Saturday, January 22, 2011

Action MMO games

Hi everyone,

today I want to give you a little overview of some so called action MMO games which either recently launched or are still in development.
The whole concept of games which feature most of the important MMORPG features, such as looting and equipping items, running through dungeons with larger groups of players, joining guilds, having relaxed chats etc. but still play like a 3rd person action game such as Ninja Gaiden, Devil May Cry, God of War and the likes itself is fairly new. I know that I always wondered why noone made a game like that – console like action but as an MMO.
And suddenly here they are, and for some reason they come in a bunch. Korean and Japanese action MMOs all over the place. All of them feature real time combat, no more "turn based" fighting as in pretty much all other present MMORPGs, all of them have you slash at your opponent at the touch of a button and evade enemy attacks by actually dodging them, not by chance or having high stats.
So let me show you all of the action MMOs I know of so far.





Dynasty Warriors Online

There isn't really much to say here – it's Dynasty Warriors, it's online, it's awesome. The graphics as well as animations are kind of outdated as this game has been out in Japan for several years now, but gameplay wise it's an experience I encourage everyone who's a fan of 3rd person action games to check out. The game is PVP only for the most part with no real PVE or open world traveling, but that's what Dynasty Warriors always was and everything else would have been strange. The English version of the game came out just recently and is completely free to play, so feel free to check it out.







Dragon Nest

Dragon Nest is another free to play action MMO which will release in NA in Summer 2011. It's already out in Korea, China and Japan. The game is instance based as well, so again no open world to explore. Dragon Nest has a very cartoony, anime style look, not exactly my taste, but each to their own. What really got my attention though were the PVP battles seen in many videos, they are full of action and quite fast paced. There's also a wide variety of classes to choose from, which is always a good thing.






Vindictus

This game, also known under the Korean version's name "Mabinogi Heroes", launched a couple of months ago. As of now only people located in North America are able to play it, an European version is set to come somewhen this year. Still, using a proxy I was able to take a sneak peak and play through the first 10 levels. What I found to be remarkable was that this game features a real storyline, complete with voiced cutscenes and whatnot. The graphics as well as animations are really good, the PVE boss battles were lots of fun. The PVP however was far from exciting - at least when I played it, all PVP content that was available was some kind of capture the flag mode which got boring real quick. Another downside in my book is that this game does not only lack an open world, but it's pretty much lobby based with only small areas to explore and even then players are split up in tons of channels. But then again, this game is completely free to play, so who am I to complain?






Tera Online

Actually being the only game in this list which is subscription based, Tera Online may have a hard time competing with the many other action MMO games which are coming out around these days. I personally think that MMO games which make you pay a monthly fee will always have the advantage of being way better balanced though, as they usually go without item shops etc. which can make people with too much money on their hands shine out from the crowd stat wise. Also, Tera Online is one of the few games which will definately feature an open world to explore. This game has gorgeous graphics and neat animations, and as another big plus there are tons of different classes / races to choose from, unlike most other action MMOs shown here. Tera Online is set to release in EU and NA somewhen later this year.






Continent of the Ninth

This game has only come out in Korea so far, and while an English version was announced ages ago there is no fixed date for it's arrival yet. It was actually the very first action MMO I ever spotted, and I have seen the first trailers for this game aproximately 2 years ago. The graphics and animations look really nice, especially when taking into consideration that this game is free to play as well. The PVP looks really really fun from what I've seen, whenever the archer/rogue class is comboing his opponents it looks like you are looking at some kind of online version of Devil May Cry. Sadly, this game will also not offer an open world to roam freely.






Divine Souls

Divine Souls has gone through 2 closed beta testing phases as of now, one of which I attended. The servers will go live again for the open beta (so free to check out for everyone) somewhen around the next days, so stay tuned if you want to play it. Divine Souls does not feature an open world, but lots of areas which connect the different PVE instances, so it doesn't feel all that lobby based. From what I've seen so far it still felt really unfinished, with lots of bugs, cut off animations, weird audio, really limited gamepad support and the finest engrish you've ever seen. The PVP would probably be more fun if there were more than 3 classes all of which are in no way customizable as far as skills, moves etc go. I personally don't think they will have fixed all of these issues until the game opens up for the wide public, but let's wait and see. It's free to play, so apart from your precious time you won't loose anything if you feel like giving it a try.






Blade & Soul

Imagine a beat'em up game mixed with an MMORPG, that's pretty much what the developers describe Blade & Soul like. The graphics look really really nice, the animations are utterly impressive – the game is based on the Unreal Engine 3 by the way. Sadly there is no fixed release date yet, and while we got to see tons of ingame trailers none of them feature *real* gameplay with interface and everything. All we get to see over and over again are - indeed very fine looking - clips of characters beating each other up. I think they should drop us some more real footage, after all this game has been announced for years now. From what I've read it is supposed to feature an open world and is also going to be free to play.






Core Blaze

This one is probably the one I'm looking forward to the most. Just as Blade & Soul, Core Blaze uses the Unreal Engine 3, and has really impressive graphics and animations. Once again no fixed date for this game's release yet, but from what I've seen this game looks pretty much like an online version of Monster Hunter. Which rocks. It is going to be completely free to play, and will, according to the trailers, feature an open world to travel in. I have not yet seen any videos of PVP action, but still, I am quite confident that this game will kick some serious ass. As most of these in here do anyway.





 Now these probably aren't all of the action MMOs there are out there, but pretty much all of them I know of. Do you happen to know any other one I didn't mention here? Be sure to drop me a comment!
Or maybe you just feel like telling me which one of these sounds the coolest to you :)
Maybe you've been waiting for one of them to release as well? Or you've even played one of them before? Tell me in the comments!


Greets,
Wesh

29 comments:

  1. Continent of the Ninth looks pretty interesting

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  2. great stuff... I would love it if you put the system specs in though. for those of us who have bad computers, it's nice to see whether I might be able to play.

    Know of any good, free games that would work with 1.6GHz processor and 1GB of RAM? (Any game that will work with that my graphics card should be able to handle)

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  3. Dynasty Warriors Online looks good I'm going to give it a try

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  4. a combat system like assasin's creed would be great for these kind of games. im gonna try some of them
    thanks

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  5. I've heard a lot of good things about vindictus. My friend plays it a lot. Maybe I should start playing as well.

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  6. I've played Vindictus for a little bit. It's a great game, though the 4-man dungeon system is pretty annoying.
    On the bright side, there are 6-12 man raids.

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  7. Core Blaze and Dragon Nest look impressive.

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  8. @Some Guy
    1,6GHz and 1GB RAM?
    Now that's pretty outdated, and still, while probably none of the games in this list will work on your system there are quite some cool games which will!

    You could check out Quake Live for example, it's an pretty recent remake of the classic FPS Quake III Arena with tons of players! Another awesome game which is a free online 2D shooter is called Soldat, I spent numerous hours with this one.
    Other free 2D games which really rock are Little Fighter 2 and TOU (Tunnels of the Underworld), those two sadly have no online feature but are fun as hell to play with buddys.

    And then there is this one kick ass game called Minecraft, it comes at 15 USD but is something I'd totally reccomend to everyone whatever their system specs may be! Minecraft is some kind of 3D online sandbox game where you, well, mine stuff and craft stuff. Check out some videos, it's addictive as hell.

    Greets,
    Wesh

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  9. Not much into action MMO's. I did try Vindictus, which was ok, but I didn't care much for linear feel. Probably because the levels consisted of really tight hallways everywhere, but I only played the first few levels.

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  10. Some of these games seem interesting. I could check them out.

    By the way, you have a nice blog going on here. I'm following.

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  11. Dynasty Warriors has always been a favorite for me. There is not many games of this type, with such high quality.

    A game that I recommend is Mount & Blade Warband. It is a smaller studio that put the game out, but it is very fun. There is a free demo on their website. http://www.taleworlds.com

    World of Warcraft Cheats @
    http://www.blizzardhacks.com

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  12. I can't start playing MMO games, they would consume my life, and I can't let that happen

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  13. action MMO game?

    there is only 1 and im waiting for it (doesnt matter how long its gonna take):

    DIABLO 3

    these other games look like shit in comparison

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  14. Very nice I will have to check out the games you mentioned. Following and supporting.

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  15. some of those graphics look sick, seems fun.

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  16. Divine Souls looks in some way like tekken :p

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  17. I hear ps3 has some pretty good rpg's/MMO's

    I'm following, return the favor? http://igotthebeaverfever.blogspot.com/

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  18. MMO's dont really attract me anymore...
    After 6 years of runescaping i asked myself why not raise my stats in real life rather than some medicore graphics money-draining enterprise.

    The point is: one day you WILL stop playing that game and then all the time spent shall be wasted.

    just a tip...

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  19. I used to play Dynasty Warriors all the time with my friend. Not sure how the online one is though. I heard about Vindictus and I hear it's pretty good. I'm still not quite convinced enough to get into a time sink like an MMO though. Blade & Soul on the other hand has me REALLY interested, I just hope it doesn't turn out to be another generic MMO and disappoint like Aion did. But to be fair it's been a while since launch, maybe it's improved.

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  20. Great finds, i've been looking for an mmo to play and yours are some pretty nice ones. Thx for all the info

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  21. Vindictus looks awesome... shame if I played I would lose my job...

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  22. I've never been too big on MMOs, but some of those look awesome.

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