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MMORPG is a genre of multiplayer online games; the main feature of MMOs is the interaction of a large number of players within the game world. And as befits any RPG, the player takes on the role of a (usually) created character with a variety of abilities.

Blade&Soul was developed by NCsoft (Team Bloodlust), better known as the creators of the great Lineage and AION.
BnS is a truly Asian MMO with an emphasis on martial arts and a plot that is not inferior to a good Korean series.

The world of BnS is a colorful oriental fantasy RPG with tall pagodas, golden palaces decorated with dragons and towering statues of deities. The bright and “anime” style of the game may turn off people who haven’t been through JoJo’s baptism of fire, but the complex and at the same time varied combat system will appeal to fans of fighting games and action games.

Each hero’s adventure begins with choosing a race and class, fortunately there are plenty to choose from. There are 4 races to choose from: Shen – an analogue of ordinary people, Wang – larger people and wearers of the most provocative clothes, Lin – a race of small children with ears and tails, and Feng – a race without men (there are really no male characters there).

If the choice of race turned out to be meager, then in choosing a character class there are 11 classes to suit every taste and style of play, since the game does not have the classic concepts of heal, tank and damage control, each of the proposed classes is a character for dealing damage, some of them have a buff that increases the boss’s aggression, which allows you to call him a tank, but in reality anyone can tank (hold the boss’s aggression) on themselves.

The character classes in the game are called masters So you can choose from 6 short rangers, 4 long rangers and one hybrid.
Melee:
Shadow Master – a typical assassin with invisibility, poisons, traps and bombs, the choice of people who prefer to strike from the shadows, fast and elusive.
Blade Master – also known as BM (blade master), a fast and agile sword-wielding class, a balanced and popular class.
Blademaster Lin – also a swordsman, but the class is intended exclusively for the Lin race and differs from the past in some abilities.
Kung Fu Master – a difficult to master but very impressive fist fighter who looks like he came off the cover of a Chinese action movie; in the game they were nicknamed LSM (lyn sword master).
Ax Master – called in the game as Destro, short for Destroyer, the class can only be chosen from the Van race, a stance and a destructive class wielding a Huge Axe, at first glance it may seem that the class is very slow, but this is just a screen for a real master, there are no speed limits.
Master of Wrath – every Asian game should have a character with a sword larger than his own size, so the Master of Wrath or in common parlance Var is one of the simplest and, in total, the most durable melee character in the game.

Ranged:
Elemental Master – this is a magician, but not in its classical sense, he is a very mobile character with high damage and abilities that will be needed in any group. Force master or Force for short
Summoning Master — Cat breeder, another class exclusively for the Lin race, from the nickname it should already be clear that the character plays together with his cat in tandem, forming one of the most dangerous combinations in the game, a good cat breeder knows how to control a cat, a master of summoning, can win with a cat.
Spirit Master – a popular class in the game, nicknamed Warlock, summons a huge spirit to its side, which helps in battle by giving a buff, attacking the enemy and other more subtle capabilities of the class, such as throwing up or resetting the cooldowns of abilities.
Marksman – or Gunner, one of the most mobile classes in the game, shooting from two pistols, the class can quickly move around the battlefield not only on the ground but allows you to hover in the air, shooting back at enemies and taking a better position.

And lastly, the hybrid class"Master Qi" – not a particularly popular class, a mixture of a kung fu master and an elemental master. So unpopular that I don’t even know what to say about it, only that it’s not the easiest class to learn.

A new 12th character class, archer, is also expected to be localized. In Korea, the archer was released at the beginning of summer, but in other localizations you can expect it in late autumn or even winter.

If someone has harmed you, do not take revenge. Sit on the river bank and soon you will see the corpse of your enemy floating past you.
Lao Tzu.

Having created a character, the game begins with a chain of training quests in which you will have to learn how to run on the third space plane, soar in the air, make simple attacks, and also obey the every whim of scripted NPCs.
But as I wrote earlier, the game focuses on the plot part and you will have to level up exclusively according to the main storyline.

Our adventure begins with awakening at https://cashpot-casino.uk/ the Peak of Dawn (not that peak), we are a student of the Way of Hon, an ancient school of martial arts masters, like several other students in the school, we study with the only teacher of the school, Hong Seokkyn. As the youngest of the students, after waking up we are immediately harnessed to gather everyone in front of the teacher’s house to begin training. After an inspiring speech about honesty, nobility and how all this is related to the teachings of the teacher, Hong Seokkyn opens for us a book with fighting techniques of the Hong’s path, mentioning that he himself would like to teach us, but his health is no longer the same, and sends us to the training ground to the mentor Yong Muk, who is also the senior student.

As it turned out, the teacher does not give the book to just anyone and we are chosen, and we will even be able to touch the most secret techniques of the school of the path of the khon (patifon). Yong Muk immediately warns that the training will not be easy and urges you to take a weapon in order to start training. Once the training is finished, Yong Mook talks about the final exam in the Cave of Trials, before entering the cave he will have to enter alone. There are mannequins waiting for us in the cave, which are not difficult to deal with, but this is just the beginning. I won’t tell you further what will happen in the cave “SPOILERS”. At the end of the test, we need to get out and here events begin that turn all peaceful life on Peak of Dawn upside down. A crowd of demons led by people in black clothes came for a certain ancient sword, a twilight blade, having defeated the teacher by deceit, they throw us off a cliff into the sea. From the depths of which we are rescued and transported to the Bamboo Village, but even there not everything is calm, the bamboo village was attacked by pirates and it is from here that we begin to see other players and move freely through already open locations. And all this to the accompaniment of good music, which fits perfectly into the surroundings of the local beauties.

And such plot twists in every chapter and location. As the story progresses, we will see a lot of cutscenes, which is not typical for games of this genre. The plot is reminiscent of a very good Korean series with a lot of betrayals and secrets. But there is one BUT, in this whole plot, this is a rag main character who does absolutely everything that he is told. And this is not even bad, but the plot part of the game removes any flaws in the same plot part of the game. The story is what will accompany the player until he reaches the main content of the game, and in BnS the story is a success.

From a visual point of view, BnS is outdated, the unreal engine 3 can no longer cope with the greed of the modern player, and the visual style reminiscent of Anime will alienate some people. But in general, the picture is very juicy and the visual effects perfectly emphasize the overall style of the game, bright and attractive action.

However, this may soon change, because the developer has provided a video of the upcoming visual update of the game, or rather, the transition to the Unreal engine 4.

As mentioned above, leveling up in Blade&Soul occurs through the main story quest and nothing else, this is both good and bad. The good thing is that they will take you by the hand and lead you through a really interesting story, but the bad thing is that leveling up minor characters becomes a chore and there is no way to overcome a 25-hour storyline, even if it’s a cool one.
Fortunately, in BnS having several characters is not a mandatory part for a comfortable game (hello BDO), the mandatory part is to choose the right class and create a character that will delight you with its appearance every time you enter the game. And of course, the most important thing in an MMO game is the gameplay.
Beating adversaries in BnS is a whole art, the ability panel is fixed and changes if you or the enemy are in a certain state, for example, stunning the enemy will open the ability to throw the enemy into the air and make a series of strong attacks there, although previously in place of this ability there was a dash to the enemy. Likewise, when you are knocked over, the ability to defend, somersault back, or the ability to quickly get up while being immune to any type of damage opens up. For an example, let’s go to the class I play, when using the ability true faith on the TAB keys, other abilities open on the skill panel.

This combat system is very similar to many fighting games where you choose attacks depending on your own fighting style and what the enemy is doing. Also, abilities are combined into bundles, and bundles are combined, which opens up huge scope in PVP modes, and the requirements for the player increase.

Probably everyone who has heard at least a little about BnS, not only that it is an anime game, has also heard that Blade&Soul has one of the fairest arenas in mmorpg. This is achieved through frequent adjustments to the balance of classes and the complete absence of influence of equipment on PVP modes, however, in 6v6, equipment still matters, which is why this mode is not particularly widespread. Like basically all PVP in the game. There is also open factional confrontation in the game. To start such a battle, it is enough to put on the uniform of two opposing factions in the open world and you can find out whose kung fu is better. The PVP mode in the game is not deservedly empty, because it is very interesting and difficult, and each victory is achieved through a lot of trial and error. In BnS you can win a battle in a second, a war in a minute.

I’ll tell you a little about the intricacies of the Arena and, in principle, PVP. The arena is a round platform, which is entered after the timer for preparing for the battle has expired. As soon as the preparation time for the fight expires, the fight begins. Straight arms, studying the enemy and knowledge of class timings will bring victory, but mindlessly clicking buttons will only bring pain and humiliation. Combat in BnS is a delicate execution of mechanics, quick reaction and precision of actions.
The opponent will do everything possible to win the fight, a skillfully created build will help in the battle, and experience will give the necessary advantage to predict the enemy’s actions. The battle of really strong players is a confrontation that is really pleasant to watch, but it is difficult to notice with the naked eye and only a commentator who knows his stuff will help you understand the chaos that is going on.
In 3 on 3, 6 players take part, and this mode has a couple of subtleties, the “change” and “help” abilities are added to the usual abilities. After the battle waiting timer has passed, 1 player from each team is released into the arena. They have the “change” ability, which allows them to change to the next player who has expressed a desire to fight next, the remaining 2 teammates have the “help” ability, which allows them to enter the arena for a couple of seconds to help kill the enemy or protect an ally, thereby turning the tide of the battle.
In 6v6, everything is noticeably different from the game in the arena, here victory is achieved by completing tasks on each individual map, so on the Island of Jasper Whale you need to move a fish figurine from the central fountain to one of its 3 points, the longer the figurine is on your point, the more points you earn, victory is awarded to the team that quickly scores the maximum points or to the team with more points after time has elapsed. On the other two maps the tasks are different but the general principle is the same, earn more points. There is also always the opportunity to turn the tide of the game by deceiving the enemy by starting an unnecessary fight while your teammate steals the figurine and carries it to his point. 6v6 is currently the only PVP mode in which the participation of the Guild is desirable (more on them later).

PVP in Blade&Soul is so important that the developer organizes an annual 3v3 world tournament with a real prize pool. In 2018, the Russian localization team, Blackout, won the finals and earned worldwide recognition by becoming the champion of Blade&Soul and taking home 50 million won (approximately 43 thousand dollars).

Also, in recent updates, Battle Royale was added to the game; in its classic form, tournaments are also held for it in all localizations.

Now we come to an equally important part of the PVE gameplay – player vs environment. PVE in BnS mainly consists of farming Dungeons (dungeons) and raiding with 12 people against especially strong bosses in order to get loot and get gold. Quests are the main way to earn money because the resources you sell can be sold at a high price, but you may also need these resources yourself.

Dungeons, as in most MMO games, are a gut, the task of the players is to get from point A to point B, simultaneously destroying the entire population of the dungeon and ultimately overwhelm the main bully. In words, everything is simple, but in reality, this is a whole test for an unprepared player. Each Bos in the dungeon has a pattern of behavior when it reaches a certain percentage of life, the so-called Phase. Bosses have different phases and each dungeon has its own specific boss. Bosses also have a timer above their health bar that indicates after what time the boss will become enraged and simply wipe (destroy) the entire group of players. In order to kill the boss and not get wiped, the whole group must work together, the tank tanks, the rest deal damage as best they can. The phases of the bosses are different, but one thing is always known, as soon as opportunities for control open up, you need to give a knockdown or stun, depending on the boss, at some moments you need to jump away from the boss and at others to press as tightly as possible. Bosses are also mechanics learned over time, but you shouldn’t be ashamed of the guides, sometimes because of the mistake of one player the whole group dies and you have to beat the boss from the beginning.

Raids are a mode for 12 people, and it is from raids that you can get the best equipment in the game. In BnS raids are complex high-level content for well-played groups, because bosses are fatter and there is a higher possibility of wipe, since the boss has mechanics in which he can kill everyone, even at the very beginning of the battle.

Also in the game there is a solo dungeon in the form of a tower or a pirate island, where you often fight 1 on 1 with a boss who knows no mercy and every mistake can be your last. A true test of your abilities.

PVE in BnS is difficult and at the same time interesting, the more difficult the boss, the higher the joy of victory and the bitterness of defeat.

In BnS, with equipment everything is quite simple, equipment affects damage to monsters, the higher the equipment, the more damage. It is only worth mentioning that the equipment differs from other MMORPGs in its appearance, for example, instead of the usual helmet or bib in the game, they are replaced by an item called bagua, pizza or pie.

Each piece of equipment can be improved, and the best equipment does not even need to be replaced, because leveling up legendary and raid jewelry can take a very long time. Likewise, weapons change their appearance and characteristics depending on what object you sharpen them with. If you want a raid weapon, please go on a raid and get the necessary item for sharpening a weapon, if you want an alternative option, you will have to fork out because it will cost you more.

And a few words about the characters’ clothing, which does not affect absolutely anything and in the game serves only as a way of self-expression and a means of earning money for the developer.

To know the chosen ones is good, and to live with them is true happiness; happy is he who does not have to deal with fools.
Buddha Gautama.

Now probably one of the most important parts of any MMO is the Community, the players are the engine of the game. The first steps towards communication and the opportunity to join a battle school, as guilds are called in BnS, begins with choosing the Honchon or Murim faction, you can choose any of them at the moment this only affects the faction chat and the battle school. Only by belonging to the same faction will players be able to join the same battle school. The combat school at this stage is mainly needed for joint raids and Guild 6v6. I can’t say much about guilds since I’m not a member of any, which is why BnS is so charming. It is not necessary to cooperate with other players; the game even has a “hide other players” button for a more complete immersion in solitude.

BnS is an excellent game with a bunch of interesting mechanics, a generous donation as much as a free2play game allows, great PVPvE, and an excellent storyline. But as with everything else, the game has many shortcomings. In PVP, for example, at the moment the strongest class is the master of wrath due to his wild vitality, which can cause the battle to drag on for a long time due to the inability to kill him. Optimization also suffers in the game, which is why even on the highest hardware you can feel drawdowns and noticeable lags. Lags are the problem with BnS, high ping dependence requires a good Internet connection, which makes players sitting a meter from the server gods. The worst thing about BnS is crashes, very frequent crashes, disconnections and the famous BnS crash report, which has been causing the entire community to burn out since the game was released.

Ultimately, BnS is an excellent game that is worth playing, if not for killing time, then for the wonderful plot and magical musical accompaniment, fortunately the localizer did their best and the game is completely translated into Russian, which makes following the plot much more enjoyable. But a very big disadvantage of the game lies in the optimization, the developers don’t care so much that every month we get a bunch of new donated costumes and we have to put up with crashes and bugs for many years now.

German urban planning series Anno includes already six parts, and in its homeland (that is, in Germany) it is considered one of the best strategies of all time, second only to the series Settlers.

The secret of success is, of course, clear. With each release, the developers, firstly, raise the bar for graphics quality higher and higher, and secondly, constantly modernize and improve the gameplay. And new Anno 1404 was no exception. This game, by God, you can just admire. Neat boats ply the dazzlingly beautiful sea, where real life is in full swing: huge sharks swim by, seagulls fly in the sky, waves lazily roll onto the shore, the sun is shining. There is also something to see on land. Residents of the city are rushing about their business; you can see workers in the fields mowing wheat, and a woodcutter chopping down the forest by the sweat of his brow. The picture here is so lively and cozy that sometimes you regret that you are on the wrong side of the screen.

The economy must be economical

But in all its glory Anno 1404 does not appear immediately. After all, the traditions and rules of city-planning entertainment have not changed for years, so at the beginning of the game you are greeted by a dull, empty land and several far from the happiest inhabitants. Each mission starts, as a rule, from a wretched village where two and a half grandmothers live, but our task does not always boil down to turning a godforsaken outback into a huge city. Often the process of evolution happens somehow by itself, while we are working hard to carry out numerous tasks from our superiors.

The fact is that at each level there is a certain number of story characters who constantly need something from you. One demands to send wheat, give another stones and iron, the third has to collect tons of weapons. In addition to one global task (with its completion the mission ends), there are dozens of such secondary tasks.

The thing is that while you are moving towards your goal, the entrusted settlement has to be developed in every possible way. According to a familiar, though true, pattern. First, we invite ordinary peasants to the city, building houses for them and providing them with some basic provisions: at first, for example, all citizens eat tons of fish and don’t show off. Then the residents of the capital need to be given water, provided with access to the church, organized a market, and so on. Only when the lower strata of society are more or less satisfied with life can jobs be created – some can be sent to the mines, others can pick cotton, others sew clothes.

However, it quickly turns out that maintaining even a small village requires serious financial expenses, so the city treasury is rapidly emptying. The main way to earn money in the game is through taxes. Moreover, the richer your townspeople, the more contributions to the city treasury come from their wallets. Therefore, the most important task becomes, let’s say, the constant upgrade of the entrusted settlement. In order for citizens to turn from unwashed pigs into the middle class, all their desires must first be satisfied, which is why the mood of the inhabitants improves accordingly, so that after a few minutes they move on to the next stage of development. The only problem is that rich residents have higher demands. They no longer want to eat only fish and begin to demand (horror, horror!) bread, clothes, circuses and so on. Accordingly, the game develops according to the classic pyramid scheme: the more residents we have, and the richer they are, the more goods and buildings are needed. The city is growing rapidly, there are more and more inhabitants, the one pub that was once built is no longer enough for everyone, we are building another drinking establishment, and for it we need more hops, so we are building a couple more farms, and we must not forget to build roads… Gradually the village turns into a village, and that into a city.

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Here are, so to speak, chains of enterprises. To bake a loaf of bread, it is not enough to build a beautiful bakery. Please, first organize wheat farms, sow the fields, then build a mill where the grain will turn into flour, only after that you can build a bakery.

In order for all goods to quickly reach their intended destination, it is vital to either build well-thought-out networks of roads, preferably stone ones (they significantly increase the speed of movement of loaders), or build a city in such a way that one building is within the coverage area of ​​another. A simple example: to produce weapons you need metal and coal, which means it is best to build a forge next to the mines that extract these resources. In this case, the blacksmith will personally pick up the materials he needs, without standing idle for a minute.

As the city grows, however, more problems arise. Some buildings create fire hazards, so fire stations have to be built, there are regularly shortages of warehouses, markets are overcrowded, and citizens are also trying to start a riot. Solving problem after problem, building house after house, you simply don’t notice how you fall out of real life. While building a successful village and solving numerous problems, time flies by at some cosmic speed, so you come to your senses at the moment when your relatives hit you on the head with a frying pan, and it’s dawn outside the window.

We should not forget that in Anno 1404 two settlement development schemes. We control mainly European cities, but since the plot takes us to the Middle East, we constantly have to take control of Arab villages. But they live and develop according to completely different laws. Their main problem is the almost complete absence of water, because eastern people live only in deserts. To start, for example, growing dates, you will first have to build some kind of irrigation post that will turn part of the land into green and fertile fields. Over time, the water, however, runs out, but no one forbids installing exactly the same irrigation in the same place and starting all over again.

The main advantage of Arab settlements is that they can produce unique goods. For example, especially wealthy Europeans without a twinge of conscience demand that they be provided with spices and glass. They themselves don’t do such overseas miracles, but their eastern friends have no problem. As a result, as you understand, we have to actively develop two large settlements, while simultaneously organizing the transportation of goods by sea.

All cards Anno 1404 consist of small islands scattered across vast expanses of sea. There are ownerless lands that must be captured in order to gain access to resources, and there are also those where neighbors already live. By the way, they will pull you out of a financial hole more than once, since trading is the second most effective way to make money. And quickly too: by throwing off a couple of tons of iron or rope, you can immediately make a good profit and use it for the development of settlements.

At first, of course, you can engage in trade manually – by personally driving the boat, loading and unloading goods. Then, however, there will be many routes, so you will have to organize delivery routes. Thanks to the developers for the convenient interface, so creating tasks for merchant ships is very simple: indicate the port of loading and unloading, the number of goods transported, and that’s it – the money goes to the treasury. The same thing needs to be done when, say, spices need to be transported from Arab colonies to your European cities. Here, after all, constant replenishment of the rapidly emptying warehouse is required, so a regular flight is vital.

However, not every settlement you have will turn into a big city. Some islands will remain exclusively production villages that extract valuable resources. The fact is that not all resources can be obtained on each island. For example, in one place it is possible to build wheat farms, in another coffee grows well, etc.d. So, by the end of a particularly large mission, at least a couple of large cities and several industrial villages are under your control, and at this moment, frankly speaking, your head is spinning from the mayor’s difficult affairs.

But don’t focus only on urban development. After all, each location hides many different secrets. At first, a good part of the map is hidden by fog, in which you can find anything. And a new island with valuable resources, and a settlement with which you can establish mutually beneficial trade, and even treasures.

In addition, do not forget about the numerous tasks that we mentioned. They must be completed not only in order to pass the next level, but also for the sake of rewards. By receiving unique experience points, you unlock a variety of pleasant bonuses: new buildings, coats of arms, flags. Also, exploring the sea allows you to find secret things. They are also given out as gratitude for completing missions: you can get hold of a magic hammer that reduces the cost of building buildings, find a hook that increases the combat effectiveness of ships, and the like.

But lovers of hot military action will be seriously disappointed. IN Anno 1404 there are no battles as such, and what remains is greatly simplified. For example, to organize a ground battle, you just need to demolish the castle, then build a tent for the knights, and then they themselves will go into battle. If it is too far from the front line, you will have to move the tent. You don’t have to worry about producing weapons either. All swords, bows and other chain mail are combined into some kind of schematic “weapons”, which are forged in the forge. On the one hand, life has become easier, on the other, there is no former sharpness.

Sea battles also cannot be called particularly spectacular. To arrange a naval battle, it is enough to build a ship at the shipyard and then send it towards the enemy. Somewhere the ships will meet and stupidly begin exchanging cannon salvos until one of them goes to the bottom. There are no ship upgrades provided, and the one who has an advantage in quantity rather than quality wins. The enemy is not distinguished by a particularly sophisticated military mind, so he is happy to expose his army to your mighty blows. True, outwardly the battles look good: bluish smoke envelops the ships after a salvo; after catching a particularly powerful salvo, the ship begins to glow beautifully – in general, not bad. The only pity is that all ships are equipped with a vulgar health scale, so they go to the bottom only at the moment when it drops to zero.

Anno 1404 turned out to be a real gift to all connoisseurs of leisurely urban planning strategies. This game has the main thing – purely German charm. It seems that only the Germans know how to create such cozy, pleasant and easy-to-use strategies. It’s incredibly exciting to build settlements, develop, explore the map, find treasures and complete various tasks. But there is also a quite good plot, which, although naive, is interesting to follow. Well, besides, Anno 1404 it turned out to be a game, as they say, for everyone. Even if a person has never seen such projects, he will still be able to get used to Anno 1404 literally in an hour or two. In general, we highly recommend. Games like this rarely appear these days.

Pros: excellent graphics; enjoyable and addictive gameplay; player friendliness.
Cons: the battles could have been more spectacular.