I never played Everquest, never started on this whole online rpg craze with Ultima Online, in fact the closest I got to online games was getting kicked out of a Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun game for have a 56.6 modem.

So when my friend told me I had to go out and buy Asherons Call, I was to say the least bit skeptical. I wasnt into RPG games outside the Final Fantasy story-line, especially massive ones like this game is. However I tried it, and needless to say I was addicted, kinda.

The games graphics are wonderful, and in the begining the game ran smoothly almost as if it wasnt a online game, but one run locally on your hard drive. The controls were easy to learn, and as i started out with a sword character, it was easy to jump right into battle.

The game offers three kinds of races, which basically are the same except for a basic fighting skill that varies amongst the races. From there you choose male or female (both play the same), and your physical apperance. From there the game offeres you a system using "skill credits" to pick what skill you want to start out with. The good thing about this system, is that whille it can take awhille you can learn new skills as you play. So lets say you start off as a swordsman, by level 8 you can aslo learn war magic, or one of many other skills.

The biggest positive about the land of Dereth (the continent Asherons Call is played on) is its size. The land is very immense, and would probably take a full day to run from one side to the other. There are many dungeons, and quests also in the game to keep the player busy for many months.

Another great thing about AC, is that it is updated monthly. In these updates, new dungeons and quests are added. The land of Dereth gets a makeover (one month the land was covered by snow, the other a new kind of plant started to bloom). New creatures are added and sometimes taken away. This adds variety to the game, and new challanges every month.

However there are a few things that arent that great with this game. The first being the $10 a month fee that is now "expected" with online games. At $40.00 ($50.00 someplaces still) I find it rediculous that Microsoft has the guts to charge $9.99 a month to play the game. Thats means, if you play the game for 6 months (the first month is free, how nice), you'll wind up paying $90-$100 to play this game.

Second is the monthly updates. Along with changing the creatures and adding quests, the AC people also sometimes tamper with the gameplay features. When I first started playing as I stated before I was a swordsman, until I relized that mages had a distinct advantage, and I switched over. Well 4 months after the release of the game (2 months after i created a new character and became a mage) they gave the swordsman more power, changing their stats so they became better in the game. Other changes involved making mosters stick to players, so that if you tried to run away, they would hit you. This was a bug, and wasnt done intentionally, but no bugs are fixed until the "monthly update", so if you may have to deal with a bug that affects gameplay for almost a month before its fixed.

Another problem is the number of players now playing AC. Asherons Call just added a new server, giving them 6 total. However there still backed up with players, creating times where the 'lag' gets so bad the game almost becomes unplayable.

Well i probably have talked enough about one game, however heres the thing, I havent even talked about 1% of the features of this game. Thats this games biggest positive, it absolutly huge. Thres so much to see and do, that even though theres no final objective, no ending, if there was youd probably never get to it anyways.

So my finall recommendation, try it. You get the first month free, so if you can find it for $40 or less somewhere, go out, and buy it, just prepare to be addicted, like the thousands of others who have already answered Asherons Call.