Gen Con 2002Asheron's Call 2: Fallen Kings impressions
We take a look at Turbine Entertainment's online RPG sequel in motion.
We visited with Microsoft Game Studios at Gen Con 2002 and saw Asheron's Call 2: Fallen Kings in motion. The game will be the sequel to Turbine Entertainment's 1999 online role-playing game Asheron's Call, and it will take place many years after the events in the original game. The colorful fantasy world of Dereth lies in ruins, and player characters will begin their lives in the newly devastated world.
Fortunately, players will have many more tools and options at their disposal to help them restore their world to its former glory. Unlike the original Asheron's Call, which let players play as only humans, the sequel will let players play as the hunchbacked tumeroks and the powerfully muscled lugian race as well. We watched a high-level lugian character travel through the colorful countryside, which was rendered by Turbine's powerful proprietary Asheron's Call 2 engine. The engine looked formidable when we first saw it at E3 2001, and in practice, it does a great job rendering colorful, detailed outdoor areas that are full of swaying polygonal trees and fields of individually rendered blades of grass. The engine will let players play the game from a default third-person view or a first-person view, and it will also let players zoom the camera out high above their characters so they can see the lay of the land around them, like a map. And, of course, Asheron's Call 2 will also have a full minimap.
More importantly, Asheron's Call 2 will have a number of features that should help make the game much more exciting and interactive than the typically repetitive routine that many players expect from online role-playing games. For instance, rather than having individual, linear skills that need to constantly be improved, the sequel will split trade skills from combat skills. Combat skills may be improved only by spending character points each time a character gains a level, while trade skills may be improved only by use. But AC2's trade skills won't require tedious, time-consuming repetition. Instead, players will gain a certain amount of experience when crafting each individual item. For example, you'll need to successfully create five pairs of gauntlets to start making better types of gauntlets, rather than deal with the time-consuming task of having to gain a certain number of points in a general armor-crafting skill. Combat skills, on the other hand, will be governed by players investing skill points into various individual skills. As in Dark Age of Camelot, players will be able to unlock new skills by spending enough points in the requisite areas. For instance, at level 15, characters who have made the appropriate investment of skill points can learn the powerful dual-wield skill.
It's clear that Turbine is attempting to make fighting in Asheron's Call 2 much more interesting than it was in the original game. The original game's high, low, and mid attacks have been removed in the sequel in favor of special attacks that can be triggered using hotkeys and cost a certain amount of vigor to use. If they absolutely, positively want to, players can still track down weaker enemies, turn on auto-attack, and then sit back and watch their character exchange blows with the enemy. However, the development team hopes that players will take advantage of special attacks, which, like Dark Age of Camelot's special abilities, can be keyed off each other in combination attacks. Monsters will also give telltale cues when they're attempting to cast a spell or use a special ability--in cases like these, astute players will be able to take advantage of the opening with a well-timed special attack and may cause a considerable amount bonus damage. These openings may mean the difference between life and death in fights between player characters and evenly matched monsters.
Asheron's Call 2 looks extremely impressive, and it's clearly attempting to improve upon its predecessor in many ways. The game is currently scheduled for this holiday season, but you can get more information on Asheron's Call 2: Fallen Kings by consulting our previous coverage .
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- Microsoft Game Studios
- Turbine Inc.
- Fantasy Online...
- Release: Nov 20, 2002
- ESRB: Mature
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