The Warlords Closed Beta Review--04-10-2009

This review is written by Mewanna from MMOsite Blog.

The Warlords is a new game from TQ Digital, the same company publishing such games as Eudemons, Zero, and Conquer online.

These are initial impressions from a game still in Closed Beta, so there are bound to be changes coming to the game as time goes on.

The background of the game is based on the late Qing Dynasty. A time of natural disasters, economic collapse, and rebellion. It was a time where the entire country was in chaos, suffering famine, and it was one of the bloodiest wars in human history. It was a civil war lasting 20 years with an estimated 20 to 30 million deaths.

The Warlords is definitely darker than the previous releases by TQ Digital.

When you start, you get to choose between two factions and two classes. The Factions are Soldier and Bandit, which at this time for various reasons they have banned together to help stabalize the country, end the rebellion, each for their own reasons. At this point in the game the only actual differences between Bandits and Soldiers is the look of their armour, and their own personal background story for role playing purposes. Being alpha, that of course doesn't mean it's permanent, they are speculated to have other changes and differences between them in the future.

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There are only two different classes, both the same in each faction. They are the Footman (up close melee fighter) and the Marksman (rangedfighters).

They each have numerous skills to train in, although at this time the only ranged weapon the Marksman can use is the Bow, whereas the Footman gets to choose between quite a few different types of melee weapons, but you have to go learn the technique to wield them.

Creation options seem very limited, as you can not change your hairstyle and can only pick an icon for you character at the time. Do not fret though, later as you get into the game you can use in game money in order to change your hairstyle and icon to one of many different looks.

The graphics are pretty and colorful, with the in game costumes and dress being based on the realistic armors and looks of the people, towns, and animals of the time period. At this time you can't change the resolution within the settings, but you can choose to run in a Higher Res mode at startup.

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There are a number of extras in the game too besides just the normal kill and grind, such as:

The Amity system, a rating for people on your friends list. If you fight together, or even chat together it can go up, raising your shared kung fu fighting skill level.

• Martial Points - earned just by being online, they can be turned in for extra experience.
• Master / Apprentice system - The master gets extra experience points, while the Apprentice shares in their Master's "KungFu" rating while the Master is online, increasing fighting abilties.
• Enlightenment - A system where players over level 100 can "Enlighten" players 20 levels or more below them, giving them experience and virtue points.

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Male Players get a single rose a day that they can send to females, something special happens once enough roses are sent!

Marriage systems, etc, there are various other extras here and there that break up the normal daily killing grind.

Onto combat. The combat is mostly pretty basic. You set up your various skills on your hotkey bar, along with your mana or health potions, and either left or right click on enemies to use these skills. The left key is usually reserved for a normal type attack, such as for a Marksman you will punch and kick if out of arrows, while the right key is for whichever skill you have currently selected (You can select either magical attacks for skills, or basic attacks).

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Every 5 minutes of game time you go into "Fury" mode where you briefly attack about 10 times your normal strength, killing much more powerful monsters than you would normally be able to. Fury mode is also linked to another very major part of this game. It is during Fury mode when you are able to capture Guards that fight along side you on your journey.

When you first start the game, you begin with a single Guard. This list will quickly expand, as there are a great many types of guards that you can capture. At first you can only have one out at a time, but after level 20 (which comes very very quickly) you are able to have two fighting at a time. When you see a special light effect on some enemies, and kill that enemy with the Fury skill, you will have captured them and added them to your entourage.

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