Asheron's Call Beta Preview by Strider

Published By: Microsoft

10/20/99

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Enter a New World:

I have to start off by saying that although I have played many many games, I tend to stay away from the role playing game genre. Even though games like Diablo and Baldur's Gate have been hugely popular and successful, I personally was disappointed by them both. Heresy? Not so. Although I don't like either of those games, I could tell within a short time of playing that they are fantastic games. It's just that for me, something was always missing, some intangible element that left me feeling unsatisfied.

After staying up for three nights in a row until 4:00AM playing Asheron's Call, I have found that "something" I was missing: Massive multiplayer interaction. As I write this review, over 2,250 people are playing Asheron's Call together in the land of Dereth, on the Beta World Red server (twitch twitch...must play..no...must write pre-view). Our local RPG expert will be writing a full review around the time of the release of the retail version of the game, in November of 1999. Meanwhile, yours' truly will describe Asheron's Call more from the perspective of a newbie RPG player. For the die hard RPG players, whet your appetite.

Gameplay:

Large multiplayer RPG's are not a new thing. The original ones started as MUD'S (multi-user dungeons), and were completely text based. A MUD is part quest, and part chat. It is fair to say a MUD is very much like being on IRC, but with added missions and goals to complete. As technology improved, later titles like Ultima On-line and EverQuest brought to the table graphics and other goodies players wanted. One of the biggest draws of these types of games is the interaction with real players.

In Asheron's Call, as in most RPG's, before you begin play you must generate your own personalized character. To start with, you have the choice of one of three races (or Heritage groups): Aluvians, Sho, or Gharu'ndim. After that you can totally customize your characters look, in terms of hair, sex, eyes, facial features, clothes, and skin. You can choose to start with a pre-roled character like an Archer or Life Mage, or create your own customized character. Whether you decide to customize your character or start with a pre-roled one, you will be able to spread points across your characters strength, stamina, endurance, and more. Finally, you are able to select various skills that you want your character to specialize in. These skills include spell casting, weaponry, and other abilities like lock picking. There are over 30 skills to choose from, but you will have a limited amount of points to spread around, so choose wisely. After you've finished generating your character, you'll be ready to enter the land of Dereth.

Inside Dereth:

You are allowed to choose from a number of entry points to start off in the game. The land of Dereth includes training areas were newbies can go through a tutorial describing fighting, magic use, and more. The actual world you start off in is absolutely huge, and I mean unbelievably huge. I have read that it takes as long as 14 hours to run across the entire length of the world. On a number of excursions I spent an entire hour running from one town to the next. This may sound like it would be boring, but it truly isn't. Remember, there are literally thousands of other players in Dereth that you can interact with. Not to mention the countless horde of baddies you'll fight (and run from). Spread throughout the world are a number of portals that you can use to travel more quickly from one area to the next. A coordinate based mapping system always shows you the position you are at, so you can write it down and return later. Besides finding monsters to fight, specific quests can be taken that will lead you to forsaken lands and mysterious places. Turbine games promises they will continually add to the map, creating new quests and other features.

The towns in Dereth are a central location where players meet to talk, strategize, and buy goods. While I'm speaking of players meeting in towns, it would be appropriate for me to discuss the social aspects of the game. There are two main ways to create specials groups of players. One is through fellowships, the other is through allegiances. If you join in a fellowship with another player or groups of players, your group will share the gaining of experience points and other rewards. In the allegiance system, players will swear fealty (or have fealty sworn to them). A social hierarchy is developed, as more players join the allegiance and other characters move up in the ranks. Players with higher titles will have access to special armor and other items only afforded to players of their rank. Both the great strength and potential pitfalls I see with this game are within this aspect of the game. Being a member of a fellowship or being part of an allegiance is crucial for your character to gain experience points. More importantly, large groups of players banded together will be able to take on much more interesting missions and monsters. Playing Asheron's Call by yourself is much less interesting in my opinion. If you prefer playing by yourself, or if you are very shy, you may find yourself disappointed with Asheron's Call.

Multiplayer:

You will only be able to play Asheron's Call on-line, at Microsoft's Gaming Zone exclusively. In addition to the cost of the game, a ten dollar monthly fee for playing at the Gaming Zone will be issued (The first month of play is free when you buy the game). I hope the fee doesn't get raised to higher than ten dollars, because a certain cheapskate friend of mine is already complaining about having to pay that much. Even though certainly some people would pay more than ten dollars a month, a higher cost would diminish its appeal.

Links for more Details:

Turbine Games: http://www.turbinegames.com
Microsoft's Asheron's Call Homepage: GameZone
Map of Dereth and much more: AC Vault
AC Stratics: http://ac.stratics.com

Demo Information: GameSpot

In-game screenshots:
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