Not getting enough MMOs on Linux? Project: Gorgon [Official Site] looks like a somewhat promising MMORPG that's currently free while it's in Alpha.
The game is being made by Eric Heimburg and his wife Sandra Powers, two veterans who've worked on titles like Asheron’s Call 1 and 2, Star Trek Online, EverQuest II and others. For a little history on their funding: The game was originally funded on Kickstarter with $74,781 secured, this was way back in 2015 and they said in their FAQ even then that they did want to support Linux. On top of that, they secured a further $17,230 from IndieGoGo back in 2016.
We've had a few people email it in over the past few months and a forum post today reminded me to actually do something with it…
First, here's a trailer to get you up to speed on it:
Direct Link
You can find the launcher download here. I won't directly link it, since they could update the download link and change filenames and so on. To be clear, that's just the launcher, which will then download a few GBs more resulting in it using around 7GB space, so make sure you have some room free.
For player skills, they've gone down the route of being more of a sandbox. You don't pick a specific class, instead you choose the specific skills you want to level up. Personally, I actually prefer this approach and I often like to mix and match play-styles depending on what I'm doing, without having to work with multiple characters.
There's currently three different races: Human, Elf and Rakshasa (they look like humanoid Lions), with both male and female options as well as some customisations like hair, skin tone and so on. I chose Elf for my testing, because I couldn't pass them up after how the game describes them as "sex-addicted", too amusing not to pick them.
As for the game, it actually seems to run quite nicely. Performance was quite poor on the highest setting, but on the "Beautiful" setting it seems to stay around 60FPS and feels smooth enough for me. It's not the best looking game, but it is still quite early in development, but here's a nice shot of it running on Ubuntu 17.10:
It uses WASD controls for movement, right mouse button to move the camera around and thankfully you can zoom in and out pretty far. The interface is pretty nice too, turns out they had a recent revamp of the entire UI so I'm glad I waited on this one to test.
Amusingly, I got caught-out by a skeleton archer while battling with a skeleton swordsman, so I ended up dying. I couldn't help but laugh when it said "You've levelled up in Dying!". Turns out it's an actual skill—hah! You also seem to get bonus XP when you die from a cause for the first time—I think this game was made for me…
I'm actually quite impressed with it, I'm certainly looking forward to watching this one evolve as it continues development. Hopefully if they get enough testing done, this will be another MMO that gets official Linux support. We could do with more that's for sure.
If you do try it out and enjoy it, might be worth telling the developer so in this forum topic, where you can find the download for Linux. Be sure to tell us what you think in the comments too.
The only thing gives me pause: Is it yet another PvP-centric or "competitive clique" (i.e., guilds, tribes, etc.) MMORPG? It's unclear to me from the video.
I play a spider (which is also a druid and a gardener), a bat (can fly for a short period) and a musician (like SWG pre-NGE, can buff listener and perform in bands), so far, since 2014 where i first play it. I'm not high level, i don't play a lot or often, but i do love to connect from time to time to enjoy the spirit, see the new stuff, and update my toons to the new systems/items/buff/whatever is new.
Quoting: TcheyThere is no PvP, it's completly oriented PvE (but there is an arena)...
Perfect!
You play as a spider druid gardener? Perfect-er! Sold! Thanks for the info! ;)
Quoting: TcheyYou play as a spider druid gardener?
Yes :
The writing is a little tongue-in-cheek; original fantasy that pokes fun at itself a little bit. I came out of my play session with way higher hopes for the game that I had going into it.
Honestly the tutorial island almost made me quit.
You get barely any clear tutorial to explain the game , just a combat run down and a kick in the butt.
The starting island is plastered in enemies , you can't move two feet without being ganged by spiders or skeletons. And on top of that encountering an undead mage is a certain death since you cant run away and they won't stop chasing you.
Also , who designs a quest where you have to write down numbers on obelisks instead of recording them in your journal ?!
So far , not enjoying myself , but will give it a bit more time now that i am off that accursed starting island.
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