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On my travels through the intertubes I came across this game by Korean developer Hanbit, the company responsible for the MMO golf game Pangya. Granado Espada is set in a budding 17th century civilization, and its expeditions into the new world.

The first thing that will pop out at you about this game is the graphics. They. Are. Stunning. For a free game there are very few that can match Grenado Espada’s level of detail, in fact I know of only one, R2 (Reign of Revolution, another Korean MMO). The visual effects in this game rival most new release $50 games on the market currently, and in some cases surpasses it. I’m about to use a rather opinionated comparison here, but please forgive me.

The bloom effects in Grenado Espada are very reminiscent of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, slightly overdone, and not the prettiest of effects. One thing that this game has that Oblivion doesn’t are decent looking faces, and normally proportioned bodies. That said, I should show you what I’m on about.

My character in one of many town hubs

A very pretty clock found at a town exit (moving, but not accurate to any timezone)

Two high resolution images of a town marketplace, and town square (56k warning, but I just can’t display the visual beauty without doing so)

Now, of course with great visuals such as these you’ll need slightly higher system requirements to run it. Minimum system requirements are:

CPU Pentium III 1GHz or equivalent
OS Windows Vista / Windows XP / Windows 2000
RAM 512MB
VGA GeForce2 MX400 64MB or equivalent
DirectX DirectX 9.0C

Upon logging in the first screen you’re greeted with is the “barracks” screen, in which you select, or create your character(s). A unique aspect of thsi game is the fact that initially, you select a family name for your characters as later on you will be controlling a party, and not simply a single character, and all the other characters in your party share that last name. In the character selection screen you have a choice between five classes: Fighter, Warlock, Scout, Musketeer, and Wizard.

The Barracks screen

From left to right: Fighter, Wizard, Scout, Musketeer, Warlock

The Fighter is typically what you’d expect of an RPG, a swordslinging melee fighter, capable of mainly melee attacks, and skills such as: “Hack and Slash”, Escrima, “Heaven or Hell” (DUEL 1 LET’S ROCK), a few Gun skills, and a regime or defence, or “Guard” techniques. The Fighter’s weapon loadout consists of (from low to high level): Daggers, Rapiers, Sabers, Swords/Shields, Pistols, Two-Handed swords, and finally Polearms.

The Wizard specializes in mental magic such as: ESP, Psychokenesis, Illusionism, Anathema, and Levitation. The Wizard’s weaponry consists of two weapons - Rods, and Staves.

The Scout is somewhat similar to a ninja, and it’s skills include: Trapping, Martial Arts, and First aid. Their weapon regime is restricted to fists, and knives

The Musketeer replaces the traditional Ranger class in Granado Espada. As one would assume from the name, the Musketeer’s proficiencies revolve around firearms such as: Standing shot, Kneeling shot, Aiming shot, Freestyle shot, and Doublegun shot. Once again as assumed by the name, the Musketeer is a firearms only class, able only to wield rifles, and pistols.

Finally, the Warlock. The Warlock is an elemental mage capable of the following feats: Posession Ice, Posession Lightning, Posession Fire, Evocation Ice, Evocation Lightning, Evocation Fire, and lastly Lord of Elemental. To go with these spells, the Warlock is capable of using Bracelets of Cold, Fire, Lightning, and Lord of Elemental.

That’s all for this section of the review, next post will be in regards to the questing and NPC interation, stay tuned!

[Tags]MMORPG, Korea, Hanbit, Granado, Espada, gaming[/Tags]