Fifteen minutes of Dragon Nest may cause addiction, open mouths, and blindness due to pure awesomeness.

Dragon Nest is a 3D action massively multiplayer online role-playing game, better known as a MMORPG, published by Nexon, and developed by Shanda Games and Eyedentity Games. At the beginning, the game asks the player to pick a class. The class selection screen determines where the character’s starting village is. The Warriors and Archers start at Ironwood Village, a small town with a rag-tag militia, while the Clerics and Sorceresses begin at Mana Ridge, where fellow Clerics and Sorceresses are rivals. If players want to battle each other without a plotline, there is an arena-based player versus player (PVP) mode, located in a different channel. Additionally, players can kill monsters within dungeons marked by a red circular portal.

The player versus environment (PVE) of this MMORPG has interesting creatures, including a hefty, horned beast called Stompy that whips a mace in a blind rampage. Another creature is Saslavan, a lion that lunges into the air toward players. The skills that players use are well crafted. Warriors slash monsters into the air. Clerics send out blue lightning that bounce off the ground. Archers have physical attacks that allow them to be effect at close range. Sorceresses cast poisonous puddles that damage anything on top of it. After players defeat everything in a dungeon, there are prizes that are given out from one picked chest. At the end of each dungeon of an Abyss mode, which is the highest difficulty, there is a highly rewarding prize that goes along with the prize from the chest. The dimensional rabbit that gives out free items, such as ‘Minotaur’s nest’ tickets, gifts for non-player characters, and dimensional fragments to purchase an epic plate bag. Even at the highest level, the game still feels too easy. Creatures fall down without a proper retaliation. The bosses are very easy to kill, which will disappoint hardcore players.

These hardcore gamers understand how to stretch their left fingers to reach the numbers seven to zero on the keyboard. On the other hand, beginners, take a little time to understand the controls. One of the problems that I found was how to stop the character from doing the basic combo. Whenever I do the basic combo over and over again, I can never stop it. Sometimes, I found my character swinging the sword across a stage in order to travel in the beginning stages of the game. Once I discovered that I had to move and left click at the same time to stop, I was a little satisfied, but it felt like time had been pointlessly wasted.

An annoying mode is the PVP part of the game. The main rule to PVP in Dragon Nest is to kill the other people before they kill your character. The arena is located in a different channel. In rounds, the game ends when one side is dead. The winning side gets one point. The side with the most points wins. In respawn, players continuously come back
to life in their base when they die. The side with the most kills at the end of the game wins. The rules sound simple and understandable. When first time players jump into a game from the lobby, they will be shocked. The PVP games are fast paced, confusing, and mind boggling. Most likely, the first thing a beginner would do is to charge right into the enemy and start spamming skills. I tried doing that, only to be mowed over by the massive amount of spells, arrows, and nasty tricks by the other team. Eight players juggling one player feels horrible. The game should provide a tutorial within the
arena that explains not only the basics, but also some helpful tips for fighting within the arena, so that hardcore players do not have to deal with physical copies of Leroy Jenkins.

Whether you are brand new to the MMORPG genre, or looking for a new challenge, the PVP mode of Dragon nest is for you. There are plenty of people to battle, but it is not so overcrowded to the point where the mobs become a deterrent.

Reggie Kwok can be reached at [email protected].