This year the Stratics team was able to check out Farlan Entertainment’s Dark and Light. The game, now in its first stage of beta, takes place in a mythological world where the word "confined" does not exist.

The booth was setup with several monitors with developers leading people and introducing them to the game. We were greeted by Laurent Paret who lead us through the first part of our tour in the Dark and Light world. One of the first things you notice is the wonderful terrain rendering technology called VWorld. With the infinate view distance, the combination of Micro Forte’s BigWorld engine and the VWorld terrain rendering technology make for a beautiful sight and game playing experience. The 15,000 square miles of prospectable land to explore was made with actual satellite photos taken of the earth. These photos were tweaked and made to fit together to form parts of the world. The parts of the realm are consistent and exist as a whole. Dark and Light does not require "zoning" because of the technology that the game is using. Another
wonderful feature of this technology is that the world/server can accommodate tens of thousands of players at one time with little or no problem.

Detail was defiantly part of the development team's game plan. The world is rich with vegetation (there is an actual vegetation layer apart from the base terrain layer), world props, buildings and NPCs for different areas. To go along with the terrain and vegetation features the world would not be complete without a weather system. The game's weather system is the best and most elaborate I have seen in a game yet. When seasons change, weather changes as well. In the summer
it might rain or the sun may be out all the time. In the winter the trees will start to age and snow will fall to the ground. The really neat thing about the snow is that you know when the weather is changing is when you see the snow caps on the mountains in the far distance start to become larger over the days. Weather will effect the players ability to do many things, including travel, crafting and fighting, be it either PvPor PvE. The game uses year, time, temperature, wind speed and current weather to determine these effects.

Dark and Light consists of two factions (dark and light), 12 classes, and 8 races. Players of opposing factions have the ability to rule land and take over kingdoms. Each faction controls small and large fortresses as well as land that the factions can fight over to claim for their own. The games politics very much involve the players as the world's faction ratio is changed. Missions based on faction stances will be presented to players to gain a higher status rank. Live missions and events will also be held by GMs. These include large epic events that could
include very large battles between the sides of light and dark.

Many of the games systems use groups and timing to complete a task. For instance, a crafter may need five friends to evenly execute creating a part of a large item. If not done well the item could be worthless. Sometimes the timing on the creation of the part would be crucial to the item being useable. Another system that affects the way items are crafted is the weather. On a rainy day you might not have the same outcome on an item as if you crafted it on a sunny mild day. One of the most unique features to the game is the astronomy system. The alignment of the stars in the
sky determine if some spells can be used and may effect the way they’re used. Lore on the stars can be found all over the world.

The games skill levels are categorized as the following: novice apprentice, companion, master companions, master, and grand master. The game has 12 classes in which any of these levels can be accomplished. As the level of skill raises new abilities are enabled such as ritual type events for the Necromancer which take multiple people to cast and combo attacks for the melee classes and the ability to teleport acorss the world. Combat in the world could be considered traditional when it comes to an MMO.

Life and death in Dark and Light is very similar to MMOs out now. When you create your character you will be given basic customization options. One's hair color, and shape/stlye of the hair can be changed as well as some facial features and body shape/size. Death in this game is traditional in a sense of respawning after death. The game has mana foutains which are controlled by the two factions. When a player is killed he/she can revive themselves at these foutains or be revived on the battlefield by a cleric. Death does not come without a penalty. If a player is killed you do not lose items, only money. This was stressed by Stephane Quilichini (lead game designer). Stephane explained that the items take so much work that it
would just upset so many people to lose that item that may have taken them several days and money to build. The loss of gold comes greater depending on the creture/person that you were killed by.

We were very pleased with what we saw in this stage of the game. The world has a wonderful story backing its design and feel. This game belongs on the main show floor as it has great potential at having some very innovative and revolutionary breakthroughs in MMO gaming technology. The game is now in its first stage of beta and will soon be moving into its second stage. The team has considered an online release. Look for Dark and Light later this year.