RaiderZ Preview: A Free MMO That's Far Better Than Necessary

I tried a lot of games at E3 today, but one that left a particularly strong impression on me was RaiderZ. It is a free to play MMO made by Korean developer MAIET Entertainment and published by Perfect World for the PC. It won't be out till next year, but what I was able to see represented very polished gameplay and graphics using the Unreal Engine. In fact, it looked far better than a free to play MMO has any right to. The game appears only partially done, but with release not until 2012, there is still a lot of room for improvement.

RaiderZ forgoes the traditional target and click MMO control scheme and forces you to take a bit more of an active role in combat. Must click to swing, or hit a button to attack with one of your specials, and you must be pointed at your enemy and in range already to hit them. They attack in the same manner, so you need to dodge by rolling, or block by trying to raise your shield to avoid damage. This works very well on the slower enemies who telegraph their attacks. I did not encounter anything that attacked so fast as to be hit me 100% of the time. The emphasis so far appears to be on slightly lumbering creatures. The E3 version has mer-folk carrying giant maces, bandits who are pretty weak, and a horned dragon. Players cooperate in the normal fashion to kill the dragon, but a nice twist involves its horn. At some point in the battle the horn might be broken off by a player, picked up, and temporarily used to beat the dragon over the head. The mer-folk also drop their mace, and others drop fish. You only get to use these items for a few seconds, and they have abilities which override your normal combat skills. It's a very cool concept that I've wondered about for a long time with other games. If a monster is using an awesome weapon, he should drop it when he dies! Obviously developers have always had to consider game balance, so allowing only temporary use is a good compromise.

Currently they only provide details on the one class that is available in the demo, but they seemed to indicate that more classes were likely. Besides which, the one class available really represents three classes, with characters being able to choose from Defender, Cleric, and Berserker skill trees. You can mix and match to create hybrid classes, such as a Defender/Cleric who can heal themselves for an advantage soloing. 3 classes still isn't very many, even with hybrids, so I'm hopeful that there will be more by the time the game releases in 2012.

RaiderZ looks fantastic considering that it is a free to play MMO, or perhaps even if it wasn't. The country-side level shown is very green and grassy, which isn't really much to look at, but is requisite in any MMO set on a planet like Earth. It appears to be going for the Medieval farmland motif. The monsters are detailed, especially the dragon. He acts very dragon-like; flying up every so often, pouncing in different directions, and occasionally breathing fire (easily dodged if you're paying attention). The animations are smooth for both players and monsters, and actions are consistent so that you feel very much in control of the action.

Raiderz is a free to play MMO coming in 2012 for PC. It is developed by MAIET Entertainment (Korea) and published by Perfect World Entertainment Inc.

RaiderZ Final Trailer