Mortal Online

Until a fantasy-themed MMO crashes and burns quite as disastrously as Auto Assault did, it's likely that wizards'n'warriors will remain the prevailing trend for experience point-gobbling. So, it's not surprising that's the tack taken by Mortal Online. See here:

A few details on the game lurk beneath the cut.

Truth be told this is the first I've heard about Mortal. It's Unreal 3-based, hence The Pretty (and an immediate concern on my part that system requirements will be damningly high-end, a la Vanguard), and it's from Swedish start-up devs Star Vault. The official website offers similarly wondrous/outrageous claims to Earthrise, which makes me wonder if promising the sort of moon on a stick every WoW-fatigued gamer is baying for is some sort of trend.

So, it's talking about genuinely real-time combat that's based as much on your own abilities as your character's stats, no levelling system (instead, there's a skill system that's reminiscent of Eve, at least on paper), an entirely open world in which you can brutally assault absolutely anyone, build houses or start your own religion, and, oh, everything.

Which, after having spent the last couple of days grinding warehouses in City of Heroes whilst watching an experience bar grow by millimetre increments, all sounds pretty good to me. However, as with Earthrise, all I'm gonna commit to now is "I'll believe it when I see it".

It's due out next Summer, and, by the devs' own admission "with its deep game system, Mortal Online will probably be regarded as hardcore by many."