Land of Chaos Online, exclusive interview

Juanjo de Goya has interviewed Hendrik Loga, Product Manager for LOCO: Land of Chaos.

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Each MMO player is wondering what is and what it’s going to be LOCO. It’s a pleasure to interview you. Thanks you for concede us your time. First of all, could you introduce yourself to our readers?

Answer: Hi everyone. It is a pleasure for me as well to have to possibility to give a a deeper look into the Land of Choas online. My name is Hendrik Loga and I’m responsible for the product management for LOCO in the European and American territories.

Land of Chaos Online is a tactical online action game with many fast-paced. This is what we can read about LOCO. What do you mean with “tactical online action game”?

Answer: LOCO combines three very common and established game elements at once. The fast action of a Third-Person Shooters (TPS) like S4 League for example, the tactical understandings that are required for RTS games like DOTA (a common Warcraft3 mod) or Avalon Heroes and the depth of a MMORPG.

A Battle in LOCO is very fast and challenges the user in many parts. First target is to level up your hero very quickly. Fighting against hostile NPC and PC brings instant experience. The user needs to optimize his characters perfectly by selecting the right skill from a skilltree for the right situation. Strategies and tactics needs to be permanently readjusted in response to the hostile activities. The user has to be prepared for many situations and he never knows if his tactics will work.

Why do you say it requires much more fast and intelligent decision-making than Avalon Heroes?

Answer: As already mentioned, reaction and a fast gameplay are core elements in LOCO. Making the correct decisions at the right moment is essential for survival. A normal match with equivalent competitors takes about 30 Minutes.

By what we have read we understand what LOCO will be a DOTA in a third-person view. Are we right?

Answer: Well, this assumption only fits in some cases. LOCO has taken some really successful elements of DOTA-like games. Basically some parts for several game modes and the concept of the leveling system were equal. But for the tactical parts, LOCO provides much more possibilities. For example users prepare before each match up to three different characters. Therefore it’s of course essential that the chars have different abilities. As well it combines more than just the DOTA like gameplay with his RPG and Third Person Shooter elements.

Are you going to compete with Dota, Heroes of Newerth and Avalon Heroes? Are you aiming to that type of players?

Answer: We are aiming for that type of players but as well the traditional PVP-MMOG and Shooter players. We do not reduce LOCO just to the DOTA type of gameplay. For that we have Avalon Heroes.

What can you tell us about this: “Before going into battle, players choose three heroes that they can play in turn during a match”?

Answer: This is a very important part of the users’ strategy. Before each match the user can equipped and prepare up to three characters. During a match, the user can only play one char at once, but during the respawn time he can change his avatar and select one of the other two he has prepared before. With this concept the player can readjust his tactics always in response to the hostile activities and his next targets. If the latest target is to destroy an opponent building, the user should choose a strong char like “Kilmor” to master this task. If the goal is to defend the own headquarter it could be better to select “Atin” or “Octavian”.

That’s how the whole match works. The user has to find out the next goals and make the correct decision related to his tactics. And this always combined with teamworking elements, because in most of the cases the user is playing in a party.

Could you tell us about LOCO’s background?

Answer: For the background stories we tried to distinguish from the common “good and evil” clichés and make the individual characters more interesting to the users. Each character has his very own story and his reason why he takes place in the battle nature versus evil.

The story of the world is still confidential and will be released step by step till launch of LOCO. But it can be said that something evil comes out of hell to destroy the world for an unknown reason. Each race and every hero has to make his choice for which side they were fighting for. It’s up to the users now which one he wants to support.

Why this game is more fun than others? From your point of view.

Answer: Personally, I really like the tactical elements of the game. To find the best way to defeat the enemy is really a good challenge and brings the teamwork part to a next level. In my eyes gaming needs to have great and well constructed competitive elements. Otherwise it’s going to be boring very soon. With LOCO we build up a game that provides so many possibilities and game depth that boredom won’t be an issue.

Beside this I really like the style of the game. Based on a very updated Unreal 2.5 Engine, LOCO looks really unique and differs extremely from other games of similar genres.

Tell us about the future. What are your plans in 2010 and beyond?

Answer: We have opened the registration for the Closed Beta recently. The application time ends with the 17th of May. This is the starting shot and I’m quite sure that the next steps will follow soon. We plan to go live with the official launch mid of this year.

And after this we are going to patch monthly new content, items, modes, characters, weapons, etc. We have enough ideas in our drawer and the users will like them.

Thanks you for your time. It was a pleasure. Do you have something to add?

Answer: Thank you very much for this interview. I really advise your users to sign up for our Closed Beta at www.loco.alaplaya.net/closedbeta. To shortcut the waiting time the for free alaplaya account works with all other alaplaya games. I’m quite sure that there is the right game for everyone.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 27th, 2010 at 6:40 pm and is filed under MMO News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.