Great game play modes and new jobs for established players.

User Rating: 8 | Final Fantasy XI: Treasures of Aht Urhgan PC
Final Fantasy XI: Treasures of Aht Urhgan is the third expansion in the MMORPG Final Fantasy XI and so far is probably the best and most expansive addition to the world of Vana'diel. With the addition of three new jobs, two new game play modes, and an entire new city to explore, it gives almost every player something new to experience, though only for a select demographic of the population.

Before you can experience anything Aht Urhgan has to offer, players have to earn a pass for the boat ride to the new continent. In a good design move, SquareEnix created three levels of difficulty for the quest, allowing a wide variety of players to complete it. Once in the new city, the new options are even further limited by required mission completions, though lower players can still complete them with a higher degree of difficulty.

The new advanced jobs offer something completely new (and much needed) to FFXI: customization and an element of randomness. Previous to the expansion's release, party structures have been fairly rigid with little room for alternatives. Blue Mage, Corsair, and Puppet Master all offer a greater degree of flexibility than any previous job. Blue Mage learns its abilities from monsters and has a limited spell list forcing the player to swap abilities based on the situation. Corsair has the ability to enhance the party, though with a random-black jack gambling system leading to either a large bonus or a detrimental effect depending on how a player uses the class. Puppet Master is the most unique with the ability to summon, control, and customize an automaton with a large variety of parts that have different abilities allowing the puppet to heal, cast offensive spells, or deal physical damage using melee or ranged attacks.

The two new game play modes, Besieged and Assault, are by far the most interesting additions to FFXI. Besieged is an event where one of the three enemy armies in the land of Aht Urhgan attack the city. Adventurers must rush to defend a central object from the invaders and repel them. As of the writing of this review, a Besieged event has yet to occur due to the number of adventurers in the area. In a very interesting step, SquareEnix has allowed for the enemy armies to both build up and be taken apart in preemptive actions called Assault. In Assault an adventurer who has met certain prerequisites can undertake a mission to one of five areas against the enemy armies. These missions consist of elimination, rescue, and escort and successful completion of them rewards the players with points that can be spent on equipment.

As usual, design, sound, and music for this expansion continue Final Fantasy's typical high quality. Unfortunately, the graphics are showing their age. Taking into consideration that the engine was designed more than four years ago for the Playstation 2, the graphics are excellent. However, compared to more recent offerings, they fall short.

With the concurrent release of the expansion for the PC and PS2 versions (both versions several years into their life) and the newest addition of the X-Box 360 there exist a balancing issue between new and old players. Forced with the choice of rewarding long-established players with challenging and interesting content without alienating the new players, SquareEnix has done the best job as of yet. Where as Chains of Promethia attempted to include new players by capping the levels in certain mission areas, Treasures of Aht Urhgan has scaled the difficulty of the new content, allowing players as low as level fifty to participate.

Though Treasures of Aht Urhgan is a framework expansion for a significant amount of content to be released at later dates, there is enough present to justify purchasing regardless of level or experience. Aht Urhgan is the breath of fresh game play that Final Fantasy XI has needed for a long time. The ability to participate and alter the game world through actions in the new game play modes fosters a new sense of belonging to a world already rich in culture and story.