Air Rivals represents a triumph in persistent player versus player combat and MMO gaming.
Korean MMO's are typically not story driven, but Air Rivals differentiates itself enough to warrant compliments. In the future, a civil war is erupting between two rival factions trying to control of resources, and it's up to individual players to decide which faction deserves their loyalty. At the beginning of your characters development, this may seem like a somewhat superfluous choice considering it merely effects your grinding, but after a few levels it transforms into one of the most engaging and exciting pvp arenas constructed in online gaming.
Veterans of Freelancer are going to feel instantly at home with the gameplay, which is action oriented and allows skilled players to engage higher level monsters and other players. The mouse will guide your Gear (flying craft) and using A,S, and D respectively will strafe or slow down. There are also options to use boosters and stop your craft entirely, making dogfighting unpredictable and rewarding. In addition, just like similar mmo's, you will gain skills dependant on your choice of craft which can alter damage dealt, defense, speed, direction, and so forth. When put together, these variables make grinding more bearable, and makes pvp a prize worth playing for.
All together there are four crafts to choose from in Air Rivals. The I-Gear is an extremely fast and agile interceptor, great for one on one's. The B-Gear is the bomber, and extremely effective anti-tank unit with high damage. The antithesis is the A-Gear, a flying tank that can land and pound on it's enemies from large distances with little risk to itself. Last but not least, the M-Gear is a support vehicle with the ability to restore shields, armor, and give large stat bonuses to it's group. Every gear has it's strengths and weaknesses, and in PVP it's the well rounded groups that defeat the lone wolf every time.
The game is free to download and to play, making it extremely accessible by anyone with an internet connection. Currently there is a system implemented that allows you to pay for items in the game with real money, but this won't offset non-paying players in any particular area.
Visually the game accomplishes what it sets out to do, with varied animations and appearances for weapons, villains, ships, and areas. It won't wow and amaze on any level, but it works very well. The music and sound are the weakest parts, and for the most part you'll play with both turned off.
Air rivals is free, unique, and fun in a market currently saturated with fantasy clones. The effort put into the imagination and execution of this game's elements are apparent from start to finish, and for the MMO starved player looking for something new and fun, the war between ANI and BCU is calling you.