The Chronicles of Spellborn: E3's Biggest Surprise!

Come inside...

You may not have heard of this game, but you will. Made from an independent company called Spellborn Intl., the Chronicles of Spellborn has the makings of a triple A game.  Spellborn made their showing this year at Pepcom, a pre-E3 media event.  It was not the norm, surrounded by booths with peripherals, console products and our own personal favorite, the "Jesus booth".

TCoS is currently in closed beta. As a matter of fact, it's been in beta since November. From a Gamer's standpoint, this seems a little long without opening the beta to more than 200 players. However, they've spent this time tweaking the game. 

It's not a Hydralisk!

Because combat is twitch based, they've been adjusting the system to accommodate problems that may occur from lag. So far, the largest number of players in one combat arena setting has been thirty-eight.  Erik Saas, the Technical Director, told me that they are running very well with little lag at that number.  The best way to describe their combat system is to picture Unreal Tournament 2.  It is very action oriented with grand movement styles combined with brilliant spell effects.

Barry was very emphatic on combat that challenges the user. While static combat has worked for many games, they felt that there was an element missing. With the twitch based combat it not only provides more of a challenge to the NPC combat, but it also encourages better strategic PVP play.