SotNW is set in the 1500’s where the player is colonizing a “New World”. There is a mix of persistent and instanced areas for adventurers to explore. The game takes a unique perspective on the worn out MMO template. Most noticeable is the party formation. The player controls 3 characters in the party, any of which can be the leader. Orders can be given at a team or individual level. The team can be instructed to hold a position or auto attack. The auto attack feature was quite nice for farming.
There are 5 different classes in both male and female form.
· Scout
· Musketeer
· Elementalist
· Fighter
· Wizard
Characters are restricted to a single profession of the human race.
Character control is performed only via the mouse. No keyboard movement is provided. In fact, all UI action is geared toward the mouse only. This typifies the stereotype of the Korean player with one hand on the mouse and the other on his girlfriend or cigarette.
Explorable areas and missions are more “follow the yellow brick road” than Guild Wars.
Likes* The setting, the old world, is quite refreshing. Moving outside the fantasy realm gives this slay-and-collect game an updated feel.
* Graphics are absolutely gorgeous! They rival and surpass those of Guild Wars in some aspects.
* Astounding music. The sounds and music really set the period.
Dislikes* Click to move system. No WASD movement.
* No camera chase. Constant camera adjustment is necessary.
* Lonely. Seems more like an online single player game.
* Although the help is in English, the graphics associated with the help are in Korean.
* Text under the various NPC icons are in Korean.
* Can't run the game in full screen mode. The game wants to run always in a window. This makes viewing difficult as the start menu overlays some of the game window.
* Some bad translation. "Then I'll the next orders."
* Many NPC's with quest exclamations, but when the player talks to them, the NPC just says, "Come back when you are stronger."
* Wrong map directions. "Go Northeast to (location)..." when the location is really southwest on the map.
* Can't configure the character look (hair, size, skin color, face). All female fighters look the same.
SummaryThe game takes a welcome break from the standard fantasy MMO. The one critical missing component is making the player care about his characters. Having three characters at once prevents the player from really connecting with any of the avatars. In the end, there’s no "heroes journey", just a group of stunning avatars fighting on their own, running the same old fed-ex quests.
Jill, Sabrina, and Kelly
