For all intents and purposes, these three titans are like the three U.S. automotive makers. They may not have the growth potential as say, a game like Mythic's Dark Ages of Camelot, but they have amassed a subscriber base so large that even on hard times, they cannot be discounted. But the truth to the matter is, with the exception of Sony's radical overhaul of EverQuest, both Asheron's Call and Ultima Online have remained relatively the same. That's where Asheron's Call 2: Fallen Kings steps in, taking the original world to a different milieu altogether.

Fallen Kings has plenty of new solutions to those problems. It takes a three-pronged approach. First, there is the epic campaign, which is an on-going story put in place by the developers themselves. Currently, it resides around mysterious vaults and throughout the monsters you encounter, you'll notice some carry a glyph key. Vaults aren't simply random dungeons but they're prepared solely for you or those within your party (a fellowship in Fallen Kings). Moreover, they aren't all about combat. Vaults are meticulously created with traps and obstacles. The final goal is not experience but to gain access to crucial parts of the campaign. In the beginning, you'll find out details about the world and what has happened since the apocalyptic event. It's promised that crucial keys to the storyline will be given through these vaults later on.

Finally, the allegiance system (which I always likened to Amway back in the original Asheron's Call) returns in full force. In ad hoc party situations, you can simply form a fellowship, which is like a fancy name for a party; to share experience, etc. Monsters you haven't killed can't be looted by you, so there is a lot of care put into reorganizing the social aspects of the game. The allegiance system is still intact but with the kingdoms, the personal quests and the epic campaign, it's not the only way to succeed anymore.

Fallen Kings does not force everyone to fight though. Player versus player combat is merely an option. In fact, you'll spend a great deal of time before you even reach the point where you can proclaim allegiance to a kingdom, much less survive organized combat. One thing noticeable about Fallen Kings is a protracted tutorial segment. Asheron's Call was fairly free-form in its gameplay and while it featured a starter town, you were free to do whatever you want after that. Here, a good portion of the first landmass is dedicated to helping new players but at the same time, it doesn't feel like you're merely going through an extended tutorial.

Obviously, there is still work to be done with Fallen Kings. Aside from a slight lag at peak periods, there are some minor texture seam problems. And because the beta period is still taking in many newcomers, the initial landmasses are swamped with people. One tutorial juncture, for example, wanted you to attain level three before moving on. A dozen wasps in the area provided the ammunition. Unfortunately, there were more than a dozen players standing right next to the wasp respawn points, which made the game a little challenging. Likewise, the first few dungeons you'll encounter easily harbor more adventurers than monsters. Since monsters respawn at specific points (instead of, say, a house or fort), human players will immediately divvy up the entire dungeon into little sectors.

In spite of all this, Fallen Kings is truly, a much more polished product than its predecessor. Gone are the huge chat windows and tiny playing area. Most of the time, you can turn off all the windows, making the game elements less intrusive. Combat, for example, is now a lot easier in the beginning. Unlike D&D-style rules, you won't start with ten health points. Try 100 and 200 by the time you hit mid-tutorial. That makes the game more about slaying things, looting them and moving on. You can get into a nice rhythm with this process and I think the developers spent a lot of time in getting this right.

With the three races, Fallen Kings is not really too different from the original, human-dominated world. There are cosmetic changes. For example, some species use things other than bows (javelins) for their range weapons. The addition of skills has really spiced up combat and made it proactive. Too often in MMORPGs, you can only set your character in combat mode and watch two people slug it out. Fallen Kings throws in action like an evade feature, which shifts the camera abruptly, giving the combat a much-needed sense of energy.