Rakion: Chaos Force/Gameplay

Rakion is an online-only, multiplayer fantasy action computer game made by Softnyx. It was in "closed" beta testing from August 11 - 25th 2005, meaning that it was in free beta testing in a limited group of countries (which includes the United States and the UAE). It switched from development to open beta testing on October 13 2005. When the beta testing ended on December 1st of 2005, the game began to follow the same model as softnyx's other multiplayer online game, GunBound; users may purchase "cash" in order to purchase power-user status (which offers various benefits) and items that are often very powerful.

Gameplay and Controls
The core gameplay of Rakion consists of player-versus-player battles, usually involving ten to twenty players at once. A player controls his character, who appears in a standard "third person" view, using the WASD keys and the mouse to move, and the mouse buttons to attack. The left mouse button is a character's normal attack, and the right mouse button is used for a stronger, slower, and usually "unblockable" attack. Both mouse buttons pressed simultaneously, while the player is in direct contact with an enemy player, performs a "Grip" (throw) attack, which does significant damage, and renders both characters invulnerable for the duration of the attack. The shift key is used to block, and the space bar is used to jump. The Q key switches between a character's melee and ranged weapons. The first three number keys on the keyboard can be assigned to summoning different monsters to fight alongside the player. Once a player has killed enough other players in a match, the C key activates "Chaos Mode", which temporarily turns the player into a monster which is significantly more powerful than the player's normal mode. Each characters specific attacks, keypress combinations for additional attacks, and the monster a character turns into during Chaos Mode are all determined by that character's "class".

Classes
As in most fantasy games, player characters are broken down into distinct "classes". Unlike most fantasy games, however, the race and genders in Rakion are strictly determined by the classes. Only two classes are humans. Rakion's five classes are:
 * Swordsman: A male "knight"-like character with a sword. He is the most well-rounded class, with fair movement speed, attack speed, and damage. He is well suited to most forms of combat, though performs the best in hand-to-hand. The chaos form is a blue, very shiny looking and powerful character who excels in close combat. Swordsmen are humans.

Primary weapon: Long sword- a versatile weapon with balanced attack damage, speed, and area.

Ranged weapon: Throwing knife- A heavy knife that does relatively high damage, but has short range.

Chaos mode: The chaos mode swordsman has lightning-fast strikes and attacks in complete combo-strikes. He has a devastating dashing special attack capable of wiping out multiple enemies in a line and defeating golems.
 * Archer: A female character with a bow and shortsword. Naturally, Archers are heavily slanted toward ranged combat, and are not very effective up close. However, that does not mean they cannot defend themselves from melee attackers in a heartbeat. They also have a powerful grip attack that deals damage over time and keeps an opponent out of the action for around 5 seconds. Most people think Archers are humans, but they are elves. Their ears are pointed.

Primary weapon: Short sword- it is the default weapon though rarely used except for defending in short ranged combat. It still has combo-tactics much like the swordsman

Ranged weapon: Longbow- capable of firing deadly arrows over long distances. Arrows travel very quickly but deal light damage at lower levels. However, it is extremely damaging when the character's range attack is maxed.

Chaos Mode: The archer turns into an angelic-looking being with a very fast basic arrow attack and a devastating multiple-shot attack, dubbed the "shotgun" which shoots 5 arrows in 5 degree intervals that cannot be blocked and knock down the enemy. This multiple-shot attack can one-hit-KO characters when all 5 arrows hit a particular target. This is achieved when a target stands directly in front of the chaos archer.


 * Blacksmith: A large, brutish-looking male character with a warhammer. Blacksmiths have the strongest attacks of all the classes, but are also one of the slowest class in the game. Blacksmiths are golem type creatures, although their real race is unidentified.

Primary weapon: Warhammer- Blacksmiths carry around a giant warhammer that can knock out enemies in one blow. Their special knocks enemies off their feet and stuns them. In chaos form, blacksmiths have powerful area attacks.

Ranged weapon: throwing axe- similar to the knives of the swordsman, except they travel slightly faster and more accurately, this is also the most powerful ranged attack in the game but is the slowest to fire.

Chaos Mode: The blacksmith turns into a giant, heavily armored golem. His warhammer turns into a flail, and it can knock an enemy back a very long distance if it hits. He has devastating area attacks and can eliminate weaker foes in a matter of one or two hits.


 * Ninja: A lavender-haired female character with a dagger and shurikens. Ninjas are the fastest characters in the game, and particularly excel at "grip" (grabbing) attacks. They make up for their speed with weaker attacks and a lower defense than the other classes. Their invisibility attacks become annoying, but also deadly. A Ninja's chaos mode is particularly powerful because attacks bypass armour and hit right for health damage. Ninjas are the other human class.

Primary weapon: Dagger- used in explosion combo-attacks that can kill opponents easily. Has a powerful grip attack that involves grabbing the enemy, stabbing them in the back, and jumping up and stabbing them again.

Ranged weapon: The ninja throws out shuriken-like weapons, either in groups of 3 or 9. Useful for slaying slow enemies like golems and fleeing enemies.

Chaos Mode: The ninja turns into a ninja with a longer blade and a more intimidating red look. The blade has a slightly longer reach than the normal ninja blade, and the ninja can now dash towards someone when she attacks, which will execute two slashes followed by three explosions that track the enemy. The explosions have the best splash damage in the game. She can also do a deadly spin, and can launch out nearly 27 shurikens, which can decimate golems in seconds.


 * Mage: A small, male, moogle-like creature with a staff. Mages are primarily designed to be "support" characters, with both healing magic and a range of long-distance magical attacks. Mages wear masks over their true face, which is never shown in the game. A full grown mage is much shorter that any full grown human, and they live longer (not in the game) than any other human. The mage's devastating spells makes it the strongest character in the game if used properly.

Primary Weapon- battlestaff: the mage's battlestaff can be used for weak melee attacks, but is also used for casting some of the strongest spells in the game. The projection attack, a row of ice spikes, deals massive damage. This weapon can also produce blessings, or orbs that heal an ally.

Ranged weapon- the mage holds a roughly spherical object in its hands and uses it to cast the rotating bomb and the meteor spell. The bomb detonates after 1.5 seconds, dealing area of effect damage. It is a versatile weapon that can be very effective. The meteor attack shoots two homing meteors that deal heavy damage.

Chaos Mode: The mage summons another powerful mage and controls it by sitting on top of it. It has three main attacks: 3-way projection, Fireball, and prayer. The projection spell launches over 10 ice spires in 3 different directions, making it the strongest spell in the game. The meteor is a faster, stronger version of the original mage's meteor (4 shots (cast twice) is enough to slay a player). The prayer spell heals all allies around the chaos mage, but not the mage itself.

In-Game Equipment
Rakion offers an in-game currency system which can be used to buy armor, weapons, jewelry, and pets. These two currencies are gold and cash. Gold can be obtained through all battles and most events, while cash can only be bought by using a cash-charge option or obtained through an event. The following types of equipment can be bought for you character.

-Helmets: It is necessary to protect your character's head area. Not only does this equipment grant bonus armor, but also may provide bonus cell points (for summoning) or bonus hit points.

-Shoulders: This piece of equipment does not provide as much defense or bonuses as larger armor, but the extra points may still prove invaluable.

-Arms/Legs: This equipment provides even less defense than shoulder guards, but may still be useful at times.

-Body Armor: The most crucial armor, the body armor provides unmatched protection for your character, and has a chance of granting other benefits as well.

-Primary Weapon: Every warrior needs weapons, and many types of class-specific weapons are available to them. Weapons are very diverse and have a variety of effects, most granting damage to normal, special, and grip attack modes. Some weapons even deal bonus damage to creatures, while others have the disadvantage of being slow.

-Ranged Weapon: Each character in Rakion is armed with two weapons, the second being a ranged weapon. These weapons grant bonus damage to ranged attack and sometimes normal attack, which stacks with the bonuses received from your primary weapon, thus boosting your damage significantly.

Game Modes
Aside from the Stage gameplay mode, all of the modes use the same collection of arenas. The various modes are:
 * Stage/Quests: Single-player or cooperative missions, all of which involve running from one end of a dungeon to the other, killing all monsters encountered along the way. The amount gold and experience awarded at the end is determined by how quickly the mission is completed.
 * Team Deathmatch: Battle between two equal teams, over a set number of rounds. Each round ends when the time runs out, or when one team reaches a set number of kills. Slain players respawn after 15 seconds. Between rounds, the game will automatically swap skilled and unskilled players between teams to balance the skill level between the teams.
 * Solo Deathmatch: A battle royale between all of the players, over a set number of rounds. Each round ends when the time runs out. As in the Team Deathmatch, slain players respawn after 15 seconds.
 * Golem War: Similar to Team Deathmatch, but each team is assigned a huge, indestructible "Golem" monster. A "Gold Golem" exists at a point between the two teams' golems, and the first player to kill the Gold Golem receives the "Golden Sword". The player with the Golden Sword is the only character who can damage either of the team golems. Unlike the other modes, slain players in Golem War do not respawn until the beginning of the next round. Each round ends when one of the team golems is killed, all of one team's players are killed, or time runs out. As in Team Deathmatch, the game will automatically try to balance the teams between rounds by switching skilled and unskilled players.

Events
Similar to Softnyx's previous game, Gunbound, Rakion is also projected ot have seasonal events that will benefit the user. Being a relatively new game, few events have been released so far. The following events have been released so far (note: not all are technically considered events)

-Beta Testing (Power-User Benefit)- Players who cash charged during the testing period received an extra month for free.

-End Beta Testing: Users who played Rakion in its two test versions received a ring that granted movement and attack speed bonuses.

-February 14, 2006: Stage 1 of the Valentines' Day event has been released! Players who complete this stage with ranking A or higher will receive 1000 cash, which can be used to buy several items. This event will last until March, with one stage being released every week. A raffle for 30,000 gold and a few thousand cash is also taking place. Players can receive 1000 additional cash for every event stage they accomplish.

Profanity Filter
The in-game chat system automatically replaces most profanity with the word "LOVE", as in "You LOVEing LOVELOVEer!" Unfortunately, the filter isn't limited to whole words, so typing the word "class" (which is used fairly often in Rakion) will appear as "clLOVE". There is a way to bypass this though. If you type in an apostrophe in the middle of a word that is considered profanity, it comes out as normal, since the game does not show the appearance of an apostrophe in the text.

Criticism
Currently, as of a patch intended to remedy lag, instead has a negative effect of characters floating in midair and frequent disconnections on users connected using a LAN or router. This can be remedied by forwarding certain ports.

Also, being a relatively new game, Rakion suffers from an incredible number of hackers. Such hacks include speed hacks, damage hacks, and autogrip hacks.