The Meat And Bones
Rolling a character in 2Moons is a familiar situation; you are given a choice of seven classes ranging from archetypal Warriors to hybrid Rogue/Druid types. The disappointment of this is that there is no real character customization on offer. All classes are gender locked and you can't fiddle around with your avatars facial features. While in essence this isn't a big a deal, it does lead to a lack of individuality within the game. Up to a certain level all characters of your class are carbon clones, albeit clad in various sets of armor - of which don't really differ in appearance until the higher levels. This inability to really imprint a layer of subjective creativity on your character really hinders the game early on and inherently makes the game feel poorly designed.
Control is handled with either WASD or a few left clicks of the mouse. Personally in my adventures I preferred the latter as it gave the game a Diablo-esque appeal but also because for the most part you will be clicking about the screen trying obtain fallen loot and activate the various menus. The games control is fluid and visceral and while I have no real complaint about it, the developers seem to have added more micromanagement to proceedings in an attempt to engage the player a little more. For instance all loot is inexplicably spilled on the ground - while this isn't apparently troublesome it does lead to treasure being lost to the fauna and flora of the game.
Character advancement in the game borrows a little from the Talent Trees and AA Lines of various other MMORPGs. The problem with specialization in 2Moons however is that there just doesn't seem a great number of skills on offer. For example if you roll an Azure Knight you may specialize in a certain weapon and all subsequent skills learnt are naturally locked to this weapon. While this seems okay at first glance it quickly becomes apparent that you will only learn new skills every twenty or so levels, this leads to an extremely narrow selection of hot bar techniques and leans combat toward extremely dull and inactive. Aside from skill progression every level, your character can spend five points in Strength, Dexterity, Heal and Spirit. For a new comer to the game this isn't really explained to any degree and sooner or later you will find yourself resetting your choices and trying again.
Like almost every game in the genre out of Korea, 2Moons not only excels in grind but celebrates it with furious ecstasy. 2Moons will see you harking back to the days of EverQuest and Anarchy Online as you spend the majority of in-game time slashing away at one beast or another. While at the core of any MMORPG, grind is the metaphorical center of proceedings but since such games as World of Warcraft and others, questing has taken a far greater role in affairs.
The ability to mask grind and award you for meeting a certain criteria has revolutionized the genre. Unfortunately the developers of 2Moons emerged from a coma spanning this event and as such only caught the tail end of the movement. Questing opportunities are few and far between and those that are on offer only amount to kill X of Y style affairs. With only a handful of quests available for a number of levels, mindless, directionless grind takes precedent. Before long you will be tearing at your hair with frustration as the game throws up few distractions from the incessant slaughter of creatures. 2Moons feels more like murderous genocide than it really should.
