"Asheron is calling, so what are you waiting for?"

Do you like Role-Playing? Do you like complete control of stats and modifications of your character? Would you like to live out a life of a midevil warrior or wizard? If you've answered yes to all those questions, Asheron's Call is for you. Asheron's Call, like Everquest, is an online RPG that offers the player to create and interact with numerous other online players in an interactive world with monsters, demons, swords, and sorcery. And it's a damn good one at it.

I've played this game for about two months now and I can safely say that it's worth the ten dollar a month pricetag for subscription. Asheron's Call is simply a marvelous interactive RPG. Hmm... where should I start...?

Well, lets start off with the graphics. The entire world of Asheron's Call (called Dereth) is in complete polygonal 3d, from backgrounds to in game characters to monsters. But not only that, but the graphics are absoultely gorgeous, provided you have a proper 3d card. Many a time, I had to take time out from my travels just to stare at the marvelous landscape and gaze at the horizon. The wonderful graphics add to the illusion of a person actually being in a different world, which works for the game marvelously. Speaking about the world, the world of Dereth is HUGE, complete with mountains, caverns, feilds, forests, and cities and towns. The world seems even too big sometimes, but then again, a huge interactive world only adds to the Roleplaying experience. Because running from place to place would take great deals of time, the player is presented with a ''poral system'' where you simply can portal from point A to point B within a matter of seconds. There's even portal magic in the game, in which a person can even create a portal for himself and others.

In the aspect of sound, the sound isn't too spectacular, but it serves it's purpose. Asheron's Call doesn't provide any music, but that's not a bad thing because I'm sure cheesy midevil music would probabaly detract from the gameplay. If you absoultely require music, you can throw in a CD of your own while playing, because Asheron's Call doesn't require a CD to play. Other sounds include the regular ''sword's clashing'' and ''magic spell'' sounds that all of us RPGers have heard billions upon billions of times in other RPGs.

With gameplay, you can be assured that there will always be something to do in Dereth no matter where you are. Aside from the regular questing and fighting that comes with all RPG's, Asheron's Call offers a vassal-patron (allegiance) system that enhances character interaction with eachother. A person of lower level will usually need help to move up in the world of Dereth, becuase supplies and money are scarce when you can't even kill anything on your own. The way the allegiance system works is so a lower level can vow his allegiance to a person, thus making the lower level a vassal or a subordinate to the higher level, a patron. The allegiance system makes it so that higher level chracters can help out lower levels by providing money and equipment and also get a small share of the expereince that the lower levels gain. In games like Everquest, a level 50 wouldn't even consider talking to a level 10 let alone help the guy out. I'm sure you'll find that most people on Asheron's Call are really cool.

Of course, the soul of all online RPG's is developing your character, and Asheron's Call does a marvolous job of giving the player full flexibility of the character's stats and special skills. The experince system in Asheron's Call is a tad complex because the system goes beyond base stats like strength, endurance, and quickness, and adds an entire skill system to the game. A person can become a cook, an alchemist, a life mage, a war mage, an axman, a swordsman, a spearman, and much more if they wanted too. A player can also distribute his experience points in accorance with what he wants, whether it'd be healing, strength, or cooking. That's about as flexible as things get.

Oh, about me and my character, I'm currently playing on the morningthaw server and my chracter's name is Doomsayer Knight. I hope to hear from you!

So there it is... if you like interactive role-playing Asheron's Call is a must play... heed the call, the ranks of Dereth beckons!

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 04/15/00, Updated 04/15/00