The Path of a Warrior E3 2005 Hands-On Report

Mobile gaming is really, really big in Korea. Even though Japan is the birthplace of the mobile lifestyle and still has the most advanced technology, and even though Europe is a much larger market, Koreans are probably the most enthusiastic and passionate people about mobile games (partly, no doubt, because mobile development is actually subsidized by the Korean government). No matter the cause, Korean developers, like Gamevil, make some of the most ambitious mobile games in the world. Take The Path of a Warrior, for instance. This massively multiplayer online action role-playing game is richer in scope and content than all but a handful of mobile games we've seen, and the multiplayer technology it uses can probably go up against the best Japanese mobile games.

How complex, exactly, is The Path of a Warrior? For one thing, playing the game to its full extent actually requires you to use two different client programs: a game that contains the massive single-player scenario and a special network client. The idea is to play the single-player game to build up your character, upload your data to Gamevil's central server, and then download it again to the network client. Once you're on one of Korea's high-speed EVDO networks (the same technology that powers Verizon's V Cast), you can duel against other players in real time, or you can even join in cooperative missions.

The single-player game is phenomenally deep, too. The Path of a Warrior is based on the Chinese historical epic "Romance of the Three Kingdoms," a 600-year-old treatise that details the classical Han Dynasty period of the Middle Kingdom. It's a mythic tale of power, intrigue, and warfare that's still the most popular novel in most of Asia, in terms of sales. (Think of a Lord of the Rings-type saga based on Chinese history.)

If that kind of source material is to be done justice, it requires a Herculean effort from the development side. Gamevil's mobile version of the tale features 100 different characters, more than 1,000 collectible items, more than 100 stages, and 24 different endings, based upon which decisions you make during play. The gameplay itself is standard overhead action adventure fare, with light RPG elements, like stat-building. We tried a level in which groups of soldiers attacked our hero from all directions. A simple press of the action key beat them back with our sword, while special techniques and dash commands were accessible via the number keys. At one point, we switched out our sword for a poleaxe-like weapon, which appeared in our character's hands and provided a much slower, but more powerful, attack. After defeating a boss character, we were given an opportunity to choose one of two paths after encountering a fork in the road. Presumably, this is the method by which you decide who your character fights for and against, and it also probably dictates which ending you see at the end of the game.

Gamevil has no plans to bring The Path of a Warrior to the US at this time, because it feels the material is too esoteric to appeal to American audiences. However, company representatives held out the prospect that a modified version of the game could appear here at some point in the future, using a Roman or Greek mythical motif in place of the Chinese epic. We'll be sure to follow the progress of this game very closely in the coming months, and we'll provide you with more previews if it appears to get any closer to a US release.