Star Vault unveils ambitious MMO

By Robert Purchese Published 15 April, 2008

No levels and focused on PvP.

Freshly formed developer Star Vault has whipped the wrappers off its PC MMO, Mortal Online.

It is fantasy-themed, boasting no character levels and a hardcore, player versus player focus.

Star Vault bills Mortal Online as a realistic "sandbox" experience where you shape the world through you actions.

"The overwhelming majority of MMORPG's today belong to the Theme Park category. A Theme Park is often carefully planned and can deliver some very unique attractions," reads the Mortal Online website.

"Mortal Online is a true sandbox game, and with its focus on a realistic graphic style and the deep skill- and PvP-system, it is far from the typical MMORPG fantasy games seen today. The open and player controlled world is just one of the many features that makes Mortal Online unique."

There will be familiar class types such as wizards, warriors, and thieves, but some of your skills will be linked to your account rather than your character - so you could theoretically start a fresh avatar with skills you have already learned. Star Vault also plans to reward veteran players with special classes.

"Mortal Online won't require you to put hundreds of hours of game play to be able to join your more experienced friends or contribute to the game world," the website continues.

"However, Mortal Online is not a point and click game where the stats of your character decide the outcome of a battle, and that may indeed be regarded as too hardcore for some."

Mortal Online has been in development since 2005 and is due out next summer.

Pop over to our Mortal Online gamepage for the first trailer.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (11) Latest comment 2 years ago

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  • Benno #1 4 years ago

    this is a step in the right direction

  • crazyhorse174 #2 4 years ago

    The teaser looks great - just not sure how this will work in reality?

    If there are no levels, how do evolve as a player?

  • bad #3 4 years ago

    "Mortal Online" eh? I think that's even worse than "Project Origin" when it comes to entirely tedious generic game naming.

  • gmmonkey #4 4 years ago

    Nice! I look forward to this game, if its done properly. No artificial levels I believe and sandbox. Though, the name is utter crap. Why do they need to add the "online" part to it?

  • Crea #5 4 years ago

    That trailer utterly surprised me by being pretty damn cool.
    Edited by 1 at 15/04/08 @ 13:19

  • AphoticCosmos #6 4 years ago

    You know that trailer was actually rather good.

    Is it a subscription model or more Guild-Warsy? I might be looking for another MMO to supplement EVE Online and this looks pretty promising. Good luck to em anyways!

  • Olemak #7 4 years ago

    I bet the name "Mortal" does not refer to character mortality. All characters in MMO's are, invariably, immortal. Would certaily be interesting if Mortal was different, but I think players would sour fast on the "feature" of actual character death ("perma-death";) and loosing all progress every time they reach zero hit-points.

    On the other hand, I don't really see what else they're trying to do with a name like that. Other than mislead people into thinking that this is a persistent, online world based on the Mortal Kombat franchise. Which would be sorta cool, by the way.

    Other than that, it looks a whole lot like Darkfall Online, except... well, less ambitious, actually. But perhaps also more likely to be released this decade.

  • Burton2000 #8 4 years ago

    Hmm if its got organized pvp like Guild Wars could well be worth a look.

  • Byzanite #9 4 years ago

    Pay $50 for a skill please.

  • Trikk #10 4 years ago

    So Darkfall Online without the hype then?

  • blacktide777 #11 2 years ago

    Have been in beta and still am in beta. Do not buy this game unless you really like throwing money away. The graphics stink and customer support is almost not even there.
    I ordered this game quite awhile ago and have been watching the devs post for when we should have gotten our copy. Since when you purchase your allowed access to the beta, the box edition they send you they claim will be the most recent build. So far ive still not gotten my box in over a month and they took the money from my bank account. Even over charged my card and will not reply to emails or PM’s.
    Trust me this game isnt worth the $57.00 they stole from me.
    Dont let it happen to you, but if you do then good luck because this games hacked all to crap.
    As of the date on this post, ive still not recieved an email or response in any way shape or form about my game box OR my money they stole from me.
    This company is a rippoff or at the very least have a terrible game and no support in game or out.