Many sites have done reviews of Atlantica Online the upcoming Free-to-play, 3D, turn-based, MMORPG from NDoors lately. This is not a review. As the game is not complete I do not feel that I can do a well-informed full review of the title since it's only in closed beta at present. So here is a preview of what can be expected in the upcoming Atlantica Online.

The evil Oriharukon energy is poisoning the world. It emanates from Atlantis and it's your job to stop it before the entire would is destroyed. Journey around the world to solve the mystery of the Oriharukon and stop it before all is lost.This journey will take players around the globe, including the ancient civilizations of Hanyang (Korea), Indus Valley (India and Pakistan), Mesopotamia (Iraq, Syria and Turkey) and Egypt, as well as North America and legendary locales such as the Pyramids and Angkor Wat as well as Atlantic itself.

Remember, Atlantica Online is in closed beta so there are some bugs and other issues that still need to be ironed out. While I doubt there will be a massive change in the game between now and launch (it's extremely stable, fun to play and I've only seen some minor glitches) I will not fully comment on any of that for now. Once the game launches then I will give a full review of it, or one of the other members of G:G will as there are three of us playing currently. I'll try to limit this whole thing to 1,500 words so as not to bore you to death.

MAJOR FEATURES:

A brief look at some of the major features that stand out in Atlantica Online (AO from not forward)

Your Party, Our Party, Everyone Parties!

In AO you are given a choice of various jobs for your main character. Choose wisely for you will not change this job over time. Instead you will hire mercenaries to help fill out your party. A good well-rounded party will be essential to be successful. I started with an Archer for my main character and picked up a Swordsman, Spearman and Gunner to give a good balance of melee and ranged attack. This proved fairly successful though I was lacking magical support and healing. Later I added a second Swordsman and a Viking. Then a Shaman for magical support and some healing help. It works well overall and I think my strategy is sound enough to proceed.

You can also team up with friends, guild members or perfect strangers to gain extra experience and extra items as you adventure. With various types of looting and even split XP sharing it goes a long way towards building some community due to the extra involved. This is something that was overlooked in many games at their initial conception and I think NDoors did a good job in building this into AO.

Drink Milk for Strong Bones and Teeth

Atlantica Online features a standard experience point-based level progression mechanism that anyone familiar with role-playing games will be familiar with. As you acquire more experience you get stronger. You can also upgrade the mercenaries as you go so that they can learn new skills and become more powerful. Your main character doesn't change. You are what you are but you continue to grow stronger as you go. Of course there's no actual need to drink milk but I just remembered that commercial while I was thinking about this area.

I Get By With a Little Help from my Slaves Friends Employees Mercenaries

The mercenary system gives players the chance to manage multiple characters’ development simultaneously. In addition to their main character, players can hire eight mercenaries each with a different class and skills. They can be obtained as an infant and raised, married to other mercenaries and even have their own children. Mercenaries’ stats will decline as they age, necessitating the need to constantly update and upkeep the mercenary roster.

Marriage, birth, death, old age, these are things are normally not included into games like that and I look forward to pairing off my mercenaries to make the next generation of mercenaries for me to raise as my own. It certainly does sound like slavery but it's more like feudal society in that you have to coerce them to work with you and pay them large lump sums of cash in the beginning and support them as you go. It's almost like having digital children, except that they're all highly-proficient killers.

The Friend of my Enemy Fights for Me

The turn-based combat system offers players the chance to strategically plan every move of the nine characters in their group. Players can form teams of three to bring 27 controllable characters into combat. Or for simple fights, players can preset each character/mercenary’s skill set and let the auto-battle system resolve the fight.

You can also bring monsters to your aid via magic and more so you have enough power to take out even the toughest opponents. In fact you can get those same tough opponents to team up with you and they will take out the enemies for you. Nothing like watching magically enthralled enemies killing other enemies and piling XP and loot on you.

A Seven Nation Army, Maybe

The city/country management system adds a layer of strategic play beyond typical party level interaction. Guilds can establish control of cities and go to war with each other. They will need to plan everything from culture, commerce and industry, even down to the placement of buildings for the maximum output. Groups of guilds can even band together to take control of countries. Controlling cities and countries allows them to obtain rare items and mercenaries. 

Well a seven guild army could be possible from the sounds of it and while there hasn't been much action in this area of the game, it is one of the areas I am most looking forward to. I'm a guild master and I long for the day when we have our first city under our control. We're a more mercantile group though so it won't be for military purposes. Of course we will protect our interests in whatever fashion necessary (evil grin).

It's all about the Benjamins, Baby!

There is a robust economic system in the game where nearly everything is user crafted and managed reminding me somewhat of EVE Online but not. There are ample crafting skills and numerous items to create, materials to be purchased or gathered and work to be done. Yes, the crafting system is fueled by good old fashioned work. No more throwing together the ingredients and simply waiting. You must work to get what you want and that work comes in the form of a workload. A certain number of points are assigned to the crafting of each item. This number correlates to an amount of combat that you will need to do in order to complete the crafting phase. Losing a battle has no effect on the item and winning only progresses the crafting but does not give bonuses to the items or anything else.

It's interesting and should prevent some 'botting' and exploitation. I'm not saying there won't be cheating but this might minimize some of it.

Just a Slave to the Grind

This is an MMORPG, there is grinding. The grinding is as much or as little work as you want. If you want to control every action of your people you can. If you want to sit back and let the computer do the work while you say, write a preview of the game, take a shower, make lunch, have some coffee…you can do that as well. The auto-battle system is fairly well implemented and you can only auto-battle 20 times before you need to manually battle. Every manual battle gives you 5 auto battles up to the maximum 20. If you are gone too long and that 21^st or 22^nd battle comes along you could find yourself nursing your wounds back in town after dying and losing some XP and 10% of the gold you had on you.

That's a Wrap

I'm running out of words so in closing I'll say this. 24 hours of play was 25 levels, and then it got harder and harder. It's still fun even with the minor flaws and bugs that need to be squashed. Some improvements definitely need to be made but the game looks to be on track to be a major player in the specific market. It's captured my attention and the attention of others, have I got yours now as well?

I haven't covered every facet of this game including graphics, sound and other gameplay issues. Both Matt and Patrick are playing the game as well and I hope that they will give you their impressions of it also. 

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