Rock, Paper, Shotgun

I found Allods to be interesting, but frankly a bit lacking where it counts, when I played it. The operators of the free MMO, Gala Networks, are trying to reduce some of those issues with their new expansion for the game, Undaunted, which as well as pouring in new content massively reduces the rate of grind required to get through the first 25 levels. It should, apparently, bring the rate of progress a little closer to the industry standards of WoW and so forth. Whether that will see people return to the game, I am not sure.

The trailer, below, isn’t particularly inspiring and is quite peculiarly edited. Hmm. Stuff like this makes me wonder whether we’re going to start seeing some serious casualties in the free-to-play space, with the better games starting to rise to the top…
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Allods Online, which is actually not bad in the scheme of free-to-play MMOs, is hitting its official launch “very soon”, along with its fourth expansion. It’s had one hell of a beta, with three expansions added, bringing the game to a 2000-quest beast, which I think was about how questy WoW was on launch. The expansion is for high level players and adds more to that Astral space conquest bit of the game in which big space-galleons do fighting and stuff, as well as more high level content and things that you can buy if you want to spend money on the game. Anyone actually playing this? Is it more balanced than it was when I was playing it?

That’s “Volume 1: Revelations of Gipat”, to you. Allods’ first expansion raises the level cap to 42, adds 100 quests, and a new instance. The full patch notes are here, if you’re interested in the grimy details. As I understand it, this patch also removes one of the death penalties that had been annoying people so much, which should make things a little more playable. And it it’s free, obviously, because Allods is free-to-play.

Free-to-play MMOs don’t tend to get the time of day around RPS Towers, but I thought I’d had a look at this one because… well, it’s pretty. Allods Online has some exquisite art, and as we all know, it’s best to judge things by superficial appearances. Hell, if you don’t judge a book by its cover then you tend to end up reading the wrong kind of literature. Anyway, here’s Wot I Think.
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Crazy-lookin’ Russian MMO Allods Online is in open beta for Europe. It’s noteworthy for having ship vs ship battles in the astral plane, as well as having a character race called “Gibberlings”. Here’s a beautiful quote from Gala networks CEO, Hyun Hur: “After a long time of Closed Beta testing and polishing the game in cooperation with the developer Astrum Nival, we’re glad to open the game to all players today, for our Open Beta. Players can now enjoy the variety of classes, quests, monsters and combat. PvE, PvP or even Ship vs. Ship battles on land and in the Astral space make Allods Online one of the most expected games in 2010.” It really is.

Go take a look.

This caught my eye earlier, perhaps because it involves dimension-hopping flying ships. It’s a Russian MMO that is perhaps best described as being something like “World Of Fantasy Naval Combat On The Astral Plane”. Allods Online is a fantasy MMO in which players adventure in the astral, and take up arms for two factions which are duking it out in giant magical galleons. Between, presumably, bouts of grinding mobs of astral demons that are kicking about in the various locations you can travel between. The two trailers below introduce the game idea and show some of the ship-to-ship combat that players will be getting involved in. Intriguing stuff.
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