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Saga (2008 video game)

SAGA
Developer(s) Silverlode Interactive
Designer(s) Dallan Christensen
Engine Wraith
Platform(s) Microsoft Windows
Release 4 March 2008 (2008-03-04)
Genre(s) Massively multiplayer online real-time strategy, collectible card game
Mode(s) Multiplayer

Saga is a massively multiplayer online real-time strategy game. Saga is touted as the world's first collectible online real-time strategy game. Saga was released on March 4, 2008 after a brief open Beta which began February 26, 2008. Developed by Wahoo Studios and Silverlode Interactive, the game ran a closed Beta starting July 5, 2007. The title has no subscription fees, instead being supported by the release of booster or expansion packs. It is possible to play a free version of the game, with certain features locked, at the Saga official site.

Saga launched into hobby stores around the United States and Canada following GAMA 2008. SAGA has partnered with Alliance Game Distributors, GTS Distribution, Diamond Comics and ACD Distribution, with an emphasis to focus on game and card stores to sell the booster packs.

Saga is set in a fantasy world where an age-old strife exists between five competing Gods. Each God heads up a faction with unique races and abilities. The factions are Magic (Dark Elves), Machines (Dwarves), Nature (Elves), War (Orcs and Ogres), Undead (Undead) and Light (Giants and Humans). Each faction is diametrically opposed to two other factions. For example, Machines hates Magic (they are naturally opposite, technology vs. mysticism), and Machines also hates Nature (machines vs. living things). Nature also despises War, for their tendency to destroy nature. Light faction are champions of order and justice, while Magic faction delve deep into the black arts, and the circle completes itself. Each faction has an ethos and a strategic quality that sets it apart, giving players a spectrum of play styles to identify with. The system is designed to create a balanced tension between the factions, giving each faction two archenemies and two neutrals to war with or form alliances with. The result is a world where endless war is inevitable.

However, the Machine (Dwarf) and Nature (Elf) factions have put aside their differences to join the Order (Machine, Nature, Light), and the remaining factions have joined the Brotherhood (War, Magic, Undead). The Undead faction is a recent (2008) addition and not part of the original five races.

Saga combines the trading card game (TCG) sensibilities of Magic: The Gathering, the MMO persistency of RPGs, and the kingdom management and mass battles of RTS titles such as Rome: Total War.


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