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After renowned titles like Flyff, Rappelz, or MU Online, Webzen is back on the front of the free-to-play MMORPG stage with the arrival of ELOA: Elite Lord of Alliance. If this MMO vaguely reminds you of another title that was recently in the spotlight, it's because ELOA had already emerged in the west under the name of Inspirit Online, considered as an illegal copy of the Korean game. That aside, with a rather interesting customization, a consistent content, high color graphics and an especially well-honed gameplay that should appeal to all fans of hack slash, ELOA has pretty good chances of earning its own spot in the market.
Unfortunately, we have to start with a negative point: the plot of ELOA: Elite Lord of Alliance. Indeed, the scenario is very basic, since it boils down, unsurprisingly for the genre, to confrontation between good and evil. Players will start their adventure on the grounds of Epheia, where a war against ogres is bringing ruin to the world. While they do their jobs well enough, the dialogues are stale and are just excuses to go to kill monsters in the chain or go to meet another NPC. As a knight, your role will be to determine the origin of this uprising, and put a stop it before it gets out of hand. It all starts with the creation of a character, like any self-respecting MMORPG. Customization-wise, there are fairly standard classes, namely the Knight of Blood, Mage, Sniper, Assassin Warrior, and Psychic. One slightly distressing "flaw", if we may call it that, is that the Assassin Warrior class can only be embodied by the Naru race and is exclusively female. The last step will involve customizing your character with various aesthetic elements: the whole is not very thorough, but should still please the fans.
Once your character is created and selected, you can finally start your game, only to arrive in a war zone where ogres attacking a fortress. Acting as a tutorial, the next few quests will allow you to learn about the main game mechanics. However, the first thing that jumps out is the graphics displayed by ELOA: Elite Lord of Alliance. The set up is based on a manga style with shades of colors that turn out particularly successful. Furthermore, a great deal of immersion is to be expected, and you should take great pleasure in running through the different environments. However, one can only regret the inability to move the view point of the character, the game using a fixed camera system. We are limited to a system of zooms, making the navigation somewhat easy, at least initially. Furthermore, when playing the game for the first time, you might want to take the time to change the settings and shortcuts that are not necessarily intuitive. Which brings us to our next point, and probably the best aspect of ELOA, the gameplay.
The whole point of ELOA: Elite Lord of Alliance is its combat system. And it will not take you more than two minutes before experiencing your first clashes and be convinced by its gameplay. It is dynamic, vibrant even. The system is very pleasing, since it connects the attacks at great speed, while dodging those caused by your opponents feel especially rewarding. Suffice to say that encounters with enemies can be a lot of fun, especially since each class has three weapons and just as many skill sets to switch between at all times, allowing them to deal with every possible situation imaginable. For example, in the case of the Psychic, one skill set will allow you to heal and support allies, while another provides you with abilities allowing you to root and debuff enemies. The most interesting part is that unlike other games offering a similar gameplay experience, ELOA allows you to switch between these different weapons in combat as well. Needless to say that PvP-wise, you'll never know what to expect.
In any case, as in any self-respecting MMORPG, you will gain experience points as you complete quests and defeat monsters, allowing to go to the discovery of new areas, experience the joys of dungeons or compete against other players through the PvP system. We will return course on all these aspects in detail. For now, we will look at character progression, which works like any other MMORPG. You can customize your character with different pieces of equipment, and skills you unlock at level 10 and above. However, what is more interesting than usual is the extent to which you can customize the skills, in the same vein as the MOBA Heroes of the Storm. In other words, you can, for example, for a given skill, reducing its cast time, at the cost of dealing lesser damage, or increase its damage at the cost of a higher mana usage. In short, it allows different players to adapt their characters better to their vision of the game.
Another concept often present in MMORPGs is the presence of familiars/pets, these little creatures that accompany you around your adventures. ELOA: Elite Lord of Alliance does not shirk from the rule, and proposes a system that is both classic and innovative. First, the familiar is obtained from an egg is gained by completing quests, killing monsters or bought from merchants. Once hatched, it will offer you some statistics bonuses, in addition to some of them having the ability of being used as mounts and allowing you to move faster. These creatures can consume others to gain experience points and levels, and once they have reached the maximum level, they can be combined to form an even more powerful creature.
Regarding the content, ELOA: Elite Lord of Alliance also has nothing to ashamed, since it provides many features that should hold your interest for a long time. Besides the collection of pets, you will be entitled to a relatively simple crafting system, based on four professions, namely alchemy, weaponsmith, armorsmith and accessory crafting. Nothing really pushed, players being prompted as usual to gather the materials before traveling to the relevant NPC and crafting the item. Of course, the most interesting remains the PvE and PvP systems that perform pretty well for such a saturated genre. With a good number of dungeons, to be completed solo or with a party, the game will often provide you with PvE content to conquer.
ELOA: Elite Lord of Alliance is a MMORPG relying primarily on its gameplay, setting aside any hope of a developed storyline. Therefore, do not expect a spectacular plot. In the same vein, quests without real interest and "Monster Bashing" are two other arguments that go into the ELOA of disfavor. Conversely, this same "Monster Bashing" might just be the most fun you've had playing a MMO of the same genre in the recent years. With a truly dynamic combat system and a deep character progression, the title surely distinguishes itself. Furthermore, the overall aesthetics and stability of the game should make it much more appealing. In conclusion, ELOA: Elite Lord of Alliance is not necessarily a breathtaking title, but it remains a good MMORPG that shines by its relatively pushed content.
