The ever-popular MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game) is a genre of gaming that has only come to fruition in the past decade or so. Ultima Online, Final Fantasy and EverQuest are among the biggest names in the industry, but they can make it difficult for rival MMORPGs to get a foot in the door of the online RPG community. However, Artifact’s brand new Horizons game has all the ingredients of a classic in the making and shouldn’t be overlooked.

Like other games of this t ... more >>

The ever-popular MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game) is a genre of gaming that has only come to fruition in the past decade or so. Ultima Online, Final Fantasy and EverQuest are among the biggest names in the industry, but they can make it difficult for rival MMORPGs to get a foot in the door of the online RPG community. However, Artifact’s brand new Horizons game has all the ingredients of a classic in the making and shouldn’t be overlooked.

Like other games of this type, Horizons pits players in a massive game world littered with hunting grounds, myriad NPC's (non-playable characters) and races. On this occasion, that world is called Istaria. It’s a world filled with cities, towns, villages, jungles and mountains, and has players embarking on a quest to become one of the community’s strongest, most respected individuals. We deliberately avoid using the word human because Horizons also allows players to participate as one of nine character races that include dwarves, elves, fiends and even dragons.

As far as the online RPG goes, Horizons is quite traditional. It allows players to explore freely in a solo adventure, team up with other players from around the globe, buy and sell items, equip armour and weaponry, learn spells and special attacks, and gain valuable information from scattered NPC's. There are certain intricacies in Horizons that will take time to master, but the point is that the game has the drive and motivation to keep players online.

Freedom is the key to a successful online role-playing game, and Horizons has lots of it. It’s a great adventure, never to be played the same way twice. Go on, give it a go. << less