- Area: Global
- Official Site: 4Story
- Publisher: Zemi Interactive
- Developer: Zemi Interactive
- Platform: Microsoft Windows
Review
Reviewed by Cody Hargreaves
Drawing its roots from the massively successful MMO World of Warcraft - 4Story will see players embarking on an epic fantasy Journey through dangerous lands. Or so
they would have to believe. There are two factions players can join in 4Story; Craxion or DeFugel. Both factions include the same three races and six classes - Elf, Fairy, and
Human for the races, and Archer, Assassin, Warrior, Summoner, Wizard, and Priest for classes. Players are then given several face style and hair color options to customize
their characters. After creating a character, players must complete a long line of what I call talking quests, asking you to walk from one NPC to another, talking
to each in order to complete the quest requirements. These NPCs are supposed to introduce players to the game basics but the text is so long and oddly translated that
there seems little point in reading it. Fortunetly, the NPCs reward your effects with a full set of equipment and a starter weapon.
We've been here before. The DeFugel starting area looks almost identical to the Human starting location in World of Warcraft. There are the same sort of farms, roads, even similar monsters to
fight. Like WoW, players cannot distribute stat points when they level up. Instead, players are given 1 skill point each level which can only be allocated in town when talking
to a trainer. Each class has three distinct skill lines which look awfully similar to WoWs talent tree. Also, almost every spell and combat move as a cool down in Gates
of Andaron, something I found infinitely annoying during my time playing. Even the priest's basic heal has a 15 second cool down. These cool downs combined with the
hideous lag make combat in Gates of Andaron slow paced, and at many points - plain boring.
Quests for one and all!
One advantage to having a free game designed so
closely to to WoW is that the quests feel very driven. There are always quests to do, and what's more, these quests will gradually push you further and further away from
your starting location.
Most free games have quests - but most fail to handle questing in such a free-flowing style. Questing in 4Story isn't quite as well planned as
those found in WoW, mainly due to the poor translation, but it is a vast improvement on those found in most Korean MMORPGs.
Still a ways to go
4Story is still a very
new game, and as such it is still riddles with many problems, the most prominent ones being the lag and the graphics bugging out if the game is minimized. Gates of Andaron is
not the most original game but it is one of the more complete feeling free to play MMORPGs. Quests ensure players always know where to go or what to do next and the faction vs
faction PvP combat allows players some break from the grinding. If you're looking for a free game that looks and plays like a traditional MMORPG, give 4Story a try, it
could be just what you're looking for.
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