Major Anvil Empires Test Coming!

 The season of MMO tests marches forward!  Anvil Empires moves into it's next major testing period on April 18th.  I have not posted about this game before but it caught my attention for a few reasons I'd like to share.

 First, the game is from the same developer as Foxhole and while I never got deep into Foxhole the promise of the game was amazing.   Foxhole is a WW2 themed game where everything must be created by the players; every bullet, gun, vehicle.  Not only that but they must all be transported to the frontline and the frontline isn't static.  Players can dig and build and then destroy anywhere.  Frontlines form naturally where force meets force.  Foxhole is a big sandbox.

 Second, Anvil Empires features an isometric view which always has my nostalgia ringing for the days of Ultima Online.  The view evokes something deep inside of me that I can't explain; like a gamer looking down upon a tabletop game and imaging all of the possibilities.

 While I like the isometric view that was not the case for Foxhole where I found it very limiting for the context.  In Foxhole I have a gun or a vehicle with a gun but I can't see more than a little bit in front and behind me which made it very hard to get a broader sense of the battlefield.  While this was all part of the design and gave value to certain things it also felt constraining to me as a player.

 In the medieval context of Anvil Empires I think the view will work better.  There is more melee scrums than there will be long range warfare.  The view supports that action better.

 On top of the view and pedigree of the developers other hit there is a lot of depth to the game that has been announced so far.  There is homesteading so you can make your mark in the world all the way up to empire building to dominate the world.  And that world is persistent so should minimize how much instanced content there is.

 If the team can deliver Foxhole but in a fantasy/medieval setting then I'm sold.