By Erhan Altay
Launched in May of 2008 by the Korean publisher YNK Interactive, Rohan Online is one of the most polished and complete free to play MMORPGs to date. Despite being yet another fantasy game, Rohan manages to do enough differently to set itself apart from the crowd. Rohan puts far more emphasis on PvP and even has a PvP centered race; the Dhan. Those of you familiar with Lineage 2 will notice its influence on many aspects of Rohan.
A Long Start
While Rohan is an enjoyable game, some of the initial steps involved can be lengthy. Character creation is fairly simple, start by picking one of the five servers (as of this writing) then select from one of the seven races; Human, Elf, Half-Elf, Dhan, Dekan, Giant, or Dark Elf. Bear in mind that in Rohan your race choice also determines your class since each race has a single preset class. For a description of all 7 classes, refer to the overview. The only race worth an extra mention here would have to be the Dhan. This race is one of Rohan Online’s most original and compelling features. Unlike other races, the Dhan are a race of assassins and rarely work in groups. Instead, they are free to kill other players and can do so without their name being revealed. The downside to this is that they can neither group nor complete quests while in assassination mode. Instead, Dhans receive experience for each player they manage to kill. This is not to say the other races are lacking in PvP actions, PvP plays an important part in Rohan as I will explain later but suffice it to say, the Dhan are the most ‘hardcore’ choice available for the PvP nuts out there.
After race selection, you may be disappointed by Rohan’s limited character customization options. Being a very large 3d game, I was expecting much more than a handful of face and hair choices. In a 1.5 GB download I was at least expecting height and body proportion options. At this stage players may opt out of the tutorial by unchecking a small box. Personally, I would recommend completing the tutorial since the simple talk quests provide large experience and equipment rewards. The tutorial does take quite some time, about 10-15 minutes, mainly because the tutorial zone is so needlessly large.
Of Skills and Trees
As you play through the tutorial, you’ll be introduced to both the Skills and Stats in Rohan. Players gain 4 stat points per level which they can distribute among 6 stats; Str, Vit, Int, Dex, Agi and Psyche. In addition, players receive a single skill point to use on the rather extensive skill tree provided to each race. Each race has dozens of skills and multiple specialization paths available to them. At level 50, players can specialize into one of two classes, each with yet another large skill tree. With games like this it’s all too easy to mess up your skill distribution without even realizing it, luckily Rohan provides all new players with a single skill reset premium item. My advise would be to experiment with the skill tree as you see fit and only use the reset when you’ve done enough research on your future class and specialization.
Quests and Travel
After completing the tutorial, players will be at around level 7. This means the first few quests available near the beginner areas will be less than rewarding but are worth completing to gain access to higher level quests. Another problem with the starting areas is that each race has its own starting city which means you’ll be surrounded by players of the same race and class as yourself. While you can travel to other cities and areas, be warned that the game world in Rohan Online is massive. Even running back and forth between town handing in quests feels like a chore. Besides the travel complaint, the quests in Rohan are hit and miss. They are usually straight forward kill quests but there doesn’t seem to be enough of them despite an in game notifier of all available quests and locations. At one point I had to complete a single repeatable quest several times until I leveled up and qualified for newer ones.
Player Killing and Guild Wars
As mentioned earlier, Rohan is primarily a player vs player (PvP) oriented game. Starting at level 30, all players will be capable of attacking and being attacked by other players freely. Luckily, there are some consequences to killing another player, unless of course you’re a Dhan in which case you’re rewarded with triple experience. Most races who player kill (PK) will appear on their victim’s ‘Hit List’ which allows them to instantly teleport to their assailant and get revenge. Players may also work together to defeat Dhan assassins and receive rewards for doing so. Besides this individual style PvP, Rohan has an in depth Guild vs Guild system in place that allows guilds to fight for control over towns. Winning control of a town rewards the victors with special mounts, badges and gives them the ability to collect taxes from players who use that town’s services.
Pets, Minigames and More
Most MMORPGs these days have some sort of pet system and while Rohan’s isn’t very interesting, it is worth mentioning. Pets cannot directly assist their master in combat but do provide a stat boost depending on their type and level. There are currently 8 different pets available, including the cash shop ones. Their abilities range from increasing the players health regeneration to their movement speed. Players may also purchase mounts to increase their movement speed starting at level 30. As another way to pass the time, Rohan has a built in card game that’s similar to Blackjack but with the aim being to get closer to the number 9 than any other player. There is also a fishing mini game that I have not yet experimented with. But all these are extras, if you’re read this far you should know whether Rohan Online is the game for you. If you’re looking for a great looking PvP styled MMORPG than look no further. You’ll have to bear with the grind and huge game world until level 30 at which time you can mount up and start having some real fun. If its a casual game you’re after, you may wish to pass on this one.
Final Verdict: Great
Rohan Online doesn’t have the best questing system or character customization but it makes up for all this with its hard core PvP themed gameplay and fantastic graphics. This is one game worth trying for anyone looking for a serious free to play MMORPG that can stand toe to toe with the pay to play games out there.
