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30 June 2011
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Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games, more commonly known as MMORPG's, create an enormous chunk of the gaming community. From World of Wacraft to Aion and everything in between, people spend days on end sitting at their keyboards tapping away as they and all their new international friends try and destroy whatever evil entity has spawned from the newest pit. These kind of game generate around 1.5 billion (yes, billion) dollars per year, and people of almost every age play them. But what if you didn't need to be stuck on a computer screen to participate in something like this? What if you could just jump on you iPhone or iPad and have a whirl?
Well, you know the answer to that - you can. Enter Order & Chaos Online by Gameloft. O&CO is an epic online role playing game that offers an enormous amount of game for a minimum amount of money, while giving the maximum level of fantasticness. What does it do that I should rave about it so much? Read on to find out.
First up I'll just explain the basic idea of the game - there's an enormous world to explore, and it's our job to do just that. On your way around the world you'll meet both NPC's (non player characters) and actual players. NPC's do a wide range of things, from giving quests, to selling or buying goods. They'll sell everything from two handed swords, health potions, magical trousers or even a miniature skeleton pet. Almost everything you can buy you can collect, but it really comes down to how lazy you are - are you willing to explore the world over to try and find a magical dagger, or would you rather pay exhorbidant amounts of gold for it?
Virtual gold, that is. Not real gold. Although that also depends on how lazy you are - you can either earn gold by killing bandits and doing quests, or you can just fork out of our own non-virtual pocket and pay outright for it. And you may well be tempted to do that, since some things get quite expensive. Once you get the hang of the currency and where the best cash can be found, it's not too hard to save for that baby wolf pet you've been wanting.
So how does the game look, I hear you ask? Well, it looks almost identical to WoW. It doesn't try to be realistic, so opts instead for more of a cartoony approach to things. There's blood, but not much, and it could easily be mistaken for sparks or even just your typical bam! kind of red effect.
But it's not so cartoony that you won't be able to appreciate the scenery, which is unfortunately limited mainly to grassland/forest and a kind of wasteland desert for your earlier levels. To advance to more diverse surroundings, you'll have to progress through the game, and seeing how that's the entire point, you won't really have to go out of your way to find new areas. Things can seem a little same looking for a start, but after a while you'll start to recognise mountains and streams, and you'll be able to find your way around nicely.
As far as character customization, you have a choice of 4 races; Humans, Elves, Orcs and the Undead. Each of those have both a male and a female option, and you can further customize by choosing a face, skin colour, hair style, and hair colour. So it's not the same level you might be used to in some games, but it's definitely enough to get you someone you can feel happy with.
PvP can be initiated at anytime, so long as both players agree to the scrap. Trust me, you don't want to scrap with either of these guys.
The game itself is bustling. I chose one of the quieter servers to play on, and there's plenty of people there to lend a hand. And this is where the game gets really great. I'll give you an example; You're given a quest to kill the goblins pet ogre. Thing is, the troll is a level 10 and you're only a level 6. Plus he's got little goblins to help him out, and you've got no one. At a time like that you have two choices; one, you could leave the quest for a while, and sound hours in the forest killing pigs to try and raise your level. Or choice two, you find other people who are wanting to kill that same troll, and band together to take him down. And that's where the tactics of classes come into it. You could have a Warrior for brute force, a Ranger for distance shooting, a Mage to strengthen everyone, and a Monk to heal everybody. That, obviously, is the ideal team. So there ya go, when you need to kill that troll, you know exactly who to be looking for...
But it's not all happy joy. There are a few problems here and there, with odd glitch showing up occasionally, as well as the obvious issues that come with multiplayer games like this. There's a thing called global chat, which is used to talk about anything. And I mean anything. While Gameloft themselves have tried to censor a lot of words, people find ways around it to say what they want to. It may not be a problem to everyone, and it can be turned off, but it's something parents may want to be wary of if their children are going to be playing it.
And last up, the obvious issue of price. Everybody who plays MMO's know that almost all of them charge a monthly fee, and O&CO is no different. It'll set you back $10 for the game itself, and that grants you three months of membership. After that you'll have to pay a rather modest $1 a month to keep your account running. That's a heck of a lot more affordable than most others out there, and in my opinion, it's just as good.
So what do have altogethe? Well, in my opinion, you've got one of the most addictive games on the app store. You've got a game that'll drain your bank account dollar by dollar, and you'll love every minute if it. You've got a game that oozes a brilliant social vibe. And, depending how far through the game you are, you've got one stinking hard to kill troll that needs slaying. Add to that the ability to play the game in all it's glory on any recent iOS device, as well as the distinct possibility of future expansion packs, and you've got a winner. A real winner.
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