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As far as setting is concerned, Knight Online inhabits a generic fantasy world with a lightweight storyline that is just an excuse to have two factions; El Morad (Humans) and Karus (Orcs) fight one another. MMORPGs generally don�t feature the best stories so it isn�t surprising the Knight Online�s story is the way it is, but at least it makes a nice backdrop for one of the game�s main features, faction based Player versus player combat (PvP).

Sadly, aside from Player versus Player combat, Knight Online doesn�t do much to break out of the standard fantasy MMORPG mould. The majority of your time will be spent killing monsters over and over to level up your character while periodically completing a quest that requires you to�you guessed it, kill monsters. It doesn�t help that the character classes, of which there are four, are all standard MMORPG archetypes. There�s the warrior who absorbs damage like a sponge, the rogue who can cloak and do massive damage with daggers or fire arrows from afar, a mage who does high, area of effect damage, and the priest who strengthens and heals other players. You do get to specialise your character through skill points that you can distribute with each level gained past ten, choosing between, for example, having a priest that focuses strengthening allies or one that focuses on weakening enemies. This still results however, in cookie cutter archetypes, only what in other MMORPGs is two or three classes is now one in Knight Online.

Graphics don�t help to pull Knight Online out of mediocrity, for despite Knight Online being a 3D game, a relatively uncommon occurrence in free MMORPGs, the graphics as a whole simply don�t stand out or boast a level of polish to recommend them. Character models, while diverse, are blocky, and environments are filled with repeating textures. Magical effects are occasionally eye-catching but, for the most part, prove to be just as bland. If there is one high point to the graphics, it has to be the anime style drawings present in the load screen as they depict epic scenes of heroes engaged in combat. You won�t have much time to admire the illustrations however, as perhaps due to the limited graphics in Knight Online; load times go by quickly and are relatively few in number.

From a sound standpoint, Knight Online falls short of the bar again. While Knight Online does feature a well done orchestral soundtrack, it only features a couple of songs, which are played over and over. The overbearing combat music, in particular, will likely make you disable the music all together. Aside from the music, the sounds fit the game well enough with all manner of grunts, growls and thuds being present during combat; occasionally accompanied by a victorious tune when you gain a level. It�s nothing that gamers haven�t heard before, and resembles the sounds you�d hear in any other game of the MMORPG genre.

What saves Knight Online though, is its combat, which, while nothing revolutionary, controls well, and offers a different experience for each of the classes. Warriors, for example, have to prioritise potion usage because, as an innovative feature in Knight Online, players can only consume one potion at a time. This results in warriors having to consider which is more important at the moment, restoring health to prevent them from dying or using a mana potion to refill their mana and allow them to continue using special attacks. Thus, timing becomes the key factor of combat in Knight Online as skilled players time their animations with their potion uses. Rogues, in contrast, offer an entirely different set of tactics as they are able perform several melee attacks in quick succession, with skilled players using the attacks to �slide� along the ground, resulting in them ending their combo outside of the melee range of an enemy�s counterattacks. The controls further help Knight Online as it supports both the keyboard and mouse for movement, although the keyboard is admittedly quite a bit more sluggish at turning than the mouse, which will likely become most players preferred choice for movement. Once combat begins however, the keyboard takes over as skills and items can be assigned to number keys while hot keys are used to cycle through targets. The enemies which you fight also keep Knight Online interesting as the game basically throws every creature design it can think of at you as you will go from fighting earthworms and werewolves to death knights to dinosaurs; each with its own attacks and death animations. Admittedly, monster models designs get reused, but the sheer diversity of things you will get to fight makes up for the occasional reused monster model. The only problem with the diversity of the monsters is that their placement in the world really interferes with the pacing of the game. You�ll be fighting goblins in an early area of the game when a spot a Glyphodant, a large dinosaur a few meters away from a group of goblins. Naturally, you think that you should be able to take it down because after all, it�s in a beginner zone and right near a group of weak goblins, but upon attacking it you find yourself dead after a single blow. Monster placement is a problem that continually plagues Knight Online as creatures of wildly different strengths are placed in close proximity to one another and as a player, you have no way of figuring out their strength except through trial and error.

Of course you could always join a party of other players to take down tougher monsters, and in this regard Knight Online excels. Partying is encouraged in Knight Online, not only by featuring a full Party Lobby complete with descriptions and level requirements to join particular player parties, but by offering perks such as additional experience as well. Unfortunately, despite a well-made and accessible partying system, the biggest threat to interacting with other players is the language barrier. Simply put, over 50% of the player community of Knight Online are Turkish, and no matter how badly you want them to understand English, many of them don�t. Luckily, you can often get by with minimal communication when killing monsters, but when it comes to trading items or discussing strategies, it would be wise to have an English-Turkish translator program running. Translation problems aren�t just limited to other players however, as the game is plagued with misspelling that range from the annoying to the down right aggravating, as they misinform requirements for quests. Another option to circumvent communication issues is to join a clan, of which there are many strictly English speaking ones present. Not only can you then consistently form parties with which you can communicate; you also have the added perks offered by Knight Online�s extensive clan support. As your clan gathers points (generated through PvP), you receive more and more benefits. From a fancy cape to an armband, and even the ability to take part in castle sieges against other clans, Knight Online offers no shortage of things to do with your clan. Unfortunately, many of the activities you can do with your clan require several members to meet up at a set time, which can be difficult considering that for much of the day, Knight Online�s servers are closed to those playing for free. To get around this you have two options. On one hand you can log in at around 10 or 11 P.M and play then, or simply stay logged in till morning and play then. The other option is to buy a subscription, which ranges from $9 to $20 a month, and includes varying degrees of benefits. Cheaper subscriptions insure the ability to log in along with minor benefits such as an increase to the rate at which you gain experience, while the more expensive ones give you a greater degree of benefits such as a boost to all stats. For those wishing to invest more money into the game, Knight Online offers a Power-up Store where you can trade real money for a wide variety of things. I found this gives an unfair advantage to those willing to invest more money into the game as players of identical class, equipment and skill will become unbalanced if one has a higher subscription fee. With that said, many players haven�t put a dime into this game and still manage to hold their own through practice and a mastering of the combat system for their class.

Sadly, outside of combat, the rest of the game is mostly just preparation and training for PvP. You face a steady levelling treadmill as you repeatedly kill monsters to gain experience and money (referred to as Noah in this game) which can be used to buy or upgrade equipment through Knight Online�s bare-bones crafting system. To upgrade an item you take it to an anvil where you purchase several kinds of upgrade scrolls. You then combine these scrolls one at a time with the item on the anvil, with each combining resulting in an improvement to the equipment if it succeeds, and the destruction of the item if it fails. This comes down to luck as you can fully upgrade an item one time and than have the next one be destroyed after only a couple of combinations. Of course you can always simply buy the items you are trying to upgrade from players with merchant stalls set up in major cities for each faction. Unfortunately, the player portion of the economy is so inflated that common to find products listed in the hundreds of millions or even billions. Additionally, a final alternative exists in the Abyss dungeon, the only dungeon in Knight Online, but a multi-tiered one at that, which supports a wide range of creatures capable of some of the strongest items in the game, though, these monsters must often be taken down in a group.

Once you�ve finally got a hold of some good equipment and reached an admirable level, it�s time to head into one of the PvP arenas. Knight Online offers three choices for those interested in PvP. First, you can practice against other players of your own faction by challenging another player to duel. This teleports you immediately to a central lobby where you can enter an arena and fight against that player as well as anyone else in the lobby (players also transported there by accepting a duel). Secondly, you can go to one of two warzone territories where both factions can enter and kill one another as well as the creatures there. The two territories attempt to reduce the player level gap, with one being for players in there 30s to 50s while the other is for those above that. While this does work to stop some of the outclassing from occurring, it is still entirely possible for a level forty-something player to be struck by a single blow from a player in their 50s. The result is that most players don�t end up spending much time in PvP combat until they have hit the level 50 mark and stand a chance against higher level players. The level cap is 80 however, so be aware that at some point most players will be out classed. The final option offered is a scheduled battle (known as wars) which will generally feature the first 300 or so players at a location at the agreed upon time. These players are than transported to a battlefield where some are made into generals and the two sides are tasked with killing one another. Ideally, sound tactics and formation combat win these battles, but because of the aforementioned language barrier and the sheer amount of players on screen at once, this usually just comes to a confused brawl as every player does their own thing.

In the end, Knight Online is an average fantasy MMORPG that, while it does have its perks, such as a well made combat system and numerous options for PvP, is bogged down by flaws. Mediocre graphics, a repetitive soundtrack, and the requirement that you pay a monthly fee in order to play whenever you want to, combine to make Knight Online an MMORPG that fails to stand out from the pack. Played as a free MMORPG, it stands up reasonably to other free games, but if you factor in the subscription cost required to play during daylight hours, it pales in comparison to other pay-to-play games out there.