Vortex Gaming

Hive IM unveiled its new title 'Architect: Land of Exile (hereinafter Architect)' to the general public for the first time at G-STAR 2024, held at BEXCO in Busan on the 14th, through a playable demo.

'Architect' is expected to be a high-end AAA MMORPG based on Unreal Engine 5's realistic graphics and top-tier technology. It also features vast seamless world fields to explore, exciting battles with unique bosses and monsters, as well as unrestricted special movements such as flying, swimming, and rock climbing, allowing players to freely explore every corner of the world.

Until the G-STAR trailer released on the morning of the 14th, Architect's in-game screens had been kept strictly confidential, so many gamers were interested in the G-STAR exhibition where Hive IM and Aquatree's first MMORPG would be unveiled.

Before visiting the G-STAR site, there were concerns about Hive IM's reluctance to show in-game screens, but the worries were unfounded. The demo itself was only about 30 minutes long, but it showed an attempt to differentiate itself from simple MMORPGs by mixing various exploration and combat elements found in existing open-world RPGs, and it showed a unique charm that made one wonder why the game footage had not been released earlier.

Hive IM has created a dedicated Architect exhibition space with 100 booths in the B2C Hall 2nd Exhibition Hall for this G-STAR. The demo was conducted entirely on PC, and the demo build allowed players to experience a total of two modes: 'Story Mode' and 'Exploration Mode'.

Story Mode consists of about 15 minutes of story quest content, starting with character customization that anyone who plays MMORPG for the first time goes through, and Exploration Mode is designed to allow players to experience various exploration-type content that can be experienced in the actual game for 15 minutes, such as dungeon battles, puzzle challenges, and flying challenges. Both versions include a simple tutorial for those who are new to Architect, so there should be no major difficulties in understanding either one first.

In this demo, we first played 'Story Mode' to follow the basic flow of MMORPG. In Story Mode, you can choose one of five classes: Combat Priest, Warrior, Assassin, Mage, and Hunter, and then create your own character through character customization.

In the demo, we chose the 'Combat Priest', the class that decorates Architect's main visual. The default appearance preset is designed to be beautiful, so there was no need to touch it separately, but it was possible to directly adjust various parts such as hair shape, pupils, forehead, cheekbones, cheek fat, jaw position, and body shape. Also, although not included in this demo build, male and female characters will be available for each class in the full version.

After creating the character, the player's journey to the giant tower begins in 'The Barren Land', the main stage of Architect. Here, you can help those in crisis due to monsters, and in the process, you can enjoy the story of the protagonist who gets caught up in a big incident.

All the lines of the characters in the story include high-quality dubbing, and thanks to the diverse facial expressions and cutscenes of the NPC characters that move realistically in accordance with the dubbing, you can immerse yourself in the story even more. The graphic presentation using Unreal Engine 5 is particularly outstanding in this section. However, perhaps because the facial expressions of the NPC characters were expressed too realistically, the expressions and impressions of the playable characters, which are processed as choices without separate lines, felt somewhat stiff as a reaction.

Even if you choose Story Mode, you can experience basic combat content. Regardless of which class you choose, a button configuration is provided that allows you to use normal attacks, four skills, jump, and dodge, and skills are divided into targeting and non-targeting skills depending on their purpose.

The battle is not a method of clearing by simply pressing buttons, but a full-fledged non-targeting battle that requires calculating the distance from the enemy and responding to gimmicks. Since the lock-on function is not provided separately and the range of skills is not displayed intuitively, you may be a little confused at first if you choose a ranged character, but it is expected that you will be able to enjoy more strategic and systematic battles as you become familiar with the controls, as more manual operation is required compared to a typical MMORPG. In fact, the combat in the demo build included several gimmicks that required quick reactions with jumps or dodges after seeing the enemy's motions in order to deal with them properly.

Overall, it was a satisfying combat experience, but when turning the camera to create distance from the enemy and then casting a normal attack or skill again, the fact that the line of sight does not face the enemy was somewhat cumbersome. It can be interpreted as a part that requires more precise manual operation, but it would be good to provide related options so that players can choose the camera method according to their preferences.

If you progress the story a little further, you can fight a giant golem and a boss, and after experiencing Architect's unique non-targeting combat a little more, the Story Mode demo ends when you arrive at 'Babylon', the central village of Architect. If you still feel disappointed at this time, you can look around Babylon and check the interaction elements for the remaining time even after the ending screen.

Immediately following, we played the second demo build, 'Exploration Mode'. The method of selecting and playing one of the five classes is the same, but character customization is omitted here. In Exploration Mode, players must pass three trials given by the 'Naruru Tribe' character, Architect's otter-type mascot. If you receive a quest, you will be automatically moved to the entrance to each trial, so everyone can experience all the prepared content without missing anything.

The first trial is the 'Trial of Flight', which involves passing through several ring-shaped circles floating in the air using the flying operation, one of Architect's special movements. It was easy to adapt to, as it is a gliding system that has appeared in many works, which is automatically activated by jumping off a cliff and pressing the space bar.

You must move to the target point while passing through as many circles as possible within the set time, and you can obtain a minimum of 1 to 3 treasure chest rewards depending on the mission performance result at the destination. The composition itself is simple, but the charm of the first trial is that you can look down on Architect's seamless world from a high place.

The second trial is the 'Trial of Leap', which is mixed with several puzzle elements. Players must use special movement operations such as jumping and climbing to ride on magically floating platforms and reach the target point. In addition to simply riding and climbing on the platform, there are also 'one-stroke drawing' type puzzles in the middle, and platforms that spin around like obstacles in sports variety shows also appear, adding to the fun of climbing.

Since the separate stamina gauge decreases rapidly when climbing, you could also feel strategic fun, such as finding an efficient route to avoid falling. This is also an element that can be seen in other open-world RPGs, and it can be said that it reflects the trend in order to break away from the typical MMORPG.

The last third trial is 'Challenge Gate'. Challenge Gate is a combat-type content that is played by entering an instance dungeon, and it was a space where you could comprehensively experience various fun such as dungeon exploration and boss raid. When you enter the Challenge Gate, you will explore a maze-shaped dungeon, and if you defeat the elite monsters on the way to the boss room, you can feel the fun of growing by selecting one of three random buffs, just like in a roguelike game. Among the buffs, there were various effects such as being able to perform the evasion dash, which was only possible once, twice in a row, so it was expected that there would be different fun every time you challenged.

At the end of the Challenge Gate, a fight with the 'Giant Bat', which can be said to be the most difficult battle in the entire demo build, awaits. The giant bat uses various gimmicks such as the most basic melee attack, a pounce attack that causes a knockdown, a shockwave that can only be avoided by jumping, and a wave attack that must be avoided by looking at it.

In particular, if you are hit head-on by the laser gimmick that is fired after a brief pause, your health will be reduced to the bottom, so you had to carefully watch what pattern would come next and attack it little by little. Since there was definitely fun in identifying and attacking the enemy's patterns with limited skills, I even thought that I would like to experience more diverse boss battles with another class if I had the chance.

If you have attacked the giant bat, you have cleared all three trials included in 'Exploration Mode'. Although I didn't achieve the presented challenges 100% perfectly, the kind Naruru Tribe NPC praised the player as a great achievement regardless of the result, and the demo ended like that.

This G-STAR demo was the first time that Hive IM and Aquatree unveiled 'Architect' to the general public. At the press conference held together on this day, Park Beom-jin, CEO of the developer Aquatree, revealed his ambition to listen carefully to the voices of users and quickly reflect any parts that users find uncomfortable, and to always communicate closely. It remains to be seen whether their efforts to differentiate themselves by adding various attempts will bear fruit properly, or whether it will become just another mediocre mobile MMORPG that can be seen anywhere, and we will have to continue to watch their future moves.

The first MMORPG that Hive IM and Aquatree are presenting together, 'Architect: Land of Exile', can be experienced at the Hive IM booth in G-STAR Hall 2 until the 17th.

웹진 인벤박광석 기자
2024-11-15