ArchLord

Massively multiplayer online games are a bit like the big few supermarkets in that a select few control the majority share of consumers. Titles such as World of Warcraft and Lineage attract millions upon millions of fee-paying subscribers who happily hand over their hard earned cash in exchange for the chance to live a separate virtual life. In addition, and just like the supermarkets' loyalty schemes, the more you put into the game the more you get out. Spend enough time playing and you can attain wealth, become physically strong and garner oodles of respect from your peers. Given that this is the case, you can imagine that such loyalty will not be surrendered easily, that is unless new titles offer an experience too good to miss. And, with the promise that one person a month can gain control of ArchLord's ever-expanding world, it might sound as if there's at least one good reason to switch alliances. Unfortunately, no game, let alone a MMORPG can sustain its appeal on one fresh idea, especially when achieving the feat means suffering through a game with ideas which for the most part are as revolutionary as a plastic tea bag.

Proceedings don't begin particularly well due to the fact that no background information is given to you before you begin your life in Chantra, the world in which ArchLord is set. No text introduction, no FMV, no nothing, so when you arrive in a mysterious new world, you really are at a loss as to whereabouts you stand in the context of the land's history and what the hell your purpose is. Admittedly, you could visit the official website where an encyclopaedia displayed in a teeny tiny text will tell you everything you need to know, but, honestly, who wants to do that just moments after installing a new game? Prior to this, the lack of customisation options for your character is shocking considering that more than even the most basic decisions in your appearance could be tinkered with in MMORPGs over five years ago. ArchLord only allows you to choose either human, moonelve or orc races and from a small handful of classes depending on your racial choice. Not the greatest of starts, but things can only get better... right? 'Fraid not.

As you may well know, the structure behind MMORPGs is the idea that you start off as the lowest of the low, the wimpiest of the wimpy, the shi-, you get the gist, but with time and effort can develop into a being with unrivalled strength and ability. You achieve this by questing, battling, crafting, exploring and building alliances with other players. One of the biggest gripes over the years from fans of the genre is that grinding to level up is substituted as a cheap alternative to imaginative quests and exploration, something which ArchLord suffers from in abundance. Granted, you might expect it in the beginning of the game as a way to grasp the basics, but treadmill-esque, monotonous kill/collect/delivery tasks continue to haunt you for a painfully long period of time, at least until you're at a level high enough to earn the right to join guilds and take on the game's bosses.

To make matters worse, ArchLord allows free and open person to person combat after only a few levels. So, you've worked hard, proud at least to get pretty much nowhere in the grand scheme of things, only to be mugged and killed by a more experienced player camped outside the beginners' holding. In order to deter players from this kind of bullying, those who murder adventurers more than four levels below their own are branded with a villainous reputation and, for example, ignored by NPC traders as a consequence. However, killing a few monsters is all it takes to restore the balance and you just know that some players will revel in a criminal status regardless of any negative sanctions.

The idea that one person can become ArchLord, gifted with beefier stats for the duration of their privileged position is interesting, but has obvious downfalls in regard to the point of combat free for alls. Chances are that a small group of die-hards will reach the game's most advanced stages first, and, with their power have the authority to stifle anyone who dreams of ever achieving the game's mightiest of statuses.

It's ironic, then, that combat provides one of the only reasons why ArchLord might be worth chancing, since the actual battles can be far more engaging than the offerings in other MMORPGs. Fluid and forceful animations display the world's characters inflicting damage upon one another in real-time and at close range. Both physical and magical attacks are pretty as a picture, though it's let down by a clumsy method of combat which involves clicking manically until you break a finger, that's if you haven't accidentally run past your target into a tree or rock or other. By the time you've re-adjusted yourself, you might already have lost a considerable amount of health.

There's certainly enough to do in ArchLord if you're willing to suffer for the amount of time you must put into it in order to feel like you're more than an anonymous minion; after all, it's supposed to be a whole new social universe for you to inhabit. That, and there's no denying that its vast and varied game world and battling is impressively attractive, from wide open plains to the harshest of ice-filled lands. Whether you'll ever get to see much of it is highly questionable, though, given that the time between starting and becoming completely despondent with ArchLord is likely to be minimal. Oh, and did you know that the game introduces the chance to siege upon castles, but not until you've grinded until your next birthday? Do you care any more? You've probably got better things to do than waste your time on ArchLord, like flossing. You can never floss too much, you know. If MMORPGs rather than immaculate oral hygiene are more your thing, you honestly don't need to look hard for far better examples of how it should be done.