Allods Online - The culmination of a legend

There are endless debates everywhere about the extent to which online games are detrimental to the adolescent body and children's psyche, but, no matter what, proud heroes from all over the world are eager to search for adventures and feats in endless virtual worlds. Every day these worlds become more and more, now it is the turn of Allods.

On the eve of this release, as, of course, the landmark event of the domestic igroproma, it is impossible not to pay attention to the unique features of this wonderful game - indeed, the magnificent creation of our game developers. And I entrusted this holy mission to myself, being a simple admirer of the universe of allods, who followed the news throughout the entire development period, so do not consider it an advertisement, I just want to share my emotions, delights and thoughts with the community.

UPD Thank you all for your karma! Transferred to the blog "Games".
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I ask all interested under the cat, where there is a lot of beautiful graphics and interesting videos.

Astral and Allods

The term " Allod " is closely associated with feudalism and implies full ownership of the land, as opposed to conditional holding ( Benefits , feud ). However, the owner of the alloda had no right to leave his allod, as he automatically ceased to be its owner. In the universe, which will be discussed below, allod is an island in the Astral, held by the Great Magician.


The Universe of Allods appeared as a result of a certain cataclysm that split the single world into many small pieces-allods. There are two main theories about this cataclysm: the split of the planet as a result of the fall of a meteorite and the split as a result of a magical experiment.


After the world split, all matter began to be absorbed by Astral (Astral - some energetically active, changing substance filling the interallod space), then the most powerful magician Skrakan found a way to hold the earth around his tower, after which the rest of the Great Mages followed his example. As a result, the island allods were each veiled separately. Traveling between them could only be possible with the help of portals or powerful spells. The main condition for the existence of allods was that his Great magician could not leave his island, otherwise the spells weakened, and the Astral began to absorb the allod.

Distribution of forces

As it is known, only two states, two empires, two eternal rivals - Kaniya and Hadagan - survived the Night of Troubles (Cataclysm). Which are the main forces of the conflict between the League (the union of Cania, Gibberling and the Elves) and the Empire (the union of Hadagan, the Orcs and the Risen (analog of the undead)).

And if Kaniya and Hadagan are human empires, and the Elves, Orcs and Risen (Undead) races are quite classic fantasy races familiar at least from Lord of the Rings or Warcraft 3, then gibberling is a new unique race that I want to say separately.


According to the legend, gibberlings settled the remote corners of the world in cold and harsh lands, so they never met in the games of the series, after the cataclysm they were the first to travel through Astral. The gibberling did not have their Great Mages, so their allods were consumed by the Astral, which means they were forced to leave their allods.

The first wave of emigration landed on the allods, which belonged to the elves, and came into contact with them. The second wave of gibberling is landed on an orcish allode. Orcs perceive gibberling, as another kind of goblin, and try to enslave them. Many gibberling are dying, the remnants of migrants flee and land on the main Kani allode. As a result, the gibberlings were allocated a separate allod for their habitat and were accepted into the League.



The uniqueness of gibberling is that as a single independent gaming unit, the player is given a party of three characters that are inseparably follow along as connected, and they will also work together, interacting in incredible ways and reacting to each user command. Moreover, each can change the appearance and equipment. Thanks to their funny animation and external “cavity” ^ _ ^ they will conquer the hearts of a certain layer of gamers.

The secret of Astraloplaus

There is a beautiful legend about a fisherman who tied a pebble to a fishing rod as a sinker, he was found right there on the shore, got into a boat and went to the edge of the allode to fish, and fell asleep. When he woke up, he was frightened, as his boat hung in Astral a few meters from the edge. The young man noticed that the pebble is glowing, and from him comes an unknown force that protects and supports the boat. Legend has it that the secret of traveling in the astral was found - in the properties of a certain type of stones, however, this is not entirely true.


The secret of traveling in Astral was discovered by gibberling. Of some gibberling populations of allods, for some reason, only one escaped Astral absorption, as it turned out, protected by an ancient meteorite that fell onto a planet thousands of years ago and was hidden in the rock mass, the secret of interallodic travel was concluded in the meteorite gland. The entire coast was littered with its fragments, and if the first legend concerned a gibberling fisherman, then everything falls into place. The first ships of gibberling were ordinary ships, converted with the help of meteorite stones for traveling in the astral, perhaps, therefore, this form was adopted by other races.


Indeed, a unique feature of the game is the possibility of making Astral journeys and managing Astral ships, conducting Astral combat and, attention, in the game “you can rob the cows” carrying treasures from long hikes! In the case of large and medium-sized vessels that are capable of going into the middle and distant astral, precise actions of a cohesive team will be necessary to control the vessel: each will perform a certain manipulation corresponding to a particular role on the ship. For example, controlling a ship, firing a gun, fixing it, controlling shields, and so on, and there is no rigid fixation of the character, that is, the team can change roles in a continuous and dynamic manner.

Barrel of Honey: Kaniya and Hadagan

It has been repeatedly mentioned in the press that the game is being made by Russian developers for the Russian audience. You can bribe your own audience with Russian delights, such as Russian folk tales and Russian folk history.


“I want the fairy tale to come to life!” The designers told themselves, and passing through the dear Slavophiles, they realized what we saw in childhood in the old fairy-tale cartoons, colorings, illustrations: carved shutters, small churches with domes, painted huts, birches and chamomiles, magic wells and street amenities, a hut on chicken legs, finally, the same flying ships! The collective image of a fairy tale, it was most opportunely suited for the good in all relations of Kaniya, a deeply religious and righteous state. I bet it is on the Kanian allods that we may see such mythical villains as Koshchey the Immortal, Baba Yaga, Wii, and yes, the writers did not confine themselves to folk tales, perhaps we would see someone from the Gogol or Pushkin characters.


On the other side of the barricades, the irreconcilable Hadagan stands - a totalitarian militaristic state that propagandizes war as the meaning of life and the duty of every citizen to the Motherland. Hadagan architecture easily guessed the features of the styles of the era of communism under construction, painfully familiar buildings similar to those left from the times of the USSR in each city and which have already washed the eyes. The abundance of red, stars, statues of leaders and other symbolism, leaves a persistent scoop in the head. I think the writers did not want to show that the USSR was such a bad and evil state; rather, on the contrary, they considered that this historical period was able to show the atmosphere and spirit of modern Hadagan as a powerful spring and a clearly structured state with a strong moral position always ready for work and defense The game captivates the children of modern times with the opportunity to plunge into the atmosphere in which their parents lived, to see firsthand the analogue of Soviet socialist society. It is also a unique feature of the game and makes it potentially beloved for a Slavic player.

We cheer for ...

I want to say a little more about Orcs, their uniqueness lies in the fact that in addition to what we know about them, they are still ardent fans of their own national sport - Goblinobol, some kind of bloody analogue of modern sports. Orcs are divided into tribes, each tribe has its own team, its idols and its own army of fans, so on some of the arts, the orcs are depicted by analogy with football fans: in striped scarves and with thematic tattoos, and it seems that they use someone else’s severed head! Agree, this is also an original innovation.

A spoon of tar

Internets are full of all sorts of disputes that the game is not unique, that the animation, graphics and interface are laden with WOW, that the concept of separation into ship and land modes is borrowed from Piratia, the astral battle almost from EVE =), that the idea of ​​gibberling as triad borrowed Granado Espada, where you also need to manage a party of three characters, that the Russian-language versions of these games (Granado Espada and Piracy) are officially supported by Nival and he mercilessly exploits their ideas for their own gain, and so on. Still others say that the game classes: Warrior, Templar, Scout, Priest, Pagan, Wizard, Necromancer, and Mystic are also not unique, but only named a little differently.


However, in spite of all this, I believe that, highlighting the best ideas of famous games, wrapping them in cartoon graphics, so loved by everyone, adding your unique world, known from the previous games in the series, building three-dimensional ships, denoting the concept of Astral as a living substance having screwed Slavic fairy tales, mysticism and mythology, finally, a scoop, Nival followed the path of least resistance and created a great tasty candy that can conquer the hearts of even spoiled gamers. At least, the game is doomed to success in Russian-speaking countries, and is able to bite off a large piece of cake from the bourgeois projects, becoming our answer to Chamberlain, to plug into his belt the evil tongues predicting failure.

Gameplay

Information

It should be said that the game will be distributed free of charge , and no subscription fee will be charged, Nival plans to earn money by selling game items, however, these items can be obtained in the game itself, but having spent a significant amount of time and resources on it, therefore, it will be possible avoid social inequality.

The release of the game is scheduled for March 2009.

At the moment, people are being recruited for the pre - release closed beta testing , you can fill out the participant's application form (you need to register on the Nival forum).

While preparing the article, news appeared in the periodical:

Nival Online and New Disk signed an agreement, under which the latter will act as a distributor of the online game Allods Online in Russia, as well as the CIS and Baltic countries. The launch of the project will take place in three stages.

First, the sale will go to the collection and DVD-edition. The collection, in addition to the game, includes a CD on a CD, an album with illustrations, a user manual, stickers, characters, and other souvenirs. The buyer will also receive crystals (game currency) in the amount of 1,500 rubles and a virtual item. For all this stuff you have to pay 3000 rubles. DVD-edition is twice cheaper, but contains only a game, a virtual object and crystals for a half thousand rubles.

A week after the release of the aforementioned versions, the "budget" version of the game will cost 500 rubles, 300 of which will return as crystals. And only a week later, the Allods Online client will begin to distribute free of charge on the official project website. Dates of the start of each stage will be announced later.

Retrospective

Literature

In preparing the article used materials from the following sources:

• Official site of the project
• Fan site
• Thematic group (carefully, inside the social network!)
• Free encyclopedia articles: Allods , Allods Online
• Encyclopedia of the game "Allods Online"