Knight Online is a new game that is trying to find its
niche in the pantheon of MMORPGs. It is different from most online games because
it is designed for team-based PvP on a server-wide scale. The two races of
avatars available, the Orcs and Humans, are at war with one another. Players
must choose the side they wish to fight for and then join the battle. The
graphics and interface are very good, the game play is solid and fun, and the
system allows for both solo fighting and fighting in groups.
The graphics are very good. They are a step above most
MMORPGs I have seen. The colors are crisp and bright, and the avatars look very
good. It has been a while since I felt the urge to run around a game’s starter
town and look around just to see what else the developers had built because the
graphics were just that cool. Knight Online had me poking into all the corners.
The graphic game interface has a fairly standard design.
There are hotkeys available for skills and items, the mouse is used for camera
motion and selecting objects, and the keyboard has a WASD set up for movement.
The user interface also uses sound effectively to help a player keep track of
what is going on. For example, after I picked up my second archery skill I kept
hearing this “clang” sound effect. It took me a minute to figure out what the
effect meant. The clang would sound when a skill’s reset timer was finished.
After half an hour of playing that touch only added to the game environment. I
was very happy to have that as a feature. It made it easier to keep track of
skills without having to take my eyes off the action.
The game play itself is similar to a few older titles. As a
character levels they get stat points to spend raising their basic statistics,
like health, strength, or dexterity. Once a character reaches 10th level and can
choose a profession they will also get skill points. The closest system to this
I have seen is in Diablo II. Unlike in Diablo, where a player must invest skill
credits into the same skill over and over, Knight Online allows you to buy up
lines of skill instead. There are different lines of skills available for the
players to raise. As an orc rogue, for example, there are skill trees for
archery, exploration, and “assassin” skills involving daggers and close combat.
As a player buys up their skill trees new skills will become available. Spending
points in Archery will cause a new special attack appears: shooting flaming
arrows at your opponents for extra damage.
Combat in the game places the advantage with diverse
groups. A warrior and an archer, for example, could take down monsters far
easier than either could individually. Soloing was made available through a few
game features. First, when an avatar is sitting they can regain hp and mana very
quickly so the downtime is a lot shorter than one would expect. Secondly there
are health and mana potions available in town for the recharge when you need it.
With healing potions in the game I was concerned it would
feel like another Diablo clone. For all its good points, at times when I played
Diablo I felt like all I had to do was keep guzzling healing potions and I could
win any fight. That is not true in Knight Online. Activating any skill or item
has a timer associated with it. Before the effect starts the timer has to
finish. That delay means that players cannot simply wade into combat with a
stockpile of healing potions. Pounding on the hotkey for healing potions won’t
guarantee your survival.
In my experience the game did not put any one class above
another for combat. A warrior might not have the range of an archer, but archers
could easily get munched on by an aggressive monster. I did not have a chance to
engage in any PvP fighting, but I look forward to getting the chance in the
future. There are so many options available to players that every avatar can
have an entirely new bag of tricks. The only concern I have is that at this
point the classes can be told apart at a glance. The Orc sub-race with the
option to be warriors are head-and-shoulders taller than the other orcs, and
their clerics are all female. I am very interested in seeing how that will
effect the PvP scene. It could add a new layer of complexity to PvP, or it could
lead to a rock-paper-scissors type of fighting.
Knight Online looks to be a very good game when it comes
out. By not requiring grouping it leaves room for the casual gamer as well as
the gaming elite. The graphics are a step ahead of most of the MMORPGs on the
market now, and the interface is easy to use. Most importantly this game is fun.
I never had the sense of being stuck on a treadmill or just bashing monsters so
I could get to the next level. I can’t wait to see how the world develops as the
game releases.
