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Not getting enough MMOs on Linux? Project: Gorgon [Official Site] looks like a somewhat promising MMORPG that's currently free while it's in Alpha.

The game is being made by Eric Heimburg and his wife Sandra Powers, two veterans who've worked on titles like Asheron’s Call 1 and 2, Star Trek Online, EverQuest II and others. For a little history on their funding: The game was originally funded on Kickstarter with $74,781 secured, this was way back in 2015 and they said in their FAQ even then that they did want to support Linux. On top of that, they secured a further $17,230 from IndieGoGo back in 2016.

We've had a few people email it in over the past few months and a forum post today reminded me to actually do something with it…

First, here's a trailer to get you up to speed on it:

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You can find the launcher download here. I won't directly link it, since they could update the download link and change filenames and so on. To be clear, that's just the launcher, which will then download a few GBs more resulting in it using around 7GB space, so make sure you have some room free.

For player skills, they've gone down the route of being more of a sandbox. You don't pick a specific class, instead you choose the specific skills you want to level up. Personally, I actually prefer this approach and I often like to mix and match play-styles depending on what I'm doing, without having to work with multiple characters.

There's currently three different races: Human, Elf and Rakshasa (they look like humanoid Lions), with both male and female options as well as some customisations like hair, skin tone and so on. I chose Elf for my testing, because I couldn't pass them up after how the game describes them as "sex-addicted", too amusing not to pick them.

As for the game, it actually seems to run quite nicely. Performance was quite poor on the highest setting, but on the "Beautiful" setting it seems to stay around 60FPS and feels smooth enough for me. It's not the best looking game, but it is still quite early in development, but here's a nice shot of it running on Ubuntu 17.10:

It uses WASD controls for movement, right mouse button to move the camera around and thankfully you can zoom in and out pretty far. The interface is pretty nice too, turns out they had a recent revamp of the entire UI so I'm glad I waited on this one to test.

Amusingly, I got caught-out by a skeleton archer while battling with a skeleton swordsman, so I ended up dying. I couldn't help but laugh when it said "You've levelled up in Dying!". Turns out it's an actual skill—hah! You also seem to get bonus XP when you die from a cause for the first time—I think this game was made for me…

I'm actually quite impressed with it, I'm certainly looking forward to watching this one evolve as it continues development. Hopefully if they get enough testing done, this will be another MMO that gets official Linux support. We could do with more that's for sure.

If you do try it out and enjoy it, might be worth telling the developer so in this forum topic, where you can find the download for Linux. Be sure to tell us what you think in the comments too.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Tags: Free Game, MMO, RPG
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Nanobang Jan 11, 2018
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Graphics shmaphics. It's in alpha. Looks fine to me. Since gameplay is what playing a game is all about, that's what interests me. That it's sandbox is groovy, and classless, usage based skills is a welcome approach. Presumably, it's open world too?

The only thing gives me pause: Is it yet another PvP-centric or "competitive clique" (i.e., guilds, tribes, etc.) MMORPG? It's unclear to me from the video.
Tchey Jan 11, 2018
There is no PvP, it's completly oriented PvE (but there is an arena), and it's often compared to the good old Asheron Call (2) in spirit. It has tons of neat ideas (playing an animal for one), secret (you have to discover several skills via exploration and accomplishment), a uncommon quest system where you can befriend NPC doing them favor, to get reward, better shop, more money...

I play a spider (which is also a druid and a gardener), a bat (can fly for a short period) and a musician (like SWG pre-NGE, can buff listener and perform in bands), so far, since 2014 where i first play it. I'm not high level, i don't play a lot or often, but i do love to connect from time to time to enjoy the spirit, see the new stuff, and update my toons to the new systems/items/buff/whatever is new.
Nanobang Jan 11, 2018
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Quoting: TcheyThere is no PvP, it's completly oriented PvE (but there is an arena)...

Perfect!

You play as a spider druid gardener? Perfect-er! Sold! Thanks for the info! ;)
Tchey Jan 11, 2018
[quote=Nanobang]
Quoting: TcheyYou play as a spider druid gardener?

Yes :
psycho_driver Jan 12, 2018
I gave it a go and it's more polished than I would have thought for an alpha. I played for over 3 hours when my original intention was just to hop in and have a look around, so yeah, it's got that part of MMO gameplay right already. The graphics are highly adjustable (it's Unity underneath) so you can make it look pretty decent, though I'm annoyed that it doesn't seem like you can disable motion blur.

The writing is a little tongue-in-cheek; original fantasy that pokes fun at itself a little bit. I came out of my play session with way higher hopes for the game that I had going into it.
razing32 Jan 12, 2018
So i gave this a go this afternoon.
Honestly the tutorial island almost made me quit.
You get barely any clear tutorial to explain the game , just a combat run down and a kick in the butt.
The starting island is plastered in enemies , you can't move two feet without being ganged by spiders or skeletons. And on top of that encountering an undead mage is a certain death since you cant run away and they won't stop chasing you.
Also , who designs a quest where you have to write down numbers on obelisks instead of recording them in your journal ?!

So far , not enjoying myself , but will give it a bit more time now that i am off that accursed starting island.
beko Jan 13, 2018
Sounds like gameplay is on par with gfx then? Oh yeah.. it's Indie, Linux and alpha so I just have to like it.
Projectile Vomit Jan 16, 2018
I'm really liking this game! It's hard to believe this is an alpha! I can't wait to see what else they do with this game
nox Jan 16, 2018
Haha :D It's awesome seeing the split reactions. Guess it's a love or hate kind of game
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