| VGLN.com
PC >> Previews
>> article
The Saga of Ryzom
by Phillip Duff
Monday, July 12 2004
Another MMORPG attempts to add something to the mix.
 |
|
|
Title:
The Saga of Ryzom
|
Platform:
PC Windows
|
Publisher:
Nevrax |
Developer:
Nevrax |
#
of Players: Potentially thousands... |
Genre:
MMORPG
|
Origin:
France
|
Expected
Release:
Q3 2004 |
Grapevine:
Almost everything is customizable including your appearance, the user interface, items, and even magic spells. |
During our visit to E3, we noticed that many booths had their very own MMOG to show off; just about everywhere you turned there was a new expansive world displayed. Not only were there the popular games – EverQuest 2, World of Warcraft, Lineage II – but there were also some lesser known games such as Dark and Light. One such lesser known game happened to draw me in, though. This game was Nevrax's The Saga of Ryzom. Nevrax's booth was way in the back of the L.A. Convention Center's Kentia Hall in the cubicle area making it an exhibit one would not normally pass by and notice. If it were not for the actions of the their booth babes strategically placed right outside the hall, we may never have learned of the title (I suppose booth babes actually do serve a purpose other than camera fodder). As we got to the cubicle, fellow staff member Ryan Kang and I, were expectedly suckered into a presentation on their game. This, as it would turn out, happened to be a good thing. We were pleasantly surprised to find that this was no run of the mill MMORPG.
This game takes place in a sci-fi, Stargate-esque environment as opposed to one based on Tolkien. This unique setting allows it to not only have swords and shields but firearms as well. It also lacks the ever popular Elvan race so overused in role-playing games. There are four playable humanoid races: the Fyros, a strong desert dwelling people; the Matis, an intelligent civilization who makes their home in the forest areas; the Tryker, a diminutive race that lives in the lakeside regions; and finally the Zorai, spiritual jungle inhabitants who wear a genetically attached mask. This environment also provides for more unique creatures to fight other than orcs or gnolls (although there is still the seemingly mandatory giant rat type). The local fauna consists of alterations of standard animals like cows and moose as well as the far out. For those of you who enjoyed Starship Troopers, there is even a type of enemy resembling the warrior bugs from the movie. The storyline also resembles this film: masses of these insectoids are terrorizing the various civilizations of the planet and it is up to you (and a few thousand friends) to stop them.
What is noteworthy is the vast customization the game has to offer. Almost everything is customizable including your appearance, the user interface, items, and even magic spells. This gave the game the feeling of an online Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind. You can take raw material and, assuming you have the abilities (more on that later), you can fashion a piece of armor with exactly the status increases you desire. This customization even applies to your class. This game does not have a standard leveling up system. Instead you make your own class based on what type of actions you perform. You can have a magic skill of 150 yet still have a fight skill of 1. In fact, you do not even need to attack enemies to level up; there are also harvesting (digging items from the ground) and crafting (forging weapons and armor) skills. Leveling up only gives you better percentages in successfully performing actions, though. In order to gain new abilities, you need to spend skill points specific to each category. These abilities include hp increases, new spells, and new armor/weapon patterns. These abilities are made up of smaller bricks, bricks you automatically learn with the ability. By combining these bricks, you can fashion any action with requisite strengths and weaknesses. You can make a spell that has a shorter casting time but has a shorter range and takes more sap (the mana of the game). As you reach level conditions in any field, the field branches and becomes more specialized. One path you can take is magic to offensive magic to elemental magic to advanced elemental magic and so on. Instead of leveling up offensive magic, you could go for defensive magic and follow that path.
And then there is the feature that most drew my interest, the RAID engine. In most MMORPGs like EverQuest, battle parties all had the same fighting system:
while (1){
while (hp != 'low' || mana != 'low'){
Pull;
Fight:
}
Heal_and_Rest;
}
In this game, although it does allow you to play in this archaic way, you have an entirely new way to battle. Enter RAID: Real-Time Army Invasion Deployment. From the Ryzom.com website, this “allows the servers to create and run NPC invasions with hundreds of attacking creatures working together.” That is right, hundreds. Wait, you may be wondering, how can such battles possibly take place? Tanks need healing and casters need mana. With one significant addition to the formula, this can indeed take place: the healing of mana. Imagine standard battles with downtime only regulated by the casting of some spells and the availability of mobs.
The game is expected to go live at the end of June. Until that time, if such a game interests you and you have a broadband connection, you are in luck. SOR is currently in open beta. To get a beta copy, you need to download approximately a gigabyte file (dial-up users need not apply) from Fileplanet at the following link: http://www.fileplanet.com/download.aspx?f=139445. It will also provide you with a code to activate the account. Look out for the Matis character Duff on the Noblis shard (server).
--- Phillip Duff
|
