Archlord (open beta): *YAWN*

[Benfea]

In case you're interested in this sort of thing, the Korean MMORPG Archlord is being translated into English for release in the West, and is now in open beta.

http://www.archlordgame.com/

My thoughts:

• Graphics: yawn. Dungeon Siege 2 looks better than this crap, although the characters look nice if you zoom in really close.
  
  
• Graphics: No anisotropic filtering option, and I haven't been able to force anisotropic filtering through the driver.
  
  
• Character mechanics: yawn. The only control you have over character's progress is purchasing skills from the trainer... every few levels or so (first skill purchase is at level 4).
  
  
• Character customization: virtually nonexistent. You can't even choose your own gender (that is determined by your race-class combo). The only choice you get is a handful of face choices and a handful of hair choices, none of which look very different from one another.
  
  
• The image of women in the game is quite... objectifying even by the low standards of modern computer games. For instance the level 2 armor set for moon elf rangers can only be described as "kinky fishnet French maid with lots of cleavage."
  
  
• The voice work for emotes is still in Korean, which I found to be genuinely charming.

Still, if you're like me, it's hard to pass up an open beta for a new MMORPG if for no other reason than that you get to dink around with an upcoming game for free. Anyone else have thoughts on this game?