We take a first look at Gates of Andaron, the North American version of 4Story. This free-to-play MMO focuses mainly on PvP battles.

Gates of Andaron may have launched only three months ago, but the new 3D fantasy MMO should look familiar to fans of the free-to-play genre. No, it's not a copycat (although comparisons to World of Warcraft could always be made), but is, in fact, the North American version of 4Story. Gameforge has brought Zemi Interactive's global game to a Western audience with a simple name change, in an attempt to recruit more players to join the war between the nations of Valorian and Derion. Actually, 4Story players will know them as the rival kingdoms of Craxion and DeFugel. Oh crap, this is getting too confusing.

Alright, let me back up a bit. Gates of Andaron is a game about war. Players side with either the military state of Valorian or the magical realm of Derion to battle for supremacy in Iberia. In 4Story, Craxion and DeFugel fight to control Iveria. Basically, think of it as if 4Story entered the Witness Protection Program, changed all of its names and moved to the United States to start a new life. Assassins became Night Walkers, Summoners switched to Evocators, and none of the parties involved could ever contact their families again.

Since the game is about war, Gates of Andaron players must focus on PvP to advance their characters. These characters can be one of three races: humans, Neved felines or Mirhur fairies. The models for these avatars look similar to Hume, Mithra and Tarutaru characters for all of you Final Fantasy XI players. The male felines even look a bit like Galkas.

Once you pick your race, you'll get to choose from the classes of Warrior, Night Walker, Archer, Magician, Priest and Evocator. These classes fill the regular archetypes you'd expect to find in any MMO, and each one has three skill trees full of spells and abilities that you can drag to your hotbar and assign to hotkeys. The newbie zone will help you learn your role through a tutorial and quests that should last you until around level 10. Then you jump into a portal and teleport to your next destination.

These portals will warp you to various places throughout Iberia for a price, which helps with transportation as you level your character. The first 20-25 levels can be accomplished through PvE, but Community Manager Ben Buchwald mentioned during our in-game tour that PvP then becomes the most viable way to reach the level cap, which is currently set at 76. Various pieces of armor and weapons can only be earned by participating in PvP battles or conquering castles and villages. This means PvP plays an integral part in the game for 50+ levels, which certainly clears up the game's target audience.

With that being said, Buchwald showed us two types of instances that are prevalent in the game. The first is a series of instances that take players back in time to tell the story of Iberia. These are specifically designed with solo players in mind since they can be completed without being part of a group. Actually, I take that back. Groups of two to five players are needed to complete the time-travel instances around level 69, but that's certainly doable for most casual players. These instances allow all players to experience the game's lore at their own pace as they level and break up the massive battles that take place in the mission maps.

The mission maps are the second type of instance in Gates of Andaron and focus on the war between the Valorian and Derion armies. "They're something special. They're not just for one group, but for all the players of both kingdoms. In the mission maps, the two kingdoms fight against each other," Buchwald said as he showed us around one of the maps. Each team can hold seven groups comprised of seven members each for a massive 49v49 battle.

These mission maps are where the game's Real-time Strategic Command System comes into play. The system, which can also be found in 4Story, allows for fast and easy communication between players through the commands of an elected leader. Orders and locations can be seen in the mini-map. For example, the commander may tell one group to hold its position while telling another squad to move out.

Organized communication is all well and good, but what are the objectives in these maps? Well, each side will get quests that they must complete to win the battle. The Velorians may be ordered to eliminate the leader of the Derion forces, while the Derions will have to protect him. Once one side wins, all of the monsters on the map will be killed instantly and the victors will receive the combined experience points for all of those kills. As Buchwald said, that's why leveling up works so well in these PvP areas. The winning side will also be awarded gold and the loot from a boss monster that spawns when the quest is completed. The instance is reset every hour, so players can regularly fight for experience and loot in these large scale battles, or hunt rare bosses that spawn only once every six to 12 hours.

While we were on the topic of PvP, Buchwald showed us a new castle siege option that will be introduced in an upcoming patch. Each week the highest-rated guilds will be able to participate in capture the flag matches to take control of one of four castles in the game. The guilds that win the battles will be able to use the castles as guild housing for one week and gain access to quests to craft special weapons and trinkets. "We expect these battles to be epic," Buchwald said.

Speaking of crafting, players are able to make various items in the game and upgrade their weapons at various NPCs. The upgrade system is somewhat dependent on luck and can cause you to lose your items in the event of a failure, but it does help you make your weapon more powerful as you level. You can also obtain potions that will increase your chances of completing a successful upgrade.

As with most free-to-play MMOs, you can purchase items in the in-game store using real money. During my time in Gates of Andaron, I did notice a lot of gold spamming in my chat window. Buchwald said that volunteer GMs are supposed to help weed out the spammers and reminded players not trust to people they don't know. "We're working on it," he said.

Overall, the PvP options in Gates of Andaron could certainly entice players to try out this free-to-play MMO. Sure, there are similarities to World of Warcraft (graphics and gameplay come to mind), but the game doesn't feel like a complete clone. However, the world did feel a bit empty to me during my visit, which may be due to the fact that players are more likely to stick with the global 4Story than try out the new North American version with a different name. Buchwald said more servers will be added as the population increases and noted the developers are adding more content, such as the battles for castle housing, and opening more zones.

Since there's no impact on your wallet, there's no harm in checking out Gates of Andaron for some 49v49 action, solo instances and the possibility of taking control of a castle as your guild house for a week. And if you're looking for a game with similar characteristics, you could always give 4Story a whirl. I heard somewhere the two MMOs share some features.

Darryl "Togikagi" Gangloff
News Reporter
ZAM.com