Crystal of Atlan is an action MMORPG from developer VI-Games that wants to put its own unique spin on the gameplay of the genre. It features a focus on class-based build diversity, fast-paced aerial combat, and chaining together abilities to build up your combo meter. It's available to download for free right now, but if you're looking for more info before you dive in, we've got you. Let’s start with the classes.
Diverse Class Paths for Personalized Builds
There are five base classes available at launch, all unlocked for free at the start of the game: the melee damage dealing Swordsman, ranged attacker Musketeer, magical Magister, martial artist Fighter, and summoner Puppeteer. Each class branches into specialized subclasses, with a total of 11 subclass options and more than 20 unique abilities to experiment with and tailor to your preferred style.
For example, the Swordsman branches into the Magiblade or Berserker. They’re both melee damage dealers, but the Magiblade adds magical abilities (which you could probably guess from the name), and the Berserker can sacrifice health to generate shields and increase power as you get closer to death. Regardless of the subclass you choose, each of the skills you unlock have individual cooldowns. You can mix and match those skills at any time, letting you come up with unique character builds and find skills that chain together well to build combos.
Seamless Ground-to-Air Combat Innovation
Traditional MMO combat focuses on ground-based attacks with a fairly simple stand-and-attack style. Crystal of Atlan differentiates itself by including a heavy focus on the Z-axis, introducing a system that encourages you to seamlessly transition between ground and aerial combat.
You can attack and dodge in mid-air, allowing you to pull off aerial combos and adding a new dimension to each battle and a level of responsiveness to moment-to-moment gameplay. You can jump to avoid attacks, then chain that into aerial combos to keep the pressure on enemies. So you’re rewarded for staying on your toes, reacting quickly, and using all your abilities to fluidly chain attacks together.
That focus on ground and air combos also informs the design of Crystal of Atlan’s varied environments. All of the game’s maps, from the fantastical Wonderland to the mechanical Chrome Military Factory, have an open 3D layout to allow freedom of movement. Couple that with smooth animations and you get a combat system that’s fluid and fast-paced.
Cooperative Challenges and Social Progression
As you might expect from an MMO, there are a variety of dungeons you can tackle with other players. You fight through packs of normal enemies before getting to the end and facing off against a boss with unique mechanics. That’s all pretty standard, but Crystal of Atlan mixes things up by requiring synchronized team coordination.
There are numerous dungeons with interaction-based mechanics that require teamwork to solve problems. Naturally, if your whole group is tackling such a dungeon for the first time, you’ll need to communicate and help each other figure out what to do. Once you’ve gotten the hang of it, you can take on a mentor role in future runs, but everyone will always need to work together.
There’s also a fleet system, which is basically like guilds you’ve probably experienced in other games. It’s a key part of Crystal of Atlan's social ecosystem, allowing you to link up with friends to tackle co-op gameplay together or just hang out and chat.
Competitive PvP and Creative PvE Challenges
If you’re the competitive type, there are also options for PvP combat. There are 1v1 and 3v3 battles, with attributes, skill damage, and skill cooldowns balanced so there’s no competitive advantage. It’s all about skill.
While Crystal of Atlan is an MMO at heart, it has plenty of content for solo players too. In classic MMO style, there are hub areas where you can see lots of other players. These areas are where you’ll find quests to complete and new zones to explore.
Adventure Mode takes you through the game’s main story, which unlocks in stages. You can tackle these stages solo, and they have a variety of different goals. Some will be focused on combat, where you need to defeat groups of enemies or take on a boss. Others introduce new elements, like requiring you to use stealth to sneak past enemies or use platforming to progress through the area.
There are plenty of other modes you can tackle solo or co-op. The main one is the Arena, where you can fight alone or with a partner and gradually work your way up through tiers of opponents, earning escalating rewards as you do. If you manage to get through all the tiers, you can reach the Finals for the ultimate reward.
To sum it all up, Crystal of Atlan is an MMORPG that mixes together classic staples of the genre with evolved gameplay to keep things fun, fast, and fluid. It launches May 28 on PC, PS5, iOS, and Android, with crossplay across all platforms. The PS5 version has an optimized HUD layout to avoid clutter and utilizes the haptic feedback of the DualSense controller. It also has a remapped UI for controller input, using a function wheel you’re probably familiar with from other games. There’s HDR support for enhanced lighting, and PSSR is enabled on the PS5 Pro for sharper visuals and more stable frame rates.
For more info on the world, classes, and features of Crystal of Atlan, you can check out the official website. Or to join the community and get news updates, you can follow them on Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, and Discord.
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