System Requirements

OS: Windows 98/Me/2000/XP with IE or Netscape 4.0 or greater CPU: Pentium 333Mhz RAM: 64MB HDD: 300MB VIDEO: 8MB SVGA capable of 16 bit color SOUND: 16 bit Modem: 28.8Kbps Age: Teen

There is a place where the land is never the same twice, where people like you and I don adventurer\'s garb to seek glory in quests and battle. This place is the land of Dereth, a massively multiplayer world brimming with constantly evolving stories, real life comrades, and strange and fearsome monsters. It is to this world that the great Empyrean mage Asheron has 'called' you. Explore the rich history of Dereth, revel in its wonders, and discover your destiny!*

So What\'s New?

With this expansion, you get the original Asheron\'s Call game with access to a new island Marae Lassel. With this new land comes new quests and monsters to defeat. Some of the original monsters have mutated too! Another cool feature is that you can own a home if you have a level twenty or higher character. There are rental and upkeep costs, so it\'s not cheap, but convenient! The houses come in different sizes, the biggest being a mansion which provides you with your own personal dungeon. How cool is that?! If you read the fine print, you\'ll realize that this costs mucho pyreals/money and you have to be a high ranking Monarch.

Starting the game

To start the game you must create your character. There are three heritage groups to choose from and each has their own special default skills. There are also character profession templates you can use or you can custom create your character. When designing your character you can pick out your gender, face (eyes, nose, mouth), hair color, and style of clothes. You can customize the color for all of those too. Once you have your character designed, you must assign attributes like strength health, mana etc. There are skills you can have specialized, trained, or untrained/unusable. You can assign skills like life/war magic, cooking, lock picking, weapons specializing, jump, run, heal etc. Each costs you points so choose wisely. During the game you\'ll gain skill points at certain level increments. Professions: * Bow Hunter * Swashbuckler (sword) * Life Caster * War Mage * Wayfarer (lock pick, dagger) * Soldier Heritages: * Aluvian (Medieval)-Trained in dagger and access person * Gharu\'ndim (Desert people)-Trained in Appraise Item and Staff * Sho (Oriental)-Trained in Unarmed Combat

I got my character, now what?

To gain levels in the game you need to get experience. You mainly do this by hunting or killing creatures. You can find worthy opponents in forests, caves, dungeons, even out in the open! There are many quests that you can partake in. There is a quest or two for every weapon used in the game, so no one is left out. There are also armor and other various quests. There is is even a quest to gain an an extra skill point!

Community

The people are really friendly in this game. If someone is being rude or if you get stuck, you can always get assistance. There are some dishonest people so there is a secure trade function. Use the secure trade option if you ever want to trade or have someone appraise weapons or armor for you. One of the neatest features in the game is the allegiance system. You can have vassals under you gaining experience for you when they fight. To keep them happy and loyal, you should offer them weapons and armor when they start off, help them with quests, and corpse recovery.

Appropriate?

From a Christian perspective this game has violence. You mainly kill monsters, the violence itself is animated and not realistic looking at all. The creatures in the game are original, there are giant bugs (Olthoi), Golems, armadillos and many other unique ones. There are a couple classic RPG creatures like skeletons and zombies, but nothing demonic looking. There is the option of killing other players but there\'s a dedicated server just for that. You can also enable player killing on the regular servers, but this is a special quest and you can only fight other player killers. Magic can be used in this game, but it is not required. Your character will be weakened later on in the game with out it though.

Overall experienceEase of use

This game is easy to install and play. When fighting you select your target, the range, weapon or magic, and attack. The manual that comes with the game is helpful but the original Asherons Call had a better one. You will need to be connected to the internet to play this game, there is no single player mode. The game runs great on 56K, and runs fine on 28.8 too! You will also need a Microsoft Zone or a .Net account with a credit card to activate it. There is a monthly fee of $10, when you buy the game for $20, the first month is free. The 3D graphics are very nice. If you have a good video card you can increase the texture details to make it look better. If you have FSAA as an option, you may want to enable it for this game to smooth your character out. There is no background music but the nature sounds are very realistic. Especially the cricket noises. Some of the enemy wails/cries can be repetitive and annoying at times. (Drudges come to mind on this one.) The game play is very fun, addicting even! There are monthly changes made to the game to keep it interesting. Sometimes it will be new/mutated creatures, other times, a town can get destroyed. This game will keep you interested. I highly recommend it.

Final Ratings

Graphics B+ Game play A+ Sound B+ Interface A Stability B+ Offensive Content C+

Overall 84% B

*taken from http://www.asheronscall.com