Rakion: Chaos Force/Gameplay

Rakion (Korean: 라키온) is a free, three-dimensional, fantasy action online game developed by the South Korean company Softnyx. It was in "closed" beta testing from August 11 - 25 2005, meaning that it was in free beta testing in a limited group of countries (which included 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 1, 2005, the game began to follow the same model as Softnyx's other MMORPG, GunBound; users may purchase "cash" with actual currency 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. Players can press F4 to switch between first-person-shooter style controls (only the mouse controls character direction, keys strafe) or 'console' control, in which the character turns and runs in whichever direction is pressed on the keyboard. The left mouse button usually performs a normal attack, whilst holding the right mouse button usually leads to a slower and possibly unblockable attack. When both mouse buttons are pressed simultaneously, the player becomes invincible for a short period of time and performs an attack, but suffers from high cooldown afterwards. If an invincible attack is launched close enough to another player, and from the right angle, the character performs a "grip" attack. This does significant damage, and renders both characters invulnerable for the duration of the attack. The Shift key is used to block, and the spacebar 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 (termed 'cells'). Once a player has killed enough players in a match (6 for normal players and 5 for subscribers), the C key activates "Chaos Mode", which temporarily transforms the player into a much more powerful form. Each character's specific attacks, keypress combinations for additional attacks, and the form 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 three 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, shiny, and powerful character who excels in close combat. Swordsmen are humans.

Primary weapon: Longsword - 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 is equipped with a dual sided spear. He 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. Currently, there is some controversy about whether the archer is a human or an elf.

Primary weapon: Shortsword - it is the default weapon though rarely used except for defending in short ranged combat. It still has combo-tactics much like the swordsman. In early levels, the sword my do more damage initially than the bow does. For more experienced users, switching weapons (from bow to sword) and using a devastating grab attack may easily catch an opponent off guard.

Ranged weapon: Bow - 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-kill characters when all 5 arrows hit a particular target. This is achieved when a target stands directly in front of the chaos archer. Also, a bug well-known in-game includes going into a wall by using this ability near a corner while running into the small crack.


 * 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. The blacksmith generally is the most offensively balanced class in the game, but his slow speed often is detrimental.

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. Their warhammer is also longer than a swordsman's sword which makes a perfect weapon for front stabbing as it has a longer reach. Blacksmiths have the highest close-quarter attack at the start of the game and is unlikely to ever be surpassed even by the Swordsman.

Ranged weapon: Throwing axe- Similar to the knives of the swordsman, except they travel the slowest and, ironically, almost completely useless in long range warfare unless against large creatures. Even without investing skill points into ranged attack, the axes deal heavier damage than any other ranged weapon in the game.

Chaos Mode: The blacksmith turns into a giant, heavily armored golem-like creature. His warhammer turns into a large 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. The greatest benefit of the chaos blacksmith is the fact that his normal chaos attack is incredibly devastating, unlike the swordsman, which requires using a charge-up dash in order to be very effective. This proves beneficial because charging attacks consume 1 second from the amount of time a character can stay chaos.


 * 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. Ninjas are the other human class.

Primary weapon: Dagger- used in explosion combo-attacks that can annoy opponents easily. Has a powerful grip attack that involves grabbing the enemy, stabbing them in the back, and jumping up and stabbing them again. Ninjas often slashes their target one time, to stun and ensure that the target is not lagging, then grips the target, dealing a huge amount of damage. However if a ninja misses her grip, it would result in a huge delay time where opponents could either grip or deal huge damage to that ninja.

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. Shurikens thrown in groups of 3 are much weaker, individually, than individual shurikens thrown in groups of 9. Groups of nine shurikens stun the enemy temporarily while groups of 3 do not affect the enemy's movement.

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. The most powerful anti-player melee move in the game is the Ninja's Phoenix move, in which she spins around with her blade very quickly, smashing enemies into the ground. Bypasses armor. She also is able to launch two boxes of 9 shurikens each, which can decimate golems in seconds. These also bypass armor.


 * Mage: A small moogle-like creature with an undefined gender and staff as their main weapon. 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. Mage attacks often have a short tell-tale animation and very high delay times, which leave the mage open to attack if missed.

Primary Weapon- Magic Staff: The mage's Magic Staff 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. Other than offensive use, the mage can use the staff to temporarily generate a tornado-like wind barrier which push all enemies in the proximity away from the mage. This is proven to be a great strategy when used against enemies in gravity left that are below the mage at the time of cast, which results the enemies a slow decent towards the base of the gravity left. Finally this weapon allow the mage to be a support healer by producing blessings, or orbs that heal an ally.

Ranged weapon- The mage holds a small wand in its hands and uses it to cast the rotating bomb and the meteor spell. The bomb can be used like a grenade and 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, it ignores armor and thus making it the strongest spell in the game. The meteor is a faster, stronger version of the original mage's meteor, it looks like propelled pumpkins and is great for range attack and counter range attack (4 shots (cast twice) is enough to slay a player). The prayer spell heals all allies (About 30% of their hp, but not armor) around the chaos mage, but not the mage itself.

Equipment
Rakion offers two in-game currency systems which can be used to buy armor, weapons, jewelry, and creatures. 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 by being obtained through an event. The following types of equipment can be bought for one's character.
 * Helmets: It is necessary to protect a 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. Helmets generally cost the most Gold out of all pieces of armor, but this is because they upgrade several favorable attributes; the higher-leveled helmets upgrade Attack Speed and the number of Cell points you can carry.
 * Shoulders: Shoulder pads generally upgrade a mediocre amount of armor and life, but cell destruction will receive a higher bonus.
 * Arms/Legs: Arm and leg armor have a very large Armor boost, but they don't boost any attack attributes.
 * 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.
 * Rings: Characters can wear up to three rings, each providing a special bonus. The bonuses provided range from simple speed increases to damage increase.
 * Amulets: An amulet or locket can be worn around the character's neck. Similar to rings, amulets also provide nice bonuses, except amulets generally have a greater range of effects since only one can be worn at a time.
 * Creatures (Cells): Each character can buy and summon monsters with their cell points. Up to three creatures can be summoned at a time. Creatures gain EXP of their own, and can level up.
 * Nak: A weak and slow-moving spider that fires a ranged missile. Their cell summon cost is lower than that of any other creature. In mass quantities, Naks can easily overwhelm foes with their stunning strike.
 * Blood Nak: A Nak that does a lot more damage but has less life. (This cell was attainable through an Easter event only, although this monster is present in several Stage levels.) Blood Naks also have a significantly faster attack rate.
 * Panzer: An armored knight wielding a halberd. Panzers have much more resistance than Naks, and deal heavy damage at high levels.
 * Assault Panzer: A Panzer that does a lot more damage but has less life. (This cell was attainable through an Easter event only, although this monster is present in several Stage levels.) Assault Panzers are much more agile than their weaker form, thus attack and move faster.
 * Crossbow: A dwarf wielding a crossbow. These creatures fire bolts at enemies at close range, but are slow and inaccurate. They also whack characters with their bows if one approaches them. They are slightly better than Naks because of their higher resistance and faster attack speed.
 * Blazer: A formidable-looking mage that hovers above the ground. The Blazers fire massive bolts of energy at their foes, dealing titanic damage at maximum range. However, they are very slow and immobile, and thus vulnerable to attack.
 * Soul Cannon: A half-size golem-like creature with a cannon attached to its right arm, while it uses its left arm to support and fire the cannon. The cannonball deals great splash damage but the Soul Cannon cant attack air units. When a Soul Cannon is defeated, it automatically self-destructs, killing people with low health instantly, therefore making it one of the most feared creatures in Rakion.
 * Long Bow: An elf-like creature that wields a deadly and accurate bow. Similar to the Crossbow, it has more life, more attack, and faster attack speed. It is a formidable foe and its arrows can knock a character to the ground. However, they have no close range attack.
 * Golem: A giant brute that attacks with fist and earth. The golem hits multiple enemies with a sweep of his hand, or throws boulders at his enemies. He has the best resistance, but has a very slow movement speed.
 * Taurus A powerful minotaur that charges his enemies. The minotaur has a rapid charging attack, and gores enemies with his powerful horns, sending them flying. He is one of the most feared creatures in Rakion. Despite his low attack damage, he has a double strike that can prove fatal for the unwary.
 * Dragon The ultimate juggernaut of destruction. The dragon soars above his enemies, raining down a torrent of fire upon all foolish enough to stand in his way. No creature is a match for the dragon as its firepower is too great. Multiple dragons used in a golem war will often lead the team to victory. The dragon is hard to hit, but has lower hit points than the taurus and golem. The dragon has two main attacks, one: a long range fireball spewed from the dragon's mouth and is capable of dealing large amounts of damage. the second is a flame-thrower type weapon, where the dragon spews out flame in a short-distance attack, stripping away enemy armor and health.

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. Players are only given 65% of their normal health and armour in order to increase the amount of kills. Slain players respawn after 7 seconds. Between rounds, the game will automatically balance the number of players between each team.
 * 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, the players have less health and armour and slain players respawn after 7 seconds.
 * Golem War: Similar to Team Deathmatch, but each team is assigned a "Master Golem". A "Gold Golem" with separate hit point bars for each team 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 able to deal normal damage to the opposing team's golem (which is the object of this mode). Other players who do not hold the Golden Sword are able to damage the Gold Golem, but deal very little damage, up to a point that it is negligible. Unlike the Death Match modes, players do not respawn until the next round, and the round is ended when all players on one team are defeated, a team's Master Golem is defeated or when the round time is up. In the scenario when the time runs out and both team's golems are still alive, the team whose golem with the least health would be the losers for the round. As in Team Deathmatch, the game will automatically balance the team between rounds by balancing out the number of players. The player(s) that is/are switched between teams are chosen at random.

Maps
Rakion provides players with many various maps with unique properties to suit their preferences and likings.
 * Gravity: A map where players use the strategic locations of gravity lifts to their advantage. A player, while standing on a gravity lift, can jump and he/she would automatically float up onto the platform above. There are a total of four gravity lifts in this map that connect the basement, the first floor, and the second floor. The second floor of this map towers above the lower floor, resulting in a good position for archers and mages to easily target opponents below. Players also are able to "stand" on the top platform of the gravity lifts, thereby blocking opponents from floating up. Summoned creatures can also be used in the same way. This map can be used for Golem Wars and Solo or Team Deathmatches.
 * Twin Castle: This map is a long map where there are two main passages to the center from each team's base. The center is a huge arena where players usually battle each other. On each side of the map, there are two cages that one could teleport into from the team's base. These cages could prove useful for ranged attacks, bombarding their opponents fighting in the arena below. This map can be used for Golem Wars and Solo or Team Deathmatches.
 * Covolt Peak: This map is a very high map that consists of three floors - namely the basement, the main floor and the upper floor - and is created in a circular manner. Players are able to jump down from higher floors to lower ones. However, if the player has no skill in avoiding damage from the jump, players would receive a damage and a recoil when they jump down. However, to go up to a floor above, one must use the teleporters that teleport the character to the upper floors. This map can be used for Golem Wars and Solo or Team Deathmatches.
 * Draco Valley: This map is the biggest map in the game, where the bases of each team are huge. Players must use the teleporters in their base to enter the small room which connects to the vast arena where the Gold Golem is located in a Golem War. This map can be used for Golem Wars and Solo or Team Deathmatches.
 * Mammoth: This map is an underground ice cave. It is probably named Mammoth due to the huge frozen mammoth head lying on the side of the map. The floor of this map is slippery on some parts, therefore undermining the player's skill that usually plays on normal ground. This slippery terrain could prove to be an advantage for the archers and mages, where the other classes may miss their attacks due to the slippery floor. There is a huge water pool in the middle of the map where players move at a lesser speed. However, there are no other disadvantages when fighting in the pool. Characters that have long range such as the warrior and blacksmith would normally excel in the pool. Archers can also use the pool to there advantage where all the opposing players move more slowly, but the attacks don't. This map can be used for Solo or Team Deathmatches.
 * Cage: This map is formed in a more complicated way than other maps, as there are long, narrow passages and huge combative areas. This map looks like a maze, and therefore beginners may be confused with the passages and huge combative areas. This map can be used for Solo or Team Deathmatches.
 * Tomb of the King: This is a linear, two-story map with three annexes for each team's Golem and for the Gold Golem in a Golem War. The room where the Gold Golem resides is located in the middle of the map and can only be accessed when one is on the bridge connecting the rooms where the teams spawn. This map can be used for Golem Wars and Solo or Team Deathmatches.

Events
Similar to Softnyx's previous game, Gunbound, Rakion is also projected to 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. It resembles the stage "Holy Springs". 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 21st, 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.
 * April 2006: Easter event in which a player logs in to the website and plays a "find the difference" game with five different pictures, if they beat all five in under 200 seconds, they get prizes. First Picture: a Nak; Second Picture: a Panzer; Third Picture: a Blood Nak; Fourth Picture: a Assault Panzer; Fifth Picture: a Blood Nak and a Assault Panzer. The prizes are accumulative so you can get: 1 nak, 1 panzer, 2 blood naks, 2 assault panzers.
 * June 2006: An event called Viva WorldCup was held by the Rakion team. The event commemorates the real world event, the Fifa WorldCup. Viva is separated into two rounds, Round One and Round Two.
 * In Round One, if a power user charges for an amount of cash then he or she would get that same amount in gold. For example, if a player charges 10,000 cash, then that player would also get 10,000 gold. If the player charges higher than 50,000 cash, that person would have their creature upgraded. For example, a panzar would evolve to become a assault panzar and a nak would become a blood nak.
 * In Round Two, the player can purchase two tickets.
 * One ticket can be purchased for 10,000 gold. This ticket allows the player to select which Fifa WorldCup soccer teams will move to Round 16, the Quarter Finals, and the Semi Finals. If 12 countries are right out of Round 16, the player gets a level 20 blazer. If 6 countries are chosen correctly out of the Quarter Finals, the player gets a level 30 golem. If 3 countries are right out of the Semi Finals, the player gets a level 45 taurus. If all the countries are correctly chosen, the player gets a level 80 dragon.
 * Another Round Two ticket can be purchased for 1,000 cash or 10,000 gold. This ticket allows the player to select the winning country and by how much they win by. The earlier the ticket is submitted, the greater the rewards.

Profanity filter
The in-game chat system automatically replaces most profanity with the word "LOVE", as in "You LOVEing LOVEer!" 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". Due to this, the game has received much criticism, and players can get past this filter by using the spacebar (cla ss instead of class).

Criticism
The game tries to pair similar ping rates but will mistakingly identify lagged users as a ping rate of 999, most likely assuming connection rates are constant when with multiple LAN users they are not. If any player in a game arena has a ping of 999, you are not permitted to join the game. Currently, due to a recent patch intended to remedy lag, characters sometimes float in midair, and there may be frequent disconnections on users running behind a router, or especially when multiple users start running on a LAN in the same game arena. This can be reduced by opening port 50817 for UDP.

Rakion suffers from a small number of hackers. Such hacks include speed hacks, one hit kill hacks, chaos hacks, and pet-change hacks such as changing a simple Nak into a highly accurate longbow. Softnyx has taken extreme measures to prevent hacking, have locked down many exploits, and are now banning users who do so. Although some users find ways to bypass the banning and continue hacking, the majority of hacks are related to exploiting game bugs, and are no worse then the "advantages" gained from being a power user. However,as Rakion is still largely a skill based game, it is still quite easy for a non-power user to defeat a power user in a 1v1 combat. Furthermore, any game company needs money to continue to run the game.

Since the beginning of January, many players started to leave Rakion. The main criticism layed within the Power User system. Most users declared the system unbalanced and unfair. Some criticisms about the Power User system included the inability to level up skills when a non Power User leveled past 15, an inability to buy items without being a Power User, and the problem of having level 15 skill points while being at a much higher level(Update: This issue has been resolved in Mid-May as Softnyx has allowed all non-Power Users to add statistic points past level 15).

Note that as of April 25, 2006, the amount of hackers around the game has been reduced to almost zero, as the administrative staff are becoming much more alert as to the problems in the game. Swapping is also highly illegal now, and the penalties, are much MUCH greater than the rewards. Finally, they are forcing users with profanity in their name to pay to change their name, without letting the users know this before.

Additionally, despite many players demanding a fix for persistent lag issues within the game, a major patch on April 18th, 2006 added unnecessary elements to Rakion, thus resulting in increased lag. The system of voting added in this patch to kick players out is also commonly abused to remove skilled players from the game. Many players from the beta version of Rakion have abandoned the game, citing abuse of the kicking system and increasing problems with lag as reasons.