Video Game Review of Last Chaos: A New Era for MMORPG's

It's been four months since my fiancee turned me on to Last Chaos, as something we could enjoy together. And in four months we have definately enjoyed ourselves. As a veteran of several RPG's and MMORPG's I was at first skeptical of a free game, but as it turns out this game, though still in the growth phase. Has much to endear it aside from it's price. The game first requires that you sign up on the website www.LastChaos.aeriagames.com and then the same user name and password that you use on the website are your login for the game after your download it. The download is not especially heavy for a MMORPG, being a mere 407 Megabytes, and system requirements were not huge, in fact with many games on the market the requirements were downright stoneage, requiring only a P4 with 2Ghz, and 1 Gigabyte of Harddrive, as well as a 64 MB graphic card for optimal performance, plus the usual odds and ends.

Login went smoothly, and I made my first character, one of five playable classes, a Knight (The defensive warrior, since I have been playing a sixth class has been added). The other five classes, consist of a Titan (the brute force warrior), a rogue, a healer, a mage, and a sorcerer. The character customization is somewhat limited, forcing all titans, knights and sorcerers to be male, while all rogues, healers and mages are female. However I did notice during character creation an unused selection bar that I presume will be for changing gender at some future time. In any case my knight was off and ready to go accompanied by my fiancee and her rogue.

We must have played for six hours that first time in, learning everything by experience, and exploring a colorful world. The storyline has evolved somewhat since the time we started (we started in the open beta phase which is now closed, the game being now in full release). There were several quests we took at the beginning, mostly the simple type found in every MMORPG, visit this NPC (Non Player Character), or kill x number of a particular monster, or collect x number of a particular item, but it was fun.

At current there are three full maps in Last Chaos, each full of their own perils, and each with their own dungeon in them for even more adventure. New content is usually added weekly as well as a string of special events, ranging from hide and seek, to Guild Wars. Soon my fiance and I had created our own Guild, and attracted a few others to play with us. I would like to take this time to say that unlike many other MMORPG's I have played the Game Masters in this Game are very involved in the community and quite willing to help in any way they can, something that they deseve major kudos for.

With the end of open beta, the Item Mall was introduced. This is how Last Chaos makes money, as any game needs to do. The Item mall is completely optional and you puchase things in it by buying Aeria points, exchange rate is roughly one point to one cent US, using paypal on the main website of the game. Purchasing Aeria points is done quickly, and within minutes newly purchased points are available to your account to spend on the many unique Items that can be found therein. It should be mentioned that no item in the item mall is essential to gameplay, so you can feel free to enjoy Last Chaos without spending a dime if you so choose.

There are many things in place to help a new gamer fit right in, Game Sages are volunteers that answer questions, The Guardian system allows new players to pick a veteran player to help them along, and in reward the new player will recieve a special item upon reaching level twenty, and the veterna player will earn reputation points for helping the new player. Having helped over twenty new players reach twenty I find this system very rewarding. There are also special recommended server events for new players, during which special items drop that increase experience gain, defense, skill points, attack, as well as many other things.

Skill points are another unique idea in Last Chaos, instead of gaining abilities as you level, skill points allow you to pick and choose which skills you would like to use, and how powerful you want them to be. They can be used to learn class skills, or special other skills such as mining, and crafting, creating a world in which a player can pick exactly how they want to play their character.

I did find the music and sound effects a little repetitive, but since the game is not at all resource heavy I had no trouble using my favorite .mp3 player while turning the music off. Also the mouse only movement takes a little getting used to, but neither of these takes away from what is truly a departure from your typical pay-by-the-month-for-quality MMORPG.

In the end I recommend this game for anyone looking for a fun time. The few "problems" with the game are easy to cope with, and the community is a fun group all told. At more than two hundred thousand accounts signed up in the current US launch (seperate launches have already occured in Malaysia and Japan), there are plenty of people to interact with and alot of variation to explore. Go ahead and sign up, I'll see you in game!