The Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG for short) is perhaps one of the only ways you can really experience online gaming to its fullest. These games open up new worlds for people to explore, giving them a chance to live another digital life in the game, interacting with thousands of other players from around the world while taking part in amazing adventures that they've only ever really daydreamed about until now. They offer something normal multiplayer can't; the chance to be someone else, an alter ego of yourself living out your life in a fantastic new world. But making MMORPGs isn't easy and to make a really good MMORPG requires a lot of skill on the developers' part. These games can be hit and miss at times and require a huge amount of work. This can prove to be an advantage to players if it's done correctly, or an annoyance if done wrong. Thankfully, Dark Age of Camelot: Shrouded Isles & Trials Of Atlantis does pretty much everything right.

Dark Age of Camelot, unsurprisingly enough, takes place in the Dark Ages of Britain, just after King Arthur's reign ends. Unfortunately the king is dead, leaving no heir to the throne, Merlin has vanished and Excalibur has been returned to the Lady of the Lake, leaving behind the remnants of a once glorious empire. This splits the land into three factions and three distinct realms, Albion, Midgard and Hibernia. It's this divide between the realms that provides the backbone to the game and introduces some interesting features.

The three realms themselves are each based on old folklore and mythology. Albion, based on Arthurian legend, is the land of Camelot, protected mainly by Human races such as the loyal Britons and tough Highlanders; it's their job to protect Camelot from the other two marauding realms. Midguard bases itself on Norse Mythology and is mainly a land bred for warriors such as the huge Trolls and vicious Norsemen, while Hibernia takes up old Celtic Folklore and is primarily a land of magic, containing the more spiritual races such as the Elves, Celts and Firbolgs. Each realm has its own look and feel and each has its own playable race for you to choose from.

Each realm is very different, which is to be expected, but the differences in Dark Age don't just apply to the locations and playable races, but also the professions you choose to master. On joining the game you're given the usual selection of which server you wish to join (some of which are specifically suited to Player Vs Player combat, others to Role Playing) and from then the choice of which realm and race you wish to play as. The tricky part comes when you must choose your profession. Each realm has its own class, so while you may want to choose to become a Necromancer or Mercenary in Albion, you wouldn't be able to choose to become a Guardian or Bladmaster unless you changed which realm you start in. Further adding to the difficulty of choosing a starting profession is that, once chosen, your selected path can't be changed during the game. You'll not be able to surrender your skills to master another class, not unless you start all over again.

Thankfully the instruction manual and website offer help in giving a description of each profession in the game, which does help those who are unsure as to which path they wish to take. Although you must stick with your chosen profession, this doesn't mean you are limited only to one set path. Experience is crucial to your character's progression, strength and constitution, plus your ability to wield better weapons and carry stronger armour increases as you gain more experience. However, once your character reaches his or her 5th level, you are given the chance to choose yet another career path, one that's specifically suited to your starting profession. For example, if your character is in Albion and you become a level 5 fighter, you will then get the opportunity to become either an Armsman, Mercenary, Paladin or Reaver. This system is the same for each realm, although the way in which you choose these new professions differs in each land.

Beginning the game is slightly disorientating, as there's no tutorial to give you the basics and the only help offered is an in-game help box or the game manual. It does take a bit of getting use to and the controls, while slightly cumbersome at first, eventually become easy to use. Although a lack of a tutorial is a bit of a downer, the game does a lot to help those new to Dark Age's world. Funnily enough it's the trainer for your profession who provides all the help at first, pointing out quests that you can complete in order to get used to the controls and get a feel for things. Thankfully he or she sends you on relatively easy quests at first, which don't require much skill but do get you used to the interface and structure of the game. Missions are rewarded with experience and money, both of which are important to any MMORPG. Without money you won't be able to buy new weapons and equipment and without experience you won't be able to use them.

Quests are handled differently here than with other MMORPGs I've played. Rather than being given the chance to choose any quest, you are only allowed to partake in quests that match your abilities. While this may sound a bit unfair and limiting, it does mean that you avoid the embarrassment of getting pummelled by someone because you lack the ability to take them on; it also means you avoid wasting time on quests that are beyond your skills. Instead quests gradually increase with difficulty as your character's level increases, like an introduction to the game rather than just throwing you in at the deep end and leaving you to sink or swim.

The basic structure of the quests are your typical "hunt down and kill" or "deliver important packages"; repetitive and sometimes dull but something you'll have to rely on earlier in the game in order to build up the necessary experience and money. It's not the quests though that make this game (it never is in MMORPGs) it's the players. Interacting with other people is what makes these games so special, rather than just pointlessly killing each other like in online shooters, you get to be more friendly and social with the people in the game, teaming up to thwart creatures beyond your capabilities and going on adventures. Even the simple standard quests are given a boost of excitement when you complete them in a group. Interacting with hundreds of people is the main appeal of games like this but Dark Age isn't just restricted to creating groups and going on quests, there's plenty of fighting to be had as well.

Primarily, Dark Age is geared more towards Player Vs Player combat, though in this game in particular things are a little more large scale than the usual online shoot fest. The three realms in the game aren't exactly friendly to one another, as each vies for control of King Arthur's kingdom and as such each realm has been thrown into a bitter power struggle. Borders separate each realm and it's here where the bulk of the fighting takes place. While it isn't possible to capture land from each of the three realms, important structures do play an integral part in the war. Just beyond each border lie the keeps, buildings containing special relics that can be acquired by opposing realms and used to increase the stats of the players in that realm. Naturally though, this means there is always someone there to defend just as there is always someone there to attack, which does lead to many big engagements. What's more, because professions are different for each realm, battling rival players means you'll be fighting someone with skills you've never seen used before, which actually makes the player vs. player combat of the game a lot less boring than in many other MMORPGs.

Guilds are another factor to consider as far as PvP combat goes, in fact guilds are almost impossible to avoid, as you are in some cases automatically entered into one as soon as you start. There are a few pre-designated guilds that are specific to certain professions you choose to be a part of and there's certainly no shortage of player guilds if you decide to change. The purpose of guilds is to get as many people together in one big group rather than have many scattered players roaming around aimlessly. It's up to you whether or not you choose to contribute to these guilds but they do help in those big player vs player wars. But, if you don't feel the need for fighting other players then there's always a guild or two that you'll find specifically suited to role-playing or Player Vs Environment combat.

The world in which Dark Age is set is vast in its scale. Each realm is immense in size with surprisingly few loading times and there's always something to explore and plenty of hidden secrets to discover. It's not uncommon to travel from small fishing towns, through large forests to huge castles and while travelling from one place to another is very time consuming, the actual journey there is made much more interesting thanks to some superb scenery. Lack of any in-game map does at times confuse; it is hard to plot a path when the only visual aid you've got is a map downloaded from the website but this in turn works out to the game's advantage as it keeps Dark Age's world fresh and involving. It's always satisfying to stumble on some secret ruins or find a small settlement hidden within the land purely by accident and if you're the type of gamer who likes to explore game environments, then Dark Age certainly does cater for your taste.

As well as the main game, this new release of Dark Age of Camelot includes the two previously released expansion packs, Shrouded Isle and Trials of Atlantis. While I found myself a little too engaged in the main game to explore in detail what each of these expansions offer, they still add an enormous amount of content to a game that is already packed full of features. The Trails of Atlantis even offers a new island separate from Dark Ages realms and even offers up some new and exciting professions that can be acquired through the ancient Atlantean Trails. Essentially it means that even if you do get bored with what Dark Ages offers (which shouldn't be for a long time) there's still plenty to come back for and explore.

Graphically the game doesn't really live up to the kind of graphics that appear in most modern MMORPGs. Textures aren't exactly detailed while animations aren't quite as fluent as in Star Wars Galaxies for example. That's not to say the game looks ugly, quite the opposite in fact, it's just that it's not at the top of the pile in the graphics department. This would probably have something to do with the age of the game; it's going on 3 years old now so a drop in graphical quality is to be expected. It's not a major problem and there are still some nice effects in the game that make up for its imperfections and while it may not exercise your graphics card the way other games do, it's still a beautiful game to look at.

But, nothing's ever perfect and Dark Age still has one or two problems. For starters, as a MMORPG it does suffer from the same problem as pretty much every other MMORPG in existence; there are times when you feel like all you're doing is grinding away experience points just for the sake of advancing. It happens in all MMORPGs at one point or another and it is common to suffer from it as a player, where in order to reach your character's next level you find yourself engaged in long, repetitive actions. For example, I chose the Rogue class as my starting profession in order to become a Scout. But the only quests I could accept were from my trainer and he wouldn't send me out on missions until I'd reached the next level. With no alternative I found myself constantly engaged in combat with ghouls and monsters, fighting them over and over in order to gain the experience required to get to my future position as Scout. It happens and it feels like a drag, but Dark Age isn't like this all the way through and once you get past this mind numbing exercise you get chance to appreciate what the rest of the game has to offer.

The only other real problem and again with MMORPGs in general, is the cost. Yes, you have to pay a monthly subscription to play this game, the first month is free however and lets you decide whether or not you think it's worth shelling out money each month to play. But the money isn't wasted, it pays to keep the servers up and running (as they do run 24 hours a day save for downtimes when fixes and updates are applied) it also pays for constant bug fixing patches and updates that introduce new content. Sure, you have to pay full price for the game but the cost you shell out afterwards pays for its continuing survival. This game is constantly alive after all and it's already lasted for three years, which is longer than many other online games. In the end though, it is a game worth sticking around for even if it means investing that little bit extra.

Dark Age of Camelot: Shrouded Isles & Trials Of Atlantis is a good example of what MMORPGs can do when they are done right. It's got immense scale, has thousands of people to interact with and caters for all types of gamers, be they there to just engage in mindless combat or to explore a mythical land full of wonder and danger. As far as the genre goes, Dark Age is one of the best, easy to get into but extremely hard to put down. It's an interesting, exciting and consuming game that will hopefully be around in another three years, because if one things certain it's that I intend to stick around Camelot for a while yet.

Reviewed by Kieron Giacopazzi for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).