When the announcement of the next free MMORPG sounds, you are already involuntarily frowning – too many of them have been bred recently, similar to each other, like the clones of lambs Dolly. Neither new ideas, no atmosphere, no original gameplay – nothing. Because of this, it is very difficult to miss rare projects that are really worthy of attention. Let’s see if whether recently localized by the company is worthy Nival Online role -playing game Cabal Online.
The plot is simple and unpretentious: another great evil who needs to be opposed. Another global armored man who needs to be prevented. Another heroes who will do this. In general, the banal struggle of beaver with a donkey. But if you distract a bit from the template plot and look at the world itself, in which the action unfolds, then you immediately understand that the banality here does not smell like.
The fact is that all events are not in one specific world, but in dozens of different places, each of which is absolutely unique. Magic and technology are mixed here, knightly armor is perfectly adjacent to the uniforms of the nineteenth -century troops and combat spaces, magicians direct their strength to the enemy with the help of special focusing crystals, and the bows throw energy condenses instead of arrows. Having taken a couple of steps, you can from the desert, in which wooden oil towers and ruins of ancient cities stick out in the middle of the sands, to get into snowy forests reminiscent of Siberia. And from this kingdom of snow, winds and blizzards, decorated with ice blocks, in
the depths of which someone blurry silhouettes can be seen, jumping into tropical jungle with their wooden bridges over the abysses, eternal fog and bright plants. Here you can easily see a girl in a Japanese kimono, flying on a miniature rocket past a typical American soldier in a Khaki color uniform, who for some reason picked up instead of a M16 rifle Katana.
In general, from the standpoint of realism to local weapons and armor, it is absolutely pointless to approach-swords in a person’s height, bows with energy bowsteps, ladies’ armored vehicles, dotted with spikes and luminous stripes, men’s armor (in them the knights are not similar to people, but some robots), helmets with optical sights and so on. It all looks unusual, but it fits perfectly into the general cheerful madness of this kaleidoscope world.
Local monsters also did not hit the mud in the mud (well, or what they have there)-multi-colored demonic kangaroo, wake half-growing, snowmers, reminiscent of a hybrid to turtles and shrimp, intelligent monkeys, giant praying mantities and other creatures look completely wild, butAt the same time, they do not seem to be extraneous elements against the background of everything else. Rather, it would be strange to see here banal and boring worse than a vampire-Italian garlic sauce, goblins and orcs.
True, the schedule cannot be called modern – the models of the characters are clearly not enough landfills, and indeed it is great outdated. However, this is completely redeemed by the work of animators – I want to observe the local inhabitants, they can just be admired by them. Here the girl, bored, examines her nails and stretches. But the saleswoman of magical things, in anticipation of the charges, took out a scroll and draws in the air some luminous figures. In battle, animation is also very good – huge zombies with sledgehammers before the attack try on the enemy with a rusty pin, intelligent monkeys pull stones from the ground and throw them into a player, magicians collect energy in focusing crystals, widespread and release the target, and soldiers arrange a real dance with a real dance fromsabers. For the work done, the animators can safely set the highest points.
Well, a special mention is deserved by music. Very rarely in MMORPG you can hear such a dynamic, aggressive and at the same time melodic rock, which serves as an excellent accompaniment for the gameplay. Moreover, for each location, its own melodies are written, corresponding to the spirit of these places.
The result was surprisingly stylish and, oddly enough, the whole world. All the details look strange, but in total they gave an excellent result reminiscent of mythical chimera or griffin – after all, a combination of elements inconsistent at first glance, but how beautiful it is!
Great six
The most numerous and powerful race of all worlds that we can visit in Cabal, There are people, so there is nothing surprising in the fact that we will create heroes to ourselves precisely from representatives of the human people. In total, the game has six classes of characters that should be described in detail, although the first three are quite standard. Warrior (Warrior) – a familiar heavy breakthrough tank, perfectly armored and tenacious. Assassin (BLADER) – master of the blade that makes a bet on the speed of movements, confusability and accuracy of attacks. The magician (wizard) is in itself Hil and is poor in health, but his witchcraft can turn enemies legions into ashes. They figured out standard classes, and now something more interesting-the remaining are a kind of hybrids of the three previous. FORCE Archer – a kind of magic archer, the main weapon of which is energy onions. Defender (Force Shielder) is an advanced tank, in addition to weapons with a witching shield, as well as capable of strengthening and protecting itself with magic. Well, the Witcher (Force Blader) is a hybrid of a magician and an assassin, who owns both a sword and combat spells.
The heroes have only three main parameters: strength, mind and dexterity. What uniforms can be put on by the character depends on them. Many skills are also available to everyone: new spells, combat techniques and other jumps and rifts. When we hit the enemy by one of the skills, we get a portion of experience that serves two goals at once-allows the player to increase the level of his character, as well as pump the group of abilities that we used. That is, if we are sipping the enemy with fire balls, then we gradually develop magical skills, and if we chop a blade, we increase the ability to own swords, and at the same time we can also raise the level by receiving parameters increase points. Very simple and logical system, is mastered instantly.
War for no special reason
But the most important thing in any game is the gameplay actually. IN Cabal It is very simple and makes you remember Diablo – the whole essence is in battles. At first we are destroyed by monsters, then we also fight with other players, but in the end we participate in global battles faction for the faction. Each location has a small settlement where quests will be given to us, teach skills, bought trophies and sell new equipment, and monsters roam around this settlement, the murder of which brings us money and invaluable experience.
Quests are essentially simple and in most cases all the more exterminating creatures are reduced, but the texts are very well written – vividly, atmospheric and humor. So, the surprisingly dark -skinned instructor of recruits at the very beginning of the game will immediately tell our hero so that he will not be surprised at the strange color of his skin. Say, you will stand here in the sun with mine, watching the stupid attempts of “fresh meat” to master at least something useful, you will not be so blackened. They got a poor thing at all, apparently. A girl in the tropical jungle between quests will complain how insects irritate her, and such a wet climate is undoubtedly harmful to her delicate skin. Sometimes I would like to quickly fulfill the task not in order to get a reward, but just to read what else they will tell us.
The process of extermination of local living creatures is also boring, you can’t call. Monsters have various techniques, special abilities and immunities, they have to look for an individual approach and combine skills for the greatest effect. You yourself do not notice how you plunge into this lesson with your head and no longer want to be distracted.
The combo system also gives dynamism to battles-by activating the special mode and pressing the skills buttons at the right time, you can significantly increase the strength of your attacks and the amount of experience gained. Putting this moment is not easy at all, and the use of the combo adds the excitement significantly in the fight.
And finally, one cannot fail to mention local dungeons. Unlike Lineage or World of Warcraft, here we will not find huge labyrinths – no, everything is simpler and at the same time no less exciting. IN Cabal The dungeons consist of several rooms full of monsters. When we go there, a timer begins to tick in front of us, and we need to kill all the creatures before the time ends. If we do not have time, then instead of gaining experience, we will lose some of the already earned points. The more complicated the dungeon, the more rooms in it, stronger enemies and less time allotted for cleaning. If at first it is quite possible to meet and alone, then at high levels for success you will need the quick and coordinated actions of the whole team. The idea is simple, like all ingenious.
Backstage affairs
Given that Cabal Online It is free by itself, it would be stupid to expect that there will be no gaming store in it. In it, for real money, you can purchase rather useful things that allow significantly strengthen the character and accelerate its development, but still the main assortment is all kinds of decorative elements that do not affect the gameplay. Roughly speaking, you can just play and enjoy it and without investing a dime of real currency, but who will abandon stunning outfits or cute pets? It all eats here, but for a fee. Fortunately, specifics Cabal Online such that such things are not annoying, making money investing with some kind of demigod, but simply serve as a pleasant addition, without which it is quite possible to do without.
And, of course, one cannot but mention the translation, because more recently “Kabal” was localized by the company Nival. In general, it turned out quite well, Russian analogues are practically not inferior to the original, everything is intelligible, accessible and literary. True, there are still some oddities (for example, I won’t know why it was a “Blader” class as “Assassin”-these concepts cannot be called loved ones), but they do not spoil the general picture.
Cabal Online did not become a revolution in the Mmorpg genre, but no one was expecting this from it. But the combination of a crazy and charming world, a dynamic gameplay and excellent humor gave as a result a “role -playing” perfectly suitable for a cheerful vacation, which allows you to spend a good time.
Pros: unique style;atmospheric music;fascinating gameplay;humor.
Cons: outdated graphics;secondaryness;Excessive simplification of some elements of the gameplay.