The style="font-style: italic;">Wonderland Online
Closed Beta
began on April 9, and I decided to give it a try because I am always
looking for yet another solid free-to-play (F2P) game that can soak up
some of my time between play sessions of more intense games. I reported
my first
impressions from a very brief experience earlier this week.
Wanting to learn more about Wonderland
Online, I took the plunge once again. This time, I
explored combat, grouping, and...er, "looding."

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Enter any safe
zone  in Wonderland
Online and you're sure to see one of these tent cities.

Tent Cities Without Lag

I'd stopped my first Wonderland Online play session after washing up on
a beach after a shipwreck. I had met and received a raft from a
castaway who'd been living on my island refuge for 25 years. I had
experienced a fair amount of lag, but I guessed that it could be a
result of the launch of closed beta and a flood of players all on one
server. I am pleased to report that the lag was gone entirely for my
second play session, and my 75 minutes of game play were without any
technical hitches.



I started by floating my raft to the northwest. I had no clue if
anything lay in that direction; it was just an adventurous urge,
something I get the feeling Wonderland
Online (WL) seeks to encourage. A screen fade
later, my raft brought me to a new island. I could see other
players on the beach with their fishing poles. Sadly, my raft broke as
I came ashore, and an on-screen message told me I could not use it
again. At least I'd found some other people.



It turned out that I had not just found style="font-style: italic;">some other people;
I had found dozens of people. In addition to the couple dozen fishermen
on the shore, I soon saw dozens more--or at least the tents that
represented them. I went inside a tent and saw a player in there just
hanging out with what looked to be crafting stations. Another tent I
explored had furniture and decorations. The beach was crawling in these
things. I was in the midst of a veritable tent city. Between the
fishermen, the tents, and the players swarming the beach like ants, I
estimated 75-100 people in the zone. And there was no lag at all.

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Battles in style="font-style: italic;">Wonderland Online
take place in turns like those in traditional role playing games.

Round One: Fight

Just past the beach was a glowing little icon that looked like a
portal. I followed another adventurous urge and stepped on it. As I had
suspected, it was a "door" to the next zone. In this zone, I saw the
beach start to blend into some palm trees, and I spotted some colorful
dots (maybe target="_blank">Dots) hopping around in the sand.
It appeared I had discovered some enemies.



I had not engaged in any combat in WL yet, so I was not sure what to
expect. Since movement in WL uses mouse clicks, I expected combat to be
a clickfest, too. I charged at one of the hopping dots, praying to the
copy of Baldur's Gate II
on my computer shelf that I'd receive divine instructions on how to
fight very soon.



I was surprised to learn that battles take place in a separate screen
in turn-based fashion like many great traditional role playing games
I've loved over the years. It was my duster-wearing Silek versus...a
pineapple monster. Several combat command icons appeared in a circle
surrounding my character, but none of them gave a description when I
moused over. I had to guess what each did based on its image. A timer
counted down from 20. I couldn't waste time.



It really
wasn't so hard to figure out which icons let me attack with my
weapons--my fists at this point--use magic and special skills, and use
items. One of the other icons might have been an option to attempt to
flee. But I could not decipher some in-game. I'd need to visit the
website later if I wanted to unravel the mystery. Regardless, I
dispatched my foe without much effort. I then proceeded to attack kiwi
monsters and grape monsters. Maybe some other fruit, too. It really
looked like candy gone wild. Both the enemies and my avatar had their
own combat animations, and my spells and special moves showed a little
flare.



I walked up the beach a little and found some starfish and anemones to
kill as well. I leveled quickly and gained some points to spend on my
attributes. I unlocked some news skills in doing so, but I soon found
my level one skill cost fewer spell points and did more damage than my
new ones against the foes in the vicinity.



The fun
doesn't stop at fighting fruit-flavored candy. Read on for my first
experiences with quests. And looding.