By now, this much is clear to us: Massively multiplayer online games are here to stay, at least for the foreseeable future. Games that let you create a character and go off on adventures in a persistent online world with hundreds, even thousands, of other players, fighting monsters (and sometimes other players), acquiring treasures, and becoming more powerful with experience levels aren't going anywhere, thanks to pioneers like EverQuest and breakout successes like World of Warcraft. Next year, a new player will emerge on the scene that offers a combination of the high-fantasy elements you'd expect from an elf-and-dwarf type of online game as well as futuristic, sci-fi elements. The game is RF Online, and recently, we had a chance to take an updated look at the game.

　　Elves and mechs...together at last in RF Online.

　　RF Online will take place on an alien planet inhabited by three different playable races. These are the Accretia Empire, a race of robotic characters that command highly advanced technology; the Bellato Union, a race of human-like tinkers that specialize in powerful gadgets; and the Cora Holy Alliance, a race of elflike beings that prefer magic to machine guns. Each race has distinctive abilities, including at least one unique power that distinguishes them in battle. The robot beings of the Accretia Empire, after attaining a sufficient experience level, will be able to use "launchers"--humongous, oversize arm cannons that restrict their movement and are expensive to maintain, but are extremely damaging in combat. The crafty tinkers of the Bellato Union, after they become experienced enough, will be able to commission powerful mech units that move at a snail's pace but feature various hardpoints on their chassis for exceptionally powerful armament. And the sorcerers of the Cora Alliance will eventually learn how to create summoned magical companions to fight alongside their devastating battle sorcery.

　　By default, each race starts out in a completely different part of the world, in home cities with huge, sprawling architecture appropriate to their race (the Accretia Empire's starting city, for instance, is a sleek, futuristic metropolis, while the Cora Alliance's starting city is peppered with shimmering towers). And by default, each race in the game is hostile toward one another, so venturing near an enemy race's home city is something that will be attempted by only the very brave or the very stupid. However, making war with other players will be the focus of the game, although there will definitely be quests that you'll receive from in-game characters. And although you can use the game's crafting system also to mine for minerals to create armor and weapons, RF Online's gameplay will focus on player-versus-player (PVP) battles. At this point in the game's development, it's suggested that players can start meaningfully participating in PVP at about level 20 (the game's current level cap is 50, though that may change), and that devoted players can probably reach level 20 in a solid weekend's worth of play.

　　PVP battles will typically take place in disputed mining areas between (hopefully) organized groups of skilled players. While we weren't able to participate in a PVP battle ourselves, we're told that the game will offer different tactical options; for instance, all races will have melee and ranged weapons and skills associated with them. Also, each race's unique abilities will likely play into battle in different ways; the Bellato Union's mechs, for instance, are too slow to be frontline fighters, but may be powerful allies as (mostly) stationary artillery. The game's combat system is intended to be varied rather than repetitive; like Cryptic Studios' City of Heroes, RF Online has no "autoattack" (that is, you don't simply toggle your character's attack to "on" and watch it whack away at an enemy repeatedly). Instead, the game has an expandable list of hotkeys to special abilities that you can use in battle.

　　You'll be able to go on quests and try out some crafting, but the game's focus is player-versus-player battles.

　　Though the game is already available in Asia (where it reportedly has about a million active subscribers), RF Online will launch in North America and the UK (and likely the rest of Europe) with the first three of the "Giga" content updates that CCR originally produced for the Asian version of the game. These will include vehicles and new areas to explore. In Asia, CCR has released the "Giga Final" content update that will eventually be added to the game, after which content updates will most likely be developed in tandem with Codemasters, with input from Sega Japan (the game's Japanese publisher). From what we've seen, RF Online looks like it will offer a varied sci-fi/fantasy experience and plenty of competitive player-versus-player action when it launches in early 2006.