Allods Online

Allods Online is a free-to-play MMORPG developed and published by Astrum Nival in Russia, Gala-Net in North America, and Gala Networks Europe in Europe. The fourth in the Rage of Mages series, Allods Online takes the RPG elements of the original games and presents them in an MMORPG. Developed with a $12 million budget, it is available as a free online game with a simple registration required to play and no ongoing subscriptions. Allods Online has many traditional MMORPG elements such as quests, NPCs, and dungeons. It also has an element that is fairly unique - the ability for players to build ships and sail around in a vast expanse of magical space called "the Astral". In the Astral, players can fight each other in ship-to-ship combat as well as discover new zones that cannot be reached any other way. The game has been noted for its quality graphics, good performance, engaging quests, and combat system . Allods Online was highly criticized in February, 2010 for the initial prices in its Item Shop, the system by which the game conducts microtransactions. The majority of the prices were unusually high compared to other games, sparking a large amount of protests from its community. However, the prices were significantly lowered two weeks later. Allods Online has recently implemented a controversial system where players are penalized upon death. These penalties can be prevented or reversed by buying items from the Item Shop. There were also changes made to various spell mechanics, and the damage dealt by players as well NPCs was rebalanced, leading to the need of an additional item from the Item Shop in order to play at higher levels, which led to a huge player base loss.