An online RPG for everyone looking for something different in their fantasy world.

I've been a fantasy fanatic since I was knee-high to a hobbit. Over the years although my interest in the genre itself has never wavered the type of fantasy I like has changed. Trilogies of long forgotten dark wizards coming back from the dead and being challenged by some naïve lad who is the only one that can wield a magic sword/staff/Louisville Slugger bore me now. The same goes for pointy-eared elves, dour dwarves, and foul smelling orcs. Don't get me wrong, I'm not against high-fantasy. I now simply find myself enjoying more of fantasy that doesn't follow the usual conventions, which is probably why I find the massively multiplayer RPG Asheron's Call extremely enjoyable.

Asheron's Call is a game full of uniqueness, which is both its greatest strength and greatest weakness. The background story itself is novel, answering both why the game is titled as it is and the scarcity of civilization. Many years ago a mage by the name of Asheron, having failed to see any of the Hellraiser movies, began toying with interdimensional forces beyond his control. Next thing you know Asheron's homeland Dereth was full of giant humanoid insects called the Olthoi. Without Orkin the future looked glum for the people of Dereth so Asheron sent them away through more interdimensional gates (he just doesn't learn does he?). In doing so he opened gates to yet another world, Ispar. Ispar was luckily a world full of humans, most of who wanted to live a reckless adventuring lifestyle. Some humans from Ispar came over and with the aid of Asheron they proceeded to smack down the Olthoi. Not sticking around for the victory party Asheron disappeared. Now, years later, Asheron and the rest of the original citizenry are still MIA, the Isparians are struggling to make a living, and even more adventurers are heeding the old call of Asheron. Enter the player.

Unlike your typical AD&D game where classes are defined very strictly Asheron's Call's school of character creation takes a page from the Call of Cthuluh textbook. Instead of defining a class by the weapons they can use and the armor they can wear, in Asheron's Call characters are skill based. Yes, there are character classes for you to choose from, but in many ways the classes are just meant to make getting into the game fairly quickly instead of mucking around with creating your own class. If you do like to get your hands dirty there is the opportunity to create your own custom class.

There are a huge number of skills available allowing players to choose from a wide range of play styles. This also creates the added benefit that characters are fairly unique; a sword-wielding fighter is not always a clone of another sword-wielding fighter. Another added benefit of the skill-based system is the fact that the typical adventuring party becomes much more interesting to create. Instead of the usual, "Okay we need a couple of tanks to lead the way, a thief to find traps, a wizard to cast spells, and a cleric to heal everyone" party you could have a party comprised of all fighter types, some of which are proficient in various healing or alchemy skills.

Interestingly skills can rise between levels. Experience points may be allocated right away after earning them. Levels are still present and give you skill points. These skill points can then be used to purchase new skills, allowing a character to constantly evolve over time.

Like most computer RPGs you'll find combat is the quickest way to build up your experience points. In Asheron's Call combat is plentiful. The monsters you face are not your typical high-fantasy fare, something I personally love. The monsters are for the most part very creative and not just standard monsters called something else. Eventually you'll learn the ins and outs of the bestiary, but until then you'll never know exactly what a particular creature's attacks and defenses are. Anyone who has DMed a group of experienced AD&D players and used the standard monsters knows exactly how dull it gets when the players know more about the monsters than the beasts' own mothers.

Combat is handled in a manner that stresses thought over click power. In any given combat situation involving melee weapons (missile and magic is handled similarly) you must make two choices: the strength of your attack and height of your attack. Strength corresponds to speed, so the stronger the attack the slower the blows will land. Height is an important factor in some combats because a creature could be heavily armored below the head, thus making high attacks more potent than an attack against the beast's middle. Making the player weigh the type of attack they want to do adds an interesting layer to combat. The biggest downside to combat is the creature AI, or I should say, the lack of. After playing Half-Life, Thief, and System Shock 2 I may have become spoiled but the AI in Asheron's Call could still be better than "See character. Run straight for character. Attack until killed."

It's also worth mentioning that magic in Asheron's Call is handled quite differently from other RPGs. In Asheron's Call the more a particular spell is cast the weaker it becomes. Okay, so you won't duplicate your typical AD&D world where everyone is casting magic missiles, fireballs, and chain lightning but at the same time you force players who want to be spell casters down a path of anti-social behavior. Why should I share my spell with you when in doing so the spell will become weaker? Perhaps that's why it seems that there are more warrior types than spell casters.

Speaking of anti-social behavior you'll never have to worry about being preyed upon by your fellow adventurers unless you specifically choose to be a player-killer, in which case only like minded characters can do you harm. Of course there are still the usual assortment of problem players, but unfortunately that's just a fact of online gaming.

Turbine has attempted to foster close-knit communities in the game by creating an allegiance system. Think pyramid scheme. Characters pledge loyalty to someone above them, and in turn they could have members beneath them. Experience points trickle up the pyramid (but none are lost to those at the bottom). Those higher up are expected to give those beneath them a reason to pledge their loyalty, perhaps by giving out magical items. On paper this sounds like a decent system but the reality of the situation is it falls completely flat. I'm going to give you experience points because you gave me a nice sword which I could have acquired myself at some point? Too much of the allegiance system depends on good role-playing, something that is usually rare in online gaming (or heck, even table top gaming).

Graphically Asheron's Call alternates between spectacular and plain, to almost ugly. The landscape itself is breathtaking with extremely gorgeous vistas and lots of little touches (like the clouds or rain) that bring the world to life. You'll find as your travel across Dereth that there are no boundaries; if you can see something you can walk there without being interrupted by a loading screen. Considering the size of the land you can expect to see quite a bit of differing terrain without being bored. While the terrain engine is fantastic the character/monster models aren't on the same level. They'll remind you of marionettes with their strangely segmented bodies. The upside though is that a great many models can be displayed at once without much in the way of game slow-down.

On the technical side of things Asheron's Call is fairly stable. Lag happens rarely, and usually only in an extremely crowded town in prime time play, and disconnects are infrequent. Remember, that's "infrequent" and "rarely", but you'll still deal with those issues at some point. True, the initial log on will take quite some time and you'll have to deal with small downloads ever so often but that's the nature of the beast. In fact, Asheron's Call was designed with modification in mind so you'll never feel that you've seen everything and done everything possible within the game. There are also a handful of bugs, but none are particularly show stoppers.

Overall your enjoyment of Asheron's Call will depend entirely on what you expect a fantasy role-playing game to be. As I mentioned in the beginning the uniqueness of Asheron's Call is as much of a problem as it is a strength. Some people won't take to the fact you can only play humans and that there are no orcs or goblins to bash. The fact that you have extreme control over your character's destiny will turn off as many people as it turns on. Yet if you want to experience an original fantasy online RPG -- one that will always have something new to discover -- then Asheron's Call is the place for you. Everquest is available if you want to go the more traditional route. For many of you I suspect that you'll enjoy both games, as they offer enough differences that indeed there is room for yet another massively multiplayer online RPG.

If you like this type of game you might also want to check out EverQuest or Ultima Online.

Reviewed by Scott R Krol.