WHY CARE: If you've ever wanted to play the role of a hero in a multiplayer game,
Simutronics is trying to place you there from the get-go. When you go on a quest, you don't
just wander around the landscape with a thousand other wannabe heroes, looking for the whatzitz placed
less than artfully among the world's rocks and trees. Instead, you go into an instance that is custom-built
for that particular quest and your particular level. You get to make choices as you would playing, say, an
Elder Scrolls or Final Fantasy game.
This system is designed to work because the game focuses on lots of concentrated, specialized content.
What's different here is that it's not just randomly generated stuff. The goal is to have real,
honest-to-Gygax game masters created stuff for you to do, on a regular and rapid basis. Imagine a
game where new quests become available not every six months or so, but every week; where every mission
you're sent on actually yields entertaining play and not just a time sink. That's the plan, anyhow,
and Simutronics promises hundreds of such gamemasters interacting with the players. Oh, and the fact
the game looks absolutely stunning doesn't hurt either. What's really attractive, though, is the notion
of combining custom-tailored questing with a real live open game world, thus offering the best of the
Dungeons & Dragons Online and typical Everquest/World of WarCraft experiences. You might even call it
a heroic undertaking. (Simutronics/2007)
