Review: Order and Chaos (XBox Live)
Score:
80%
Ready to join in the rest of the Xbox Live community to take on a quest for gold and glory? Good, because last week's release of Order and Chaos is still there waiting for you to accept the challenge. And if you've any MMORPG blood in you, you'll feel it calling out to you from your Windows Phone.
Version Reviewed: 1.0.0.0
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It might be a niche title, but this is a pretty important one for Windows Phone. Gameloft's massive multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) for iOS and Android is now available via Xbox Live for Windows Phone players. Hopefully it will gather enough sales to make the conversion worth it, and Gameloft to carry on supporting the platform with titles like this.
Set in the world of Haradon, legends tell of a time where greed did not rule the land, scattering the clans; when magic was not used to raise the dead; and when the world of Haradon was at peace. That's no longer the case, with factions across the world looking to restore peace (the faction of Order) or to reap havoc (the Chaos faction) across the land.
Story over, it simply sets the scene for lots of combat and fighting, questing and collecting, all on a shared world with everyone else playing the game. Any affinity with World of Warcraft and you'll be at home here. The thing to remember here is that Order and Chaos is not a set of short levels to be completed (as you would find in Halo), but an ongoing adventure where you can improve everything to do with your character as you play.
You'll build that character up when you first open the game. For those of you with split personalities, you can create more than one character and switch to them when you wish. Three of the five slots are available when you start, and you can purchase the other two as you play. You'll also choose which race of character you wish to play, sculpt your own graphical look, and finally which of three servers you'll be playing on - one of the tricks of MMORPGs is to run a number of instances, in this case one in America, one in Europe, and one in Asia. Choose wisely, you won't be able to switch.
Having servers around the world is one of the ways to reduce lag in the game. With the potential to view anyone in the game on your screen, and see them move, keeping the time delay between handset and server is important to a good gaming experience, and geographical distance does play a part here. In general, choose the server closest to you.
Congratulations to Gameloft on this, because the game is almost lag free. Interactions with other characters and objects are smooth, while the control system is a virtual stick layout with direction on the left side and action keys on the right. Gameloft's system is okay here - it apes the FPS shooter games they have released, but it doesn't feel as crisp as EA's coding. But it does suffice, and the automatic lock on a target when in combat is welcome.
Don't worry about the options, the first few quests are all about teaching you the elements of the game and how to control everything, which also gives you the opportunity to start building up the in-game currency which you'll need to buy better weaponry, armour, and supplies.
I'll be honest here, MMORPGs are not my bag. I spent about six weeks in World of Warcraft before becoming disillusioned with the style of playing - it simply wasn't for me. I can see all the elements that made Warcraft attractive in Order and Chaos, and from a technical point of view there are no mis-steps. I even love the free trial limit which allows you to play until you gain enough experience for your character to reach level 8 - only then are you asked to pay cash.
The graphics look wonderful, there's lots going on, and it's no wonder that it eats your battery at a very fast rate, and that Gameloft recommend you go on to Wifi to play this, because there is rather a lot of data being downloaded. Those aren't bugs as such, and I would assume Gameloft have done some work to tweak the performance - just as I am sure there are more tweaks that could be done, but at some point you have to ship and sell the title.
Neither is the registration system a bug... it's just an annoying feature. You'll need to create an online Gameloft profile to start playing Order and Chaos. While I can understand the economic reasons behind having it, it kind of bypasses the whole Xbox Live profile goal, is awkward and fiddly to use, both to set up a profile, and to log in to an existing account. It's a frustrating experience, and I can see Order and Chaos losing a lot of transient players because of the poor UI on show here.
Everything that I would expect (as an outsider) for an MMORPG is on show here, I think Gameloft are on to a winner, and other gamers I have spoken to also speak highly of the title.
Yes, it's one of the higher priced titles (in the $6.99 / £5.49 banding), but you are getting a lot of game in here, with some great graphics, a lot of story, and a huge amount of experiences that can shared around the world. It's not going to bring anyone new into the world of MMORPGs, but that's not the point of this title - it's to deliver a really good MMORPG experience to people who already love the genre and carry a Windows Phone. Which is exactly what you get.
Reviewed by Ewan Spence at