Nexon and WeMade Entertainment have announced that their latest MMORPG, Οι αναβάτες του Ίκαρου, has entered into open beta for everyone in the West.
Nexon released a launch trailer for the game that’s just straight-up epic. It mostly takes place in first person, featuring an errant knight who gets waylaid by an army and ends up taking a dive off a cliff. The cinematic is pretty slick, featuring a look at the game’s theme of ground-based mounted combat, and aerial based mounted combat.
The trailer wraps up with a handful of dragons fighting against a water god of mammoth proportions. The quality of the trailer is absolutely top notch. One would have expected to see something like this during the E3 stage presentations on Microsoft or Sony’s conference. You can check out the Οι αναβάτες του Ίκαρου trailer for yourself below.
Gamers are definitely geeked for this new MMO, and a lot of people have been asking if the stuff featured in the trailer is equivalent to what you can do in the game. And the answer is… kind of.
You can seamlessly switch between ground based combat and aerial combat with the press of a button, and you can perform strikes against ground enemies while riding on the back of a bear, or wolf or even a kangaroo. You can also call in dragons, birds and even a Pegasus to help you out during battle. However, the gameplay does not look anywhere near as cinematic or as dynamic as it’s portrayed in the video above.
Running on the CryEngine 3, the game features the ability to solo or team up with other players and take on a number of adventures across a smattering of adventure-ridden isles. You can also tame and collect all manner of beasts and familiars within the game, and even use pet scrolls to turn your mounts into side-kicks that will battle by your side. Οι αναβάτες του Ίκαρου is a little bit like ΠΟΚΕΜΟΝ πληροί Game of Thrones.
Hoon Seok, the game’s producer, commented about the game heading into open beta, stating in the press release…
“The Riders of Icarus’ Open Beta is only the beginning of a long and fruitful adventure in bringing the game to a new western audience,” […] “Feedback from our earlier Closed Beta tests has been instrumental in ensuring an immersive experience for all players. We’re looking forward to working closely with the community throughout our Open Beta as well, to expand the world of Riders of Icarus with their valuable input.”
Now as full disclosure, I was given a press account for the Οι αναβάτες του Ίκαρου closed beta and managed to play around with it for a couple of hours. It was an okay game and the mount capturing and pet collecting was easily the most fun part about the game. My biggest gripe was just that the combat wasn’t true non-targeting. I doubt there’s anyway for them to easily fix that issue but if you’re okay with a pretend non-targeting combat system (you still have to be close and target enemies to attack them) then you can give Οι αναβάτες του Ίκαρου ένα πάει.
The game is a fairly hefty download and is available for free either through Nexon’s official website ή από το σελίδα καταστήματος ατμού.
