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Asheron's
Call is an online only game in the tradition of medieval fantasy
roleplaying games. It's a first person perspective game (You
see the world from the same perspective as your avatar hero) filled
with monsters and opportunities to fight and gain glory. The
playing area is huge and it'll take you months of heavy playing to
see most everything the game has to offer.
As with
other big graphical online RPGs, you are charged a monthly
subscription fee in addition to purchasing the boxed game. The
purchase of the boxed game comes with a couple months free play and
right now the game is priced at about $30 which makes it rather
tempting to purchase as a first entry experience into massively
multiplayer online gaming.
The game
is relatively easy to learn and unlike EverQuest doesnt' require you
to hunt in groups after a certain point (though you'll find group
hunting to be a great deal of fun and will help you be more
successful). Asheron's Call also has an "Allegiance"
system that allows player to swear fealty to another player in
exchange for their help. What they get out of the deal is some
extra experience when you gain experience.
In the
higher levels it's almost a necessity to have people swearing
allegiance to you if you want to gain experience at a reasonable
pace. It's also a great roleplaying opportunity. Turbine hopes
that groups of players will form around these allegiances and when
special events or invasions occur throughout the world of Dereth the
Lords of these groups will be able to rally their
"pyramid" of fealty quickly. However, the system is
only as good as the people who are in it. Be careful to choose
a good Lord. The game site has many hints on how to find a
good Lord and how to be a good Lord to your vassals.
One odd
thing about the game is that you can only play human
characters. This might be a plus for Christians who feel that
Elves and Dwarves an such are unsettling. However, for a
classic medieval fantasy RPG, this it's rather odd to be missing the
"typical" races.
From a
Christian Perspective the game falls short in the same way most
fantasy RPGs do. It does contains Christian elements and
images but these elements and images are few and not used in any
real Christian sense. The presence of magic is a real downside
for Christians who see fantasy magic as being too close to something
the Bible condemns. However, it's not necessary to use magic
in the game to play it.
The game
doesn't seem to take any "pot shots" at
Christianity. As is quite typical of these types of games they
avoid directly connecting the game to real world religions.
However, the game's various human races are taken from the real
world (European, Asian, etc.) so you'll see a blend of real world
influences. For some people this is occasionally jarring and
for others it's pretty neat.
But
you'll find references various philosophies and religious
expressions scattered throughout the game in a subtle but
unorganized ways. It's a hodge podge and doesn't seem to have
any real rhyme or reason except to give some kind of starting place
to develop interesting differences in game graphics and allow for
some known cultural backgrounds to the Asheron's Call universe.
The
bottom line, however, is that Asheron's Call doesn't force you to
worship fantasy gods or deal with magic and as such might be a
reasonable alternative for Christians who would like to get together
and form a group in Asheron's Call. Such a group could follow
the virtues of Christianity without being overt about it. In
the end, however, it's not going to give you the basis you'd need
for a truly Christian experience.
Nevertheless
the game is fun and will give you hours of enjoyment. The
violence is rather subdued compared to typical RPGs you buy off the
shelf and you can avoid playing with magic if you don't want to mess
with it.
Final
Score
Highlights: Vast
world, Allegiance System (When you get in with a good group).
Lowlights:
Graphics are used repetitiously sometimes in order to achieve the
huge world. Creatures are re-used a bit too much by making
them bigger or a different color.
Recommendation:
Good for first timers. For Christians it's just another
secular RPG. Even so, if you have a group of Christians you
can go pretty far in playing as a Christian based character.
Christian
Sense (CS): 2.5
-- Easy enough to avoid the "offensive" stuff.
Violence is muted.
Game
Engine (GE): 3 --
Their "seamless" world is very nice but the graphics are
hit and miss. Not bad but not great either. Their chat
and emotes interface is rather primitive and hard to use.
Game
Play (GP): 3.5 --
If you are a first timer to RPG's, you'll likely enjoy it more, but
if you're an experienced with RPG's you'll lament the lack of
different races and the sometimes clunky interface for expressing
your character and communicating with your friends.
Overall:
3 |
