The summer has been relatively slow for big game releases, but has been pretty busy in the MMO sector. The past month a bunch of Free to Play MMOs have gone into open beta, opening the doors for perspective players to try out. The MOBA (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena) trend is also going strong this summer. Though MOBAs aren’t strictly MMOs, the community is massive and online and many of them offer comp-stomp options with a pre-formed or match-made group, so they certainly have their similarities.
What I’m Playing:
Dragon Nest
Dragon Nest is a 3D anime-style MMO that just entered open beta last week. They had a pretty enormous booth at PAX East, but I never got around to stopping by and checking it out. The game is uniquely (for an MMO) action-based: the camera is attached to your mouse and you aim with a targeting reticle in the middle of your screen to hit enemies.
Dragon Nest offers four gender-locked classes: Cleric, Warrior, Archer, and Sorceress. It features an outpost/dungeon style where the towns are open to the public, but the adventuring zones are private instances, either just for you if you’re running solo or your party if you’re grouped. Entering an adventuring zone is like entering a dungeon: you can choose your difficulty (more difficulty levels will be unlocked as you complete easier ones) which corresponds to the type of loot you can get. After making this choice, you’re zoned into the first of a few or several small zones where you much vanquish all the enemies to proceed to the next zone in the string. The last zone is a boss stage. After clearing all stages, you’ll be asked to blindly pick a reward. There are quests available in town that will straight-forwardly lead you to appropriate level zones. From the short amount I’ve played, I’ve found it a fun game to play casually. The action system is a nice change of pace from other MMOs, and it’s really nice that you can go and do instances with any number of people you may be playing with at the time (so long as it doesn’t exceed the party limit, of course) - just bump up or down the difficulty!
Rise of Immortals
Currently in open beta, Rise of Immortals is a MOBA that attracted me for one huge reason: they were plugging their PVE/comp-stomp. I’d played a MOBA or two in the past, and enjoyed them, but I didn’t want to primarily play competitively (also, the competitive communities for MOBAs is simply awful). RoI offers a unique 3v3 (or 3vE as they call it) map where a team of 3 can play against bots. There’s also the possibility that it may launch with even more PvE maps and options. This map offers a pretty decent challenge while still being fun. The bots work together pretty well, and the map is slightly stacked against the human players. RoI offers a dozen different Immortal heroes for players to pick from and also features a separate level-up system per Immortal on your account. Winning co-op games also nets you coins which you can save up and spend on unlocking Immortals or skins for Immortals. On launch, you will also be able to buy different coins with which to do the same thing.
League of Legends
Since I’ve been on a MOBA kick, I finally got around to trying out League of Legends. Several of my friends have been playing it since release, but I was never super interested due to it being purely competitive. After hearing about the co-op mode they added in relatively recently, I put it on my “to do” list, and finally got around to trying it a few weeks ago. LoL offers three different levels of difficulty for comp stomp: any number practice matches where you can put bots on your side too, and beginner and intermediate level bots in 5v5 co-op vs. AI mode. I was exceedingly pleased to learn that practice matches and co-op matches still net you a pretty decent amount of XP and IP (XP is for your summoner level, IP is currency you can use to unlock champions and runes). A friend of mine informed me that the XP and IP received a boost for these game modes, which is certainly heartening to hear.
What I Have My Eye On:
Star Wars: the Old Republic
The news sector for upcoming MMOs (at least the ones I have my eye on) has been relatively quiet. Hopefully Gamescom and PAX Prime will bring out some more good information. One tidbit I have to share, however, is that Bioware has shared some interesting information on their upcoming MMO, the Old Republic. Though currently still somewhat vaguely slotted for “Holiday 2011,” you can now pre-order one of three editions for the game: full blown collector’s edition ($150), Digital Deluxe Edition ($80) and Standard Edition ($60). If you’re curious, you can check out what each edition offers on their website. Pre-ordering will give you early access to the game when it launches. They also announced they will be having beta weekends in September.
Any great co-op updates to your current MMO of choice? Or do you have any new updates on a game you’re looking forward to?