Helbreath

Helbreath is a game that has been out for about 5 years now. I have been playing this game since beta and I must say for a free game this has great graphics and game play as well.

The story behind the game isn't the most pleasant of tales, though it started out innocently enough. Two ruler gods of the world of Helbreath, Eldinel and Aresien, established a kinship with humanity. They came down from their elevated plane to join the humans in an event called, the "Descent of the Gods." For many years, the world of Helbreath knew peace. However, as evitably happens with gods, an argument of epic proportions ensued between Eldinel and Aresien. Dubbed the "Prime Event," the quarrel between these ruler gods spiraled the world of Helbreath into chaos of unimaginable proportions. Only one place in all of Helbreath, known as Equilibrium was saved from destructive force of this feud. Shunned by the Divine Power, nature turned against its human inhabitants creating desolation where there was once fertility. The humans reacted to all of this by renewing their devotion to the gods. However, the devotion was split between the god, Eldinel, whose whorshippers were known as the Elvine, and the god, Aresien, whose devotees were known as the Aresden. All the while, further chaos ensued and gave birth to the return of Abaddon, the absolute evil in the land. Taking advantage of the weakened state of humanity, Abaddon unleashed his minions in full force against them. Beginning as a lowly traveler, the player must journey through the world engaging Abaddon's scourge, among other manners of denizens, striving to rid the world of the ancient evil. Furthermore, the player has the opportunity to join on the side of either the Elvine or the Aresden and experience the player versus player element of the game called Total War.

Graphically, Helbreath International has its ups and downs. The detailed rendering of the terrain backgrounds is quite impressive and it is evident that great care was taken in the creation of these areas. Each area has its own unique feel, whether it be the peaceful starting countryside, the underwater city of Druncnia, the dungeon known only as Maze, and the fiery realm of Abaddon. I also found that a great deal of the more prominent monsters in the game showed a high level of style. The artwork behind the demon Abaddon, for example, was quite well done. Where I felt some improvement could be made was with the avatar and spell effect graphics, which were very reminiscent of the early Ultima Online MMO. Being used to more elaborate artwork for avatars and spell effects in some of the other leading MMOs, it almost felt like Helbreath was a throwback instead of a pioneer in this regard.

PvP is also a major regard in Helbreath. As far as safe zone goes, the only real safe zones are stores or your "farm" area. Opposite towns can be raided during the week for only a few min. On the weekend when Total War breaks out, towns can be raided until the event is over. All other zones in the game are PvP and you can be attacked anywhere. Sometimes annoying when you zone into a place only to be killed moments later, its equally funny to do it to others. :P

All in all, Helbreath is a fun game with hours of gameplay available. http://www.helbreathusa.com is the main website for Helbreath. However since the release of the USA version, switch from the International version it has gone pay to play. But there are also tons of free private servers which offer equal or even greater gameplay. A list of the top 100 can be found here.