Darkfall Online is a somewhat obscure title with a devoted (nearly fanatical) following. It was announced in 2001 as an indie MMO devoted to being basically UO with more features and not trammeled the fuck up.
Out of those humble roots, it has grown into a huge project that has taken eight years to complete, however it will possibly be everything that you'd ever want in an MMO. What follows, is an incomplete list of CONFIRMED completed features that are present in the current alpha build of the game (which has been confirmed to exist by several people who have visited their offices in Greece, it is not vaporware):
- Six races (Humans, Mirdain, Alfar, Mahirim, Orks, and Dwarves) with unique benefits and advantages as well as disadvantages
- A seamless world touted to be roughly the size of Germany, handcrafted by a development team. For comparison, World of Warcraft's world (all zones included) is roughly the size of Holland.
- Full PvP, full loot, no safezones or bound items
- All items are craftable
- Fully functioning Naval combat and player owned boats
- Realtime combat (think FPSlike, you control your character fully, you swing the sword, string the bow, cast the spell, somewhat like Oblivion)
- Mounted combat, real mounted combat (See mount and blade link for examples)
- Physics. Arrows and some spells are effected by gravity, wind, and the like. There are spells which can alter physics in areas.
- Skill based character progression (rather than leveling up, you gain skills and improve said skills)
- And a shitload more that I don't feel like explaining when it's already all written down on another website. Think pre trammel UO revived with 3d graphics and a new and improved combat system.
I've personally been following this games development since August of 2005, and I can tell you as an avid MMO player that this looks to be the real deal. The devs and visitors have confirmed that unlike AoC, all of the features they touted as being core to the game will be 100% included at launch.
Related links:
http://www.darkfallonline.com/ , official website
http://forums.darkfallonline.com/showthread.php?t=60922 , recent writeup by an officially confirmed visitor
http://www.taleworlds.com/ , Mount and Blade homepage. The developers frequently cite this game when asked about how Darkfall will handle combat. They generally respond with "A smoother and more complex Mount and Blade". It's a good game in its own right, but I'd wait for the full version if you want to play past the demo, it should be coming out pretty soon too.
Out of those humble roots, it has grown into a huge project that has taken eight years to complete, however it will possibly be everything that you'd ever want in an MMO. What follows, is an incomplete list of CONFIRMED completed features that are present in the current alpha build of the game (which has been confirmed to exist by several people who have visited their offices in Greece, it is not vaporware):
- Six races (Humans, Mirdain, Alfar, Mahirim, Orks, and Dwarves) with unique benefits and advantages as well as disadvantages
- A seamless world touted to be roughly the size of Germany, handcrafted by a development team. For comparison, World of Warcraft's world (all zones included) is roughly the size of Holland.
- Full PvP, full loot, no safezones or bound items
- All items are craftable
- Fully functioning Naval combat and player owned boats
- Realtime combat (think FPSlike, you control your character fully, you swing the sword, string the bow, cast the spell, somewhat like Oblivion)
- Mounted combat, real mounted combat (See mount and blade link for examples)
- Physics. Arrows and some spells are effected by gravity, wind, and the like. There are spells which can alter physics in areas.
- Skill based character progression (rather than leveling up, you gain skills and improve said skills)
- And a shitload more that I don't feel like explaining when it's already all written down on another website. Think pre trammel UO revived with 3d graphics and a new and improved combat system.
I've personally been following this games development since August of 2005, and I can tell you as an avid MMO player that this looks to be the real deal. The devs and visitors have confirmed that unlike AoC, all of the features they touted as being core to the game will be 100% included at launch.
Related links:
http://www.darkfallonline.com/ , official website
http://forums.darkfallonline.com/showthread.php?t=60922 , recent writeup by an officially confirmed visitor
http://www.taleworlds.com/ , Mount and Blade homepage. The developers frequently cite this game when asked about how Darkfall will handle combat. They generally respond with "A smoother and more complex Mount and Blade". It's a good game in its own right, but I'd wait for the full version if you want to play past the demo, it should be coming out pretty soon too.
