Developer/Publisher: Funcom
Reviewed by Hechicera on 9/21/01

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First Impressions:

I found that they left the bug report form complete with program state information in the release client. A harbinger of things to come, this handy feature saw a bit of use during the first couple of weeks of release. After sending in a report of the crash, the report tool crashed. Grumbling, I rebooted and tried to log into the game again. After an hour of trying to get a connection and failing, I decided that I was tired and called it a day. The old saying that you only get one chance to make a first impression is certainly true.

Graphics:

When seen in their full glory, the graphics are quite impressive. If any feature can belatedly add wonder to this game; this would be it. Rubi-Ka (the world on which Anarchy Online takes place) orbits a double sun. Even now, weeks into the game, I stop and stare as the suns set in a blaze of color-streaked clouds. Moonrise and moonset can also be gorgeous, if a little less dramatic than the double sun. Judging from the comments of my fellow players, I am not alone in stopping play to gawk. Finding some high terrain and watching the suns rise with overlapping multi-hued lens flares as they part the clouds of an early morning thunderstorm can keep me occupied for a good five minutes. Yes, I did say thunderstorm. The game world has varied terrain, and each type has a different weather system. There are thunderstorms with rain in the forests, and driving sand storms with howling winds in the deserts. Snow has been seen in the wastelands. The most violent storms come complete with dynamic lightning. It can cause brilliant displays in the clouds, or strike the ground next to you with a loud crash, throwing up debris.

In addition to weather effects and terrain variance, the different cities have varied architectural flavors, from the downtown splendor of city lights in Omni-Tek's Rome to slums near a raunchy red-light district in Omni-Entertainment. Rebel-controlled Old Athens, while having parts that rival Omni-Tek's Rome in beauty, is a city half in ruins, and is surrounded by the twisted wreckage leftover from some armed conflict. In the rebel-held north, there is the stone fortress of Avalon, while the buildings in Tir have a vaguely Middle Eastern feel. The terrain details also set the stage for the planned story, which is slated to start in the fall.

Character models and creatures are nicely done as well. Armor and plain clothing in a great variety of textures and styles are easy to find early in the game. Also, the ability to adjust your avatar's body size in height and weight as well as facial appearance is a nice touch. Indeed, there are many such small touches. Rabbits, butterflies, and flocks of birds (or, in some cities, hordes of cockroaches!) add detail. The game still has all the standard graphics that gamers expect, from particle effects to muzzle flashes.

Of course, if you turn this all on it will tax even a nicely equipped system. This is not good news for the average system owner now, but there is a potential bright side. With a four-year story arc planned, the average computer will be able to run the engine smoothly by the end. In the meantime, at least they included enough settings that you should be able to turn enough of the eye candy off (or at least down) to achieve playability.

Sound/Music:

Like the graphics, this is another pleasant surprise. The different areas all have their own theme music, and it's not just one short tune that you hear over and over until you frantically search for a way to turn it off, even if it's good. Most areas have several sound tracks that are played at random. This keeps the experience fresh and adds depth to the atmosphere. Certain areas have other special sounds, like the creepy, computer-intoned, almost subliminal "Omni is your friend" in the Omni-controlled metropolitan areas. Different guns make different sounds. Battle music varies based on the toughness of your opponent. You can find your target in some areas by listening for it and traveling toward its sound. Footstep sounds vary based on the surface the character is crossing. In all, the sound quality is what I would expect out of a first person game, not at all what is standard fare in an MMORPG.

Gameplay:

So it looks pretty and it sounds good, but does it play? At first, no. In the early post-release days, if you were lucky enough to zone successfully, you would enter a town. This was a bad thing. Towns were crowded with many other people also leaving their "newbie" areas. Towns also had lots of buildings, statues and other items visible in large areas, which added many polygons for my computer to draw. There were more people than Funcom had anticipated, more polygons than my computer had anticipated, and a client-side memory leak which caused my client to crash every half hour; all of this combined to make this stage of the game very, very painful.

It is hard to learn or play a complex online game when you can't zone, talk, walk, or turn; on some days, players couldn't even manage to connect. Severe problems weren't limited to release day, or release week: this game had release month problems. Patches and adding a second dimension have resolved most of the severe stability problems. I now find the game quite playable for extended periods, and see that there is quite a bit to it.

Character Creation
The year is 29,475 AD. A few things have happened to the human genome by that time. There are four basic types of humans on Rubi-Ka: Solitus (the norm), Opifex (sneaky, quick and somewhat less sturdy), Nano (physically weak yet highly adapted to use technology) and Atrox (huge, strong and not very intellectual). The first three can be male or female, while the Atrox are considered androgynous. The player starts with a choice of one of these breeds.

Twelve Professions: Adventurer Agent Bureaucrat Doctor Enforcer Engineer Fixer Martial Artist Metaphysicist Nano Technician Soldier Trader

Career Choice and Identity
Some of the profession titles may sound familiar, but not all are what the player might expect. After you have chosen your character's type, you select facial appearance, height, and weight, and then move on to pick your name. You must come up with a unique handle for your character that contains no spaces or other punctuation. You are then assigned a random first and last name. You may continue to request random names until you are happy with one. Last in the creation process, you choose a side of the story line. You may side with the large corporation of Omni-Tek (rumored to be corrupt and full of lies), the rebel alliance Clans who are fighting Omni-Tek for personal freedom (the clans have their own problems), or you can choose to remain Neutral (you think the first two had problems!). The character creation process does not end here.

Character Development
The game system is both level-based and skill-based. All characters start with base abilities like strength and intelligence, and all skills that are available to them, such as pistol, mechanical engineering, first aid and evading close range attacks. The starting skill values are based on the character's initial base ability numbers, and the base ability numbers are different for each breed. The player has an initial allotment of "improvement points" to spend in customizing a character. You can purchase both individual skills and base abilities. Raising a base ability by enough will slightly raise those skills that depend on it. The cost to raise base abilities varies by breed. It is easy for an Atrox to raise strength, a Nano to raise intelligence, an Opifex to raise Agility, yet hard for them each to raise other stats.

Each time a character gains a level, he or she gets more of these improvement points to distribute. At first it seems like there are plenty of these points, but, as you start to gain levels, there never seem to be enough. However, there are other ways of increasing both abilities and skills; character building may become an art form.

Nano Programs
This game, being science fiction in nature, doesn't have magic. However, it does have a technology that is advanced enough to be indistinguishable from magic. The game world contains nanobots which execute nano programs, or nanos for short. Because it is technology, everyone is able to use nanos to some extent. There is an extensive list of generally available programs, and, on top of that, each profession has a list of career-specific programs to purchase and learn. The use of the nano programs, both general and professional, is skill-based. This system seems to be flexible, and work quite well.

Items
This game has a couple of interesting twists on items. Items in the game have skill or base ability requirements. You must meet the item's requirements before you can use, wield or wear it. Items also have quality levels: lower quality items have lower requirements, but perform less well than higher quality items of the same kind. For example, I found two pistols of the same type. One was of lower quality and did less damage, but required a lower pistol skill to use. The other was of better quality, did more damage, and fired faster, but took more skill to use. Most items require more than one skill. Another example would be body armor that requires both strength and stamina to wear. This is both incentive to upgrade skills and base abilities, and incentive to constantly upgrade your items. It also should limit the effects of twinking, the practice of giving powerful high-level equipment to a low-level character as a way of giving them advantages in game play. You can still give equipment to a character, but if it is too advanced for their level, they won't be able to use it. The challenge is to find the items, or make them.

Trade skills
The ability to make items is in the game. However, only implants (which are used to raise abilities or skills) and a few guns may be made right now. Both are bug-ridden and tedious to attempt. Game play seems designed to create demand for the player-made items. As it stands now, it just frustrates both the players who need trade-created items and the players who want to make them. Funcom has promised the ability to create more items in the future.

Interface, Documentation, and Bugs
The interface is fairly standard. Like other areas, it's marred by many small bugs. In some cases, it gets very hard to determine whether you can't do something because it's buggy, or because you just don't know how to accomplish it. The documentation that came with the game is too sparse to be helpful. Funcom's web site documentation is hard to find, dated, and also not very helpful. There is an official strategy guide by Sybex which is better organized, but full of inaccuracies. I would recommend reading all three before trying to manage the interface, or the game.

Customer Support
Customer support is most noticeable by its absence. Funcom decided not to provide any support by phone for the game. There are two official channels, and one unofficial channel for support. You may send them e-mail, but this avenue has been plagued by backlogs, virus infected servers and outages. You may also petition in-game staff for help, however, this too has been plagued by backlogs, and most of the support staff has limited ability.

The unofficial channel is to post on the main Anarchy Online site's message boards, but those boards have deteriorated into flaming and grandstanding as posters try anything to get the attention of staff. Although important responses from Funcom staff about game issues have appeared on the boards, they often get buried somewhere in the maelstrom. To the credit of Funcom's staff, despite high tempers and severe problems, I have never seen any communication on the boards, or in announcements, that was anything other than polite, respectful and calm. The one time I received in-game support, the tone was the same. However, I have received no replies to any of my in-game petitions in the last five weeks, including cases where I eventually had to kill and even delete my characters in order to continue play. Recent official communications from Funcom indicate that they are aware that they have problems with support, communication of information, and documentation. They have promised improvement in all of these areas.

Enjoyment:

There are some problems. For example, exploitation of glitches abounds. I cheerfully admit that I duplicated my complete inventory twice without even trying, early in the game. In addition to item duplication, there have been other manipulations to gain extra experience, currency and other in-game rewards. While many of the worst ways of taking advantage of bugs have been addressed, I still duplicated items twice recently, completely by accident. I shudder to think what might have been possible had I been trying to cheat. The item database has obvious and acknowledged corruption. You may find corrupted items as treasure. Previously-good items can become corrupted after zoning, putting them in a bag, or placing them on the ground. Recently, some trade skill items have been corrupting as they are made: the primary weapon of my main character became unusable. In addition to these problems, there are some monster A.I. issues and imbalances in the classes and items. However, Funcom does seem to be addressing these in recent game patches.

When I'm not ready to strangle it, I really enjoy the game. In the last couple of weeks, stability and the more severe problems have improved. For me, at least, the game is a keeper, now that I can enjoy my game time. I am looking forward to the story line starting, developing my character, honing my playing skills in a new system, and working on finding new friends and a place inside the game community in time for the plot's start. Once you get a chance to explore the game, the thought that went into many of the design decisions does show. There is a place for the casual player, the role player, the time-limited player, the merchant, the power player and the warmonger here. The game has a lot to offer.

Multiplayer:

Community and Social Aspects
This game is multiplayer only, so you would expect the game to encourage social interaction and foster community. At first glance, Anarchy Online has many such features, including a chat system with multiple channels (including private ones), and in-game functions to create, maintain and run player-made organizations. Grouping is encouraged both by a class-based system, and by a generous experience award to groups. Yet the reality is that right now this is the game's biggest weakness. The chat channels are only available in towns, and are frequently down. Due to the high polygon count problem in towns, the distance at which you see other players has been reduced. You also have the option to reduce it further, and in order to be in town you will often need to do this. The people are there, but sometimes you can't see them or hear them. Player organizations are very hard to create or maintain due to bugs. Game play design does reward grouping, but without chat to meet people and find groups, it's difficult. Due to stability issues, many players decided to not even try finding groups in the early weeks. The generous experience bonus to groups can paradoxically work to limit your grouping time. Experience is increased, but the money and rewards must be shared. You may find yourself slipping behind in the game-designed curve to upgrade your items but with no cash to do so, if you spend too much of your time in groups. Even assuming you start with a group of friends from outside the game, random starting locations, chat outages and buggy organization tools will make working together difficult.

Economy
An interesting quirk of MMORPGs is that they do develop economies. The game seems to be designed to allow you to easily generate currency and items in the beginning. It looks to be balanced with considerable money-sinks to remove the currency later. This offers hope for a long-term viable in-game economy. It is too early in the game to know if it works yet, but it's a good sign to see that an economy is planned.

What to do
So, you're in the game. What do you do? You may hunt solo or in a group. Trade skills do not offer enough experience to be a profession (they're more of a hobby), so some other form of advancement will be needed. Anarchy Online includes custom-generated missions. These are really semi-dynamic mini-dungeons, which are generated according to parameters the player specifies at mission terminals. If you achieve the goals within the specified timeframe you will get a reward. At some point, almost every player will make use of them. They are, by far, the best way of gaining cash and items at the start. While very novel at first, you do eventually get used to them. However, if it's a slow day or you only have a short while to play - they are wonderful. In theory, missions can be done in groups, and players can also generate missions for other players. In practice, the group generating mission terminals are usually down and undocumented. If you find a working terminal, the process needed to get the whole group into the mission is time-consuming and cumbersome. So far, no one I know has figured out how to make a player-generated mission.

Roleplaying
In a game billed as an MMORPG and advertising a four-year story arc, it's fair to ask what in game features support roleplaying. The list is long. The game does offer housing: an apartment is available to each character at the start. You can find bars, clubs and parks. Clothing is available for almost any occasion, from swimwear to trenchcoats, white boxers with pink spots to catsuits, formal dress uniforms and wedding dresses. There are stores that sell clothing, home furnishings, food and drink. The character models also can do a wide-range of animated gestures. As for the story arc, it is not scheduled to start until after the game is released in the rest of Europe and Asia later this year, so it cannot be reviewed at this time.

PvP (Player vs. Player combat)
This game is designed with PvP as an option, with rules of engagement that are designed to make PvP more fun (with the notable exception of the rules for neutral characters). There is no separate server with its own rule set as in other games. No starting zones are PvP, and there are ample non-PvP zones available to build up your character before trying PvP. In the non-PvP zones, there are combat arenas that allow the player to test a character's combat readiness against other players. Even though player kills may be looted, players have the option to insure against losing items and experience by saving at an insurance terminal before combat.

Funcom has stated that it's possible to play and enjoy the game while avoiding PvP, but they hope that the conflict-based plot and the player's ability to control risk will tempt more to try PvP. It's clear from the game design that they put a bit of thought into this, and it might even be tempting, if it was working as designed. However, don't even think about PvP unless your system and network connection exceeds the recommended specs. Funcom's promise that the player can control the risk is broken quickly. Since there is no documentation, you won't know you've encountered a PvP zone until after you've entered it: you may get the message that your character is in a PvP area about the time you get your death message. Any items or experience gained since your last insurance may have been lost. Eventually, you will know where the PvP zones are. However, since some insurance terminals are buggy, even proper preparation may not reduce your risk.

Assuming that you knew you were entering a PvP area, saved at terminal known to be working properly, and were otherwise prepared, will you then encounter a level and fun playing field? Not always. Without detailing all the cheats, tactics, and exploits, there are ways around most of the game's designed rules of engagement. The player's character may be killed by a much higher level character within seconds, whom you would think shouldn't be able to attack you. You could also be killed by a lower level character using suspicious methods that prevent you from retaliating. In short, this isn't fun. In my experience, most players are not openly cheating, so PvP can be fun - until you run into someone who is. Often, PvP areas aren't instant death. In fact, many are empty these days.

Overall Impression:

Anarchy Online is both very ambitious and more complex than it first appears. The game seems designed to be a lot more than the first MMORPG set in a science fiction setting. The game's general design is well thought out. It does live up to its unofficial subtitle as the first of the second generation MMORPGs. Or rather, it will, if Funcom can get it all working. Ambitious, complex projects are always difficult to pull off. Right now, it's a good game that has issues. If they can continue to fix their problems, it could become a really incredible game.

I am left with the impression that the Anarchy Online team wasn't fully prepared. The quality of the launch wasn't impressive, and the habit of breaking items and reintroducing old bugs with patches was unprofessional. Yet, this same team seems to be handling their problems in a professional manner. They have stated the launch did not go well, and openly admitted that the patch issues were inexcusable. They have fixed a lot or severe problems already, and they are still scrambling. Can they pull it off? Maybe. When I first met this game I hated it, but now I really like it.

While I think the game would be suitable for casual players; I would urge caution until an accurate game play document appears somewhere. And despite a rating of teen, the game is about a war and quite a bit of adult content is present. Conservative parents of young teens may want to look closely at this game before letting their child play. For right now, if you like MMORPGs, science-fiction settings and can handle a game with the issues stated in this review, it is worth the ride.

Marketing Efforts Towards Women:

This game meets all of my requirements for being female-friendly. Here is a list of some aspects that those interested in playing a female character may find of interest:

Realistic women figures are in the background story on both sides of the conflict, and are mentioned in object descriptions as soldiers and inventors as well as doctors. The armor looks like armor when worn. The few armor parts that do have exposed areas state in the item description that they are poor quality and are nothing more than clothes with added protection. If a male avatar wears armor or clothing, and then a female avatar puts it on, it looks like the same thing on both avatars. At no time does character creation or game play force the player to dress his or her avatar in less clothing than would be reasonable for the circumstances. The player can choose to have an avatar with curves or without. If the player increases the bust size on his or her avatar, the hips, thighs and other character proportions increase as well in a realistic way; this is also true if the player decides to decrease it. The player has a choice of facial features. These may be attractive, ugly, young, or old; dreamy, cute, serious, outlandish or mean, and all come in a variety of skin tones. The choice of gender has no effect on character abilities. The one race whose gender was listed as "male only" during beta was changed to "androgynous" at release (this was the only obvious effort to be female friendly).

This game seems designed for release in the global market, and to both sexes. The equality of the apparel actually can be very fun. In some ways, this game places the shoe on the other foot. For example, one of the poor quality armor parts lets a bit of buttock hang out, while another looks like red fishnet on the character's legs. However, both have that look whether on a male or female avatar. Players also now have to make the choice of whether to go without leg armor until they find a better part, or to wear something that looks like red fishnet hose. Those gamers who prefer a wide choice of body types and looks will find the option of playing the Opifex breed a nice change of pace. At rest, the male Opifex avatars look thin, wiry and poised with a ballet dancer's grace. The game delivers what most women and many men have been asking for: choices.

Don't get the wrong impression. Female armor may not look like a steel bikini, but a "steel bikini" is in the game and may be worn as clothing. If I want to express myself by wearing one on my female avatar, I am free to do so. Should a male avatar choose to put one on, then it will still look exactly like a male in a steel bikini! The sight of a huge, hulking, brutish Atrox carrying a large gun and wearing a tiny white thong is, well, very funny, and a refreshing change of pace.

Additional Links:

Official Site
AO Basher
Anarchy Lore
Anarchy Online Stratics
Anarchy Online at AllaKhazam's Magical Realm
Rubi-Ka Broadcasting Corporation (requires Flash)