14 DAY TRIAL // Shroud of the Avatar: Forsake Virtues is one of the most anticipated MMOs for 2015. The game is the result of a crowdfunding campaign that ran from March to April, 2013 and raised almost $2 million (€1.65 million).
The campaign continued even after the project was successfully funded on Kickstarter and developers added more content to the game that will be financed with the extra amount of money raised.
What we know
The game is developed by Portalarium, the studio owned by Richard Garriott (or Lord British), the creator of the Ultima series. Shroud of the Avatar: Forsaken Virtues universe is based on Ultima games and mixed with some steampunk elements.
Unlike most of MMORPGs still running today, Shroud of the Avatar brings a mixture of features that you could only get if you played a few of these games. SotA players will be given a house when they start a new game and they will be able to craft just about anything if they have the required materials and stat requirements.
The game will feature pets, lots of locations, combat based on guild affiliation, seasonal weather and much more.
Shroud of the Avatar will focus on interaction between players, but there will be choice as well. Players will be able to choose to play in Single Player Online, Friend Party Online and Open Play Online, thus allowing them to choose who deep the interaction with other players may go.
There won’t be any classes in Shroud of the Avatar, but players will be able to choose the skills they want use in game. There will be two types of professions: gathering and refining.
It’s also worth mentioning that Portalarium’s game won’t be easy for those who did not get to play the Ultima series or text-based RPGs. The interaction with NPCs in game is made through typed responses and quests will be highlighted in these conversations.
The game does not contain a quest log or a map that will show players the location of their next quest objective. Instead Shroud of the Avatar focuses on exploration by encouraging players to pursue the storylines that interests them most.
Why it matters
Shroud of the Avatar: Forsaken Virtues is the first major project to be released by Richard Garriott since the last Ultima series game was launched. The game is meant to change the way players perceive MMORPGs these days and bring back some of the elements that made Ultima games so popular.
From what we’ve been able to see from the early versions of the game, Shroud of the Avatar has the potential to be one of the best MMORPGs in the last couple of years. The ideas in the game are simply amazing, so let’s hope the execution will be great as well.
Shroud of the Avatar: Forsaken Virtues will be launched on PC sometime this year. It’s is already available for purchase on Steam as Early Access Game, so you might want to check it out.
