Asheron's Call 2
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| Asheron's Call 2 | |
| Developer: | Turbine Entertainment Software |
| Publisher: | Microsoft Game Studios |
| Release date: | November 22, 2002 |
| Genre: | MMORPG |
| Game modes: | Multiplayer |
| ESRB rating: | Mature |
| Platform: | Windows |
| Media: | CD |
| System requirements: | Intel Pentium CPU, 64 MB RAM, DirectX 6.1, Internet access, video card |
| Input: | Keyboard, mouse |
Asheron's Call 2: Fallen Kings is a fantasy MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role-playing game) for Microsoft Windows-based PCs that was released on November 22, 2002. It is a sequel to 1999's Asheron's Call, although content, graphics and gameplay dynamics differ greatly from its predecessor.
Both games were developed by Turbine Entertainment Software and originally published by Microsoft, until Turbine purchased the Asheron's Call franchise in December 2003. The Microsoft to Turbine transition was completed in spring 2005. In 2004 and 2005, Turbine entered business arrangements with Jolt Online Gaming to operate AC2 in Europe and with Sony Online Entertainment to distribute the game's first expansion, Asheron's Call 2: Legions, under the Station Publishing label.
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Updates
As with other MMORPGs, Asheron's Call 2 is a subscription-based game, which currently costs $12.95 USD/EUR per month to play. The Asheron's Call franchise is unique in providing complimentary monthly to bi-monthly content updates that add new quests, skills, landmasses, monsters, gameplay dynamics and bug fixes to all subscribers. Epic storylines link multiple episodes to form distinct "story arcs".
A major expansion pack for Asheron's Call 2 titled Asheron's Call 2: Legions was announced on October 2004 and was released on May 4, 2005. It includes a new playable character race — the mythical Empyreans, and a major new landmass, Knorr. Players who pre-ordered the expansion will have access to a second new character race, the Drudge. High-level gameplay was also revisited with the Hero 2.0 system and plentiful new content.
Critical reaction
Fallen Kings
AC2 is generally considered the first "second-generation" MMORPG, and its graphics continue to be among the best in the genre even more than two years after its original release. Many tedious aspects of first-generation MMORPGs were eliminated while maintaining complex gameplay and combat systems based on a hybrid class-skill system. The free monthly (more recently, bimonthly) updates, a service unique to Turbine software products, have also been widely praised.
While Asheron's Call 2 received widely favorable press reviews, many players were disappointed with the initial retail release of the software, which followed a oft wrought with bugs, open beta testing phase. The game was initially plagued by server instability, lack of content, high system requirements, engine flaws, lack of balance and many broken combat skills. To add to the problems, the chat system was unreliable and had to be copletely reworked, adding to the frustration of its player-base. The developers overestimated the time it would take players to reach the initial maximum level of 50, which occurred after just a few weeks.
These shortcomings were largely addressed throughout 2003, but many players had quit by that time, resulting in the consolidation of several servers and a comparatively low total player population. Especially the player versus player server Darktide and the kingdom versus kingdom server Coldeve were having extremely low populations. Bruce Woodcock of MMOGChart.com (http://www.mmogchart.com/) estimates that AC2 peaked with about 50,000 subscribers, but currently has only 10–15,000. The Coldeve server has since been shut down.
Most current players agree that the game has significantly improved over time. Included in these improvements are a new crafting system aptly named Craft 2.0 which has greatly changed the in-game economy for the better. Also the level cap has been raised to a new 150 max, which since the introduction of the original Hero system, which allows a character to pass level 50, has not been reached. A year after the Hero system was put in, the highest level character on any United States server was level 75.
Criticism was particularly vocal from many Asheron's Call 1 players, who were frustrated by the radical changes in gameplay dynamics and the game world, claiming that AC2 was a sequel in name only, designed primarily to cater to casual players that want "dumbed down" gameplay and not to the complex character design of the first Asheron's Call.
Legions
Player rections to Legions have been almost universally favorable, citing performance improvements, excellent design of the new landmass and plentiful new content.
External links
- Turbine's official AC2 website (http://ac2.turbinegames.com/)
- AC2 Vault (http://ac2vault.ign.com/) - forums, quest and player guides