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

By Danny "Ralsu" Gourley

ESTsoft's CABAL Online combines the romanticism of Wild Wild West stories with the action of a kung fu movie and adds them to a massively-muliplayer online game (MMOG). The result is a visceral combat experience that fits well in a game set in a very cruel world.

Download and Installation
Before downloading any game, it's always best to check out the system requirements. CABAL Online has modest system requirements, which are listed below.

	Required	Suggested
CPU	Pentium 3 800MHz +	Pentium 4 1.4GHz +
RAM	512MB +	1GB +
Graphics Card	3D accelerator	Geforce 6600GT or Higher
DirectX	DirectX 9.0c or better
HDD	2.5GB +

Note the spikes on the armor. CABAL Online features a tough world.

Gamers can download CABAL Online from a number of mirror sites. The download is 837MB.The install size on my hard drive is around 2.2GB.

Installation was pretty fast despite the size of the game. The installer does everything for you. Just double-click it and select an installation path.

WARNING: CABAL Online uses Xtrap, an anti-hacking program free-to-play games often use. My antivirus, like many others, detects Xtrap as a trojan horse. It's an invasive tool at the very least.

Character Creation
From the first moments of character creation, CABAL Online clues players in on the brutal natural of the world. A graphic that resembles a a vault closing and opening--complete with the sound of hydraulics--transitions gamers into the character creation screen. Players are human, and the choices of classes include Warrior, Blader, Wizard, Force Archer, Force Shielder, and Force Blader. Warriors and Force Shielders somewhat--bot not exactly--fit the tank archetype. Bladers and Force Bladers work a bit like melee damage-per second (DPS). Finally, Wizards and Force Archers are ranged DPS.

Don't expect to customize your jet ski at character creation.

MMOG veterans will note the distinct lack of a class with heals. ESTsoft wants players to be dealing damage all the time. Players use potions on their hotbar to heal instead of relying on a healer class. The results are that every class has a little bit better capability to solo, fights feel more fast-paced, and combat greatly resembles that of an action game.

The melee-oriented classes sport armor with massive spikes and gleaming plates, a look that points to an almost futuristic world but hints at the harsh reality of survival. As usual, I rolled a Wizard to see what kind of graphic effects the game had to offer. Because the female models looked pretty good, I made my avatar a female.

Interface and Controls
CABAL online isn't breaking any new ground with its interface. Character data is displayed in the upper left of the screen. Targeted enemies and non-player characters appear at the center of the top of the screen. A mini-map sits in the top right. The hotbar and quick menu bar line the bottom of the screen. Above it on the left is the chat window. On the right above the hotbar is the system chat window.

As for controls, players can move with WASD keys or by left-clicking on the screen. Spells and items on the hotbar are activating by pressing the 1 through = keys as usual. If auto-attack is turned on, your character will attack in rapid succession and the game feels more hands off. With auto-attack enabled, players can initiate melee attacks (bound to the hotbar) pretty much as fast as they can press the key. This gives the feeling of more active combat early on but feels more like button mashing later. Additionally, the manual attacks--if they are capable of exceeding the rate of auto-attack--could never be faster than a bot or macro (assuming a player could get it past Xtrap).

There's more to CABAL Online. Continue to page 2.