Wednesday, May 10, 2006

Dark Age of Camelot

I recently installed the 14 day trial for Dark Age of Camelot on my PC. I have not gotten to play it a lot and I am still very low in level, but I must say that I have liked what I have seen so far.

For those of you who have never heard of Dark Age of Camelot, it is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) or a multiplayer computer game in which hundreds of players can play in a virtual world. In the case of Dark Age of Camelot, it is set after the death of King Arthur, at a time when Britain is in utter chaos and the world is in a state of war. There are three realms in the game: Albion (equivalent to Britain in the real world, the home of Arthur), Hibernia (Ireland in the real world), and Midgard (equivalent to Viking Age Scandinavia in the real world). These realms are at war with each other.

It is apparent that a good deal of work went into this game. Each realm has its own distinctive look (Midgard, where my Viking character comes from, is rough and often snow covered). Each realm also has its own character classes, races,monsters, and even quests peculiar to that realm. In the case of Midgard, one can choose to play a Viking, a Berserker, a Runemaster, and so on. As to races, in Midgard one can play a Dwarf, Frostalf, Norseman, and so on.

The graphics on Dark Age of Camelot are nothing remarkable, although the animation seems to be smooth for the most part. One thing I do like is that the player can change his or her view (or "camera angle," if you prefer), giving the game more of a realistic feel. As to the commands in the game, there are several and they can be executed in one of two ways. One is through hot keys, while the other is through slash commands (as in /shout). The commands do take a while to master, but they are not exceedingly difficult to remember

Over all I have enjoyed what little I have played Dark Age of Camelot. It is a fun game and one that seems decidely different from other MMORPGs (not that I have much experience with MMORPGS, mind you). Indeed, I must say that the Arthurian setting does set it apart from the generic fantasy settings of many other MMORPGs.

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