Online game "Aika 2"

Aika 2 is a free-to-play massively multiplayer role-playing game with an emphasis on user-to-user battles, or, more simply, PvP. It has somewhat outdated, but still beautiful graphics, a large open world, comprehensible rules, a wide range of opponents, and a lot of exciting quests for single players and for the whole team. In general, there is everything to spend a hundred or two hours pleasantly, as evidenced, including the crowds of people on the servers. Let's find out what exactly attracts the public fabulous universe created by Korean developers.

A long time ago the goddess Aika created the world of Arkan, which she decided to populate with sentient beings. At first she created the kindest people in the world, but its representatives preferred to live as hermits, so as not to see the cruelty surrounding them. Then the goddess molded a people of equal good and evil, but they began to destroy everything around them with scientific purposes. For equilibrium, Aika fashioned a third race, breathing in the wisdom of heaven. In the meantime, creativity took so much energy that the goddess fell asleep for a long time. When she awoke, she saw that her creations had rebelled and begun to oppress one another, and that the Arcana had bred terrible monsters that terrified the civilians. To remedy the situation, Aika has sent down the pranions, creatures that should help the heroes defeat evil and restore justice.

In the role of a brave man, reinforced by the forces of praniya, we will have to get used to it. Already at the start Aika 2 demonstrates its identity - the class of hero here is tied to one or another gender. Paladin, pistolier and priestess can only be women, and warrior, archer and sorcerer - men. Though they are essentially two sides of the same coin, except that the pistolier unholsters a pair of pistols to kill enemies, and the gunslinger relies on a rifle. It's about the same with wizards: both use enchantments and are good as support fighters if they work as a team. But the priestess is more effective at healing, and the wizard at magical attacks. Just as simple and the character designer - even in the random appearance generation is not so many options. But the hero, created in the editor, can be protected by a four-digit password. It seems like a little thing, but it's nice.

Where there is a complete order with variety, it's in the game itself. The open world of Arkan is divided into locations according to the level of enemies and tasks, which are given by neutral characters. After training you can take on any job, what you like - whether it's the search for items, missing people or mopping up the area from the monsters. In addition to the main cultural program there is fishing, crafts, trade, archaeology, not to mention the battles of all kinds. Of course, to get a hand on the usual monsters, but after reaching level 10 opens a lot of PvP-content, from the siege of castles and fights between servers to dueling arenas.

To cope with the difficulties on the expanses of Aika 2 help pets. Except the animal on which you are travelling on the map, the hero is accompanied by pranija - a creature that gives you bonuses in battle. An assistant is given to you in the course of the quest after you reach level 7. At first it's just a little sharp-eared fairy that uses three elements - fire (attack), water (defense) and air (stamina, dodging blows). Over time she becomes more specialized, depending on what you need. And Praniya's appearance changes from a baby to a teenager and then to an adult. In addition to its tactical usefulness, her partner can serve to carry things and entertain her master: dance, mingle, and give gifts.

But no matter how much fun it would be to walk around the expanses of Arkan with a companion, there's not much to do for singles here - except to pass training missions and wander around the map until you run into too tough enemies. But the company of friends will provide a lot of adventures. With friends you'll create a guild, go down into the dungeons, which are inhabited by particularly powerful monsters, fight in epic battles for castles and magical relics, take part in competitions between nations and servers. Even archeology without support turns into a complicated business, but with a friend everything is easier: while you, for example, open a jug or chest, your partner drives away attacking monsters - and so you cope faster.

Aika 2 focuses a lot on military exploits, and the main confrontation in it is between nations. In order to maul the sides of the heroes of the living players, not just goblins and slugs, you have to make one of the citizenship of one of the nations. This choice is offered at 10th level. When you make it you take your stand on one side of the barricade and at the same time you get the opportunity to attack other factions. Under what particular flag to stand up, it depends on personal taste. Like unity with nature and despise tyranny? Go under the banner of Aksar. Do you think that the sword in any situation is more effective than words? Ferron is your choice. And if you want to join the ranks of principled fighters against evil, you're welcome under the roof of Emir. Yes, these are the very intelligent species created by Aika. And they are constantly fighting with each other.

Each nation consists of legions - associations of users (in other games, they are usually called guilds or clans), within which members receive bonuses and the ability to obtain rare items in battle. In addition, any of these groups has a chance to lead their nation - for the sake of domination, the five strongest alliances are siege castles. Who won, and the flag in his hands, but with the championship the game gives significant bonuses. Dominate globally nations help war for relics - especially cool artifacts. For example, the Holy Grail increases its owners health, and the Holy Spear raises the damage from skills. Possessing such a thing is profitable, but to capture it you need to break into the devir - the relic's vault - and overpower the guards.

In addition, there are regular opportunities to attack the enemy's altar, where the nation's treasury is stored. If a nation loses its treasure, it hits the pockets of all its representatives. Capturing someone else's altar, however, earns the winner a sack of gold coins and an increase in experience. For those who just want to find out who's the first guy on the Arkana, there's the "Arena of Elters" - a location for mass battles between powers, where crowds (up to 100 on 100) of high-level heroes converge. In other words, both legions and nations engage in a variety of battles - if not for the honor of the country, then for the cool equipment and a tight purse for sure.

But that's not all. After all, in addition to the "Arena of Elters", the game has more familiar arenas for duels or team battles "wall-to-wall". These locations are visited not only by those who want to win a prize for the victory, but also by all those who need to warm up before a large-scale PvP battle or to test the new equipment. And "Battle Academy" holds such duels, during which the participants are removed from the bonuses of level and equipment - gain the upper hand here can only be a skill, a clever combination of skills hero and class, but not some magic artifact. That's why both beginners and experienced users are allowed here.

Character development, in general, standard for the genre. Running errands and defeating enemies brings experience points, and these go to open the next level. Until about the seventh level, until you are given a mission to get praniya, you can grow in the starting city and on the farms under its walls. These are mostly tutorial tasks that allow you to get used to the world of Aika 2 and get used to the combat system. To save time, it's better to use the movement scrolls and choose "Autoroute" where it's available. Although the latter sometimes glitches - the hero begins to "bump", bumping his nose into an obstacle.

The peculiarity of pumping is that the higher the current level of your hero, the harder it is to reach the next level. In fact, this is the classic order of things. In order to spur the development and maximize the strength of your character, you should regularly attend the "Elter Schools", do not hesitate to enter the arena, take quests to kill monsters in dungeons and in general character tasks above which exclamation points are lit. Even if you can't complete a mission now, no one is stopping you from returning to it a little later. Group activity is especially encouraged: the members of that legion, which is always fighting with someone, besieging castles and ruining someone's treasury at every opportunity, quickly become the strongest fighters of the nation.

Of course, Aika 2 easily exchanges real money for accelerated leveling, rare items and external decorations. On the other hand, you can get the same thing without the financial investment - just not as fast as with it. The accelerated option exists for those who do not eat bread - give to break into the most epic battle. Meanwhile, quests and adventures in the initial stages are not so bad to ignore.

Aika 2 presents many interesting challenges to those who want to act in a team and prefer the PvP format. For these gamers the game may become a real discovery. But some time you are free to have fun by yourself, just to find out if you like this atmosphere.

The only significant drawback is technical. Although the system requirements of the game are not high, and the graphics does not reach for the stars, the game lags even on the modern PC. Sometimes scenery is drawn five meters away from the hero, the camera skips over the textures, some quests glitch and you have to take them twice - such errors can spoil the impression. It's a shame, because it is very interesting to travel through the world of Arkana, battling monsters and completing tasks. To solve the problem with the performance partly helps to install the SSD instead of the hard drive, and also to check the speed of the Internet, but nevertheless the game clearly could not do with patches.

Otherwise, it is a living classic of the genre, capable of equally profound interest and a novice and an experienced user who already has a couple or three similar games under his belt. In Aika 2 it's not hard to understand, the control of the hero is extremely simple, and the quests on all occasions will not let you or your friends get bored.

October 2020