By Danny "Ralsu" Gourley
border="1">
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/35638">
style="border: 2px solid ; width: 200px; height: 150px;" alt=""
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/35638/preview">
While the vegetation
may be mostly flat, the water in Rohan
is beautiful.
Skills and Spells
Rohan uses
a skill tree system that will be instantly familiar to players who have
experience with World
of Warcraft. Each class has three tabs of skills. The
different here is that players will only ever access two of them. My
archer had a tab of skills that would see him through to level 50 (the
highest skills required level 30 and other skills as perquisites to
unlock), when he could choose between one of two High Classes.
Players earn a limited number of skill points, so your archer might be
very different from mine. The first three skills available to the
Archer are elemental skills: fire, ice, and shadow. I chose the ice
path, which adds a little damage and the chance to slow the enemy. That
opened a skill that allowed me to fire 3 rapid shots in the time I'd
normally fire only one. Then I unlocked a skill that adds to my base
bow damage with any attack. By level 13, the last skill I had picked up
was a skill that roots a monster in place for a short time. My skill
selections were very much about trying to keeps monsters at a distance.
Game Play and Interface
Rohan drops
players in a world that feels alive. Other games have left me with a
feeling that everything exists as a backdrop for my character's
exploits. By contrast, Rohan made me feel as if I were one small part
in a larger world that has a history behind its conflicts. Early quests
were of the kill and fetch variety, but I soon got sent to a local mine
to try to liberate it from some nasties who'd taken over.
The interface in Rohan
is pretty straightforward. A collapsible bar for in-game menus such as
your backpack and the social screen liens the bottom left of the
screen. A second collapsible bar to the right of that serves as a
hotbar for skills. Above the menus bar is the chat box, which allows
filters for different types of chat. On the opposite side of the screen
is the combat text. The top left displays your character portrait with
vital statistics. The top right is the mini-map. I felt the last two
pieces were scaled a little too large. Players can use WASD controls to
walk or left-click.
Unique Bells &
Whistles
border="1">
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/35639">
style="border: 2px solid ; width: 200px; height: 133px;" alt=""
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/35639/preview">
Societies in
style="font-style: italic;">Rohan are fleshed
out and seem to exist for a reason rather than as a game mechanic.
Rohan has
some pretty cool features that I have not seen in other games. Let's
start with the ability to modify gear. Gear has base stat requirements
and level requirements to wear, but
style="font-style: italic;">Rohan allows
players to try to reduce those requirements to wear the item earlier.
There is risk involved, however. Failing to reduce the requirements can
actually increase them. For example, pretend you are a level 10 Mage
who really wants to wear those level 12 boots that boost mana. You can
attempt to reduce the level requirement to 10 for a cost, but if you
fail, the level requirement will go up to 14.
Another cool feature is the kill bonus. Every 20th kill rewards your
player with a little extra XP. The value of the bonus increases
geometrically with each set of 20 kills. This adds an extra element to
leveling up via killing monsters. At low levels, I was able to pick up
the weakest monsters I could find that would still give XP for 19 kills
and then go take on a very strong monster for the 20th kill. The bonus
XP would help me level pretty fast--maybe faster that if I had killed
20 of the harder monster.
Finally, I must mention the Hit List, a clickable button near your
character's information at the top left of the user interface. Any time
a player kills you in PvP combat, his or her name is added to that
list. In this way, you can keep a handy list for revenge. Since PvP is
a huge part of the game starting at level 30, expect your Hit List to
be very important.
Parting Thoughts
Rohan is a
good looking game with a terrific music score. It feels much more like
a fully polished product than most games I have the opportunity to beta
test. It certainly isn't without bugs, but it feels more alive and real
than a good number of its competitors. If YNK stays true to
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/29760">the goals
professed by Senior Marketing Manager Fred White when Ten Ton
Hammer interviewed him, Rohan could be one of the best titles to come
to America in 2008.
To read the latest guides, news, and features you can visit our Rohan: Blood Feud Game Page.
