"Heed the call.........."

INTRODUCTION

Welcome to Dereth! Asheron has summoned you, and you must do your part in helping to save Dereth. You are from the land of Ispar, and many of your fellow Isparians have also been summoned. 10 years ago, the great sorcerer Asheron opened a portal for all to go in. Little did he know that this portal led to the Olthoi-overrun land of Dereth. The Olthoi were these big, bug like creatures who spit acid and pierced through the strongest armor with their pincers. As they imprisoned every human who came to Dereth, the humans were brewing up a plan to escape. The two leaders of this plan were Thorsten Cragstone, the axe warrior, and Elysa Strathelar, the archer. Thorsten and Elysa knew they needed help. They went to Asheron, who couldn't help them defeat the Olthoi, but game them elixir that made weapons especially powerful. The band of warriors led by Thorsten and Elysa executed, and they made it through all the Olthoi until they came to the queen. The warriors were slaying the queen's guardians while the queen was trying to kill Thorsten and Elysa. Thorsten went up to the queen, and before he could swing his axe, the queen's pincer went right through him. Thorsten was dead. Elysa, furious about this, loaded her bow, and shot an elixired arrow right into the queen's eye. As the queen died and perished, the guards fled. Dereth was safe......for now.

GRAPHICS

The graphics are very realistic. I think they are some of the best graphics for a PC game yet. The landscaping is realistic, and the monsters and other characters are very unique. I'd say the graphics for this game are above average, and I would think people would appreciate the graphics well because it compliments the atmosphere of Asheron's Call.

GAMEPLAY

This is where Asheron's Call takes a huge step. The gameplay is awesome. You are playing a massively multiplayer RPG, and it gets updated every month! So, new things are added, the story line is added on to, and the updates help the game not to become boring. You make your own character, you can be a sorcerer, a sword warrior, an archer, (both bow and crossbow), you can use thrown weapons, there are tons of different kinds of characters you can be. Then, you look for a patron, a person in the game that will help you on your way. You get armor, weapons, and then your suited up and ready to go. You find a place where you can hunt, and fight miscellaneous creatures to gain experience points. The experience points build up until you gain a level. You try to gain as many levels as you can. There is fun in trading with people, and there is a lot of dungeons, probably dungeons in the 500+ number. The world of Dereth is just so big, there is never nothing you can do! This truly is the best MMORPG of all time!

STORY

The story is very cool, and, like I said, the story changes each month. You can backtrack and get the scoop on the whole story, but I don't want to ruin the story any more than what I already said in the intro. But, the story is very long, and will continue to expand as long as Dereth is around. The story is not very complicated though, once you get into it, its pretty cool, between new bad guys that pop up, or like July's update: A Swelling Tide, which is when harder and bigger numbers of baddies come up, there is just an impeccable story.

SOUND


The sound is nothing to rave about. The sound effects are cool, and the monsters make interesting noises when they attack or when they die, and it creates a sound when you cast a spell, but there isn't any music. The sound definitely isn't the strength of this game, but, its sound, its not as important as gameplay is, and, that is what Asheron's Call is all about.

OVERALL

Ok, I have been all over with video games, from Final Fantasy to Zelda to Everquest to Starcraft, and, personally, this game is clearly my favorite. I've played Asheron's Call for three years and it has been a thrill for me ever since the day I started. There is a small nook that a lot of people don't like, the fact that you have to pay 10 dollars a month to play, but, its an online game, it isn't that bad, and its totally worth it. Well, I hope this review was helpful, and I hope to see you in Dereth!

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 08/12/03