Asheron's Call

"Asherons Call: what would ya do without it?"

I first started playing AC back in january 2000, so I've seen alot of what the people who said ''AC suxs'' saw.

First, gonna clear up some false info. ''Atlans'' are made from 16 motes, not 36. Motes are worthless now, can't even get a starter dagger for a mote. The Camera is easy to control (unless you don't have a keyboard, but then you couldn't play anyway)

GRAPHICS: 11/10
Best graphics I've seen in a MMORPG. EQ is too static (I DON'T WANT TO LOOK LIKE 99% OF THE SERVER!) and UO, well UO's only good part is the christmas presents.

REPLAYABILITY: 20/10
Don't like your character? Just make a new one. With 5 slots a server and 6 regular servers (1 PK only server) you can have up to 35 simultanious characters. Quests are always fun to redo (especially the new academy quest)and theres always another dungeon.

SIZE: 10/10 (had to put one thats actually possible)

AC is HUGE! especially with the new Dark Majesty expansion pack. How big? The mainland itself is the size of Rhode Island, with almost any environment you can think of (thats on earth atleast). Some places to note are: Linvak Tukal (lugian castle, HUGE castle with a large quest) Obsidian Plains (site of Bael'Zharon's {the PK god} entrapment, huge crater with mushrooms the size of humans, lots of virindi and other nasties) and the Flower Forest (use your imagination).Theres also 4 islands, in the NE, NW, SE, and SW corner of the map. Aerlinthe (NE) is a volcanic island that houses some tough monsters and alot of lore about the early days of the Empyreans. Marae Lassel (NW) is an island that (according to the lore) was a wilderness preserve. Now has battling tumeroks (warlike humanoids) as part of it's story line, as well as the Virindi (genetic mutators with strong magic) and the Olthoi (think Termits on steroids and crack). The Vesayen Islands (SE) are an archipeligo of jungle island, home of the mosswarts (cousins and slaves of the tumeroks) with INCREDIBLE scenery. The Singularity Bore (SW) is like the Obsidian Plains, used to be Bael'Zharons keep, now controlled by the virindi.

CUSTOMABILITY 10/10

AC has hundreds of apperance options, and thats just on the face. Armor comes in 9 ''storebought'' kinds, and there are several noticable quest armors. Clothing comes in everything from plain old shirts and pants to dresses and Robes. Helmets, especially quest helmets, are awesome looking (you can wear a tea kettle if you wanted too) and theres also masks made from monster heads (including one that makes you head invisible!) Everyone is human but there are 3 races to pick from: Aluvian (Europeans) Gharu'dim (Arabians) and Sho (Asian)

BALANCE: 1/10

AC's bad point. Turbine, in all it's great, wonderful, messed up crack dreams, decided that you either have magic, or you will never be good beyond level 30. Life Magic is the single most trained skill in the game. Other mess ups include: making dagger (free for Aluvians, 4 points to train, 4 to spec) the KING of melee weapons (with sword in it's proper second place) Making ''The wall'' for archery (50+) where Archers lose their ''uberness'' and soon are down there with Mace (one of the worst melee weapons). ''Og'' Mages (Life/Creature Magic spec, Item Magic and ManaC trained at the beginning, War at level 26) and ''Battlemages'' (Life/War magic and Loyalty spec, get manaC at 7, item at 20, creature at 50 {45 with new skill credit quest}) rule Asherons call right now, and ''Og'' melees/archers (Weapon/Life spec, sometimes creature speced too) also rule the game, ''pure'' archers/melees are left behind early.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 12/29/01, Updated 12/29/01