Free to play games are like ice cream; they come in a variety of flavors and styles, good or bad. Side-scrolling versions in particular pay homage to the adventure games made popular on consoles such as Adventure Island or Mario Brothers. Some side-scrollers like Nexons MapleStory have been such rousing successes that millions of players all over the world have participated in their virtual worlds. With so many free to play MMOs released monthly, is it possible for another game to break in and find the same fortune as others? Outspark (the company that brought us Secret of Solstice and Fiesta) is betting it is, and theyre importing a new project called Wind Slayer. Promising quests, classes, and crafting galore, Outspark hopes to take the title of the 2D scrollers away from Nexon. Taking advantage of a week long closed beta, we decided to dive right in and look at what Wind Slayer has to offer.
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Character creation was simple providing a selection of clothing, hair, shoes, etc. Basically its what you would expect in any game of this type. While not particularly innovative, it gets the job done and allows you to get in the gamequickly. You'll have four skills you can choose to augment, which includes strength, dexterity, intelligence, and spirit. Strength obviously determines how much damage you do with melee attacks, dexterity the damage with long range attacks, intelligence your arcane damage, and spirit your overall hit points.
Sounds pretty standard but what about the classes? Wind Slayer uses a tiered system that begins you as a novice and at level ten moves you into one of the core classes: Warrior, Archer, Mage, Rogue, Monk, and Priest. Once you've advanced to higher levels, each of these branch off into two other choices with options such as Beserker, Summoner, and Sniper for a total of 12 subclasses.
The tutorial area is clear and concise, showing the player exactly which buttons do what. You'll also be asked to perform a few tasks for practice. Early on there are only a few abilities available, and they are boiled down to the simple ones such as attack, jump, and pick up. You'll become the most familiar with the attack button as the game is based on a real time combat system, meaning you'll mash your attack button as you would any good console game. Does this mean better reflexes are required than in a traditional MMOG? The simple answer is Absolutely!, but with such simple controls and the fact they ease you into it, even the most untrained player can quickly pick it up. As the game progresses you'll find yourself jumping more to reach certain platforms to avoid monsters and grab items.
Combat as mentioned above was just a bit of button mashing with better attacks becoming available with each increased level. Your earliest combat encounter will be against a pile of poop. While I wish I was joking, the aptly named Pupu fell quickly to a few swings of my stick. A few areas later, enemies increase in difficulty like the blue Pupu and the well-dressed Pupu that have haunted my dreams for days now. The tone of these creatures was very light and kid friendly, the most frightening being a large chicken that hops on you.
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The areas you run through are numerous but short, and linked with teleporters that make travel time consuming but not challenging. I didn't notice a method of fast travel available, but with this many levels it would be surprising not to see one in place later. Each village provided quests, crafting, and a variety of places to spend your Outspark cash. While the item mall wasn't in working order yet, if Wind Slayer is like other games, there will be a variety of clothes and useful items available for purchase. A very interesting money sink I noticed early on was the option to expand your friends list for the right price. Who says popularity pays?
One large and noticeable problem Wind Slayer currently has is latency. While the is still in beta, and expectations shouldn't be high, real time combat with any type of lag makes it impossible to play effectively, even at lower levels. This in particular hampered my progress in what looked to be an interesting and promising game. If shards become overcrowded or too many people are in one area, this is an issue they will need to address sooner rather than later.
Overall it's hard to hide my disappointment in what I saw because of the aforementioned lag. The mechanics of the game, while simple, were mindless and somewhat enjoyable when working correctly. Certainly the grinding could become tiresome later on, but with a few friends who knows what adventures we could have? While I can't give you a conclusive verdict on what Wind Slayer will bring, we'll continue watching as it approaches the currently undated launch.
