Rakion: Chaos Force/Gameplay

Rakion is a free, three-dimensional, fantasy action online game developed by the South Korean company Softnyx. It was in a free "closed" beta testing from August 11 - 25 2005, in a limited group of countries (which included the United States, the UAE and at a later date, Europe).

It switched from development to open beta testing on October 13, 2005, which ended on December 1, 2005. At this point, the game began to follow a similar model to Softnyx's other MMOG, GunBound. Users may purchase "Softnyx Cash" with real-world currency and spend it on "Power User" status (which offers various benefits and unlocks further ingame purchases) or items that are often very powerful and not available to the non-paying public.

Story
Little is known about the storyline events in Rakion, however what has been released indicates that the battles in the game are part of a wider series of conflicts over "cell" - a substance that can be used to summon ancient creatures from a war that took place ages ago. Rakion takes place after this war.

Gameplay
The gameplay of Rakion is similar to that of most third or first-person shooter games. Players use the WASD keys to move their character around the map, and the camera controls are also FPS style, though the player's character can be seen. A secondary console control camera is also available. Characters utilise a variety of combos and attacks, and all characters have both a ranged weapon and a melee weapon that can be switched between by pressing "Q". The camera is rotated by the mouse, zoomed in and out by the mousewheel and the attack buttons are on the left mouse button and the right mouse button. There are five different game types in Rakion (Stage, Team Deathmatch, Solo Deathmatch, Boss War, and Golem War). A level limit may be selected when making a game. There is also a "Basic Mode" option in games, which ignores added stats, making everyone essentially a Level 1 Character. However, it should be noted that armour and weapon stats are taken into account. The only cell that can be summoned in a Basic Mode game is the Nak.

Classes
In Rakion, a player is a member of any of the five classes. The classes are Swordsman (sometimes called Warrior), Archer, Blacksmith, Ninja, and Mage. Each class has a melee and a ranged attack. All characters can transform into "Chaos Mode", an ability gained by achieving a certain number of kills. You can also gain chaos points by losing games. Players who have the ability to transform into chaos mode have a blue glow surrounding their body as a warning to others. While in chaos mode, players have more vitality, cannot be knocked down, and deal increased damage.

Swordsman

 * Melee: A longsword with a decent speed and average attack damage. It can be used in a wide variety of attacks to slash and stab opponents. The three-hit basic attack does considerable damage, but can be blocked. If an enemy is hit by the first swing, however, they're stunned for the whole combo and cannot block. The swordsman's special-attack is an attack that takes about 1.5 seconds to charge up, has a wider range, deals increased damage and disregards blocks.


 * Ranged: A small but heavy dagger or throwing knife with medium range and above average damage. Its base damage is second only to the blacksmith's axe among physical projectiles. However, it flies at a rather awkward angle, making it difficult for a player to aim correctly.


 * Chaos Mode: The swordsman transforms into a blue, humanoid being with three eyes wearing heavy armor wielding a double-sided sword-spear hybrid. It can be used for a combo, but is more commonly and more well adapted for a lightning-fast attack that spins and hurls the victim into the air. It can also be charged for a crippling running slash that rips apart large targets and other chaos beings. Its stab attack is un-blockable and does the most damage, next to the charge attack.

An experienced swordsman will often transform into chaos mode when a large group of enemies are preoccupied in the vicinity. This allows the chaos-swordsman a couple seconds to charge his special attack, bolting him several yards forward doing considerable damage to the unsuspecting enemies. At this point, the enemies will often scatter and the swordsman uses his stabbing attack to chase down specific enemies.

Archer
Archers are female characters that are armored lightly. They wield a longbow as their ranged weapon and carry a shortsword as a backup weapon, although the sword is seldom used by experienced players. Archers naturally excel at ranged combat, but should not be underestimated in melee combat.

Archer is female class that uses a bow as a main weapon. She takes part in long ranged attacks and she's also adequate for close quarter battles, although she should refrain from having to participate in melee combat at all. She is the most adept class at long range, anti-air attack and backing up the team. However, she is relatively weak at melee attacks. It depends, of course. Some archers are more powerful than swordmen should the player be skilled enough. In terms of sheer stats, however, the archer has arguably the weakest melee attacks.


 * Melee: The archer has a small gladius-like sword and uses this for a limited amount of attacks, most of which are slow and not quite as effective as those of the swordsman or blacksmith. Like all classes, this is the default weapon for archers, but is usually switched immediately upon entering the game, or starting a new round. One will seldom ever see an experienced archer pull out her sword.


 * Ranged: As can be expected, the archer uses a bow as her ranged weapon, and often her main weapon. Arrows have the most range of all physical ranged attacks in the game. Arrows travel fast, and can be very dangerous even at lower levels. Effective use of this weapon requires good aiming and proper timing. Often, a mere few hours of gameplay will be enough to get used to firing the bow.


 * Chaos Mode: The archer transforms into an angelic-looking being with a white aura. Their primary weapon is now their bow, and can theoretically shoot up to two arrows per second at maximum speed. The arrows travel considerably faster than the normal arrows of an archer and also do more damage though they can still be guarded. The arrows, if unblocked, will throw an enemy a few feet backwards and knock them down.

The chaos-archer's special attack unleashes, after a two-second charge time, five powerful, un-blockable arrows that will almost ensure a kill if they all hit the same target. The five arrows are fired all at once, and are spread in approximately a 45 degree angle. They have the same arc as a regular chaos-arrow.

The Chaos Archer also has an invincible attack where she spins around. Any enemy within melee-range takes damage, is knocked back a couple feet and becomes stunned for a decent amount of time, often just enough for the archer to fire a regular shot, further throwing back the enemy. At this point, the chaos-archer will often charge her special attack.

It also should be mentioned that the chaos-archer has no melee weapon. Her invincible attack is often her only defense against opponents who get up close. The chaos-archer's special attack is often times the most used chaos-ability of an experienced archer.

Blacksmith
Blacksmiths are large, heavy male characters who wear full plate armor, complete with a helmet. Though they are humanoid, their true race is unknown but they are thought to be related to golems. They can deal out a lot of damage, and sustain incredible amounts themselves. But their great power and endurance does pay a price, as their attack speed is low and they don't move as fast as the average Swordsman.


 * Melee: A large warhammer is swung in horizontal, vertical and diagonal arcs against enemies. It can also charge for a powerful special attack that slams the hammer onto the ground sends out a strong shockwave of damage, knocking enemies onto the ground along with tremendous damage. The Blacksmith has the strongest jumping attack of all the classes in the game. This is in part due to the fact that Blacksmiths often score two hits per jump attack. However, even though his attacks are very powerful they come with an equally large amount of delay, leaving him open to attacks.


 * Ranged: The throwing axes of blacksmith are similar to the throwing knives of the swordsman, but deal far more damage and don't fly quite as far. The axe is the most powerful physical ranged attack in the game, but is hard to hit with due to its short range and slow flight through the air. Some Blacksmiths dedicate themselves solely to the axe, however, and seldom, if ever, pull out their hammer.


 * Chaos Mode: The Blacksmith now looks more like a golem, and is heavily armored, with blue skin. He carries a massive flail, and his face is painted. The ground shockwaves created by the flail are about twice the size of the normal ones. The chaos-blacksmith's special attack is arguably the weakest of all chaos-specials for classes. It takes almost two seconds to charge up, has no splash damage and a mere 45 degree range.  It's seldom ever used by experienced blacksmiths.

Arguably the most common chaos-blacksmith attack is the invincible attack, where the chaos-blacksmith charges forward swinging his flail around 360 degrees. The chaos-blacksmith cannot change directions during this attack, nor can he stop it prematurely. Its damage, especially to multiple enemies, is the most effective of all blacksmith attacks.

Often, like the chaos-swordsman, the blacksmith will transform into chaos when there's a large amount of enemies in the vicinity. Charging in with his invincible attack, the chaos-blacksmith is a fearful sight indeed, sending enemies scattering.

Ninja
A minimally-armored female human character who wields a split blade and shurikens. Ninjas are the fastest characters in the game, and particularly excel at "grip" (grabbing) attacks and special attacks. They have very weak basic attacks, and the lowest health of any class initially. However they are at the top when it comes to running and attack speed.


 * Melee: A thin blade that looks like a sai split down the middle. Their attacks are weak but extraordinarily fast. They are the only class that has a 4-strike combo, though this is weak. "Gliding" is a technique only avaliable to ninjas. This allows the user to slide in a straight line for a couple of feet while also becoming invulnerable to most attacks. The ninja's true power lies in its deadly grips and specials, which deal the most damage of all of the ninja's attacks.


 * Ranged: The ninja takes out shurikens ("ninja stars") and throws them in groups of either three or nine. Although weak, shurikens in groups of three can be thrown without a charging period. However, these do not stun the enemy and have laughable damage output. Shurikens in groups of nine require the ninja to charge, but do far more damage and stun like all other attacks. It has a much shorter range, however. Groups of three fan out in a cone-like formation, while groups of nine fall in a short-range shotgun pattern.


 * Chaos Mode: The ninja transforms into a demonic-looking woman with a red glow. The half-sai turns into a short, thin, curved blade and is now wielded underhand. She can now dash forwards while slashing, and the combo attack finishes with an explosion that has the largest area of effect in the game. She can also spin around in a "phoenix"; this attack bypasses armor and attacks health directly. Also, the ninja can now throw stars in groups of 18, and, like the Phoenix, these bypass armor and directly damage health.

Mage
This character is a short humanoid character with an undefined gender. They are designed to be support and long-range bombardment characters, and they are the only class that can heal. They have three powerful ranged attacks. However, mages tend to suffer from low health values, limited abilities in close combat, high delay attacks, and slow movement speed.


 * Melee: A staff or cane that can be used for a weak melee attack. It can also be used for casting a row of magical ice pillars at an enemy, which are unguardable but come with a high delay. Their front grip is also unique in that it can freeze victims in a block of ice, leaving them open to any attack while they're frozen, whether it be from the mage that froze them or by team mates, and does not knock them down. Other than that, Mages can also cast a hurricane with a 4m radius that pushes all enemies away from it, and it can cast healing orbs that can either heal the Mage who casted it, an allied player, or an enemy mage. Its healing power depends on the Mage's special attack level. Creating the healing orbs takes considerable amount of time, moreso than any other "attack" in the game.


 * Ranged: The Mage takes out a mace or a wand and uses it to cast a magic bomb attack or a homing fireball attack. The magic bombs are thrown at a target, but must be charged first. They explode after 1.5 seconds and are comparable to grenades, as well as often refered to as grenades by players. The fireballs are more powerful than the magic bombs, but require the mage to "lock on" to a target for a few seconds. When locked on and fired, two baseball-sized fireballs are directed towards the enemy, the speed increased as it gets closer to the target. It has infinite range, but takes the longest amount of time to reach a target than any other ranged attack in the game.


 * Chaos: A large magician's puppet is summoned and the Mage controls it by sitting on its back. This larger mage can cast a wider, far more powerful version of the ice attack, sending out three lines of un-blockable ice (10 degree intervals), which deal direct damage to health, bypassing armor values. It can also cast a faster (both in lock-on time and travel speed) version of the mage's fireball, which can only be avoided with precision timing. This seeker cannot be blocked, unless blocking from a certain angle. The 'invincible' attack of the Chaos Mage can heal 30% of the health of all allied players that are in the area of effect, though it does not heal the Chaos Mage itself.

Unlike most other chaoses, the mage often times transforms into chaos when at a distance. At this distance, the mage unleashes a barrage of fireballs upon the many enemies in the distance. The enemies, being preoccuppied, often have no idea of their impending danger. Even many experienced players have trouble dodging a chaos-mage's fireball attack, as it's just so fast. Often times, one fireball attack is enough to outright kill an enemy, although a freshly-spawned enemy will always survive one fireball attack.

Alternatively, the mage can decide to transform into chaos-mode while nearby a large group of clustered enemies, decimating them with countless ice-attacks. Unfortunately, these ice attacks are often easy to bypass, and due to the high delay of the attack, the mage is often found stricken by a barrage of melee strikes by the enraged enemies. Unlike most other chaos classes, the mage has very little defense against melee attacks, and often retreats to range if found surrounded.

Creatures
There are several different creatures in Rakion. All of them appear in Stage Mode, and they can all be bought in the shop. Like other items, creatures have level requirements. Creatures gain experience and level too; a higher level creature costs more cell points to summon, but it has higher stats, and should one wish to re-sell it, it will fetch a higher price.
 * Nak: A spider-like creature, it is weak and slow-moving. Naks spit poison at their enemies at close range. Since it is rather weak, it tends to appear in enormous swarms in Stage mode. Even at higher levels Naks are easily destroyed by a few (or even one) attacks. Newcomers to Rakion get a single Nak for free, but they must buy all of their other cells. Naks are seldom ever used by experienced players, as their use is just so limited.
 * Blood Nak: A normal Nak that has been corrupted by Alcon. These Naks have less health but do a lot more damage. They also attack twice as fast as an ordinary Nak, but due to their low health are also killed faster. These creatures are seldom bought by players, but appear in several stages.
 * Panzer: An armored knight. Panzers can take a lot more abuse than Naks, and their Halberds do more damage, often rivaling that of a swordsman's attacks. However, they are not nearly as stealthy and make a lot of noise when they move and attack. Also, they move very slowly and take a long time to get up after they have fallen. Their attack speed is pitiful as well.
 * Assault Panzer: Assault Panzers were part of an elite division of Panzers. They do alot more damage than normal Panzers but have less health. The attack speed values of both, however are the same. They are comparable to a Blood Nak with more health and higher damage, they are devastating at higher levels.
 * Crossbow: A small dwarf, wielding a crossbow, they move and attack quite slowly. They fire one bolt from their crossbow at farther ranges, while using a physical kick up close. Even though the bolts are mildy powerful they are slow and inaccurate. After being knocked down, crossbow take several seconds to get up and are able to be hit while on the ground unlike panzers or naks.
 * Blazer: A mage, wearing red robes that hovers slightly above the ground. Although immobile, they have a decent amount of health. They shoot large purple blasts of energy at long range, dealing massive splashing damage. However, they have an immense cooldown (delay) time and are vulnerable to attack.
 *  Sky Blazer: A Blazer that hovers high above the ground, they both have more health and do more damage than the normal Blazer. Because they attack faster and float, players are limited to using range attacks on these creatures, making them slightly harder to kill.
 * Soul Cannon: A smaller golem-like creature that has a cannon attached to its right arm. It shoots cannonballs at far to close range, and it can also hit air targets. The cannonballs explode violently and do extremely heavy splash damage. These cannonballs cannot be blocked and at high levels can kill in 2 to 3 hits. It also has a melee attack where it swings its thick cannon right arm and whacks the player when he/she gets too close. It cannot be knocked down, thought it can be stunned. When a Soul Cannon is destroyed, after about five seconds it self-destructs, creating a huge blast that deals tremendous damage.
 * Longbow: Elvish creatures of unknown gender. As their name implies, they wield longbows and shoot powerful, homing arrows that decimate the enemy at long range. If you stand too close its impossible to block. However they have slow movement speed and have no close range attack, shooting arrows at point-blank. Like the Crossbow, you can also hit them when they are lying on the ground.
 * Golem: A bipedal giant creature made out of stone and clay. It can punch powerfully at close range and hurls large boulders of earth at longer range, these boulders cannot be blocked. However, it is a very large target and easy prey for all attacks. It also moves and attacks very slowly, and is very expensive for players to summon. This creature is the main focus of Golem Wars.
 * Iron Golem: A Golem made of iron with darker color than a regular Golem, higher health, higher damage but will not have a higher attack speed.
 * Taurus: A minotaur-like creature resembling a bull. It has a double-gore attack with its horn that is very powerful to the unsuspecting. The Taurus can also do a running dash. They walk faster than most other creatures and cannot be knocked down, though they can be stunned. They're attack intervals are very long if left undesterbed, since they usually counter attack. Taurus have less health than the Golem, but have the potential to do much more damage.
 * Dragon: The ultimate juggernauts of destruction, the dragons soar high above the playing field. They have an immense firepower, but relatively low endurance. They can spit a large fire blast at long range that deals titanic damage, and also have a flamethrower-like attack that usually comes in handy due to the lag it creates rather than the damage dealt. If a target has low health, the Dragon flies close and hooks it with its claws, this move is rarely seen in-game. Although expensive and require a high level to equip, dragons are considered by many players to be the best creature in the game.
 * Ice Wind: An airborne winged creature that looks somewhat like a blue harpy. They shoot ice blasts at long range that freeze you for around half a second (cannot freeze team Golems, gold Golem or other large enemies). They were the main theme of the two Christmas event stages in 2006, and were available for free until the end of the Christmas event. This creature is now buyable with cash and will stay permanent.

Game modes
Excluding Stage mode, which puts all players on the same team, all of the game modes are PvP-based. A game can consist of anywhere from 1 to 21 rounds, and a round can last between five and twenty minutes. There are four types of PvP games in Rakion. The game will automatically balance the teams after a round by swapping the players with most experience points acquired so far in that game to the other team. This switch will only occur if one team has less players than the other. In both deathmatches (Team and Solo) dead players respawn after a 7-second period and have four seconds of invincibilty when they respawn. The Deathmatch modes have healing capsules and books that provide cell points; the other modes do not.

 Deathmatch(Solo): Solo Deathmatch is a free-for-all variation of team deathmatch. All players are on their own (though unofficial alliances are occasionally initiated), and the first player to achieve a specified amount of kills is declared the winner. In the event of a tie when time runs out, the first player to achieve the highest amount of kills for the round wins.

 Deathmatch(Teamplay): Almost the same as Solo Deathmatches, except that players are separated into teams. By default, twenty kill points are needed to win a round. People who play this game generally modify it to have more rounds and require more kills to get the most gold and experience. Not an overall rewarding type of game in terms of experience, but it is easy for newcomers and a good source of Gold.

Golem War: Players are assigned to a team in this mode. Each team has a Master Golem (with a red or blue aura, depending on the team), and in the center of the map there is a Golden Golem. The objective is to destroy the opponent's Master Golem, but there is a catch: Only the person that kills the Gold Golem can do significant damage to the other team's Master Golem; all other players do 1% of the damage they would normally do. To prevent teams "stealing" the Gold Golem from each other, it has separate health for each team. Unlike the other PvP modes, slain players do not respawn, and a team can also lose when everyone is slaughtered. If the time runs out and both Master Golems are still alive, the team with the Golem with more health wins the round. Golem War is generally accepted as the best way to make Gold and Experience in Rakion, aside from Stage mode. Players also have more health in this mode to offset the permanent-death.

Boss War: A recently added mode, it is a team-based headhunter fight. Each team has a boss that they must protect at all costs; if the boss dies the team loses the game. A team's boss is the person with the highest level on the team. It is not notable for giving experience, but the cash outcome is good. This mode does not have healing pickups, but Mages can still heal other team members (generally the boss).

Stage: A co-operative game mode for 1 to 4 players (depending on the stage) that lets you play a mission in your fastest way. After completing a stage level you get a grade ranging from S (Supremium) to D, depending on how fast you kill all creatures, or how many of them you kill in allotted time.

Basic Mode: A setting which can be assigned to any non-stage game. All players are set back to Level 1 for the duration of the game, and as such play with just basic stats.

Profanity filter
The in-game chat system automatically replaces most profanity with the word "LOVE", as in "You mother LOVEing LOVEer!" or "You are such a LOVEing son of a LOVEing LOVE go LOVE yourself in LOVEing LOVE! and you're mother is a LOVE who never loved you." The filter isn't limited to whole words, so typing the word "class" will appear as "clLOVE". In the past, the filter could be bypassed by typing a ' in the middle of the word as an escape sequence. However, this bypass was patched.

A new bypass for the filter has been discovered for quite some time, and surprisingly has not been patched. If the player holds Ctrl while pressing Backspace, the game doesn't apply the filter. For example, one could type "class" without the filter as such: C L A Ctrl+Backspace S S.  Unfortunately, this bypass is seldom ever used with good intentions.

Criticism
Rakion uses a similar online structure to another Korean based game, GunZ. Both games are not run on dedicated servers and instead make the client act as his own server, a peer to peer network. Some critics have criticized Softnyx for this design decision since in places other than South Korea, the distance latency often creates unfair advantages over other players. Other concerns have been noted that it gives hackers more "tools" to cheat with. Softnyx's only response to this is that Rakion is meant to be run as a LAN set up and not against far away players.