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Risk Your Life (RYL): Path of the Emperor
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Graphics & Sound:
Risk Your Life: Path of the Emperor is yet another MMORPG-fantasy title trying to find it’s niche. As competitive as the market is, newcomers Planetwide Games and GamaSoft have a hard road to hoe, with monsters like Everquest 2, World of Warcraft and others, gobbling up gamers left and right.
Graphically, I was pleasantly surprised with the range and style present, and thought it very reminiscent of Lineage 2, even down to the similar character movements. Although not genre-defining, such things as wind-shifted flora like grass and flowers, as well as the day/night cycle, help breath life into this MMO. Lots of environmental variation is present as well - ocean beaches, gigantic forests and mountains pepper the landscape. Everything has a certain “alien” quality to it, coupled with medieval scenery and warfare. Characters themselves are fairly detailed, if stiffly animated. Some of the special moves are downright awesome looking. Vibrant hues cascade over your party and creatures, greeted with sparks, explosions and other effects. Still, there were some odd clipping issues (mobs spawn in ground/trees, odd shadows etc.), something very common in these massive, bug-prone games, which are constantly updated. The game won’t melt your PC at least, a good thing for gamers with modest rigs.
Also surprising was the solid sound, although sometimes overly generic. Background sound effects help bring you into the world, and the lively battle sounds are all competent. The saving grace is the intriguing synth-orchestral arrangements spread throughout the game, even throwing in rock elements for good measure.
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Gameplay:
In Risk Your Life: Path of the Emperor, you have a choice of 2 races - the monstrous Ak’Kan or the humans, both pitted against each other. With these 2 races, you also have 3 factions: Kartfant, the Merkhadia and the “God's Pirates”, the latter an interesting mix of humans/Ak’Kans working toward peace. The latter are not afraid to use force to assuage fellow warriors, either. The character-creator tool has always been key for me; games that offer vast options and appearances, like Star Wars Galaxies or City of Heroes always score high with me, and most of my fellow gamers. Why play a MMORPG, where you spend countless hours with your avatar… and look nearly the same as the rest of the goons around you? Unfortunately, RYL doesn’t enjoy a wealth of visual customization options
Class options allow for some flexibility, but are limited by today’s standard roles. Humans have 4 classes, with each able to branch into a more honed specialty at level 10, i.e. a fighter can move into a warrior (high attack), or defender (high defense). The 3 others are mage, that move into sorcerer (damage) or enchanter (buff/debuff), rogues, which branch into assassins or archers, and lastly the acolyte, that leads to clerics (attack) or priest (healing/buffing). The same is said for the Ak’Kan, although they are limited by gender. Males do the heavy combat, while the magic is reserved for the ladies.
Questing is based on what nationality you choose, and sadly, most are spotty on context and cohesion. This is more to just get your feet wet for PVP, which I will touch on later in detail. Interestingly enough, there is no way to tell how tough a certain monster is, no “con” ability here folks. The real key to RYL is the PVP. You have to run up, smack the sucker on the nose to really know if your going home in a body bag or not. Thankfully, you can usually flee quickly if need be. Combat is handled in real-time like most other MMOs these days, but actually streamlines it further. Left mouse is for melee, right is for special skills hot keyed in. You won’t just sit their macroing away as you go fix lunch, or take a bathroom break - you need to keep on your toes. Battles seem a bit quicker than most similar titles, while ultimately resulting in the same “grind” after awhile as you chase the “carrot” of advancing your level.
PVP is the lifeblood of this title, and fame is the game here, folks. You get points from slaying other players, and are ranked accordingly over time. There is even a million dollar tournament prize (proudly displayed on the box, no less) to entice gamers to be “uber good.” With the news of gamers killing over virtual swords, E-bay sold loot and so on, one can only imagine what a 1 million dollar purse will bring from the evils of the world. Regardless of the whack jobs out there, there are also 2 other servers not totally dedicated to PVP tourney style, so have faith, casual gamers. Guilds have always ruled the scene, and it’s no different in RYL. Guilds can build castles and garner spawn points after death, to name a few of the benefits of garnering fame. Be on your guard though, as in Lineage 2, these fortresses can be attacked, and need to be repelled lest you lose your pride and real estate, not to mention a butt load of fame points. While I didn’t personally get into this massive aspect, I found it was a major goal for most guilds to attain. |
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Difficulty:
Risk Your Life: Path of the Emperor is like most MMOs at first: obtuse, a gross amount of information, and an entire world to absorb. The manual is pretty meaty and is a nice companion, but I would recommend looking around the forums to find user-made guides and advice. That is usually the best spot to find the tricks of the trade, because the developers don’t always account for bugs and other changes a printed manual will forget to mention. Overall, they could have done a better job relaying the basics of the game to new players.
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Game Mechanics:
Both point and click or WASD (FPS) style of movement are options here. The controls can be unresponsive in certain areas, partly due to lag and other issues, but they come through in a pinch. Shockingly, a complete lack of customization is present, a severe black mark on their part when nearly every other game - let alone MMO - has full key binding configs. At least the camera doesn’t get all crazy at times, a common problem in these games considering the multiple areas to fight in and around, factoring in flora/fauna and avatars alike.
Risk Your Life: Path of the Emperor, despite having an truly fun, innovative combat system and solid graphics and sound, just can’t hope to compete with current MMO juggernauts out there. The game is lacking in variety and style and it just “feels” half-rate. Frankly, they should hack the retail price to $30 or lower, and also lower the $13 monthly fee to $10 or lower. If you are curious and want to try out a MMORPG for the first time, steer clear of this title and try out World of Warcraft instead, a much more user friendly and complete experience. RYL just disappoints on too many levels to truly deserve a quality score. However, keep your chins up fans and developers, this title may have enough life to solidify a spot for months to come. For instance, many thought WW2 Online would be done in 3 months, due in part to the worst launch in history (flying players, servers down 24/7, bugs could choke a rat), but its still alive and kicking with a small, rabid band of players. |
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-Tybo, GameVortex Communications AKA Tyler Whitney |
Minimum System Requirements:
System: Pentium II 400 Mhz or equivalent, RAM 128 MB RAM, Hard Drive Space: 1700 MB
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Test System:
Windows XP, 1.83ghz AMD 2500+ 512 MB of RAM, ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 128mb |
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