Another day, another fantasy MMO. At least, that's the way it feels sometimes, with every other developer out there flocking to the genre like flies to a bug zapper. They're expensive to make, expensive to maintain, and despite the current boom, there are still only a handful of runaway success stories. So why is it that Chronicles of Spellborn, hardly a high profile title, actually has us excited?

Our first look at the game started pretty typically. Here's the story, here's the concept, here's the spiffy chargen, etc. It's a really attractive game and features a unique setting and some progressive features which I'll describe in loving detail shortly, but right now it's probably best to skip right to the most exciting bit. See, after setting everything up, we got our first look at combat. An enemy advanced, swung his weapon -- and brace yourself, because here's where everything changes -- the player character sidestepped, and the attack hit nothing but air. Yeah, this is an actual action-oriented MMORPG. The player is controlling all the dodging and circling and swinging, and it actually counts for something. Ranged attacks don't hit-check the moment they're fired off, and arrows won't bizarrely heat-seek their target. Archers and casters actually have to put a little lead on a moving opponent. NPC enemies actually attempt to flank and outmaneuver the player, rather than making a brain dead bee-line for their target.