Online game "Chimeraland"

In the MMORPG genre, it is becoming increasingly difficult to stand out, to offer users a unique and interesting experience. But it is rightly said: no matter how well you do something, there will always be an Asian who will do it better. So the Chinese company Level Infinite sparkled with originality - released multiplayer Chimeraland based on the ancient treatise "The Book of Mountains and Seas" ("Shan Hai Ching"). It is one of the most mysterious works, the authorship of which is attributed to the mythical King Yu, who ruled about four thousand years ago. In the pages of the book there is room for geographical information, magic and astrology, and various monsters are described. This is the kind of creature you need to take control of in the game in order to survive in an open world full of dangers and adventures.

There are no problems with installation: it is enough to find the game at any of the sites, at least in Steam, and download it to your computer for free. Then you get to the menu, where you can choose a server, and from there you get to the screen of character creation before the start of the session. And here Chimeraland clearly shows why it is so named.

The editor allows you to create characters with the most bizarre appearance, even a hybrid of human and insect. There are human-like jellyfish, bulls, bears, birds, reptiles, monkeys, and several familiar races - with more or less dark skin. You are also allowed to choose a character's age and gender by moving the same pointer you use to mix the different species. Notably, when you repeatedly move the slider to a cell the color of the creature's fur (or feathers, whichever you choose) changes. Then the game takes the user to a more detailed menu, where the future inhabitant of fairyland can touch up the face, fix the voice and body, to apply makeup and other things in the same spirit. If you want, you can make a handsome man, but if not, you can make a creepy freak.

But creating a hero is only half the battle. After that, you have to choose where you want to live. The world of the game is a whole planet with three continents, according to the number of warring factions. By default Chimeraland offers Westmount - a warm and green place with wooded hills, alpine meadows and picturesque beaches. This is the location and should be chosen by the beginner. Birth looks like this: the character simply falls to the surface of the planet, like a participant in a "battle royale" like PUBG, only without a parachute. As the ground approaches, you are allowed to change your trajectory to fall in the most beautiful surroundings. But keep in mind that such a place is usually occupied if the server is full of people - sometimes, flying to the cherished clearing, and shortly before landing there draws someone's dacha with a vegetable garden.

Immediately, even at the stage of flight, it is striking how late the game loads objects and textures. Here it's common to see wheels appear out of nowhere a few meters away from you, then a cart, and then a charioteer behind it. And so it happens with almost everything, including buildings and monsters, and after viewing the story screensaver for a few seconds may be loaded landscapes with plants. Immediately visible mobile pedigree of the project. But, to the developers' credit, this is the only serious flaw of their creation. Over time, you just get used to these delays in drawing, because they do not interfere with either fighting or completing tasks.

The backstory tells the story of how the universe emerged from the breath of a dragon, which was almost immediately inhabited by good and reasonable creatures. But out of nowhere came the bad guys, dissatisfied with the harmony reigning around them. They divided the world into warring parts, filled biomes with dangerous creatures and desecrated everything they could reach. Naturally, it is up to the heroes to clean up this mess. While the newcomer is preparing for his heroic deeds a fairy-assistant named Bella will be helping him: telling him how to gather resources, create things from the materials, set up a camp, tame pets, monitor your health - in short, to survive in the open world. Then other characters join in, ready to give you the next task.

On the expanses of Chimeraland you will meet the characters of other users. Usually they are friendly, so you can exchange greetings and resources and visit them at the same time. On the other hand, nothing prevents the avoidance of acquaintances for the time being. To get used to the game, you need to understand that globally it consists of two parts: in one you are engaged in survival, building and pumping up, and in the second - in combat. In the first case, you need the mouse pointer cursor, moving independently of the hero. To call it, just press the tilde button (the letter "y" in the Russian layout). If it comes to the fight, this arrow only interferes - you can remove it by pressing the same key. The game does not teach you this, but it is important to use this option, because the battles here are built according to the canons of role-playing action films.

Separate note should be made of the design of nature. Graphics seems to be not the most advanced, but well conveyed swaying grass from the gusts of wind, and in the fields, forests and reservoirs are full of wildlife, representatives of which can be tamed. There are changes in the weather and time of day, and the state of the biome depends on the external conditions: where it's safe during the day, you risk encountering aggressive creatures at night. If you cut down a tree, it will collapse. And rain, for example, affects mechanics that have nothing to do with combat. These details create the illusion of a truly living world, which is fun to explore.

Unlike most MMORPGs, in Chimeraland there is no "spell", when you just take the enemy in the targeting and pound on the mouse button, interspersing the usual strikes with tricks assigned to different keys. Here the character is under your full control: running, jumping, crouching, jerking, dodging attacks. Blows, as it should be, come in strong and weak, and in addition, they are combined into combos. There are two types of weapons initially - for close-range and long-range engagements, and the crossbow feels a lot like a rifle from a shooter. It shoots in bursts, and you have to aim at the crosshairs in the middle of the screen.

Survival is much more complicated. First, the hero has many needs: he must eat to drink, rest to regain health, develop his breathing and endurance through physical activity, and stay in a comfortable temperature and avoid exposure to toxins. Why are breathing and stamina separated into different items? Because in the game you can study not only the land, but also the seabed. Only on the field you are riding a horse, and underwater you are saddling some shark. Secondly, resource extraction plays an important role in the process. At first there is not much choice: you just run around the meadows, shoveling pears, breaking wood and stones. Then you get involved in gathering herbs and rare minerals, hunting, fishing, gardening, breeding animals, and other, so to speak, farming.

Finally, construction - what survival is complete without the paradise in a hut? Only here you can build not only small huts, but whole palaces and even antique temples. It's done in the manner of Minecraft: first you have to get the surrounding materials, which are automatically gathered ready-made blocks from which any building is constructed. To open new blueprints you can use a special structure - the Spiritual Sphere, which stands at the base of any manor. But it's better to lay this sphere far away from other people's possessions, so that there is a place to expand your own. After all, your house also has a progression: the higher its level, the more space it occupies and the more possibilities for its arrangement.

It's interesting how the developers have tied everything together and simplified it. On the one hand, the development of the homestead is related to the level of the hero: while there is no place to put pens for cattle, the house is small, and the character can only pet a bunny in the field, but he will not be able to take the animal with him. On the other hand, Chimeraland has removed the routine that is often found in survival games. Here you don't need to gather an axe, sickle or pickaxe in advance - all the necessary tools for mining resources are available to you at once, without any fuss. And consumables are created in industrial quantities: from a piece of wood you make not a few, but hundreds of arrows, so that you can forget about their production for a long time.

The progression system in Chimeraland is arranged roughly the same way as in Skyrim: what you use, you develop. No matter what you do, whether it's hunting and cooking from the meat of killed animals or stone mining and construction, each action develops a certain skill and increases the overall level of the character. At the same time you have to breed pets. At first you only have a horse, but you can tame any animal, even representatives of megafauna. To do so, you start with small creatures, and then, as you develop your skill, take on larger and more dangerous creatures. You can experiment with them, adding unexpected properties to your pet - a horse, for example, will make an excellent pegasus for flying over the ground.

Naturally, your neighbors do the same. In the open world of the game it is difficult to choose an area where there is no one's hacienda. There are plenty of people in the game, and chatting with them allows you to - just be prepared for the fact that the local audience is mostly made up of Chinese. But it's better to survive in the company, so it's worth to get acquainted with someone on the server or take a friend to the adventure. You can join a clan to get access to PvP-activity, that is, fighting with other players. But in terms of multiplayer project looks a little poorer than other MMORPG: group raids on bosses not spoiled, inter-server wars do not offer. Nevertheless, there are many activities for the survival squad - from group hunting and fights with other clans to building a joint base and participation in regular events.

Chimeraland leaves a double impression. On the one hand, it does not look like a traditional MMORPG, and the technical problem in the form of delayed drawing of the environment at first discourages. On the other hand, there are well-designed survival mechanics in an open world, every lesson is easy, and no one is prying into your pocket - you can pay only if you rely on the leadership of your hero or clan in any area. The game is truly unique - familiarity with it will benefit anyone who is tired of genre clichés.

Zarium. March 2023