Elemental Knights

While clearly stripped-back for mobile play, Elemental Knights Online: The World does its best to emulate the template laid down by EverQuest and World of Warcraft on Android handsets.

But simply ticking off the basic genre conventions (fetch quests, trading, endless monster bashing) is rarely enough to hook players in for the long haul.

While Winlight’s game sticks closely to the rule book, the lack of originality hits you with the first quest and a stale sense of having 'been here, done this, and bought the cosplay outfit', hangs over all of your adventures.

Familiar territory

Anyone who’s played an MMORPG before - especially one from Japan or Korea - is going to feel right at home in Elemental Knights Online’s very stereotypical world.

There's a main story story thread, about dragons awakening after three centuries and bizarre attacks from monsters, but it’ll take you many, many hours before you really get involved in the main events.

Instead, you have to first endure a lengthy series of training missions that painstakingly school you in the fine arts of walking up to enemies, pressing 'attack', and hoping they drop the loot needed to fulfill those all-important Quest Conditions.

There and back again

At the outset, you can also choose to be a sword-happy Fighter, a stealthy Thief, a magic-blasting Wizard, or a divine-powered Cleric, and customise your typically anime-styled character with silly haircuts and funky eyebrows.

Whichever class you choose, your progression path remains near identical - you start in the same area, pick up quests from static NPCs, and potter off to do their bidding.

Sadly, the quests never really go outside the 'Kill X number of monster Y to collect enough loot to give to Z' template, meaning only the most grind-happy gamers are going to get sucked in.

There are more than 100 missions to be completed, spread across grassy plains, forests, castles, and temples, and most can be replayed to boost your experience and level-up (increasing your strength, powers, and special attacks in the process).

Every quest can be easily tracked, with a handy arrow to guide you, and more dramatic story missions centered around the mystery of the Elemental Dragons pop up if you’re persistent enough.

Battle ready

While the adventuring may be a lacking in spark, the controls and colourful visuals (especially the vibrant spell animations) do a reasonable job of immersing you in the game.

You move with a responsive virtual joystick (which appears wherever you place your thumb) and attack with a sizeable button on the right. Combat is automatic, but the button flashes regularly to show you when to unleash special attacks (a Quick Skill bar also lets you select powers, such as healing spells and combat buffs, when needed).

Other actions, like assigning powers and tinkering with equipment, are handled by tapping open nested menus with handily labelled icons. Just keep an eye out, mind, for those leading to an external shop hawking premium priced in-game wares.

End game

While it’s a reasonable, robust attempt to make an Eastern-flavoured MMO on Android, Elemental Knights’s lack of imagination, grindy missions, and slow pace mean it will be too much of a slog for majority of players.

Teaming up with other warrior (up to four can join ad-hoc parties) spices things up a bit, but those looking for a more dramatic adventure would be wise to ply their monster hacking trade in Gameloft’s superior Order & Chaos.

Dragon Eternity

The “mobile first” mantra has become increasingly popular when it comes to creating games that are going to end up on smartphones and tablets, but MMORPGs made specifically for those devices are still rare. Game Insight’s Dragon Eternity can call itself one of the few and the proud, but while it scores high marks on the design front, it’s a little too jumbled and confusing to call a complete success.

Ironically enough, you can play Dragon Eternity online as well, but this free-to-play fantasy MMO really does feel like it was made to play on a tablet. By keeping the action in a generous space in the middle of the screen and keeping everything else you’d need in a frame around the outside, Game Insight devised one of the more mobile-friendly user interfaces this reviewer has come across to date. Even the chat window, something that always seems to devil developers in games like this, can be popped up or put away with just a tap.

The game also does away with a facet of gameplay that can be an annoyance in many RPGs, which is the need to spend a lot of your time traveling or moving between encounters. You spend the majority of the time viewing the game world from a first-person perspective, allowing you to see all of the monsters and NPCs in your particular area. Entering combat is as simple as tapping on the enemy you want to fight, and you can travel to other areas by use of a pop-up menu at the bottom of the screen. No muss, no fuss. The graphics are exquisite too, almost three-dimensional in the way the backgrounds have layers and depth.

Fights switch to a third-person side view reminiscent of a fighting game. Combat is turn-based, with a timer at the top of the screen that gives you a limited time to perform actions and a single attack. It’s also extremely repetitive, with your option limited to an attack, defense or mana-increasing stance. The mana is for the spells you can learn, but it starts at zero in each battle and has to build up before you can cast anything. There are convenient hotkeys for potions, orbs, glyphs and the like, which is nice, but the overall feeling is definitely one of wash, rinse, repeat.

Any time the action is more than one-on-one – including the multiplayer PvP arenas and elite bosses that need to be taken down by groups of players – things are even more muddled. Sometimes you’ll be standing in reserve, waiting for someone to fight (though you can help your allies during those periods). Other times your enemies will just randomly swap in and out like they were in a tag team wrestling match, which just ends up feeling silly. The PvP felt like it lagged in spots, with players timing out on their turns or being felled by unseen forces.

Of course even attempting multiplayer PvP gets Game Insight an ‘A’ for ambition, and the same could be said for many other aspects of Dragon Eternity. There’s certainly no lack of content thanks to all kinds of PvE quests (even if a lot of them are “Kill ‘X’ monsters), the arenas, regularly scheduled world events and instanced dungeons. There’s an encumbrance system plus gathering and crafting professions. At higher levels, you can take on missions that lead to the ability to summon a dragon, and who wouldn’t want to do that?

But more isn’t always better, especially when even the little stuff is so complicated. Or maybe it’s just that the game does such a poor job explaining anything but the very basics. Things like choosing between the three classes, buying and equipping gear, or even the way your belt works are all a lot less clear than they should be. There is an online help feature which is pretty informative, and players in general chat can help you out, but these are areas that should be clearly laid out for new players lest they just throw their hands up and figure it’s not worth the hassle.

The in-game purchase system also feels depressingly “pay to win,” as you can skip past a lot of the grinding for gear and spells if you’re willing to pony up some money. And speaking of skipping, some quests can only be done in the browser-based client, so mobile players can just click on some dialogue boxes and get some free coins and XP. Bonus!

If you’ve read this far, you’re probably either really intrigued or already know Dragon Eternity isn’t for you. Because there are so few MMORPGs that can be comfortably played on an iPad, it’s hard to argue against it for fans of the genre. As long as you go into it knowing you’re going to work a little harder than you might want to as the price of enjoying the sweet design, you just might like what you find.

Order & Chaos Online

MMORPGs take too much of your time, efforts and sometimes money. Choosing which you will play is of salient importance. After all, these are not games you just play for a little bit, or can finish in a few hours. A good MMORPG will keep you busy for months, or even years.

Is Order & Chaos 2: Redemption the one you will dedicate your time to? The series sure has plenty of followers, so there is an ample community that will tell you this is the mobile MMORPG to download. In fact, we did put its predecessor in our list of the top 15 Android MMORPG games.

I personally thought I should go ahead and take the bullet for the team by downloading the title and taking care of this review, risking months of MMORPG addiction that would surely obliterate my social life. I have been playing Order & Chaos 2: Redemption for a couple weeks and am ready to tell you my thoughts on it, so let’s dig into all the details.

The Story

Undoubtedly, RPGs are recognized for their deep narratives, which tend to be very well elaborated and provoke emotions no other types of games can achieve. And of course; these are all about role-playing, after all. Order & Chaos 2 is not the exception to this unwritten rule.

As you would expect, this is the continuation to Order & Chaos Online. It has been 600 years since the destruction of the Primal Heart, which ended up causing an unexpected cataclysmic event that caused unbelievable damage to everything this world’s residents knew.

The world is now recovering from all the destruction and heroes are beginning to rise once again. Your goal is to help keep piece and find redemption (that is part of the title, after all).

Character

Character customization is a staple most MMORPGs adhere to, and Order & Chaos 2 is not the exception. The question is whether this game satisfies your needs for appearance modification or not.

Let’s start by saying I am definitely satisfied with the races and classes. There won’t be a plethora of choices,  but Gameloft did a good job at keeping each class and race under its own category and specific characteristics.

You can opt to be a human, elf, orc, mendel or kratan. By the way, the last one happens to be new. Kratans are these reptile-like, tall beasts with an immense amount of strength. They are kind of gentle giants, though, as they happen to prefer diplomacy if possible.

When it comes to appearance customization, the app does very well, but it also doesn’t come near other console-level games. Yes, you can modify your character’s looks a bit, but you only get a few options for the hair, skin color and face types.

I would like to see a deeper appearance altering system, as I am used to having the ability to change every single part of the face and body in my characters, but this will definitely do for a mobile game. Remember, Gameloft can’t go crazy and add even more MBs to their already sizable game app.

Weapon crafting and customization are also viable options. You can even add abilities to your weapons, which is actually quite helpful.

The world

Like any good MMORPG, one of Order & Chaos 2’s largest assets (literally) is its world. Gameloft calls it “a living and breathing world”, and that is exactly what it seems like. For starters, it’s huge. But it’s not like those RPGs that have immense maps with repetitive, lame visuals. You definitely won’t be walking through monotonous fields here (at least not most of the time).

This world is very much alive. There’s plenty of scenery alterations wherever you go. Other characters will always be present, both players and non-players. I do wish I could see other live players more often, but there are enough out there to keep the social aspect active. And we can’t forget about those monsters, which you can always pick fights on and get loot from.

I do have to say it’s easy to get lost in the game, as the map is a bit hard to read and reach. But what MMORPG doesn’t have a confusing map? At least you can use the guidance line to lead your way when you are heading to a mission.

Gameplay

Gameplay is important for any dedicated gamer. Especially when it comes to titles like Order & Chaos 2, in which the battle system will mean the difference between you totally loving or hating the game. Does Order & Chaos 2 do a good job? It’s definitely fun and active, but strategic gamers probably won’t like its button-smashing nature.

This is because you have to press a button every single time you want your character to do somethings. Otherwise he/she will just stand there and chill while the enemy depletes that precious health bar.

There are four buttons in the bottom-right corner. The main one is for the regular attack, while the other three can give you access to abilities you will continue to get throughout the progression of the game. By the way, these can be customized and switched at will.

Moving around is an important part of the battle, as well, which does make things a bit more exciting. For example, I chose to be a ranger, which means I can back off and continue shooting while the enemies try to get close to me. In most cases I can walk away from a battle with zero damage.

If you need more help, it’s also possible to pull out a secondary menu that will grant you access to more skills, potions and other items. Do try to vary your skills and switch them around depending on your conditions. Sticking to the same attacks is easy, but it gets repetitive, and adapting with your environment can really give you the upper hand in combat.

Quests and missions

Things get interesting here. Order & Chaos: Redemption is certainly no casual game. Gameloft has managed to bring a near-console quality MMORPG to mobile devices. Nothing is lacking here, but we can definitely tell some casual mobile gaming elements were integrated.

Remember those WoW quests and missions in which you had to walk for hours on end? Regular MMORPGs are a sit-down-and-spend-all-your-day-in-the-computer kind of experience. But you can’t do that on mobile. The battery won’t even last that long! Though Order & Chaos 2 can be fun if you continue playing for extended periods of time, it is also designed to be picked up for quick gaming sessions.

I believe my longest mission so far has lasted about 15 minutes. This means I could pull off a quest or mission during a work break, or maybe a bus ride. Just be careful with that data, which this game sure is good at consuming. And obviously, it has no offline mode.

The user will have to get missions from specific characters in the game. These will ask for help and get you started on the intricate story. Don’t you worry, you won’t run out of things to do!

Final thoughts

Will you take on this quest or spend your precious time on another time-consuming hobby? That is the question we are trying to answer here, as an MMORPG like Order & Chaos 2: Redemption is no small investment.

Honestly, it had been some years since I last took on an MMORPG and can say I am satisfied with what Gameloft has put together here. For one, fans of the first Order & Chaos game will definitely have to give it a try. It is a direct continuation of the story, after all. But this doesn’t mean those of us outside this clique won’t find some fun in this game.

I spent some good time with Order & Chaos 2 and can say I am really enjoying the experience. You get the complex story, map, character customization and weapons system, but there is no time-consuming element involved. You can play this game in little spurs, as well as hard-core sessions. It’s a great balance that caters to both casual gamers and more dedicated users alike.And did I mention it’s a free game? Yes, there are in-app purchases in here, but I found I never had to use them to really enjoy the game and move forward. Those who find pleasure in long, complex games that never really end will find a nice home in the Order & Chaos 2 world. I believe you can’t do much better than this when it comes to mobile MMORPGs.