Lord British’s new MMORPG Shroud of the Avatar (SotA) has launched. We provide you with an overview of the online game and explain how to get started.
Shroud of the Avatar aims to tell a single-player story in an MMORPG while also providing players with a sandbox where they can do what they want and engage in a player-driven economy. On March 27, the MMO launched.
An MMORPG with multiple gameplay modes
Shroud of the Avatar is not a typical MMORPG; it offers a number of special features:
- You choose between four gameplay modes: Offline, Private (you do not see other players), Party (only your friends are visible), and Multiplayer (you see all players online)
- There are no classes. You define your hero through the skills you use
- Skills that you mark as active automatically increase through use and draw EXP from the EXP pool that you accumulate through battles and quests
- You decide whether to complete quests and experience the story or just play around in the sandbox
- You explore a large game world via a world map, which allows you to enter individual zones
- Crafting plays an important role, as the best items in the game are created by players, leading to a player-driven economy
- Housing is an essential part of the MMO. You can buy houses, castles, or entire towns and furnish them to your liking
- SotA places a strong emphasis on the social aspect, interacting with others and social activities like parties and sports tournaments
- The combat system is a mix of hotbar and card combat. You decide whether skills appear randomly or are assigned to fixed spots in the hotbar
- PvP works through a “flagging” system, where you must declare yourself ready for PvP. Only then are player-versus-player battles possible. Additionally, there are special PvP zones
- Shroud of the Avatar is a Buy2Play game. There is no subscription
More about it: This is how Richard Garriott explained his new game Shroud of the Avatar
This is how your adventure begins
The introduction to SotA starts quite straightforward:
- You can get and download the game via Steam – or you purchase it directly from the homepage or start a free trial there.
- Then you initially only provide the name and gender of your hero
- After talking to the NPC Arabella, who introduces you to the game world, you determine your appearance. There are no other races than humans
- You next talk to the Oracle and answer questions. These questions determine which of the three starting areas you begin in and which initial skills you possess. Here, it distinguishes between melee fighters, ranged fighters, and mages
- Each starting area guides you through the story of a mysterious attack by unknown powers. While completing initial quests, the game teaches you the basics such as controls
- Once you have completed the tutorial area, you automatically enter the Outskirts area, which represents the beginner zone. Here you will encounter more quests and easy enemies. Additionally, you will first meet other players here
- The Outskirts familiarize you with deeper game fundamentals such as resource gathering, crafting, and the card combat system
- After the Outskirts, you will be released into the open game world and either continue with the quests or go your own way
The launch of Shroud of the Avatar was quite uneventful. According to Steamcharts, there were 493 players online simultaneously on the release day. This number is still below that of the day after the last wipe in August 2016, when there were 603 players online simultaneously. About 35% of fans play via Steam, according to the developers; others use the client from the developer studio Portalarium. The reviews on Steam are currently mixed.
If you want to check out Shroud of the Avatar for yourself, you can play the Free2Play trial and easily switch to the retail version if you like it. This costs 40 euros.
