Online game "Warspear Online"

Conditionally free MMORPG Warspear Online not only looks old-fashioned, but also essentially follows the canons of the genre. In it you will find a huge fairy-tale world, divided into hundreds of locations, two opposing alliances, seven servers, twenty classes and four races, and in addition, an abundance of text in dialogues, without which you can not understand neither the plot, nor local customs. What you won't find here is modern graphics, convenient combat system, character voicing by professional actors and experience accrual for destroying any monster in sight.

There is nothing to be surprised about, because the game was released back in 2008 by the developers from the Russian studio AIGRIND, five years later it won the award for the best multiplayer according to Best App Ever Awards, and now it is available on all platforms, including outdated smartphones, on which you can't even play mobile "Tanks". If only there was a space of 100 megabytes for installing the client - and the matter is over. Rare MMORPG can boast such accessibility. Let's see what other trump cards it hides up its sleeve.

Today it is most convenient for a PC user to download Warspear Online on Steam. It's free, and you don't need to register an account - the game will automatically assign your profile a name from the digital store. And then you get to the hero creation screen. Everything starts with the choice of faction - in the world of Arinar fight between Guardians and Legion. Among the former are the Chosen, or humans, who have the "Spirituality" bonus with increased health, magic and physical strength, as well as the Primordials, aka elves, with their "Focus" offering similar enhancements to newcomers. On the dark side are the Mountain Clans and the Cursed, simply put, dwarves and necromancers.

The choice doesn't end there, as each of the races is divided into five classes. They are chosen in such a way that all four sides have similar types, but no one copies anyone exactly. For example, the paladin of the Chosen resembles a barbarian of the Mountain Clans. A brigand had the same powerful attack and weakened defense as a human mage and an elf ranger. Nevertheless, any of the twenty classes has unique traits, not to mention five starting skills that are not repeated in any other. So it's worth spending some time on the selection screen to compare the options on offer and get exactly the fighting style you like.

Interestingly, there is even a simple appearance customization, although the pixels that make up the characters' faces can be counted on your fingers. You are given a choice of gender, hairstyle and hair color, and then sent to explore Arinar, a colorful world rich in secrets and legends. Once the balance of power in it was kept by the magic spear mentioned in the game's title, but the monster Garakhan decided to seize the powerful artifact to gain absolute power. The plan was only half successful: after the catastrophe, some nations joined the new master, while others united to fight back. Since then, the rivalry between the Guardians and the Legion has not subsided.

The representatives of each race start their adventure on their own island, so at first the Chosen do not cross paths with the Mountain Clans, and necromancers do not meet elves. Speaking of the Cursed, for example, they appear on Moractar, which is ruled by six princes who excel in black magic. The starting location gives you not only an entourage appropriate to your choice, but also unique quests, locations, and monsters. In the role of a necromancer you start your way with a part-time job in a tavern and return to the living dead jaw stolen by a dog, and for the elf - repair the mill and collect barberry for offerings. Because of this feature, Warspear Online pulls to explore for different heroes, if for some reason the debut was unsuccessful.

Almost immediately, it becomes clear how Arinar is organized. It is divided into many locations, the area of which barely exceeds the size of the active screen. To add such a patchwork to the global map, you should at least visit it - there is no need to clean every corner from monsters. Especially if you take into account that for killing monsters you get trophies and experience only if the hunt is connected with the quest. And simple clearing of forests and glades, what gamers do in most MMORPGs, here does not give any results, except for the wear and tear of armor.

Therefore, progression in Warspear Online is based on the fulfillment of missions, not random battles with anyone. There are a lot of tasks in the game, from cleaning manure in the stable to eliminating powerful creatures, and in any of them you have to read dialogs, which is also unusual for a modern gamer, who is used to skip the chatter and immediately run to where the mark leads. Here for such recklessness you can pay for it with your character's life.

Adventures on the island of your race serve as a kind of prologue, after which the hero can reach the nearest port, load on a ship and go to the general map. This introduction can last from a few hours to a dozen - it all depends on your wit and skill of the hero of the chosen class. The speed of movement through the locations is also important: if you invest real money in the game, you will be given virtual currency to pay for teleportation, and without this bonus you will have to run on your own. The same goes for battles. Paid equipment, of course, makes it easier to defeat enemies. But here everyone decides for himself whether to play slowly and for free, or to speed up the course of events with a ringing coin.

Most quests boil down to the fact that you should go somewhere and kill someone. That's why you have to fight a lot and often in Warspear Online. But the combat system is organized in a peculiar way. On the one hand, everything is simple - just click on the target with the mouse to make the hero take up the cause. On the other hand, you won't get much in this way. In fights with difficult opponents you need to combine the five skills that are given to you at the start, eventually connect new techniques, drink potions in time and retreat when the layout is clearly not in your favor. Yes, here you can escape from the monster, which was not to the teeth, but then you still have to repair your armor and try again. After all, to pump up the hero by killing small creatures here, we repeat, you can not

In battle, you have to operate ten shortcut buttons at once: the first five are assigned to skills by default, and the rest - to consumable items. And not all blows are applied on the point - for some you need to press a key, and then specify the area of application. And not every skill is attacking, because there are still different types of defense, reinforcements, spells, healing. To deal with this arsenal, you need to read the descriptions and clearly understand what cards you have in hand and what they are good. That's why the "click and forget" scheme doesn't work in the game - it's not a "lazy" MMORPG, which performs 90% of actions for the user.

In addition, you should move your wiggles over the pumping. No one will invest for you skill points received with each level. And the choice is as follows: either bet on one of the skills, or develop all of them little by little, or save up points for something more powerful, because in time you open half a dozen more basic skills, and then expert skills will follow. Meanwhile, the number of quick access cells is limited - you have to shuffle the techniques, adjusting to certain conditions. For example, some are more important in PvP, others in PvE, and others will be useful when you and your friends gather a squad and fight together against a boss. From this point of view, Warspear Online is very old-fashioned, which is why it is revered by fans of the classics.

If there is not enough experience to strengthen skills, you can invest in the hero's pumping resources or improve equipment. In the first case, you need to specifically choose such tasks that bring the necessary consumables, or go to the internal store. In the second case will help not only rewards for the successful solution of tasks, but also the crafting system, which allows you to improve items, and to make from several things one, but more powerful. Don't forget that any piece of equipment deteriorates from use, i.e. it slowly loses its properties. To do repairs, just go to any of the peaceful locations and find a blacksmith there - the master will fix your armor and weapons for a small fee.

As in any other MMORPG, there are clans with guilds, boiling trade at the local market and do not turn disputes in chat. But the social part of the game is not limited to the sale of trophies and communication. You can at any time gather your friends in a squad to go on a raid against the boss or take part in PvP-fights, for which three islands are allocated at once. Irselnort is especially famous, where hundreds of warriors converge in one battle between the Guardians and the Legion, capturing wagons and besieging castles. Battles between heroes under the control of live players are presented in all variety - from wars for territories to duels in a special PvP-cave. In the arena you can organize not only a duel, but also a 2x2, 3x3 or 5x5 battle.

If that's not enough, you can head to the Temple of Seals to take part in the local version of Capture the Flag or pay attention to the regular events with rides and monster slaying. Tournaments and friendly duels are constantly taking place. These competitions allow you to earn the best prizes in the game. But not everyone in the fairy tale world needs resources, artifacts, swords and armor - someone is primarily looking for glory. For such people there is a "Top 1000" champion rating and achievements - to get some of them you have to try hard. Finally, nothing prevents you from mastering any of the eight professions and becoming a sought-after craftsman who makes expensive equipment.

Of course, Warspear Online doesn't look very fancy, but it will run on any computer. In addition, the game offers one and a half thousand quests, a rich choice of unique races and classes with their own starting location for each of them, a variant pumping and a carload of battles, where everyone can test their hero in action. Also worth noting is the abundance of PvP-activities, which allow you to show yourself, and to look at others, and at the same time to collect trophies. If you are already used to modern MMORPGs, you may find the battles inconvenient, the need to read a lot, and the fact that your hero is able to kill even weak monsters, if there are several of them. But this is nothing compared to the pleasure that the game gives to an attentive and diligent gamer.

Zarium. August 2023