The MMORPG scene is a bit overcrowded. In addition to World of Warcraft and dozens of also-rans, there's Star Wars: The Old Republic in the works, and Champions Online and DC Universe Online both look to grab anyone on the fringe. All of these games, beyond being in development for some time, have one major thing going for them: name recondition. Everyone knows Star Wars, most people know DC, and people at least know the developer of Champions - meaning the game will have an audience based solely on their license. I think it's safe to say that Trion's Heroes of Telara has a few hurdles to overcome to make it close to the before mentioned titles. Shockingly, they might have a shot.

I knew literally nothing about Telara going into the meeting at E3, and with the meeting room tucked away a good distance from the actual show floor there wasn't really anyone to ask. Once I made my way into the room, I was met with a pleasant surprise: a beautiful MMORPG. The graphics were stylized, but still somewhat realistic, and the character animations seemed to be very high quality, reminiscent of Lord of the Rings: Online or WAR. When heroes would attack enemies their weapons wouldn't simply clip through their entire body, but stop upon impact. This is a rare occurrence in games, let alone MMOs. At one point, the producer walked his character over to a point in the town and clicked on an object, being prompted with the option to change his class. Heroes of Telara is all about having the right tools for the job, and the game doesn't restrict players to a single class for a single character. Instead, they can switch between any of them by returning to town, allowing for the character to be their persona in the world, without needing to create a few different avatars just to try the game's features.



At first, I was surprised to see that there were only four classes, and actually raised my hand like a child to ask if Mage, Warrior, Cleric, and Rogue were the only playable classes. They were, he said, and I quickly scribbled them down, but he assured me that I shouldn't focus on that, because there were other elements as well. He was right. Subclass cards can be equipped at any time, even mid-battle, allowing for further customization of the classes themselves. Being able to change from a traditional Warrior to a Warrior-Berzerker opens up new abilities, creating a more powerful combatant. On the other hand, after defeating an undead enemy in battle he looted a Gravelord card, turning him into a summoner, and giving him some allies in battle.

These cards are tied to the class, meaning there are specific subclasses for specific classes, and are, for lack of a better phrase, "sort of this game's thing." The producer wouldn't give an actual number for launch, but assured me that there would be a large amount available. This doesn't completely forgive the lack of playable classes, but it might be a good way to make it feel like less of an issue than it is. Being able to create a battle-focused Paladin by giving a Warrior a healing card, or a Holy Warrior by equipping a Cleric with a fighter card seems like an easy way to create hybrid-classes, and hopefully they live up to their promise of creating a massive amount of these subclasses.

In the demo I saw, the producers made a specific point to talk about the game world, and how dynamic and persistent it will be. They are sure to put players on a path where they're constantly seeing fantastical and amazing sights, urging them to continue fighting and exploring. By almost framing the world with wonderful views, they make sure gamers want to move on and find new areas. In order to keep players alert at all times, they also have developed new technology that makes it so they're able to do things more spontaneously. Certain events that might require a large patch in other MMOs are going to be streamed instantly in Telara, meaning gigantic, well-planned attacks on cities by demons can happen instantly, while random road-blocks can also suddenly appear, creating a more... random feel to the game.

Heroes of Telara wasn't the best game I saw at E3. Hell, it wasn't even the best MMORPG I saw at E3, that crown will likely end up on the head of The Old Republic. As far as most surprising, however, I'm pretty sure nothing else left me as stunned as Heroes of Telara did. How didn't I know about this game before? Why aren't people excited? Sure, it's still early, but there's great potential here, and I'll be sure to continue to follow the game's production, anxious for my turn to prove my heroics.