Where do you start when writing about Horizons? First, it's the only game I know of where you get to BE the dragon. That in of itself would set it apart from any other MMORPG. If it were only that simple.

The storyline and history of the land of Istaria (Horizons) is rich and deep, going back 1000's of years to schism of humans into two races (humans and fiends); dragons creating two different societies; the "loss" of certain races completely and the subjugation of others. The Elven and Dwarven cities have been lost - and the players most recover them.

Subjugated races must be released from the grips of the Withered Aegis (the bad guys - undead) before players can play them. And there are "rumors" of other lost races. But, first, we must all learn to rebuild and live in harmony. Not easy when you start with 9 (yes 9) separate races of differing temperaments and skills.

We had a short tour of Horizons while at E3 - the game is so large to show more could have taken days but we started with character creation. As I said, there are 9 races to begin with: Human, Fiends (the schism), Saris (Cats!), Elves, Dwarves, Half-Giants, Sslik (lizards), Dragons (but only one gender), and Gnomes. The Gnomes are so tiny!

Character creation is little more than decided what race, gender, look and name you will have. You're not expected to run out in the world and KNOW what you need to survive. That comes with experience. Some of the traits to choose from are hair shape, face shape, head shape, eye texture, hair texture, height, portliness, endowment (for women - about time!), height; if you're a dragon your scale color, spots, stripes; if you're an elf do you want to be a classical elf, wood elf, dark elf; if you're a Sslik are you the size of a Gila Monster or an Alligator - the possibilities are endless. We saw 6-10 choices per feature but were assured there would be many many more by release.

As an aside, all the women seem to start with turquoise hair. I asked about this and was told it must be a Mesa, Arizona thing. To those of us familiar with Mesa, this makes perfect sense. To the rest of you...sorry for the confusion.

Dragons are unique in that when you create them you are creating an adolescent dragon and what you look like now isn't what you'll look like as an adult. I asked if the ability to see your adult self would be available at release - they're working on it but it may not make it in right away. By the way, watching a dragon blink its eyes during character creation can be quite unnerving!

A little more about dragons, since I'm sure that half the player base will want to be one immediately. You don't use armor, you don't use weapons. Your only trade skills are to manipulate stone and crystal through magic. You can't fly as an adolescent, but you can breathe fire. Once you've matured, flight begins along with the ability to breathe other elements. So, to BE the dragon will be hard. Also, a measurement of your maturity will be your horde. This means to be a dragon is to be selfish, something not all other players will entirely appreciate. They've balanced well the popularity with the difficulty.

Now if I could only find out the advantage to being a tiny little Gnome!

Once we were done looking at character creation, we took an adult red dragon out into the world. The world itself is enormous - 100km X 100km - and each server is expected to hold up to 5000 players.

We started out in the middle of a storm - lighting, thunder, rain and all. We were told that storm effects could be local spells as well, not just bad weather. I'd hate to have to try and duck from a lightning bolt. From here we flew to the very impressive floating islands. This game is different than most in that's it not really one flat plan with the appearance of different altitudes - there ARE different altitudes. The island we saw we could fly under, or purchase and start to build.

Beneath it you could see where the beta 2 testers were already starting to build housing - against the wishes of the developers. But the beta had gone so well (not one restart in Beta 1) they were running out of things to do! By the way, you don't buy a plot of land and stick a house on it. You're going to have to BUILD it. That means gathering resources and forging items...and resources won't be static. You can deplete a resource and have to find more. And those sneaky devs will keep an eye on it and move it.

Also, all items you see in the game a character can react with. Getting wood from trees, killing animals for hides, etc etc. You'll never run out of things to do.

We next flew to the Fiend city. Each race will have a city with different architecture. The Fiend City was above the snow line (yes, snow only drops at certain altitudes) and you could see the culture of the Fiends in its architecture. The exception is the Elven and Dwarven cities that were lost and the players will have to reclaim them.

We flew next to the capitol city of Tazoon. As we flew in there was a building with what looked like green water streaming down the building. I asked if it was water or a particle effect. I was told that it was a particle effect and that we'd actually been viewing the game on a GeForce 2. They design for higher quality cards but when they actually play-test; they do so at the lowest possible levels to make sure everyone gets good quality.

In Tazoon you could see an ancient monument to when the Dragons were revered by the people. Start of the ongoing storyline of Horizons. But now, all races are united against the Withered Aegis - the undead that have destroyed the land and subjugated races. (Oh, and those "rumored" races...must find those). Oh, and the Dragon's Lair...all stone and crystal. What else WOULD it be?

Don't just think undead when you think of the Withered Aegis. The agro on these is a bit different. They don't simply spawn and wait for you to come and kill them. They spawn and seek out something to kill, and along the way can destroy the land they visit. Smarter Aegis (such as Liches) will actually seek to create spawn regions from which large groups will gather. Ignoring these can be to your own peril.

Finally, some the "little" technical stuff. Yes, the interface is completely customizable. Oh yeah, and those monthly updates...they're streamed in. So, if you're in the south of the continent it will update as you enter. You won't receive updates till you need them. So...no downtime.

Gee...and what exactly doesn't this game have?

For more information, RPGVault has a wonderful series of developers diaries. Everything you could ever want to know. Or, just visit the official site, Istaria.com.