by Garrett Fuller
In the gaming industry, you’ll occasionally encounter a game
and a development company that fall into an “info
blackout”, meaning that they’ll go for weeks
without saying a word to the press. For the U.S. press, this happened
with The Chronicles of Spellborn, an upcoming fantasy-based MMOG that
looks to have amazing potential. Thankfully, here at Leipzig the Ten
Ton Hammer team got the chance to see the updated game and talk with
Spellborn’s lead designer, Chris Nengerman, and
“Sound Man”, Matt Florianz. The game is now really
ramping up its development, showcasing some extremely polished graphics
and new content.
Since our last look, the main story has not changed in Spellborn. For
those who may not remember, the game takes place across
“Shards” or pieces of a destroyed world. Players
can explore Shards as well as travel between them on protected ships
that can travel through the Deathspell Storm that separates the various
Shards. Player classes remain the same as before. The Rogue, Caster,
and Warrior classes make up the basic archetypes. The Rogue eventually
grows into the Trickster, Skin Shifter, or Death Hand classes. The
Warrior becomes the Blood Warrior, Wrath Guard, or a Fury Hammer.
Lastly, the Casters can become a Void Seer, Rune Mage, or Ancestral
Mage. From the demo I saw, this seems like a perfect reasonable number
for the game.
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An overall shot of
the Spellborn booth.
The two starting races for players will be your standard human and a
demon-like creature called the Daevi. Both races have loads of
customizations that can be implemented in character creation. The guys
mentioned that more races will make their way into the game as the
story line develops. Another very customizable aspect of character
creation are your cloths, armor, and weapons. In Spellborn only your
skills matter. Loot gives characters no additional bonuses to stats;
it’s merely an aesthetic tool. In Spellborn your attacks are
skill based and not determined by the weapon you carry. Players can
look how they want and change their look without having to go through a
detailed enhancement chart.
For game play the designers at Spellborn are working hard to take
grinding out of the game. You don’t have to go out and farm
kills to gain experience. They would rather have you go through the
unique quest system and develop your character while enjoying the story
along the way. The game will have over one thousand quests and even
expands into more with the compound quests that come up as you continue
to play. There are epic story quests which take you all the way through
your characters development. Also, because questing is so expansive,
once you complete a quest it stays in your log book so you can
reference it later on.
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Someone taking a
crack at Spellborn.
The crafting system in Spellborn offers players a way to create great
new looks for their characters. Players will find resources throughout
the game, especially in PvP areas which can later be used to craft
unique armor and weapons. Also, crafting in Spellborn does not have a
failure rate. You’ll successfully make every item you try to
create. This is important because players can enjoy customizing their
look even further as they grow stronger in the game.
On top of that, if you strive to be the best PvP player, or are the
first to complete a PvE objective, then you will get your own statue in
the town square! So when you complete your objective, make sure you
have on your best loot because your statue will be standing for all to
see.
PvP is an important part of MMOs and the crew at Spellborn has done a
lot over the last year to really enhance their PvP. In the game, there
is a deadly player arena where fights will take place in a structured
situation, but free-for-all PvP will also be in the game. For those who
remember the original concepts of the game, the Spellborn world did
have five High Houses of rulers. Eventually Chris said that these will
play a part of the PvP for players, but not at the start.
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A Chronicles of
Spellborn staffer checking out the gameplay.
We were very happy to see that Spellborn has come back after a quiet
year of development. The team is working hard to get the MMOG ready for
launch. If you have not seen this game I highly recommend you check out
the screenshots and artistic style it has to offer. The rendering are
very different and look great. The world is colorful and alive filled
with loads of choices for players to make their characters look
different and cool. Chris mentioned that several comic book artists had
worked on the design of the game and everyone is really impressed with
the outcome.
As John Hoskin and I left the booth we both agreed that Chronicles of
Spellborn is a game you need to check out as a MMOG player. It has been
quiet for sometime, but now it is starting to really push development
to launch. The game play is fun and with no grinding to worry about you
can really enjoy an MMOG that does not force you to play for hours on
end. Thanks again to Chris and Matt for taking time to share an updated
look at The Chronicles of Spellborn.
To read the latest guides, news, and features you can visit our The Chronicles of Spellborn Game Page.
