This is an amazingly well-done mobile clone of the hit MMORPG World of Warcraft. There's just no better explanation!
www.youtube.com/FoxeoGames
Wow… that's what I think about when I play this game, and it has more than one meaning. Yes, it's an amazing game and very well done, but there's another meaning to the word WoW: the acronym for World of Warcraft. Yes I know, everyone compares other MMORPGs way too much to the ultra-hit title from Blizzard, but it's impossible to avoid it with this game.
Order and Chaos is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game, or MMORPG for short.
You play the role of a character that continues to grow and evolve over time within a persistent game world where other players are doing the same. You level up your character by killing monsters and other creatures, or by questing: accepting tasks from non-player characters in the game and then completing those quests for both experience and other rewards, such as new weapons and armor or gold.
You start the game by choosing one of two factions, just like in World of Warcraft. The Humans and Elves belong to the Order faction, and the Orcs and Undeads belong to Chaos (and yes, all four of these classes look very similar in Blizzard's game). All races are able to be any of the limited but sufficient four classes available. All classes have two "talent trees," which make them play significantly differently depending on which one you choose to invest in. The Monk seems to be able to focus on a combination of physical and magic-based combat, or go with a healing role. The Warrior can choose to either be a tank character, or the typical close-up damage dealer. The Ranger can specialize in ranged damage, or with more close-up rogue-like combat, including a sneak ability. Finally, the mage can focus on fire-based spell damage from a distance, or frost-based spells that concentrate more on crowd control of multiple monsters.
As with all MMORPGs, you share the experience of the game with others, in both good and bad ways. You can party up with friends to make questing easier, and parties are the only way to complete dungeons with special bosses at the end. You are, of course, welcome to quest and kill baddies alone, but that defeats the purpose of playing an online game. Playing with friends is easy, since you can add them to your friends list and receive notification when they are online.
The gameplay in this game is solid, and if you've ever played another finely crafted MMORPG, you know what to expect. There are of course the usual bugs you'd expect with a fairly new entry in the online scene, such as bad guys that bug out and become impossible to kill, as well as some quests suddenly becoming impossible to complete. Overall I did not experience enough glitches to make it more than a minor annoyance, and it certainly doesn't detract significantly from my enjoyment of the game. Everything in this game that I tried out just seemed to work well together. I've played as a Monk, Warrior, and Mage, and my wife played the game as a Ranger, and I can say that all four classes seem balanced and fun to play. I think it's safe to say that you can expect more classes to come in the near future.
I had few problems with the polished controls in this game. Occasionally I end up not clicking on something I mean to, or clicking on something else, but that's unavoidable with a game played on such a small screen. You can touch anywhere on the left side of the screen and drag to use the virtual joystick, and the right side of the screen turns the camera. The buttons are generally easy to hit, though you may from time to time hit something you didn't mean to.
The graphics are incredibly reminiscent of World of Warcraft, and especially apparent with the Undead race that looks nearly identical in both games. Character designs, weapons and armor, monsters, and more are all very much similar to what you would see if World of Warcraft were scaled down to fit on your smartphone. This is not a bad thing, not at all; the cartoony graphics are bright and make it easy to identify everything inside the game world, and I rarely experienced any significant slow-down.
The social elements of the game are no more less polished than the graphics and controls. You can chat either locally, globally, in your party (called a team), and more. You can use a limited selection of emotes, and typing text uses whatever input system your device is configured for. There is no in-game voice chat, but perhaps they'll add this later. I personally feel fine without it.
While both my wife and I have enjoyed playing this game solo and in a party, there are a few catches. First, you have to pay for this game up-front; there is no free download and no free gametime whatsoever. I think this is a huge mistake, because there's no doubt in my mind that Gameloft would get even more subscribers with a free trial that allows you to purchase the game and continue to play where you left off. After you pay $6.99 for the game, you get three months of playtime before you must subscribe at a rate of $0.99 a month. There is a modest discount for subscribing for multiple month packages.
Additionally, a recent update has made it possible to purchase powerful high-level gear by doing nothing more than paying real life currency. This is disappointing for those who put value on the game itself and the effort put into improving your character. Sure, it's Gameloft's choice to let consumers choose how they want to play, but this could easily cheapen the experience for everyone, and put pressure on gamers who value time-invested to just forego the hard work and fork out cash for top-notch gear.
Furthermore, the game refused to play on anything but Wifi for me. I couldn't use my 4-bars of 3G to do anything, since the game seemed to do a check for Wifi and if it wasn't present, it refused to connect. Some people claim to have connected via 3g or 4G, but I had no luck doing so. Don't plan on playing this anywhere that you don't have wifi access.
If you enjoy MMORPGs, are think you'd like to give one a chance, there's no doubt that Order & Chaos is the among the cheapest pay-to-play games on the market. After all, with so much done right and the basic gameplay so fun, how you can go wrong paying $7 for 90 days?