Archlord came promising people to have a revolutionary gameplay, but was it all a dream?
...To be honest, Codemasters started great with their new ideas for this MMO, especially the ArchLord bit, who can rule the world the way he wants. But it seems the more they revealed from the game, it got more disappointing.
1-PayPLUS system: This system is an insult to the MMO world. While most of us don't like grinding and playing a game all the time 24/7, this system basically gives you everything in exchange of real money. We all know that there are illegal goldsellers or item sellers in every MMO, but the gaming companies react to such things. However Codemaster comes and clearly says: We don't want goldsellers or item sellers sell these stuff to you in exchange of your real money, WE DO IT!
2-Yet another Korean MMO: That explains a lot. Grinding is of course an aspect every MMO has, from the best MMO's like WoW to the worst. But ArchLord has mastered the "grinding art" here. Some quests are interesting lorewise, but overall, they all end up with "kill x numbers of this monster" or "collect y items dropped from these monsters" This is not acceptable for an MMO that claims itself to be revolutionary.
3-Control: The control system "WASD" is one of the most irritating and disappointing control systems I've ever seen (yes, even worst than early Tomb Raider series). Poorly designed, while they could have worked a little more on this simple aspect of gameplay.
Graphics: Okay, WoW and Guild Wars hit the shelves on 2004. We are in 2006 now, so you'd expect an improvement in graphics from a 2006 game, right? Sorry, ArchLord uses an old graphic engine from a Korean game, and basically the graphics aren't appealing at all. Feel free to check some screenshot to see the art for yourself.
Sound: Well there are sound effects, which aren't very nice, but they are alright. But the only impressive thing in the whole game is the music, beautifully performed by London (Philarmonic) Orchestra.
Value: Now the question arrises: There are good MMO's out there which cost monthly fee (WoW) or other online games which are free (Guild Wars). Is this game free? No. Codemasters tried to convince people that the monthly fee is less than WoW, but when you go back and think about PayPLUS system, you;ll definately change your mind. In order to improve your character, you need to pay loads of money every month to achieve different armors etc which make this game even a more expensive game than WoW.
Tilt: All in all, ArchLord is an incompleted game which became famous because of the promises Codemasters gave their costumers, but the game became worse and worse over time. Don't bother with this game at all, there are definately better games out there that worth playing, and ArchLord isn't one.