A few people have been wondering where I have been all weekend. I haven't been signed on MSN or ICQ! Is it possible that I got a life and stayed away from my computer for more than 50 seconds?!
Sadly, the answer is no! Quite the opposite in fact; I…have a new game! A new game for me invariably means a day or two locked away in a room with vast quantities of caffeine and a porta-potty until I complete it! I know, I'm a super dork…but who better to review games, eh?
"So what is this new game?" I hear you cry!
"Why, 'tis Dark Age of Camelot!" I reply groggily, trying to stay awake.
Dark Age of Camelot is one of the many MMORPG's that are currently appearing in shops. For those of you not in the know, MMORPG stands for Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game.
Massively because it is MASSIVE. There is somewhere in the region of 2000 players on just one of the two British servers alone. There are 3 French servers and 3 German servers as well, each with a similar amount of players online at any given time.
Multiplayer because…well, its multiplayer.
Online because…well, I think you get the idea...
Anyway, onto the game itself. DAoC is set in the time of King Arthur, shortly after his death. The kingdom of Camelot is falling apart in his absence; Ghouls and other beasties roam the countryside, killing lost travellers and adventurers who have wandered off the beaten path. In times like this the people of the land turn to adventurers to help rid them of this evil which is where you come in…you and the thousands of other players in the game. You must choose your race and your occupation and wander off into the countryside and slay beasties and complete various quests and tasks set for you. Although this doesn't sound very interesting or different from any of the other MMORPGs around there are some nice twists in the game that make it great fun to play.
The main premise of the game is based on Realm vs. Realm. Each server has 3 realms; Albion, Midgard and Hibernia. Albion is the realm of the Human races and is home to Camelot and its deceased king, Arthur. If you choose to play in this realm then you can choose to be either a Saracen, agile and dextrous people from the South, a Avalonian, intelligent and austere people who specialise in magics, a Briton, a jack of all trades, or you can choose to be a Highlander, a kilt wearing, haggis eating double hard bastard people from the North.
If you prefer the tough, spartan life and shun fancy things then perhaps you would prefer to live in the realm of Midgard. The inhabitants of Midgard are a mixture of humans and creatures. You can play as either a Norseman, tall, strong and do well in most careers, a Dwarf, a short, stocky race that do well as priests, a Troll, big, strong race that is good at killing things or a Kobold, a race of small creatures that do well at stealth based careers.
Finally, the realm of Hibernia is a mysterious and magical land. It is populated by Elfes, tall and thin with an aptitude for magic, Celts, humans that are close to nature and magic, Firbolgs, half-human, half-giants or Lurikeens, small creatures that are, surprisingly, very good at stealthy arts.
In each realm there are several classes to choose from. Depending on which class you choose you can join a guild which will allow you to specialise further in your chosen character development. For example, I am currently playing as a Saracen Rogue and I have joined the guild of shadows to train as an Infiltrator, a stealthy, scouting assassin type character.
The main aim of choosing your class and career is to better enable to you to wage war on your neighbouring realms. When my character is less of a wuss I will be able to take him out of Albion and into either Midgard or Hibernia and kill me stinkin' other-realmers! It is unlikely that my character will be able to get far into the other realms without being butchered by the natives so I will most likely have to join a raiding party; a group of high level characters on their way to cause some destruction. In each realm there are keeps which contain relics which you must somehow steal from their owners. This is not easy in anyway. There are many, many guards and mages protecting these relics but stealing them will give your realm huge bonuses when fighting other realms. There are also many outposts that can be captured and held against the enemy, but again, this is very hard.
The graphics in the game are pretty good and the game runs very smoothly. It is advisable to have a decent connection. My ADSL 512k connection has showed no signs of lag whatsoever but playing on 56k would probably not be a pleasant experience.
The game itself costs £20 to buy in the shops and then a further £6 per month to play. The first month is given to you free but after that you will need to subscribe to the game in order to keep playing.
The game controls are a little awkward to handle at first and the keys are spread out all over the place making it hard to respond to beastie attacks while you are searching for the right key. Of course, this gets easier over time but it is still a pain in the butt when you are new to the game.
The game area is HUGE! Although this allows for a great deal of variety this does pose a problem when you need to travel from place to place in order to complete various tasks. The game designers have added in Horsey transport so you can ride from town to town but even this takes a long time. For example, a ride from Camelot to the town where I pick up my poison supplies will take about 5 minutes in real time. 5 minutes!! I can go downstairs and make a sandwich and eat it in that time. This can be extremely frustrating at times, especially if you need to get somewhere half way between your destination, in which case you need to be patient for several minutes and then jump off at exactly the right time.
This game is damn good fun to play. One of the better aspects of the game is that it encourages team work. Although you can go solo and kill beasties by yourself it is a lot easier to group up with characters that are of a similar level to yourself and hunt with them. Experience and booty rewards are much higher when you are in a group as you can tackle bigger monsters.
The game is very addictive though. I got this game on Friday and afternoon and by Sunday evening I had clocked up a whooping 29hrs of game time! 29hrs and I am still only a level 11 Infiltrator! Grr!
Anyway, enough babbling about this game; I have to go back and kill some more beasties so that I can reach level 12 and…and…Auuugh!
James Coghlan
