ArcheAge is a MMORPG based on Eastern and Western fantasy world view. Developed by XL Games from South Korea and creator Jake Song, who made the smash hit online game Lineage. The title has spent 6 years in development, and it has been in closed beta tests for 2 years in Korea. ArcheAge is described as a "sandpark" game, which the developers say is a hybrid of the open content style of a "sandbox" game, and the more structured play experience of a "themepark" game. It is a game with housing, territorial control, music, dancing and a focus on PvP as well as quests.   

The game was released in South Korea in January 2013, Japan in July 2013, and had its closed beta in China so far. It has been announced that North America and Europe version will be distributed by Trion, but the beta phase for North America and Europe has not been announced yet.

Moving on, I shall highlight briefly on some interesting features of the game :)


CLASS SYSTEM: Archeage has an unusual system that allows you to mix skills from 3 different classes at once. That sounds nice, totalling up to a possibility of 120 different builds! There are 10 trees of active and passive skills in the beginning of the game, and you can pick 3 of the offensive skills to start off. The trees at later levels are completely free for you to choose. You can change the trees later or just reset the skills in a tree as often as you need (but it costs money). There is also "synergies" in the skill tree system, which offers extra effects, buffs or debuffs that you get through using skills of different trees.

With these many different combinations, I think players may have a hard time deciding whether you want to go for PVE/PVP built, and if you go for both it just means that you can survive but probably won't excel extremely well in either one. Having read that ArcheAge has quite a huge content in PVP, there are bound to be players going for the extreme built for massacres lol. In all, there have been much praises for the class system so far, being the best that players have seen in the past few years. 


COMBAT SYSTEM wise, it is as simple as it is - tab-targetting (trigger-happy times) with no player aiming required. There is stealth in the game, but not in the absolute sense as other games may have created it to be. There is a chance you may get revealed if you are too close to your target. Collision between players can also be detected (so you don't just walk through them), which allows for body-blocking during combat, and also an obstacle detection which favours the ranged players in helping them dodge some attacks. Attacks from a glider, which is the flying equipment you see in the video is possible as well using bombs and arrows. Combat on ships using cannons, or tanks and mounts depending on which type you have. There are also pets which you can use to support you in a fight. Let's take a look at some good naval action:





PVP: All zones are PVP-enabled. Green name players are from your faction, and red names are enemies. The starting zones are safe for your own faction, enemies cannot attack you but you can attack them if you want. The player you attack can defend himself, but not his friends that are with him. Higher level zones are free for all PVP. You can attack the enemy faction, and, also your own! However, you can get in trouble with the law if you do attack your own faction. The northern continent and the sea are open for PVP all the time, however, if too many killings are happening it can start a war, which lasts for an hour. When war is declared, you get points for killing the enemy faction ^^.


LEVELLING: It is said to be quest-heavy. The quests and storylines are based on a famous korean novel. If you are someone who enjoys following the story in any MMOs you may appreciate it more while you are progressing through your quests. There are currently 2 books about ArcheAge and many short stories about the lore as well.

Other than the usual questing like most MMOs offer, you can also get experience from doing a whole lot of other stuffs as well like chopping trees, farming ore, stone and refining them, crafting packages and constructions etc. I forsee myself doing a whole lot of other things than just questing, or the worse, mindless grinding which I really hate (I detest repetitive activities!!!). I really dislike the fact that sometimes I am lagging behind when I don't do quests or grinding to catch up with my friends who does them lol. With the availability of so many other activities, it gives players rewarding recreational time as well rather than just questing and grinding all the time. This is great! :)

TRANSPORTATION: Players can anticipate to travel in 3 forms of transportation - land, sea and air. Other than the standard mounts like horses or lions (which you have to breed), there are also cars, tractors, big ships, small ships, trade ships with radar function, submarines and gliders! Ships come in 2 different versions - the Eastern type with cannons and the Western with the harpoon. 

Cars are pretty cute like a modern yet old vehicle in ArcheAge. It is also very expensive as well but it is the fastest moving land vehicle in ArcheAge so far. View the video below :)

Gliders are one of the other fun thing to take if you like sightseeing and exploring lands. There's enough land to explore and no invisible barriers holding you back from climbing every mountain you see. 

ECONOMY: Auction house is global, which means you share it with other servers as well. This is almost the same as globalisation in real world. Generally this manner should be better in the context of resource allocation, but from sources it seems that the AH is just providing stuff generated by the system, and there are no real players interaction at the moment. They may be future changes, or not to the AH system so it may be too early to tell if it is a better system this way or not.

TRADING: This may be the main activity for most players' source of income. You can farm and harvest materials, craft them into packages and bring them to trading posts in another region where the distance and rarity would determine your profit.

PIRACY: With trading comes piracy. Players can choose to become pirates if they don't wish to go by the proper way of trading. This becomes a huge factor of the game since many players may choose to do trading to earn money. Pirates can try to take your packages when you land or they attack you to do whatever they want to do. This calls for greater need for all guilds to work together or even create some "political" ties which are actually relevant and true in real life lol.  

FISHING: You can do standard or deep sea fishing. Just have to look out in the sea for a spot with many seagulls flying around. Fish caught will be put in a fish tank in your fishing boat, and you can choose to trade them.



COMPOSING SONGS: This is a really special part of the game where players can compose their own music and play them! The better you get with the skill the more accurate you would play. Sounds pretty realistic lol. I think it will get funny when it goes out of tune xD


EDUCATION: Every race in ArcheAge has their own language. Players can learn them from libraries and universities in the game. Some players are speculating that this function may lead to the possibility of player-created faction to happen as well.

COURT: If if break the law, you get charged to court. It allows players to participate as the judiciary as well in deciding if the other accused player should go to jail. Hahaha, can't imagine what would happen if people just decide to play a prank lol. This should be interesting.

See below a video on how a player can get charged in court, put in jail, AND escape from jail. (You may skip the video if you don't wish for any "spoilers".)

This is pretty amusing.