When I first saw Eligium at gamescom last year I was told it boasted ‘every feature an action MMORPG fan could want’ and it wasn’t until I got access to a European build of the distinctly Chinese MMO that I realised what exactly that meant – namely multi-levelled menus, an advanced yet bulky UI and quests which are light on story but heavy on combat.
Eligium has none of the grace of other efforts from the East, for instance TERA’s visuals or Aion’s commitment to plot, but what it does have is usability and copious amounts of player choice.
For starters, players have a choice to select from five different starter classes: Warrior, Hunter, Druid, Mage and Fighter. These archetypes are as you’d expect, with the Warrior best described as a damage-dealing melee class, whereas the Mage is great at casting out spells which deal damage over wide areas. The more ‘alternative’ choices are the Druid and the Fighter, the first of which is a shape-shifting human and the former is a rather plump Panda, who despite his appearance, functions as a great tank.
These kinds of choices are typical of the genre Eligium belongs, but they’re modified by a virtue system which adds modifiers onto your class’s core abilities, such as an additional healing abilities, sturdy armour buffers etc. This extra way to differentiate your creation is welcome, as aside from also choosing a faction and a gender, there isn’t any way to modify any other characteristics of your adventurer, visual or otherwise, until you get into the game.
Unfortunately the nifty character select screen cannot mask the abruptness of your first impression with Eligium, as rather than witnessing a glossy cut-scene or even some slowly scrolling text, players are dropped unceremoniously into the world of Galgaron.
This no-frills approach to story is very indicative of my early experiences with Eligium as the majority of the quests I took part in as my kick-ass Panda Warrior were simple harvest or fetch activities with usually little justification for why I should put the work in. That said, killing the monsters around me was rarely a major effort, with creatures only attacking you once you launch the opening salvo, regardless of location, but still a little juxtaposition would be nice.
At first you only get access to some basic side-quests, but as you continue through the persistent world (linked via portals) you begin to encounter NPCs which can send you down the main questline, but even in these activities the story seems only really passable rather than compelling.
Admittedly though, that isn’t what this free-to-play effort is all about. Instead PvE content seems to be a means to a PvP end, with progression gauged not only by your level, but also how much you use a skill, as you gain a proficiency rank over time with more advanced variations unlocked via the trainers. This ingenious system means players only get better at the skills that they use and their commitment is regularly rewarded with elite variations of regularly trained attacks.
This deeply nuanced skill system also applies to mounts and pets, with the ability for companions to be quickly switched out and deployed in battle - accumulating experience and new skills as they evolve. I can imagine investing lots of hours into this system. Not only because the animal designs are assuredly cute, but also because my breed may fight entirely different to another.
This competitive angle is further heightened by a slew of dynamic ranking lists which detail every single occupant of a server in accordance with their class, items, character and combat proficiency which should promote high level community play and even certain talented individuals gaining recognition for the time they’ve invested. To make this opportunity for online notoriety even clearer, there’s even a localised ticker in the UI which details what certain players have achieved in the area.
There’s still plenty of work to do before Eligium is ready for release – including better localisation – but currently the character progression curve feels spot on and the tooltip-esque tutorials do a great job of introducing newbies into the game.
In sheer fiction terms Eligium can’t hold a candle to its free-to-play competition, but it has enough innovative community features to ensure it has a worthwhile chance of attracting a hardcore following when it’s finally unleashed later this year. Keep an eye out for the open Beta, which I suspect will go live very soon.
