends could overwhelm me, and tough melee mobs bullied me with knockbacks and stuns so their ranged allies could pelt me with projectiles.
It’s easy to dismiss Master X Master as a simple hack and slash game on the easier difficulties—and I agree. Difficulty ramps up once you delve into Extreme and Nightmare mode where enemies have larger health pools and deal considerably more damage, but until then the dungeons can feel a little undertuned.
[singlepic id=54551 w=600 h=338 float=none]
Master X Master’s PvE content is entirely mission based and each one takes anywhere from 5 to 30 minutes to complete. There’s a party limit of 3 but if you prefer to play solo or as a duo then enemies will conveniently scale down their stats to make up for less players. There was a total of 21 missions in the alpha including a special event dungeon. It doesn’t sound like much for a lobby-based PvE game but these missions aren’t rearranged or randomized levels that are hard to tell apart. These are fully-featured hand-crafted levels with their own distinct locations, enemies, and bosses—it’s more appropriate to think of them as MMORPG dungeons.
Each mission (excluding the event dungeon) has 5 difficulty levels which are more than just simple stat buffs to the enemies. Lower difficulties have fewer enemies while higher difficulties will swarm you with stronger mobs, bosses on higher difficulties have completely new abilities, and the amount of resurrections you get will decrease as you go up the difficulty scale.
[singlepic id=54552 w=600 h=338 float=none]
Master X Master’s missions conclude with a well-designed and frantic boss fight. I was genuinely impressed when I encountered one for the first time: a female voodoo priest that summoned a variety of totems to aid her. Bosses make surprising use of the environments they are in as well. There was a cyborg boss that occasionally covered the entire floor with an electric attack, and the only way to avoid it was to jump onto raised platforms that are out of harm's way.
The only gripe I have with the mission based system is the extremely limited amount of entries you get per day. Master X Master’s 20 main missions are split into 5 locations and only one set can be active at a time. Your handful of daily entries can only be used on those missions and you don’t get more unless you pay money or wait till the next day. Luckily there’s a random mission option with unlimited uses that puts you and your party into any of the 20 missions.
[singlepic id=54553 w=600 h=338 float=none]
Running dungeons and experimenting with different heroes is fun an all, but what about progression?
Players can obtain nodes from drops or merchants that are equipped for stat bonuses. They act like gear drops with randomly rolled stats but the bonuses they provide are underwhelming. There are lots of powerful character stats like Critical Hit Damage, Tag Cooldown, and Mana Regeneration so we’ll most likely see stronger nodes in the future. Dungeons also drop gold and materials that can be used to upgrade your skills and basic attack, but again the upgrades are a little weak and won’t make a huge difference until you start playing on the harder difficulty levels.
Master X Master’s progression isn’t focused on individual character growth but instead, it’s about building up a collection of masters that you can freely switch between and upgrade to fit different roles. Every character and enemy in the game has an attunement which acts like an elemental strength or weakness, so having a large pool of masters to pick from lets you counter the mobs in each mission.
[singlepic id=54554 w=600 h=338 float=none]
NCSoft has a promising gem in their hands that’s begging to be polished. Master X Master makes a great alternative to traditional dungeon crawlers and I wholly recommend it even if the MOBA side doesn’t interest you. There are a couple of rough edges that could be smoothed out, but overall the game has plenty of content even in its alpha state. Master X Master hasn’t been released in Korea yet, unlike a lot of NCSoft’s other games, so we’ll most likely see a global release and I’m looking forward to whatever new PvE content the dev team has planned.
Square Enix announced yesterday that Final Fantasy XIV's Patch 3.35 will be going live on July 19th. The patch will introduce a new type of dungeon, the "Deep Dungeon." The goal of each Deep Dungeon is the following: "Starting from level 1, new players and veterans alike must band together and fight through a gauntlet of enemies and traps to reach the darkest depths of a subterranean labyrinth."
The first Deep Dungeon to be introduced is called the Palace of the Dead. Its story is as follows.
In the subterranean city of Gelmorra, deep within a forgotten corner of Issom--Har, stout-hearted explorers have uncovered the entrance to a labyrinthine dungeon. Those who set foot inside its maddening halls find their vigor drained by an irresistible fog of innervation, and repeated excursions have failed to map its seemingly inconstant architecture. After hearing chilling accounts of spectral denizens, locals took to whispering of a "Palace of the Dead," and the Wood Wailers now seek the assistance of adventurers in laying bare its haunted secrets...
FINAL FANTASY XIV Patch 3.3 - Revenge of the Horde
Isokron announced today that its football—the kind also known as soccer—management MMO 90 Minute Fever is entering Steam Early Access on July 12th. The title is possibly best described as an indie Football Manager-esque MMO, allowing players to create their own club, sign players to their teams, and compete in an online setting.
The key features list is as follows.
True MMO in a single, persistent online world with a robust user-driven economy.
Play live matches against real people using the interactive match-simulator. Watch how substitutions and tactical changes affect each match.
Create and customize your very own club using the club-creation kit. Build upon an initial squad of players to make you competitive.
Real players from all of football history is included using the built-in Time Portal system, adding players from the past to the present.
Compete with experienced users testing your skills, talent and club to its limits.
You don’t pay to win, you EARN to win, offering a fair, competitive and realistic gameplay experience without the need for a fat wallet.
Interested in seeing what Ragnarok Mobile, the upcoming mobile version of Ragnarok Online being developed by Chinese company Xindong, looks like in action? You're in luck, as MMOCulture has uncovered a new video that gives us a brief, 30 second look at the title. Unlike many mobile titles, Ragnarok Mobile has been built from the ground up to remain true to the original game's formula and it seems to show.
You can find the video embedded below. According to MMOCulture, the title will be entering Beta sometime in the next few weeks.
Aima is a 3D side-scrolling MMORPG where players can choose from over five different characters with distinct classes to embark on an epic journey.
[singlepic id=54035 w=428 h=240 float=none]
Publisher: Nexon Type: MMORPG Release Date: October 8, 2015 (KR) Shut Down: November 17, 2016 Pros: +Impressive 3D graphics. +Variety of dungeons and difficulties. +Extensive character customization (appearances and builds). Cons: -Never saw a Western release.
A look at MMO News and updates for the week ending July 4, 2016. This is the fiftieth episode in a weekly series every Monday that will cover all major MMO news and updates. The games mentioned this week are: Riders of Icarus, HeroWarz, New Diablo Game, Lineage 2, Albion Online, Black Desert Online, Elsword Online, Aion, Rappelz, Neverwinter, Wildstar, and Tera. Links to individual news articles we covered this week:
This week the MMOs.com crew (Missing Shu) took a lot at Aion as we trek through the NCSoft lineup. We picked up at around level 22-25, but since Omer derp'd we couldn't play together (different factions). We had a lot to talk about though and despite the game's age (2009 original release), Aion remains quite popular even today. We were all pleased to see all the beginner areas and towns packed with players. I think we all agreed it was generic, but being generic isn't necessarily bad. Expect a follow up second look video in the future when I (Omer) reach higher level!
For the majority of players, MMOs are games meant to be enjoyed with other players. But for me, playing an MMO alone sometimes ends up being a much more enjoyable experience than playing in good company. Recently, I’ve taken to playing Tree of Savior by myself on stream at a leisurely pace, and while playing I thought about why I’m finding the game more enjoyable alone. A few levels of grinding repeatable quests later, I figured out several reasons why the lonely road has its perks as well as why a couple games that I play are suitable for lone wolves to enjoy.
First and foremost, the only person I need available whenever I want to play an MMO solo is myself. This banal statement is a big factor in what I play at any given moment. It’s not that I’m lonely, or have no friends to play with, but organizing a play session can be a pain. Usually me and my friends end up not playing together because our schedules are busy and our free time doesn’t overlap. There can also be inconveniences from the game itself that prevent us from playing together, such as a level requirement or system incompatibility. Even if everybody is available, on some days we all end up playing our own game while in a Discord voice channel because everyone wants to play something different. If I have to go to all the trouble of assembling a team of my friends when I could just hop in, play by myself, and still have a good time, why bother?
[singlepic id=3051 w=600 h=338 float=none]
Given that all of my friends are available and that everybody wants to play the same game with me, there are still problems that arise while playing. The experience gain between party members never ends up being even so people have to catch up to others or wait for the rest of the party to be ready to move on. Some of my friends are inherently slower or faster than I am with inventory and skill/stat point management, and those valuable seconds or minutes of playtime can add up to occupy a sizeable chunk of the overlapping free time we have. While this usually isn’t a problem with my friends, conflict is inevitable sometimes even in good company. An innocuous squabble can turn ugly, and avoiding it altogether can be as simple as not being there to bring it up. Unless the game in question is a MOBA like League of Legends or Dota 2, having friends around isn't always better in the long run.
Sometimes, the things that we need to experience in order to start liking and fully commit to a new MMO lies in the things we forsake for the treadmill of progress. With friends, the constant race for progress takes precedence over everything else. As a result, we might miss secrets, gloss over lore that would otherwise be interesting, or pass up loot that would have made a difficult section more forgiving. The grind doesn't have to be a straight funnel into endgame, and playing MMOs alone has allowed me to realize this and have the liberty to play slowly.
[singlepic id=6061 w=600 h=338 float=none]
Not all games necessarily become better once you slow down with some ‘me time’, but Tree of Savior has elements of gameplay and media that provide for a rich single player experience if they’re not overlooked. Exploration, talking to NPC’s, and fighting a wide variety of monsters, among other things, is rewarded via an NPC organization that distributes EXP and money rewards for the tales of your travels. Another organization investigates the strange effects of collecting certain items together. This so-called “Collection Box” system grants small stat bonuses for those willing to scavenge the maps. This creates a lucrative opportunity for players to make money from farming extra rare collection items on their own. If not for certain MMO qualities such as other players in town selling their class services, one could almost mistake Tree of Savior at times for a pure single player experience with the stunning audio and visuals.
Another game suitable for slow, sustained, solo play is Warframe: a sci-fi “space ninja murder simulator” (my words, not theirs) by Digital Extremes. The game’s open-ended progression system allows players to pursue whatever objective’s available to them at any given moment. A smart way of tackling a Tenno to-do list is to save harder missions for when a full team is available, while leaving less difficult or story related tasks for the hours when it's just you, Ordis, and the Lotus. It's also worth mentioning that finding easy-to-miss loot breakables or secret rooms in the Orokin Void is markedly harder when your teammates don't have time for you to scour the map with a loot radar. Spy missions are also ideal for the lone Tenno that doesn't want a clumsy teammate to rouse the ire of the Corpus or Grineer security.
[singlepic id=50700 w=600 h=338 float=none]
Playing MMOs alone doesn’t have to be a lonely experience, but being mindful of the advantages gained from going solo helps to make the slower grind much more fulfilling. Warframe and Tree of Savior may be good examples to start with, but most if not all MMOs can be played without friends at a casual pace to bring out a different and more engaging experience. I encourage readers to try this out themselves with their favorite MMO using an alternate character at their own leisure. Whether it ends up going back to party play afterwards, forging onwards as a dedicated single player character, or a hybrid of the two, casual solo runs of your favorite MMO could bring a whole new level of appreciation for the game you love.
If you want to see me put “theory into practice”, I’ve been streaming a casual, completionist oriented solo run of Tree of Savior over on my Twitch channel (www.twitch.tv/s0ckrates). These streams don’t have a set schedule, but lately they’ve been fairly late at night past 10 PM Pacific time at least once a week. If you catch me live, be sure to say hi in chat and mention this article. If you can’t catch me live I’ve also been exporting my broadcast recordings to my YouTube channel as well.
(20 votes, average: 3.25 / 5)
