The MMORPG Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen brings hope to all players who long for the old MMORPGs like Everquest, where PvE against giant bosses with the group was the focus. On MeinMMO we will look at the state of the PvE MMORPG in May 2022.
This is the idea of Pantheon: The crowdfunding MMORPG deliberately wants to bring back an “old-fashioned” feeling with some new systems: The “old-school MMORPG” should be far removed from the dungeons of a modern WoW, where you just run through like a horde of goblins gone mad and yell “OGOGOG”. while pounding on the button that has the “I’ll do as much damage as possible to as many enemies as possible” skill on it.
Pantheon is supposed to be a PvE MMORPG where you have to do everything in a group. A game in which you discuss 3 minutes beforehand who is holding which opponent in the CC before you dare to pull.
The idea for the game came up in 2014, when it was launched with a crowdfunding campaign.
Here’s 10 minutes of gameplay from Pantheon, the MMORPG hope for PvE fans
Here’s 10 minutes of gameplay from the alpha of Pantheon, the MMORPG hope for PvE fans
Key ideas of Pantheon are about:
For years, Pantheon was the baby of Brad McQuaid, a key developer of Everquest, and the brains behind the MMORPG Vanguard: Saga of Heroes. But McQuaid died in 2019. Pantheon has calmed down since then.
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Pantheon hires 4 new developers, is in the middle of development
Where is the game today? In a May 2022 newsletter, the team reports on its progress. So now Visionary Realms 4 has new employees on board, especially for animations and graphics. The rest of the team is currently working on the Wild’s End zone.
From a “Roadmap to Alpha” it can be seen that while the team is making steady progress, there is still a lot of work ahead of the team. Only a few rudimentary steps have been completed, such as “NPC Combat Awareness” or “Asset Streaming.”
The team is currently still working on key systems such as developing the classes, revising the network system and the crafting systems.
Many other, more complementary areas like faction, the perception system or things like swimming and climbing have not yet started.
Alpha is scheduled to start in 2022 – but that doesn’t seem certain
Is there a schedule for when you can play this? It looks like Pantheon will remain in a “pre-alpha” state for the foreseeable future.
In December 2021 it was announced that 2022 would be spent preparing the game for an alpha and doing it in 2022 – but whether that will really happen seems questionable.
Crowdfunding MMORPGs like Pantheon are notorious for repeatedly and sometimes drastically shifting their schedules: This was also the case for Pantheon’s “colleagues” like Crowfall, Chronicles of Elyria, Camelot Unchained or Ashes of Creation.
It was important for Pantheon in May that – as promised – new developers were hired and they are already working on the project.
In any case, Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen remains an interesting project for MMORPG fans. It seems questionable whether there will really be an alpha in 2022. The point in time when it will be “really playable” is still a long way off, even 8 years after the announcement.
That seems to be the crux of crowdfunding MMORPGs anyway: You go public with concepts that sound fantastic early on in order to collect money and inspire fans. But at that point you only have the ideas on paper and sketches, and it takes a good decade or more before you can admire them with a keyboard and mouse.
For die-hard MMORPG veterans, Pantheon is one of the absolute beacons of hope:
I’ve been playing MMORPGs for more than 22 years – I’m looking forward to these 5 new ones