A mount is not enough! Those who love rides and pets of all kinds will fully enjoy the Asian MMO Riders of Icarus!
“A horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse!” With these words, the nasty King Richard laments the loss of his steed in battle right before his death in Shakespeare’s historical drama. However, if the scene had taken place in Riders of Icarus, the king would not be asking for such a mundane beast as a “horse.”
Horses are sooo mainstream!
In Riders of Icarus, an online role-playing game freshly imported from Asia to the West, the focus is mainly on mounts and pets. However, horses and donkeys – the unsung stars of Black Desert Online – are far too ordinary for the developers in Riders of Icarus. Because when we recently got to take an exclusive round in the MMO with the developers, our first mount was a brown shaggy bear!
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Yes, you read that right: bears are apparently the standard mounts in Riders of Icarus, as Master Petzt wanders around the starting area grunting grumpily. “Activate the ‘Tame Mode’ now and ride a bear!” one of the developers urges us. Aha… riding bears… sounds… interesting.
Bear Rodeo
So we activate the Tame Mode and our hero sneaks up on the unsuspecting bear. Just before he discovers us, we jump onto his back, followed by a funny animation where we turn into a Western rodeo rider bouncing around on the wild bucking shaggy creature.
It’s not just about fun animations; it’s actually a mini-game in which we have to press the right keys in time. Otherwise, the bear throws us off and gives us a few swipes with its paws as a farewell! But after several attempts, we finally figure it out, and our first mount belongs to us!
Bear Tower Jump
“This is just a normal bear mount! However, there are also elite mounts that are much harder to obtain!” the developer whispers to us and leads us up a cliff. “Down there is Trutan, an elite bear mount. If you want to tame him, you can’t just approach him; you need to jump down from up there accurately!”
For the next few minutes, we try to mount the beast with daring jumps from the cliff, but only one colleague from England manages to do so. Upon request, the developers informed us that there are numerous such elite creatures in the game world, each exhibiting a different complex taming mechanic.
Bear-Power Gear
Through a menu, we can see at any time which creatures and how many we have already tamed. If we have multiple bears, we can convert one of them into a pet, which then helps us in battle – and amusingly shrinks to a third of its original size. Additionally, the creatures level up on their own – both as mounts and pets – making them more enduring and stronger.
But what do we do if we have caught and tamed more bears than we can ever ride and lead into battle? Quite simple: we turn them into our gear! Because who wouldn’t want the strength of a bear in their sword? Each creature can indeed be permanently transformed into a power-up – similar to runes or gems in other MMOs – which will enhance the stats of our equipment. Depending on the species and the level of the creature, different stats will be added.
King’s Discipline Aerial Combat
The combat system of Riders of Icarus during our session (although an action control has been announced since) was a rather old-fashioned point-and-click system, where we dutifully targeted enemies and unleashed our skills. World of Warcraft or Star Wars: The Old Republic comes to mind. But then the developers showed us aerial battles.
Many of our mounts can fly, and air combat is an integral part of the game! The developers had offered us a few dragons and flying snakes – and a big giant chick! “By the way, the chick is pretty tough,” one developer mentioned. And since dragons are super boring, we of course hopped on the chicken!
With the flying mount, we zoomed across the sky, engaging in dramatic battles with flying snakes. We had the choice between a crossbow as a ranged weapon and a spear for close combat. The latter weapon played dynamically and felt more like an action MMO such as Blade and Soul or WildStar.
We also got to tame mounts again, which is even harder in the air than on the ground. To do this, we have to glide over the creature like in the movie Avatar and then jump accurately onto the back of our future mount – and still succeed in the mini-game!
A Game for Collectors
Gameplay-wise, Riders of Icarus does not reinvent the wheel of the MMO. Rather, the game mechanics are conservatively structured with hotkeys and the typical MMO classes. But the wacky mounts, the equipment enhancement system, and the cool taming mechanics are a lot of fun. In addition, the cool aerial battles are much more exciting than the rather static battles on the ground. In Asia, the game is known as Icarus Online and is already successful and popular there.
Anyone interested in the game can sign up for the upcoming beta. More information can be found under the link.
