ZAM jumps into the beta to preview Allods Online's gameplay and early content, discovering "AAA" potential in this free-to-play MMO.

After publishing our recent news roundup about the biggest video game in Russian history, Allods Online, ZAM jumped into the upcoming MMO to get our own first-hand look. After all, the timing was perfect; gPotato (the game's publisher) launched its second closed beta on Dec. 1, and we scored a bunch of keys for our readers in last week's beta key giveaway. If you weren't able to grab a key, don't worry; you can register with gPotato to get in queue, or wait a little longer for the open beta.

In the mean time, our preview of Allods Online should help tide you over and give you a better understanding of what this free-to-play MMO is all about. Superficially, some aspects of the Allods Online might seem confusing or bizarre; the "high fantasy"-meets-"space opera" genre, buying items to shorten your downtime after death, unusual XP mechanics or even the lack of a mini-map in the game. But despite these differences—whether oversight or innovation—Allods Online is still polished and accessible enough to appeal to mainstream gamers looking for a "AAA" title.

The company behind Allods Online is the Moscow-based Astrum Nival, an online games operator and development studio. For information about the developer's previous work and industry experience, check out the feature story we ran last week. (If you're totally unfamiliar with Allods Online, you might want to read that story first to learn more about the MMO's history and specific features.)

The world of Allods Online is set in plane of existence called the "Astral," a mysterious part of space filled with magical energy. The Astral's "destructive forces" ripped its planet apart, shattering the world into fragmented, island-like pieces called "allods." Most of the fantasy-themed environments reside on the allods, while the sci-fi motifs and ship battles take place in the Astral. When you reach level 20, you even get the chance to build your own Astral Ship, which a group of players can collectively pilot.

But that doesn't mean you're stuck on the ground throughout the first half of the game. In fact, your very first quest series—which also serves as the gameplay tutorial—is one of the most epic "starting zones" we've ever seen in an MMO. The quests and storyline are different for each of the game's two factions (the League and the Empire), but they both throw you into an action-packed scenario onboard an Astral Ship. This starting area is "instanced" for every new character and takes about 30 minutes to complete. It's a great example of how "interactive" game intros can teach the basics and dazzle you at the same time.

Astrum Nival created the graphics engine from scratch and we were extremely impressed with it, especially its stellar performance capability. The client is optimized so well that even players with sub-standard hardware should be able to render the game at high resolution and graphics settings without suffering the same performance hit they would with other modern games. We tested Allods Online on an older laptop with an ATI x1400 GPU (a weak graphics card by today's standards); at 1280x800 resolution on high settings (with 4xAA and 8xAF), the game client maintained an average of 30 to 40 FPS.

For the less technically-inclined, that means Allods Online runs fast on older computers and still looks amazingly good. Part of its performance and scalability is due to its less-demanding art design; the engine doesn't utilize cutting-edge 3D technology. The developers found a balance between the "cartoony" look of WoW and realistic texture mapping/effects, and they did it well. The game world appears massive and sprawling, and its characters are highly-stylized and distinctly original.

Allods Online's character creation process is similar to mainstream MMOs, except that it offers 28 different classes to choose from, depending on your faction and race. That many classes might sound insane, but the variety derives from "core" archetypes and "mirror" classes, similar to Aion and Warhammer Online's class systems. For example, the Warrior archetype represents four different classes, each based on the character's race. Core archetypes are almost exactly the same except for subtle differences that are unique to each race. Check out the class section of the official website for more details.

We tried out a few classes from each faction, including both the "traditional" MMO archetypes as well as those that seem unique, like the Psionist. Out of the few classes that we had time to properly test, they all featured a refreshingly-unique array of spells, abilities and play-styles—especially the archetypes "original" to Allods Online. The Psionist, for example, is a DPS/Support class that relies on establishing a "mental link" with its target in order to use many of its spells and boost its power. Even the tried-and-true MMO classes, like Scouts and Warriors, offer a dynamic-enough experience that doesn't seem overtly stale or recycled.

Characters acquire new spells and abilities by spending talent points; instead of visiting a class trainer, you just open your skill tree UI and choose your abilities. Each class has access to several "mastery branches" within its skill tree, allowing players to diversify their class or tailor it to a specific role, like direct damage, crowd control, healing, utility, tanking or a combination thereof. As an example of just how extreme this customization can be among certain classes, the Summoner—a Warlock-esque DPS class—can be specced into a healing build that rivals the actual Healer class. There are a lot of ways to play your class, which helps avoid being pigeon-holed into a specific combat role.

The combat itself, on the other hand, is a major issue of contention among beta testers. In the first beta test, most players complained that pacing was just too slow, especially in early levels. A single mob fight could take as much as 40 to 60 seconds to complete, which led the developers to reduce mob hit points across the board. However, we agreed with many players who felt the average encounter still seemed a bit too long and tedious for lower-level classes. But the combat pacing might be exactly where the developers want it, considering some of the unorthodox leveling mechanics they built into the game.

While the "leveling via experience" mechanic is similar to other MMOs, the "Fatigue system" is somewhat unique. Players gain "Fatigue points" while earning experience, represented by a blue bar next to your purple XP bar. At any time, you can pay a small fee to convert your Fatigue into XP by visiting an Innkeeper. It's basically a second type of "cheap experience," but the amount of Fatigue you can earn each day is capped. Once you reach that cap, you'll have to wait until the daily reset to begin earning more.

So far, beta testers either love it or hate, depending on their play style. Fatigue is especially beneficial to the casual player, because he usually won't reach the daily cap. But players who go over the cap are missing out on almost half the total XP they could be earning. In most MMOs, Fatigue would simply be considered "bonus" XP. But in Allods Online, Fatigue is weighted more like regular XP, and many players report that if you don't pace yourself to take advantage of Fatigue, you'll start running out of quests earlier than you should (leaving you to grind your way up to the next level tier).

Veteran MMO players might find other game aspects equally as odd. The UI doesn't have a minimap; instead, players are given a simple compass that seems more decorative than functional. Fortunately, you can access a full-screen map with quest waypoints and other markers, so you're not running around totally blind. Similar markers are displayed on-screen when you approach a quest-giver or other NPC; even if the NPC isn't in your field-of-view, the markers slide around the edges of your screen, relative to their position. The full-screen map and HUD markers definitely offer some convenience, but it's not a shining example of form over function.

Most of the problems we found in our short time previewing Allods Online were relatively minor "head-scratchers" and a handful of counter-intuitive mechanics that will probably be fixed before launch. For example, there's no auto-attack feature available during combat. You have to manually push the action bar or keyboard button to use your primary weapon, giving new meaning to the "1211211311211" combat cliché. But aside from annoyances like these—and the occasional Cyrillic characters left untranslated to English—we didn't encounter any overwhelming failures or game-breaking issues during our first week of gameplay.

On the contrary, we had a lot of fun playing Allods Online. The underlying story and related quests weren’t as bad as you might imagine in a free-to-play MMO, and the gameplay was entertaining enough to hold our attention and motivate the leveling process. There's no denying that Allods Online leans toward the "themepark" end of the MMO spectrum, but the variety of quests, NPC factions and novel exploration helps offset its linear progression.

The bigger picture will begin to emerge closer to its official launch, when higher-level content is introduced and the micro-transaction item shop opens. Our first glance of the item shop confirms that it will be stocked with both vanity items and gameplay enhancers, although the latter appears more convenience- than power-oriented (most of which you can also obtain in-game, like skill respecs and potions).

Until then, we're keeping a close eye on Allods Online as it unfolds. We've only just scratched the surface of its early gameplay, and according to the developers, there's a lot more to come, including 24-player raids, a complete guild system, dedicated PvP, Astral Ship battles and more. If we didn't already know its revenue model, we could have easily mistaken it for a subscription-based MMO. Check back with our Allods Online portal site for news and updates, and visit the official site for website for detailed game information.