OmeGGa Kollective: Atlantica Online - The Great Atlantica Experience

When I heard that a new MMORPG was comming out, where the objective is to find Atlantis I was giddy with joy. To the intelligent gamer, this should immediately mean several things:

1. This game has a story. Something that many new games are completely missing.
2. This game will not be a run of the mill fantasy RPG. After all, what does the legend of Atlantis have in common with Lord of the Rings?
3. This game has a clear OBJECTIVE! Not only that but it is the great motivator behind playing the game in the first place. "We must find Atlantis at all costs...", I role-played in my head!

While reading up on the available info, I realised Atlantica would be turn based and my jaw dropped! I imagined a Final Fantasy VIII type of interface with skills executed like Limit Breaks or something like that. I enjoyed FF8 immensely, but I didnt wanna play an MMORPG with that game model. To be perfectly honest, I couldnt imagine what it would be like, because you need to be able to stop time and create the battle "instance" in such games. Perplexed and seduced by the gorgeous CG graphics that were being released around that time, I ended up obsessing over what this game had to offer! Were we on the brink of something new, finally/ffs!

That was more than enough for me to download the CBT client and give the game a try. To be perfectly honest, I was playing another MMORPG and we got talking about Atlantis, and one of my guildies invited me to the game - thanks gameneko! The download was large and the install enormous. Took a long time to update also, but I was patient.

Download Size: 2.7 GB
Install Size: 5.8 GB

Character Design

The classes can be confusing. I wasnt sure what kind of character I wanted to play. It appears that you dont necessarily pick a race/class in this game, but a type of weapon that you want your character to wield. This hinted to the strategic significance of each weapon, which roughly goes like this:

> Sword : Can attack a single target, has highest defence
> Spear : Can attack two enemies that are in a column
> Axe : Can attack three enemies in a row, only in front row
> Gun : Can attack three enemies in a column
> Bow : Can attack any single target with great force
> Cannon : Can attack a group of enemies within a certain viscinity
> Staff : Can deal magical attacks and heal allies

Going on the advice of my friend, I picked an AXE user and proceeded forth!

Graphics

The game has beautiful openning graphics and client program, as expected from a game released in 2008. In game graphics are good, but not amazing however. Some of the textures used on the monster models seem a bit too squared off at times.

I was very confused, since the character models were very nicely done. This impression stayed with me until the end of my testing, actually: characters = very good, monsters = clunky.

The game's environments however are nothing short of spectacular. hills, valleys, weird crystaline structured and passageways in the open field as well as in the cities. Detailed homesteads and random NPCs populating the cities make them come alive.

The thing that I found really helped me get around the lame graphics issue, was the character designs themselves. Blocky as they might have been, there was plenty of variation and originality in their design to help me overlook them. Some of the monsters literally hid their ugliness behind their loud colors and idle animations:

I know very well that graphics arent everything in a game. The sheer sizes of the battles in Atlantica might have forced the developpers to tune down the graphics significantly to boost the gameplay. This is particularly evident during the game's intro scenes that features a full scale, engine driven, 16P/2/16E war in the background of the login screen, that was nothing less than a slideshow. Other than being used as a benchmark to test one's system, I must admit its pretty depressing to watch your computer grind at the welcome screen, when what you really want to see is some gorgeous graphics and a streamlined introduction.

"Shitty Welcome Screen Slideshow is Shitty...", I muttered to myself and moved on...

You can talk to the NPCs that idly inform you where to go if you want to buy/sell, recruit mercenaries or "talk to the town official, that needs you for some deed"; you can even try to recruit them to the city your guild owns! All of this information was passed on to me through exploration and I found it to be a great way to clue the played into some of the deeper elements of the game.

Gameplay

Lets talk about the gameplay now, and explore what a turn based, fantasy rpg is like. When you first start the game, you are in a dream state where three hot maidens representing Strength, Spirit and Ego.

They tell you that you are a decendant of Atlantis and that only you may reclaim the power of your ancestors -- and to do this you must find Atlantis. Great stuff.

Next, you recruit some mercinaries out of the classes listed above, and then some. When you battle, an "instance" is produced on the open field, where you enter a battle zone, while your character simply appears locked in battle to other players. You have an overall turn time, each merc has its own reaction time has a reaction time, left clicking performs a normal attack and right clicking preforms the merc's special skill (you get more later that you can assign to quickslots).

The battles are very fast paced for a turn based game and there is a lot of stategic thinking you have to do on your feet, because you and the ememies can move around within your ranks (so front liners can be moved out of danger if their health is low) and in addition you have to pick up enemy drops during the game, or else they vanish after three turns. Its pretty fun, dashing in tongue-in-cheek to pick up a chest you know has something good inside, although your merc's life is hanging by a thread :) Greedy git!

To add to the fun, there is a cimematic camera that shows you your guys fighting face to face with the enemy. Its pretty fun, especially so you can have a good look at some of the baddies. In large battles it just slows you down from queueing commands to your guys, but still its fun to have around and brings a more P2E feel to the Turn based battle style.

Quests

Storyline branches out pretty quickly. The quest stories are kinda fun to read, and they definately stick to the theme (I dont believe I'll be amazed by any storyline offered in an MMORPG, like I did in Vagrant Story or XenoGears).

Now, lemme ask you something.. gamer to gamer: Whats the most annoying thing in any MMORPG? ... yeah... not being able to find who gives the quests, and/or not being able to find the monsters you're supposed to kill - right? Well in Atlantica that, my friends, is a thing of the past! You can just select a quest, press a button and your character will AUTO-MOVE TO THE QUEST AREA !!!! I was like.. OMFG, DUDE, thats like someone inventing toast with pre-spread butter or peanutbutter options with bonus JEAM!

Equiment Enchanting

So after a long grind/hunt, what do you do while your guy is running back to the NPC on auto-pilot to turn in the quest? Well, you open up your inventory and start enchanting of course! Yeap thats right! No more enchant NPCs, NO MORE armor you cannot wear and... and ... NO - MORE - FAILED - ENCHANTING !!! YES !!! Its true! Enchanting never fails in Atlantica (sounds more like paradise every day right!?) and this is how it works:

You combine two weapons/armors with 1 enchant stone to make a +2. Two +2 items with 2 enchant stones make a +3. Two +3 items with 3 stones for a +4, etc. So basically you never sell your armors and stuff to the NPC, everything is always useful AND items are naturally recycled which stabilizes the game's economy. After a certain level, you can wear heavier armors but by then you probably have some +5 stuff on you and are ready to start over. Sell the things you have in the Auction House to make some cash and so goes the cycle of life.

Final Comments

I take it its pretty obvious that I really liked this game. Couple more positive things I can add here though.

I frequently suffer from ALT-CHAR-ITIS:

In the great world of Atlantis, my friends you will never have to do that, because you can have EVERY class inside your OWN army and develop them in any way you see fit - all at the same time!. "Live vicariously through your toons!", I always say (not really.. but sounds good here)

In stopping. Amm.. did I mention that guilds can own towns that they can build structures on through proper research and development and can wage war against other cities? Now Im stopping... Im stopped.

[Kida, from Disney's Atlantis: The Lost Empire][Was Hot]

Great game - play it now!

/stop

/sado myself

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