Asheron's Call 2: Fallen Kings Preview
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The most promising aspect of Asheron's Call II will be PVP. The world is divided into three Kingdoms. The Shadow Kingdom is built on self-interest and follows no rules. The Dominion Kingdom thrives for lawfulness and Empire. The Order of Dereth Kingdom's main goals are goodness and progress. You cannot join a Kingdom within the first 10-20 hours of playing the game. Allegiances are extended groups of players. A player swears fealty to another player becoming their Vassal and them becoming your Patron. There can be many Patrons and Vassals in an Allegiance. The Monarch is the highest-ranking Patron of the Allegiance. Being a part of an Allegiance has some good and possibly bad affects. Every member does not have to be a part of the same Kingdom; I can see some very interesting conflicts arise because of this. Also portions of Vassals experience points are passed up to their Patron. These are not subtracted from the Vassal. But if you think that you can have many players swear fealty to you and never have to gain experience you're wrong, you can only gain a percentage of what you need to advance from your Vassals. Every player is not forced to engage in PVP activities. There are areas for each type of combat. Areas of Peace, pretty self-explanatory. Areas of Competition are where you compete against rival Kingdoms by killing boss mobs to control that area and Workshops. You can also make sacrifices to alters to gain control. Areas of Conflict are where players fight against other Kingdom's players for higher PK Ratings and benefits for your Kingdom. Luckily for me there is no item loss at death. A new concept to PVP fighting was implemented with this game; your PK Rating is determined by the skill of the players you defeat not by how many. So the better that you can master the combat skills the higher your PK Rating will be. Of course, if you do not continue to defeat other players your PK Rating will decay. Areas of Chaos are the most fun of the PVP areas. These are all out no holds barred combat areas. You can fight anyone, no matter what Kingdom they are allied with.
My views overall of Asheron's Call II are very good. I chatted with quite a few players during the last hours of beta testing and received high recommendations for the game. They were mourning the end of beta testing and waiting anxiously for the game release in two or three weeks. Microsoft and Turbine have raised the standard for MMORPGs with their excellent game mechanics and graphics. When future game elements, like mounts, NPCs and player storefronts, are added it will only enhance an already great game. If you do not have a computer system that meets the requirements, I suggest getting one fast. This game is worth it for the graphics alone.
