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

By Ty "Ram" Meixsell, News Editor

Published by the San Francisco-based Outspark, Secret of the Solstice is a free to play fantasy based MMORPG. The story line is simple; you begin your journey as a mere recruit jumping into a rebellion to help the fight against an evil tyrant.

The graphics in Solstice are fairly cartoony.

My journey into the land of Xen started off rather pleasant. I’ve never downloaded a free to play game before and the entire process took less than an hour without any glitches or problems. Like most games in this genre you begin with character creation. Personally, I like to make a connection with my new character and unfortunately I didn’t have many options to choose from. You have the standard choice of gender and then you can choose from three different hair styles and colors. More depth during this process would be welcomed. Needless to say character creation was rather quick and easy as I entered the game world.

The world of Xen is alive with vibrant colorful animations, but as I played I felt about 20 years younger than I actually was. In general, I had a nice warm and fuzzy feeling as I roamed about in the third person view. The graphics feature sprite-based characters viewed in an isometric format and feel suited towards teens or pre-teen players. During combat, damage numbers are splashed and scrolled making them easy to see and read, while the spell animations are bright, colorful and enjoyable to watch. The graphics may be a nice introduction for a new player into a MMORPG, but for a veteran player the graphics feel outdated and cartoonish.

The level up sound occurs often in the early parts of the game.

Rather disappointing was the lack of any music during my first two hours of play. Music often sets the mood for me and without it I was never pulled into the game world. That said, the sounds of the game world are heard often, especially the ‘level up’ dings which occur not only from yourself but from everyone else around you. Suffice to say, this can become extremely annoying. Even more annoying was the teleporting sounds of players ‘zooming’ in and out of town. This was less of a distraction outside of town, but in the early going I was forced to press the mute button. During combat I could hear the sounds of everyone fighting around me as loud and crisp as if I was fighting myself, which was aggravating because all of the sounrds are very similar and repetitive.

The user interface is simple and easy to understand. You can mouse click to drag and position a few of the windows around and even expand the game map, which I found myself doing often. Engaging in combat was trial and error as I was unable to tell the level of my opponents. Combat is basically just a click on ‘X’ creature and let the game determine the outcome system. There are 3 hotbars to choose from using the F1-10 keys. Personally, I’m not used to using the F1-10 keys for anything other than to target my own party members. This was different for me but not a big deal.

The gameplay in Solstice is easy to get into.

Moving around the game was extremely cumbersome and difficult using the mouse click system. You can press and hold the left mouse to guide your character around. However the entire time I couldn’t help but feel as if my character was glued to a track. I never felt as if I had free range of motion. Equally unwieldy and frustrating was changing my camera view. With no option to tilt the camera, I was forced to press and hold the right mouse button and turn the mouse left or right to rotate the camera clockwise or counter clockwise.

For the most part, the game played pretty smoothly as I went through the tutorial. An NPC Game Guide helped me get comfortable with basic controls, quests and some features. After the tutorial you have more quests to do to help you continue to level and build your character. The game features a pretty basic leveling system that any veteran player would be used to and any new player would find simple to understand. You start out as a basic solider and are able to choose from 4 different career paths; Warrior, Wizard, Assassin and Priest.  

Summing up my first few hours of play; the game was colorful to look at, easy to understand, with a simple learning curve. However, moving around is frustrating and the combat system is tedious. Solstice seems suited for a younger MMORPG audience, and veteran players will most likely have a “been there and done that” feeling by the time they’re done.