Ten Ton Hammer - Taking MMO Gamers to the Next Level!

Many things about Lucent Heart, Gamania’s “free-to-play social MMO,” will be familiar to most any gamer, from character classes to fantasy lore loosely inspired by Greek mythology. There’s fighting, revenge, monsters, chases, escapes, true love… Wait--true love? Is this a kissing MMOG?

A Match Made…By Cupid

Actually, it is a kissing MMOG, sort of. Lucent Heart uses a unique matchmaking and dating system that rewards players for finding their Soul Mate and interacting and adventuring together. (Although the term “soul mate” implies that you’ve found your one and only, characters can actually have up to three different soul mates. Talk about playing the field!)

There are a couple of ways for players to make a match. If you already have someone in mind, you can purchase a Cupid Key from the game’s item mall, which enables you to pair up with the person of your choice. Or, if you’re flying solo, you can use the game’s matchmaker, Cupid, the god of love.  At specific times of day, players can queue up to be matched by Cupid. Each character has a daily fortune, determined by their zodiac sign, and your fortune level in the Love category determines your position in the queue and affects your chances of finding a match.

Cupid plays the ultimate matchmaker in Lucent Heart.

By now you’re saying, “Hold it, hold it, hold it…where’s the fighting? What’s with all the gooey love stuff?” It’s not just fluff. In Lucent Heart, pairing up plays an important role if you want to be successful. By putting their compatibility to the test daily, paired players can earn a 2x experience bonus for adventuring together.  They can tend flowers with their Soul Mates, and the flower petals can become special accessories while the nectar serves as mana and health potions. Unique couples-only emotes give significant buffs. (There’s even a “tent” emote which creates a tent with the couple inside, which then bumps up and down. In other words, if this tent is rockin’…don’t come knockin’.)

Cupid takes some of your attributes and desires into consideration when making your perfect match--things like your age range, level, zodiac sign, and other special characteristics such as gender preference. (Yep, same sex pairings can happen in this game.) Matches are calculated and announced 3 times a day, and if you’ve been matched with a player a glowing heart will appear above your character. There’s no complicated eHarmony-esque profile system and no need to make a corny (or scary) video bio. Just press O to open your community interface, select the Cupid tab, and see who you’ve been matched with.

If you and your Soul Mate really hit it off, you can even take the plunge and get married. Getting married is a big deal in Lucent Heart and involves some careful social coordination. You’ll have to set a date and time and send wedding invitations, which you personalize, to your guests. You can invite as many as 50 friends to attend your ceremony, but only three are necessary to witness this “bwessed awangement.” Guests can interact with special items such as balloons, and you and your newly wedded spouse will receive wedding rings.

If you like it then you should put a ring on it.

Of course, not every match is made in Heaven. If you find that you and your Soul Mate aren’t hitting it off after three days you can part ways--it’s as simple as hitting the “delete” button on your Cupid List, which almost seems worse than breaking up via Facebook or text message. Divorce will be an option for married couples, and although we didn’t get the lowdown on divorce when we toured the game recently, we suspect it’s probably more involved than clicking “delete.” Of course, when you break up with your Soul Mate you lose any flowers the two of you have been growing. Ah, the heartbreak.