Asheron's Call 2

Asheron's Call 2: Fallen Kings is a fantasy MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role-playing game) for Microsoft Windows-based PCs that was released on November 22, 2002. It is a sequel to 1999's Asheron's Call, although content, graphics and gameplay dynamics differ greatly from its predecessor.

Both games were developed by Turbine Entertainment Software and originally published by Microsoft, until Turbine purchased the Asheron's Call franchise in December 2003. The Microsoft to Turbine transition is expected to be completed by spring 2005. In 2004 and 2005, Turbine made deals with Jolt Online Gaming to operate AC2 in Europe and with Sony Online Entertainment to distribute the game's first expansion, , under the Station Publishing label.

Updates

As with other MMORPGs, Asheron's Call 2 is a subscription-based game, which currently costs $12.95 USD/EUR per month to play. The Asheron's Call franchise is unique in providing complimentary monthly to bi-monthly content updates that add new quests, skills, landmasses, monsters, gameplay dynamics and bug fixes to all subscribers. Epic storylines link multiple episodes to form distinct "story arcs". As of December 2004, the episodes published are:

• December 2002: Emergence
• January 2003: Cacophony
• February 2003: Ambuscade
• March 2003: Revelations
• April 2003: Conflagration
• May 2003: Desecration
• June 2003: Portents
• July 2003: Rebirth
• August 2003: Resurrection
• September 2003: Resurgence
• October 2003: Revolt
• November 2003: War
• December 2003: Cataclysm
• January 2004: Ashes to Ashes
• February 2004: The Consequences of Chaos
• March 2004: Settling Scores
• April 2004: Lost Champions
• May 2004: Shadows of the Past
• June 2004: Clockwork and Chaos
• July 2004: Message From Home
• August 2004: The Lost Artifacts
• September 2004: The Madness of Aun Tanua

(Here is the switch to bi-montly updates)

• November 2004: Broken Night

An expansion pack for Asheron's Call 2 titled was announced on October 2004 and is scheduled for release on May 4, 2005. It will include a new playable character race — the mythical Empyreans, and a major new landmass. High-level gameplay is also expected to be revisited.

Critical reaction

AC2 is generally considered the first "second-generation" MMORPG, and its graphics continue to be among the best in the genre. Many tedious aspects of first-generation MMORPGs were eliminated while maintaining complex gameplay and combat systems based on a hybrid class-skill system. The free monthly updates, a service unique to Turbine software products, have also been widely praised.

While Asheron's Call 2 received favorable press reviews, many players were disappointed with the initial retail release of the software, which followed a oft wrought with bugs, open beta testing phase. The game was initially plagued by server instability, lack of content, high system requirements, engine flaws, lack of balance and many broken combat skills. To add to the problems, the chat system was consistently being reworked and taken down, adding to the frustration of its player-base to form fellowships. The developers overestimated the time it would take players to reach the initial maximum level of 50, which occurred after just a few weeks.

These shortcomings were largely addressed throughout 2003, but many players had quit by that time, resulting in the consolidation of several servers and a comparatively low total player population. Especially the player versus player server Darktide and the kingdom versus kingdom server Coldeve were having extremely low populations. Bruce Woodcock of MMOGChart.com estimates that AC2 peaked with about 50,000 subscribers, but currently has only 10–15,000.

Most current players agree that the game has significantly improved over time. Included in these improvements are a new crafting system aptly named Craft 2.0 which has greatly changed the in-game economy for the better. Also the level cap has been raised to a new 150 max, which since the introduction of the Hero system, which allows a character to pass level 50, has not been reached. A year after the Hero system was put in, the highest level character on any United States server was level 75.

Criticism was particularly vocal from many Asheron's Call 1 players, who were frustrated by the radical changes in gameplay dynamics and the game world, claiming that AC2 was a sequel in name only, designed primarily to cater to casual players that want "dumbed down" gameplay and not to the complex character design of the first Asheron's Call.

External links

• Turbine's official AC2 website
• AC2 Vault - forums, quest and player guides