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Many of the features could get a nice boost right before launch, though much work is needed to make ROSE Online a grade A title.

An influx of MMO’s into the gaming market is no secret, though it did overwhelm us like a thief in the night. We went from humble beginnings with Everquest and Ultima Online, to a library of countless titles to quench your online thirst. Korean gaming company’s are definitely no stranger to the online market and has been one of the biggest players in MMO’s becoming such a big part of gaming culture. Korean developer Gravity Interactive’s, ROSE Online, is the latest attempt to milk the MMO market success. We had a chance to get our hands on an early beta copy of ROSE and must say things are looking… well, terribly average.



ROSE Online consists of seven vast planets. Each planet hosts its own set of particular environments and characteristics. Interplanetary explorers will enjoy the many different adventures they have to offer. There are various tales, fantasies, and legends around the seven planets and many of them contain some grain of truth. Our universe, or as it was called in the old tales, the Sea of Souls, was a vast ocean of darkness until the goddess Arua created the seven planets. Each one of them was special and unique.



However, all seven planets were created with Arua's love and they shined with the brilliance of seven stars, filling the vast ocean of darkness with wondrous light and life. However, Hebarn, god of malice, grew envious of Arua for her creative power. He forcefully took the seventh planet and pompously named it after himself. Hebarn had become a constant threat to the peace of the seven planets as well as to the goddess Arua. To protect the planets from Hebarn's looming menace, Arua created the Visitors, living beings to protect and inhabit the planets. They were scattered among the seven planets to bring peace and justice to the different worlds.



Gameplay in ROSE is very simplistic and unoriginal. It takes after every other MMORPG build out there. Kill until you reach a level, then kill some more. It consists of very few quests – though that may change by release – and a small, even for beta, collection of enemies. Combat is little more than point-and-click to start your attack, watch, and hope for the best. You will start with one combat skill, activated by pushing the appropriate hotkey, and are stuck with that one skill until the tenth level you attain. This would be just fine if the enemies were fun to fight. But they are not.



The most common baddie you will come across are rabid jelly-beans. I kid you not, jelly-beans. It is apparent with the lack of blood, and direct violence that ROSE is a more family oriented title, but even my little sister found it disturbingly cheesy. After fighting evil sugar treats for an hour she shouted at me, “When will you fight real monsters!?” which was a damn good question that I had no answer to. Though the action is lacking, the market system is fairly impressive. Players can set up shop at any given place to show their wares, as well as buy from travelers. This comes in hand on those long treks away from town.



The visual experience is average, though hard to rate at this point. Only a few areas are open and many placeholder textures are still abounded in the worlds. It is clear that they are going for a sleek anime look that is definitely pulled off in the PC’s, though the lack of custom look options leads to many twins running around.



The high end features of the game are very promising. You can actually amass an army of players and try to take over the all seven planets. Or war against those powerful enough to stand against you. Once you control a planet you control the sales market and all trades therein. This will just undoubtedly lead to insane prices and ganking unless policed correctly.



ROSE seems like it is shaping up for a title fit for younger gamers that don’t want the deep involvement that the better titles out there require. Even though it is still in beta, the lack of quests and story elements worry me as to the layer of depth in the game upon release. Many of the features could get a nice boost right before launch, though much work is needed to make ROSE Online a grade A title.



We’ll have to wait and see what Gravity Interactive does, but I won’t be cancelling my World of Warcraft subscription any time soon.


Preview by Sean Tonks.