Norwegian developer Funcom showed us an early build of its upcoming massively multiplayer online role-playing game, Anarchy Online. We were impressed. Not only will the game be the very first of its kind to use a futuristic, sci-fi setting, but it'll also feature a number of solutions to the shortcomings of current MMORPGs.

For instance, Anarchy Online will combat the common practice of "camping," or sitting in one place and waiting for enemies with good loot to respawn, in a number of ways. For starters, the game will let you randomly generate "dungeon" areas to adventure in; you'll be able to generate custom-tailored areas on the fly so that you won't be forced to frequent a single, specific area that yields good loot and experience points. In addition, Anarchy Online will also let you create your own quests for other players, for which you can provide your own rewards. You can make your own quests surprisingly complex. These and other quests in the game seem focused on social interaction and on distinguishing your character from others by means of reputation.

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As mentioned, Anarchy Online will take place in a futuristic setting. The entire game will unfold on a remote mining colony called Rubi-Ka. According to the game's story, Rubi-Ka is largely a barren and inhospitable planet for humans, but it's rich in resources, especially those that power the universe's highly advanced nanotechnology. A greedy supercorporation known as OmniTek learns of Rubi-Ka's potential and purchases the entire planet outright, then establishes city settlements all along the planet's surface. This intrusion doesn't sit well with the indigenous miners of the planet, many of whom decide to rebel. OmniTek zealously defends its holdings against full-scale rebel offensives, but lacks the time or resources to track down covert rebel operations.

As such, in Anarchy Online, stealth, politics, and secrecy will be as important as heavy armor and a good blaster. You'll be able to advance in the ranks of either the OmniTek corporation or the Rubi-Ka rebels not only as a soldier but also as a doctor, a nanotechnician (a specialist in nanotechnology, Anarchy Online's futuristic equivalent of magic), or a spy.

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Anarchy Online sounds good in theory, but the build on display at the show actually looked quite good as well. Each of the game's cities and wilderness areas was at least as detailed as those of current massively multiplayer online RPGs (in many cases, more so). The demonstration also included a number of nice-looking visual effects, including dynamic weather, day and night cycles (full sunrises and sunsets), and detailed water effects. In addition, we saw how the game's characters will look: Each was carefully motion-captured, and the character we followed was equipped with a powerful flamethrower and surrounded by glowing nanotechnology effects.

Anarchy Online looked good but sounded even better. The game is scheduled to undergo a rigorous beta test this summer, and it will likely be released toward the end of the year - and hopefully it'll live up to its tremendous potential.
 

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