In ancient
Chinese lore, the Twelve Demons walked the realm, destroying the landscape and
killing the people. The Buddhist monks gathered 10,000 demon hunters to attack
the Twelve Demons, but all 10,000 were slain and not a demon fell.
When the
land seems to enter the darkest of its days, an unnamed hero appeared. With
3,000 of his best soldiers, he laid a trap and lured the demons in. All 3,000
were killed, but the Twelve Demons also died.
The hero
became known as the Great Dragon and for 20 years after, the land was at peace.
And then, the Great Dragon was murdered, and the one responsible was his wife.
The people were outraged and terrified at the same time. It was rumored that the
Twelve Demons had returned. It was a time when a new hero must be found to step
forward.
That is the
backstory for Hero Online, a massively multiplayer online title from M-Game USA
that just finished its first closed beta session.
If there is
one game that Hero Online can best be equated to emulate, it would be Diablo II.
The game is, by default, a third-person hack ‘n slash. It is easy to jump into
and play, and it is rather entertaining.
Impressions
after the first beta session are somewhat limited, as the game seems to be a
work in progress and there is no telling just what the developers will be adding
as the game moves toward release. There are only four characters available, at
this stage – two male and two female. The males are a sword/bow and a heavy tank
class, while the female are a melee and a healing class. Character customization
is limited at best, but as players progress, they can begin to define their
class. At level 10, or 1st Dan, players can choose from one of four
classes – warrior, physician, assassin and hunter.
In addition
to acquiring a class at level 10, players will also have other gameplay elements
open up – like being able to use player stores or trade with other players. Even
a chat channel seemed to be tied to level.
As players
hunt and level, quests open up. Mobs drop items which may be used by players or
banked. Only three characters were available per account, but – and here is
where the game gets clever – each time you log in, you can pick a moon (shard or
server) and your characters are available on whichever server you log in to.
Banks are also shared between all the characters on your account. If you have a
certain class and find armor or a weapon that another can use, you will be able
to drop the item into your account (or gold, for that matter) and log in another
character to acquire it easily.
Those are
both very sound features.
Most of the
quests, at this point, involve killing X amount of a certain mob and collecting
drops. Mobs are all color coded to show difficulty in killing them. Armor and
weapons are also tied to class and level. You can collect items to give to the
blacksmith for strengthening or imbuing your armor or weapons.
One of the
problems of the game at this stage is that kill stealing is a problem. You can
engage a mob and have someone run up, beat on it, take away your experience and
the drops you may have gained. While that was a problem in the first days of the
beta, as the days of the first closed session moved along, and players leveled,
it seemed to be less of a problem.
Graphically
the game is very nice. It does not have the high-end elements of an EverQuest
II, but is rather lush and the martial arts-based combat movement is very nicely
done. The musical score is superb at flavoring the game with the right tone.
Hero Online
is a bit of a grind, sure, and there are load times between zones, but this game
appears to have the makings of a very entertaining time. The point-and-click
interface is not hard to use, the game is visually pleasing and the combat
evolves and is rather fun.
This is
definitely a game to keep an eye on as it progresses into the second closed beta
session, moving ever closer to release.
