Anarchy Online story begins

Funcom has announced the launch of the storyline of its massively multiplayer role-playing game, Anarchy Online. The story will be told through a series of animated 15-minute movie episodes that will feature central characters from the game, and it will give players hints about upcoming in-game events and new game content. The first movie episode can be downloaded from the official Anarchy Online story Web site.

The first episode is fully animated and features voice acting for the central characters in the game, including Eleena Oak, Henry Radiman, Joshua Kahn, and Philip Ross. The story will be told not only through the animated episodes, but also through additions and changes to the game and in-game story-based events. Since the movie episodes are closely related to the Anarchy Online game, players will be able to affect their outcome. In the future, Funcom hopes to include central players from the game in the movie episodes, both to reward the players' dedication to the game and reinforce the link between the game and the story episodes. The game's current storyline is scheduled to run until October 2005.

Anarchy Online was launched in June. For more information, take a look at our full review of the game and download the new story episode from the game's official Web site.