Everquest and Vanguard veteran Brad McQuaid’s new MMO – which we mentioned last week – has been officially revealed and its Kickstarter campaign is now live. Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen, besides having a hilariously generic name, is a high fantasy MMORPG where you do exactly what you’d expect in a fantasy MMO.
The vague list of features is a checklist of typical MMO stuff, which is both a bit unfortunate and pretty predictable, given that McQuaid and his team are veterans of the genre. The hook appears to be that this is a Brad McQuaid game, and after Vanguard that’s not much of a hook.
- An MMO developed by gamers who aren’t afraid to target an audience of like-minded gamers.
- A fantasy themed Massively Multiplayer Role Playing game (MMO) with a heavy focus on character development, an immersive world, and teamwork.
- An MMO for players wanting a challenging and rewarding experience.
- An open world in which you explore to obtain not only more powerful items but also new spells and abilities.
- Travel where and when you want to in a non-linear world.
- A huge world to explore, trade, and adventure in.
- A complex back-story that players may gradually discover as they grow in power and explore the world.
- A constantly expanding and evolving world.
- Group-focused social gameplay using a class based system to encourage teamwork.
- Customize your class by bonding with the spirits of fallen warriors.
- Reactive combat where you can determine what the NPC is doing and react to it. (move, counter, deflect, etc.) .
- Combat will be challenging and involved — your decisions will matter and directly affect the battle’s outcome.
- Travel the world and profit from selling exotic items collected from distant realms. Different cities and outposts may have local Bazaars.
- Limited and class based teleportation may get you close, but in order to reach many destinations you will have to traverse the planar scarred lands of Terminus through the use of your own two feet or on the back of your mighty steed.
- Earning experience is only part of what it takes to level up. Exploring the world you will gain knowledge and power allowing you to overcome more powerful enemies.
- The game will run on PC, Mac, and possibly other platforms in the future.
So, that’s what you’re getting. The reactive combat sounds nice, since MMO combat tends to lean on the dismal hotkey bashing side of interactivity, but beyond that this is just a list of things that almost every MMO boasts. Am I just being a miserable cynic, or does this all just sound a wee bit dull?
The MMO genre was once one of the most exciting prospects of PC gaming, where massive worlds became stages for players to carve their own path and enjoy insane amounts of freedom, but more and more they are just becoming rote, open world RPGs where you know what to expect five minutes into your first character. Recently I’ve been aching for the days of pre-NGE Star Wars Galaxies and Ultima Online, and this sort of Everquest-like fantasy nonsense just isn’t doing it for me anymore.