Despite all of my best efforts, I have been inundated with information about the world of MMOs. Seeing as how I spend as little time with the genre as possible, it is perhaps unsurprising that one game has slipped under my radar. Although I have dabbled in WoW, Tabula Rasa and City of Heroes it has been only Guild Wars that has succeeded in holding my attention for any great length of time. This may all change with Mortal Online.
Mortal Online is a first person MMORPG set in a fantasy universe currently under development by Swedish company Star Vault. Mortal Online interests me because it does not use character levels in a traditional sense to dictate what you can and cannot do within the game. In fact the game does not have character classes at all so you there are no areas of the map off limits for you even when you first start playing. Mortal Online has instead used a combination of classes and skills to create a more realistic gaming experience. As a player you can choose to become a certain class by meeting a prerequisite in the form of attributes or reputation etc. This will then give your character certain class benefits but will also limit your range of skills. It is then the skills that you choose to learn that defines your gameplay. This may seem confusing but if it is done right should prove to create an even more immersive experience than other MMOs.
One thing that stood out to me most when reading about Mortal Online was the idea of a 'Deva'. The Deva is created when you first create an account and is a shared soul that is connected to any characters that you then make. The Deva will become stronger as your characters develop but the main advantage to it is the use of 'World Skills'. These skills are shared by all alinked to your Deva. Therefore if one character learns a World Skill all other characters also learn it regardless of whether they can use it or not. This removes the tedious process of having to teach the same basic skill to every character that you have created.
Mortal Online is currently in the process of entering beta stages and has a vague release date of sometime this summer. This means we should be seeing a lot more from Mortal Online and if the current video on their homepage is anything to go by it is promising to be a beautiful game with a vibrant environment. I for one cannot wait to get my hands on it.
