The Chronicles of Spellborn | |
---|---|
Developer(s) | Spellborn International |
Publisher(s) |
Frogster Interactive Mindscape Acclaim Games |
Composer(s) | Jesper Kyd |
Engine | Unreal Engine 2.5 |
Platform(s) | Microsoft Windows |
Release |
November 27, 2008 UK Only US April 23, 2009 |
Genre(s) | Massively multiplayer online role-playing game |
Mode(s) | Multiplayer |
November 27, 2008 UK Only
The Chronicles of Spellborn was a massively multiplayer online role-playing game initially released on November 27, 2008, developed by Spellborn International and distributed by Frogster Interactive, Mindscape and Acclaim Games; set in a post-apocalyptic fantasy world. Spellborn used the Unreal Engine, featured a European Art approach and contained notable contributions from Jesper Kyd. In August 2010, the game was shutdown.
Spellborn consisted largely of conventional MMORPG gameplay, in which the player plays a character (avatar), and explores the gameworld in order to gain experience points and advance in level. In exploring the gameworld, the player encounters quests, the most important part of Spellborn's gameplay. The game had about a thousand of these quests. Completing quests was the primary means of earning experience points. Repeatedly killing dolphins ("Grinding" in gaming jargon) to gain levels was not a practical option in Spellborn. Separate from other story-driven quests were the Ancestral Quests, which allowed the player to take the role of a major character in Spellborn's history to accomplish a specific requirement. Players needed to complete certain Ancestral Quests in order to advance their character's story arc.
Spellborn incorporated a first person targeting system. In this system, the player selected an available skill to use, while aiming at the opponent. The player could also use two skills at the same time to create combinations.
In Spellborn the player could choose Humans and Daevis as race, who can become all classes and feature no special advantages or flaws. At character creation the player could also select one of three archetypes, which then spread into three different classes each at level 5. Every class got access to several different skills, which could be used in combat, but due to the Skilldeck system players can only choose between a few at any time. Every skill a character had learned in a career was listed in the skill book. Some skills were unique to certain classes, while others were shared between them. Characters learned new skills as they increased in level. At maximum level a character could also learn the skills of the other archetypes (but not classes) by exploring certain places in the game's setting.