When I saw him playing a game he'd discovered, Atlantica Online by Ndoors, I was surprised by its complexity and was also sure I wouldn't be able to handle it. But then he said the magic word "free", and I decided to give it a try. I am now utterly hooked.

Atlantica Online is a free-to-play massively multiplayer online role-playing game, and the first game I've tried with turn-based combat. You're given thirty seconds to send your various fighters after opponents, and then your turn ends and the opponent attacks while you watch. Figure A shows a battle between my forces on the right and a group of starved snails on the left, with one of the snails in the process of poisoning one of my mercenaries.

FIGURE A


An Atlantica Online battle in progress. Roll over picture for a larger image.

During your turn you will direct your mercenaries to attack, use a magical attack, drink a health potion, read a scroll to perform an action, or pick up items from the corpses of your enemies.

Up to five of your maximum of eight mercenaries can fight on a given turn, depending on what they did last turn, and so every round is different. I much prefer this to the games I've played where every battle seems to be exactly the same.

At the beginning, I was frustrated because my mercenaries seemed to never be ready when I wanted to fight. I didn't find that the game did a great job of explaining to me how the battles worked, and I was suspicious that it was unfairly weighted toward the enemy.

However, I now understand that different actions are unavailable after use for different amounts of time, and I am rarely bothered by a mercenary who won't act when I want him to.

I've tried many other online games, and after about fifteen hours of play I always wish I'd picked a different character type because I am envious of the abilities my particular character doesn't have. With Atlantica, that doesn't happen, because my main character hires mercenaries to work with her, and so I can have one of every type of character if I choose.

I presently have mercenaries that fight with sword, spear, axe, cannon, and gun, as well as a shaman who can heal others and a monk who keeps me healthy and frees my mercenaries from enemy holds.

Atlantica has cleverly kept certain mercenary types unavailable for newer characters; at higher levels you can do quests to earn the right to hire those people. While on one level I wish I could hire anyone I want immediately, I think this will keep the game interesting for a long time.