At the end of July, Steam re-launched one of the earlier MMORPGs in 2009. Karos Online is now available as Karos Returns and we revisted the game to see what has changed since we last played it. The game is quite dated and we set our expectations pretty low and hope, if anything, that it brings back good memories of playing in 2009.
Character creation is not one of the game's strongest point. Apart from the classes being gender locked, there are only five customization choices for your face and hair. Please note that even for 2009 standards, this is pretty limited. Class choices include: Mystic, Bowmistress, Blader, Paladin, Gunner, Rogue and Sorceress.
Gameplay is typical of early MMORPGs where you tab target mobs and kill them one at a time. Karos does have an auto combat feature that allows you to grind mindlessly while you're AFK. You can set the area where your character can roam and input auto-potion at selected HP or MP percentages. Because of the game's unique Fletta attributes, grinding on mobs your own level has its advantages. Fletta attributes can be raised separately from your stats and it will have added benefits to your characters:
- Yin Attribute - Increases HP regeneration rate
- Yang Attribute - Increases MP regeneration rate
- Air Attribute - Increases attack speed
- Fire Attribute - Increases attack power
- Wood Attribute - increases magic attack power
- Earth Attribute - Increases physical and magical defense
- Water Attribute - Increases movement speed and crit chance
The game is supposedly PvP centric but you can turn off the PvP setting if you don't want to be fragged by a trigger-happy, noob-killing power-tripper. Population is not surprisingly low, even for a single server with two channels. The low-level event bosses are pretty much ignored here so you have a good chance of getting a really good item out of it.
The game has its charms and it's still worth playing if you like old school. The auto-combat feature is still something new games should revisit, if only to remove the tedious task of brain-numbing grinds (attention: tree of savior). Have you revisted the game recently? Tell us your story at the comments section!
