2011年12月22日星期四

Sword 2 Revelations - A Whole New World

By Remko Molenaar (Proxzor), OnRPG Journalist Some if you might have heard of this game before. This game was formerly known as Granado Espada: Sword of the New World. Sword 2: Granado Espada was developed by imcGAMES. Sword 2 has won the Best Graphics award and also Presidential Award for Game of the Year. GamersFirst brings this amazing game to the West with many game enhancements. Set on a mysterious, dangerous continent with a story inspired by Europe’s exploration and conquest of America, Sword 2 is destined to dominate the world of MMORPGs by virtue of its groundbreaking design features, fast-paced gameplay and amazing graphics.Recently Granado Espada: Sword of the New World changed its name to Sword 2: Revelations and provided quite a few much needed features such as a more in-depth crafting system , the Viron Island Area, a new unique playable character, and the ability to have a pet. Sword 2 has a unique feature that lets you multi-character control up to 3 characters at a time. When you start creating your ‘family’ you are allowed to make different characters consisting of the following classes: Fighter, Scout, Wizard, Musketeer and Elementalist. With so many possible combinations it was rare that I felt like a copy of someone else’s family. As you go about your journey, you can unlock new playable characters to increase the diversity of your family. These characters are specialized in different statistics and skills, in order to unlock these characters you have to find them in the game and do the available quests to get the NPC into your team. All characters are assumed to be from the same family and share the same surname. This surname is used to identify a player in the game. Every character I tested brought a unique and enjoyable skill set that made for some very strategic party setups. Though when having fun swapping in multiple characters, remember that each character levels independently so you might have to do some basic grinding to level up a character if you want to utilize them in end game content.When you have created your desired team and have advanced a few levels you notice the skills you have gotten are all on different keys on your keyboard. No matter which one of your 3 characters you have selected to lead, you can all use their skills when you want to. This makes battles feel akin to playing the piano and put my worries to rest that I would have to play 3 MMO characters at once.If you don’t feel like doing normal quests in Sword 2: Revelations you can also visit various dungeons. These dungeons are generally composed of three to five floors with increasingly more difficult challenges to block your progression. In these dungeons there are boxes and barrels that act as monster spawn portals. These items make going AFK nearly impossible as they trigger wave after wave of monsters until destroyed. To keep you guessing, these monster generators are placed randomly on the map each time you enter, so you will be forced to explore a bit to find the source of your foes. In these dungeons there are waypoints or (player chosen) save locations. I found these very convenient since you can warp to a set part of the map with a ward scroll rather than fighting through the entire dungeon in one go. Five locations may be saved initially. And up to five more locations can be purchased from the Bazaar.It is possible to command your characters to do various things. You can choose to do this in a team or separate with the selected character. It is possible to choose from the following commands:Team Summon (F4): The team members are called to the team leader.Assault Mode (CTRL+Click): Attack all the enemies on the route to the point you have clicked. Harvest mode (CTRL+SHIFT+Click): Pick up items while moving to the designated point.Hold Mode (CTRL+H): Characters stop moving and attack approaching monsters.Defend Mode (CTRL+E and space): Automatically engage enemies in battle.When you have accepted a quest it is possible to look at the location in the Quest info tab (ALT+A). There you can see the location of the target you are looking for. In this quest menu map as well as the standard zone map, you are able to move to a target location simply by clicking it. The zone map is very detailed, informing you of available quests, npc locations, and what shops you have access to. In Sword 2 you can also test yourself against other players for one of the greatest challenges in the new world. The limited PvP action I had was enjoyable and all the industry standard types were available. These are the different forms of PvP included: Family vs Family dueling, Clan Wars, Faction vs Faction, Arena Play and GM Tournaments.For a game that is released in 2006, Sword 2 has wonderful graphics. The game is really detailed and the textures are really nice to look at. The game is also well programmed resulting in lower system requirements than one would expect for such a gorgeous game. You should at least have a Pentium 3 processor with 512 MB RAM and a Directx 9.0c supporting Graphics Card. Anyone without these specs probably has an ancient computer, likely made of wood and powered by a hamster. For the rest of us, we can enjoy this beautiful game to our heart’s content!Many items can be crafted in Sword 2, from refined materials to gems to equipment. Equipment can be upgraded through various means. This upgrading system is the standard MMO process involving increasing the number of slots and imbuing gems to given bonus statistics. Once you progress to above level 30 you can begin dabbling in gear enchantments as well. This gives you the option to customize and enhance your gear further without wasting precious slots. With the Revelations expansion, Alchemy, Cooking and Wing Crafting were added into the game to give craftsman even more toys to play with.GamersFirst calls their cash shop the Bazaar. The items for sale include the expected experience and drop chance bonuses. Also available are passes that allow you to access more challenging regions of the world faster than non-paying players are able to. I didn’t find too many items though that would give players a flat strength bonus over their enemies, which is always a good sign.Sword 2: Revelations is a fun game that thrives on its unique 3 character class system. It truly makes this game much more challenging than most MMOs and adds an unbelievable amount of fun factor to the genre. Combined with its beautiful graphics I really had few negatives to say about this game. If I have to quip about something it is various new regions haven’t been translated yet and quests will still be in Korean. I hope GamersFirst pushes to get this fixed as soon as possible because it seems like an easily patchable error in an otherwise flawless game.

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