The Chronicles of Spellborn: E3's Biggest Surprise!

Page Two

While character creation isn't as advanced as some of the games I've seen this year at the show, there is an array of choices from "Ethiopian" skinny to insanely fat. Beautiful, ugly, it all sets on a slider bar that the player uses to optimize their character. The best thing about character creation is the choice of armor. Since armor does not affect your combat, you are able to select any type from the onset. Also, the slots are asymmetrical. If you want to have mis-matching shoulder pads or two different colored boots to play up the RP aspect of poor wandering knight, the ability is there. You end up with a brilliant set of beautiful armor right from the start. Unlike other games where you have to wait until X Level to change your armor, this game allows you to change your armor and weapons often. In fact, it's encouraged!

Since I mentioned weapons, the fact that you can make your own epic weapons really appeals to me. Each weapon holds five slots in which you can put your special moves. From this you can make an epic weapon that will give you extra benefits and then give it away. Having soul bound armor and weapons in other games serve a purpose. However, it does become tedious when you could give those items to your other characters or even friends who need them.

I'm going to jump back to PVP for a minute. You may have heard me talk about not having a visible reward system for players who achieve greatness. There are quests that lead you on a merry chase and you end up with fifty silver. Let's not forget leading our little princess Bwak. In Spellborn, if you complete a certain quest or if you defeat your opponent in PVP combat, you will receive your own statue. Yes! It's a statue that looks exactly like your character. It can be destroyed, but seriously, how absolutely COOL is this? One of the quests is a hero challenge where you have to be the first to get to the top of the hill. It sounds easy right? Wrong! While you're running, there are NPC's doing kamikaze moves on you as well as other players trying to take you out of the race. If you make it to the top first, you receive your own statue that proclaims you the best. Yes, it doesn't take much to make me happy but I truly believe that this is a brilliant move on SI's part. They've created a simple system that gives those of us who like to preen, a reason to complete challenges.

Shardships

Speaking of quests, there are no "rat killing" quests! Barry said that they want questing to be meaningful. While you may think that some of these quests are silly, they are circular in design. If you start a quest at level 1, it may lead you on a merry chase to level 50 where you finally finish with a gigantic bang. They become more in-depth and make more sense as you level them. He promises!

You can expect to see an announcement for more beta slots early this summer. The plan is to launch Spellborn in October. We'll keep our fingers crossed. As you all know with these kind of games, it's hard to keep a finger on when it will all happen!

With the theatrical atmosphere, the involved questing and over-all fun combat system, this game is my biggest E3 surprise. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but I certainly wasn't expecting a game that could give WoW a run for its money if people give it a chance. When I do my voting for the "best of's" E3, you can bet that I will be nominating this game for quite a few of them.

You can find all of TenTonHammer's Chronicles of Spellborn movies and images in our Chronicles of Spellborn gallery located here.