Asheron's Call: Dark Majesty (PC)
	Developer Turbine Entertainment Publisher Microsoft Reviewed by Brad "Markup" Cole [Feedback] [Author Bio] Review Date February 11, 2002

Rating (out of 5.0) 2.0 out of 5.0*

Judge for yourself

Strengths Combat Control (strength of blow, accuracy of missile) Interesting Allegiance System encourages player interaction Players can purchase their own houses Weaknesses There are only 3 races The world lacks atmosphere Newly added "houses" are buggy

Screenshots MORE SCREENSHOTS

* Notes Gaming Voice ratings are based on the technical and/or gameplay merits of a given product as well as the developer's choice of features and delivery of same. Our rating is not an endorsement of the thematic content of a given title. Gamers and parents are cautioned to determine if such content conflicts or coincides with their values and beliefs.

It is hard to recommend Asheron's Call: Dark Majesty.

Atmosphere: Where is it?

Asheron's Call is a medieval-style role-playing game set in a fictional world of magic and dark creatures. Players are adventurers, most likely brought to the island of Dereth against their will by chaotic magical rifts. The story behind this is quite long and fortunately explained in the manual. Like other MMORPGs, players go around killing things to gain experience, which helps them gain levels and become more powerful.

This should all sound pretty standard to most MMORPG fans because it is -- and it is also one of Asheron's Call's biggest flaws. When I went adventuring on the island of Dereth, I never once became absorbed in the game. My character felt like an artificial creation in an artificial world -- which, while accurate, is something most MMORPGs try constantly to conceal. As I went around and gained experience, I found no depth, just monsters that seemed to be out in the woods for no other reason than to give adventurers something to kill. Quest and dungeons were extremely weak, and paled in comparison to those of other games. As well, the highly scripted NPCs and monsters some of us have grown accustomed to interacting with just can't be found in AC. In short, Asheron's Call feels more like a simulation of an MMORPG than a true game unto itself.

Gameplay: Actual Innovation

For those that look for gameplay more than atmosphere (or the "rules over role-playing" crowd as I like to call them), Asheron's Call does hold some promise. Areas such as combat, the skill system, and "allegiances" are very interesting, and worth taking a look at.

The skill system in Asheron's Call is also very interesting, and should not be overlooked.

Combat in Asheron's Call offers players more control over what happens in battle than other games -- like EverQuest -- but is not as "click-intensive" as others -- Dark Age of Camelot. This is done with two mechanisms: the "power accuracy" bar and the "attack height" buttons. The "power accuracy" bar is a sliding bar that appears on the screen once combat has been initiated. Players can slide this bar left or right and, depending on your weapon, different results will occur.

For instance, if using a melee weapon, sliding the bar adjusts attacks between fast blows that don't do much damage and slow, powerful strikes. As well, the "attack height" buttons allow you to choose one of three different elevations for the character's strikes to be directed at -- high, medium, or low. Since many monsters are designed with weak points, directing the blow high (say, towards an unarmored head) might very well result in more damage than a medium blow (to a fully armored chest). Combined, the power-accuracy bar and the attack height buttons will give players a solid feeling that they are really controlling their character's actions in combat -- while not being too difficult for players to learn and master.

The skill system in Asheron's Call is also very interesting, and should not be overlooked. AC is a classless, skill-based game that still has levels. If that's a bit hard to comprehend, let me explain it in more detail: During character creation, players choose which skills their character will be good at using "skill credits" to buy "training levels" in skills. Training levels alter how well a character can execute a skill; the character's level in a skill and related attributes are modified by their training level to determine how good the character really is at the skill.

After character creation, training levels can still be gained, but are dependent on gaining new skill credits -- a few of which are earned when a character makes a level. A character makes a level when their "total" experience -- a tally of every experience point they have ever earned -- reaches a pre-determined amount. Of course, characters also get "unassigned" experience, which is experience from kills that can be spent on raising attributes or skills. Is this experience system confusing at first? Yes. But it is one of the most flexible of any MMORPG.

Something a bit easier to comprehend is the allegiance system, which encourages socializing among players. In this system, one player (called a vassal) swears allegiance to another (called a patron). The patron then gets a percentage of the vassal's experience whenever any is earned. This experience is generated as additional experience, and is not subtracted from the vassal's experience total in any way. What this does is encourage patrons to help their vassals by providing such things as weapons, armor, gold, and advice. The vassal benefits from these gifts, and thus earns more experience (which, in turn, increases the experience of the patron). In short, it is a great system all around.

Old vs. New: What Does AC:DM Really Add?

This should all sound pretty standard to most MMORPG fans because it is.

If you've played the original Asheron's Call, you've probably read this review and asked, "So, what does Dark Majesty really add?" The truth is, Dark Majesty seems to add very little to the game: the ability to purchase houses and explore the island of Marae Lassel are both new, but gameplay and skills are pretty much the same. If you aren't interested in owning a house or exploring the new areas, there's no reason to purchase Dark Majesty - you can do just fine with the old version of the game.

So, why release Dark Majesty as a retail product instead of just a downloadable version? Some have guessed that it was because the game developers wanted a large infusion of cash to help pay for work on Asheron's Call II. Others say it was done to get copies of Asheron's Call back on store shelves -- older games have a tendency to lose retail space to newer software, after all. Still, all of this is speculation; your guess is as good as mine (or better if you work for Turbine). In any event, older versions of Asheron's Call have disappeared from many retail stores, and can no longer be ordered from Amazon.com. Dark Majesty is now the "standard" purchase for those wanting to start out in this MMORPG.

Quick Comments

• Asheron's Call's graphics, while not terrible, are still a few years behind the times (even for an MMORPG).
• The manual is decent. While not perfect, it does provide solid information for new players.
• The PvP (Player vs. Player) server is mostly unregulated and painful to play on. New players entering the world are often ambushed at the entry portal and slaughtered. Other similar games have much better mechanisms in place for this sort of thing.
• You can ALT-TAB out of the game to your Windows desktop.
• Magic dominates in AC. In fact, "pure weapon" characters that don't use magic will find themselves at a disadvantage in the later game -- there just isn't any real benefit for going without spells.
• There is almost no role-playing in the game.
• At the time of this review, houses are still very buggy. They are being mentioned at every update as being worked on -- which is either good or bad, depending on how you look at it.
• Asheron's Call: Dark Majesty contains the original game -- you do not have to buy it and the older version of Asheron's Call to play.
• Houses cannot just be purchased. First, a certain level must be attained (20 for the smallest houses). Then, quests must be completed. As well, only those with the Asheron's Call: Dark Majesty game -- or, most likely, future versions -- can own houses.
• Scripting is rampant and, for the most part, unregulated at this time.
• The game is only playable via Microsoft’s matchmaking service MSN Gaming Zone. This service requires you to not only use Internet Explorer -- which will only be a problem for the minority of users who prefer Netscape or Opera -- but also requires you to sign up for a .NET passport. The .NET passport has come under fire from privacy groups worried about potential “big brother” scenarios that could result. In addition, some security flaws have been pointed out in the system. To their credit Microsoft has corrected the major ones that have been discovered -- or disabled the bugged features -- however, who knows what undiscovered (or worse unreported) holes might still exist? -- eds.

Final Thoughts

It is hard to recommend Asheron's Call: Dark Majesty because it has so many things going against it: there is almost no atmosphere, there is no role-playing, and having to use .Net Passport are just a few of my complaints. In fact, the only things Asheron's Call really offers are the game's mechanics. Through flexible combat options, a decent skill system, and some innovative features like allegiances, AC shows that it does have some potential. I just don't think it is enough to overcome its crippling flaws. Still, there are players that will enjoy this style of game -- I'm just not one of them. Rules vs. Role-Playing vs. Ambiance -- which do you prefer?