Choose My Adventure: Revenge of the CMA

Hello, friends, and welcome to the long-overdue return of Choose My Adventure. I don’t have a lot to say in the way of preamble, for once in my life. You guys know how this works: You choose a game for me to play, tell me how to play it, and I come back each week to report the consequent joys and/or psychic trauma that I experience.

This week, I present to you four games that will be contending for your votes, all in the hopes of being the primary object of my gaming attention for the next few weeks. Will I walk the ruined streets of The Division’s New York City, explore the many possibilities of Project: Gorgon’s sandbox, kick it old-school in the isometric-2D Tree of Savior – which has been hailed as the spiritual successor to Ragnarok Online – or will I wander the expanses of The Elder Scrolls Online’s Tamriel? The choice is yours, of course! So without further ado, let’s take a closer look at each of our contenders.

Ubisoft’s open-world, cover-based-shooter The Division recently received a significant content update in the form of patch 1.2: Conflict, which brought with it a great deal of new content – most notably a new Incursion, titled Clear Sky – as well as some new weapons and gear sets. The patch also made some interesting additions to existing game features:

A newly added feature allows chaos-loving players to hijack extractions in the Dark Zone by cutting the extraction chopper’s rope, scattering the loot in all extraction bags as public loot (and instantly marking the instigator as a rogue agent). Meanwhile, level 30 players can look forward to special Search and Destroy missions, which are unlocked by completing all encounters and side missions in a zone. And that’s just some of the new content, which is to say nothing of the extensive improvements and balancing adjustments that came with the update.

If your idea of a good time is prowling through the abandoned ruins of one of the United States’ greatest metropolises, shooting things for fun and profit, or if you just want to see me riddled with virtual bullets, The Division should probably get your vote.

Although Project: Gorgon, a rather ambitious fantasy sandbox MMORPG from Kickstarted studio ElderGame, is still in the earlier stages of development, the devs certainly haven’t been lax about adding new features and content to the game on a fairly regularly basis. Just a couple of days ago, the game received a major patch that included an overhaul of the game’s guild system, the addition of player-created (and player-fulfilled) crafting work orders, plus a heaping handful of adjustments, both major and minor, to existing systems.

Project: Gorgon is, as mentioned, a sandbox game, and it places a heavy emphasis on allowing players to play exactly how they want to. It features classless progression, a plethora of tradeskills, and the remarkably unique Words of Power system. Also, you can be turned into a cow, and other players can milk you. I’m not even kidding, man. Project: Gorgon seems crazy in the best possible way.

For those of you who want to see me dive into a more open-ended, freeform experience where almost anything could happen, then consider throwing your vote to Project: Gorgon.

Tree of Savior, an isometric 2-D MMORPG in the vein of Ragnarok Online, may not have had the smoothest launch, having been plagued by a rash of cheating in addition to some stability issues, but that doesn’t mean that it might not be a perfectly delightful game. Tree of Savior features an archetype-based class system wherein players can unlock new, more advanced classes as they increase their ranks in any of the game’s four archetypes (Archer, Cleric, Swordsman, and Wizard).

I haven’t yet had the opportunity to play Tree of Savior, but if it’s anything like Ragnarok Online — as many people claim that it is — it’s probably a safe bet that the game is a more or less of the themepark variety, with a focus on completing quests, delving into dungeons, and hunting down big bad boss monsters. If you’d like this CMA to focus on something a little more “traditional,” Tree of Savior is probably a safe choice.

Last, but most certainly not least, we have The Elder Scrolls Online, which almost certainly needs no introduction. The game will soon receive a major update in the form of the Dark Brotherhood content update, which goes live on May 31st. So although it’s not live just yet, it will be by the next time this column rolls around, so if you so choose, we’ll be able to explore all the new content that The Dark Brotherhood will bring. The Dark Brotherhood will bring players to the Gold Coast, where they will meet the titular guild of shadowy assassins, The Dark Brotherhood.

On the Gold Coast, players can participate in two new quest types: contract kill quests, which are, as the name implies, assassination assignments where players must eliminate named targets across the land of Tamriel while remaining unseen in true assassin fashion; and sacrament quests, which are similar to contract killings except for the fact that they can be completed only once per day. Sacrament quests are missions of utmost important, carried out in the service of The Dark Brotherhood’s mummified patron and leader, the Night Mother. The update also adds an entirely new skill line associated with The Dark Brotherhood, which will presumably allow players to take skills focused on honing their assassination skills. This, and much more, awaits in The Elder Scrolls Online’s Dark Brotherhood update.

If you’re a die-hard fan of the Elder Scrolls universe and/or its infamous guild of mythically lethal assassins, or if you just want to send me to see what’s new in the realms of Tamriel, you might wanna consider casting your vote

So, friends, there are your choices; all that remains is to cast your votes. Head on to the polls below, make your will known, and be sure to join me next time when I will unveil the winner and get this new installment of Choose My Adventure rolling in earnest. Just be sure to get your votes in by Sunday, May 29th, at 11:59 p.m. EDT.  Until then, friends!

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Welcome to Choose My Adventure, the column in which you join Matt each week as he journeys through mystical lands on fantastic adventures — and you get to decide his fate. Be gentle (or not)!