Recently, I had the pleasure of testing a new, pay for play, action MMORPG game, Savage Eden (Hereafter referred to as SE for short). The game is currently in the final stages of beta testing and should be released by the time you read this article. SE is set in an apocalyptic world where 4 races - Human, Bulkan, Aidia, and Kailipton - are competing to gain dominance of a new earth. Each race has its own unique capabilities. For example, Bulkans are strong, highly physical melee fighters. Humans, while relatively weak physically, possess the ability to use ranged weapons and gain machine assembly skills in higher levels. As the characters progress in level, so does their skills and ability to use more advanced armor and weapons.

To get straight to the point, for an online pay for play game, Savage Eden is too simple, lacking the sophistication of its competitors - such as Everquest and Ultima Online. At least in its present version, SE's main challenge is player retention since the game

a) Lacks diversity in character builds and equipment selection b) Offers players little to do beside repetitive killing of monsters c) Realm is too small, with insufficient areas to explore

Graphics

One of the first things that players will notice is the nicely rendered first person 3D environment, giving a highly realistic feel. Arrow keys allow players to rotate the view angles and to zoom in and out. Background sceneries fade smoothly in and out. Objects accurately shrink and grow not only with distance but also in accordance to the elevation of uneven terrains. Even the perspective of the world changes in accordance with the height of the character. Other nice attention to details include shine on swords and armors, skies with moving clouds, and varying environmental conditions - rain, dusk, dawn, day, and night.

There are several graphical aspects that could be improved. The 3D rendering of monsters and player characters seem crude by today's standards. For a start, they are very chunky. Since the game involves lots of fighting, it's surprising that not more details were invested fighting animations. At the very least, there should be some visual indication that monsters and characters registered hits. For example, striking monsters should shed blood & guts, leave behind festering wounds, temporarily stun them, and/or show they react in pain. A wounded monster could also run away or call for reinforcements. Not so in SE. Currently, the monster doesn't provide any visual indicator until it dies.

Another minor graphical annoyance is that even with the camera position fully zoomed-out, it did not allow for a sufficient view of the proximity. This made it very difficult to track other characters in multi-player mode and to navigate through larger outdoor terrains. In areas densely populated with monsters, it was common to be attacked by monsters that sneaked up from behind, especially since monsters have a tendency to simply pop up from nowhere.

Sound

While the visual environment is stunning, the same could not be said for the sound effects. On the positive, the stereo combat sounds really adds to a sense of proximity, especially when other players are nearby, fighting off hordes of monsters. On the negative, as populated as the world is, it seems strangely devoid of environmental sound effects. Aside from rain, there seems to be little else to bring this otherwise nicely rendered realm to life. Some of the sounds missing include - water, wind, fire, insects, birds, effects of terrain on sound of footsteps, and the effects on sound in closed terrains such as caverns & dungeons.

The handful of sound effects seems highly synthetic and "1-dimensional." Player character attack sounds, especially Aidia and Kailipton, are overly exaggerated, perhaps too loud for what little damage they actually do. Monsters possess just one set of sounds, hence the same type of monsters always make identical sounds when attacking, taking hits, and dying. After a while of mindless killing, which there seems plenty of, I was reaching for the mute button.

Game Play

Overall, the gaming experience was unsatisfying. The real time arcade style fighting action is initially engaging, but SE lacks a good story line, flexible character progress, or bewildering selection of gears and skills that experienced RPG gamers expect. In the SE world, aside from killing a bunch of mindless monsters that appear out of nowhere and walk around aimlessly until you kill them, there is very little else to do. Of the handful of quests available, all seem to involve a lot of repetitive killing and very little adventuring.

Storyline

SE doesn't have one. Quests do not seem to have anything to do with a story line. There are no sub-plots in the game where, for example, a town merchant asks you to find something, look for someone, or run a challenging errand in return for a prize. From the first day of your career, your job is to kill so you can level, so you can add skills that allow you to kill harder monsters.