I work in the free mmo business so naturally I like to check out what other companies are up to.  While I was doing this I stumbled upon Titan Online.  And when I say 'stumbled' I mean it, I was trying to find Rohan information and suddenly the Titan Online official website had loaded on my screen.  I still have no clue how. 

Reguardless, I decided to check it out.  I noticed it had just gone into Open Beta.  From the website I learned that there is no job system, characters are completely customizable with skills and stat points.  From the screenshots the graphics didn't seem amazing, but the customization aspect had piqued my interest enough for me to download it.  The download was about 700mb, nothing like the 1.8gb for Rohan that I have failed SIX times trying to fully download (and still have not been successful).  It took a little bit (30 minutes with 90kb/s average I believe) but was easy to get up and running.

The character creation isn't amazing, you can pick from a few different faces and skin colors.  The hair styles all come with their own color so unfortunately you don't get to choose that.  You can also choose the height and width of your character.  I don't recommend skewing from the default too much though, unless you enjoy your character looking like Mike TV after going through the taffy puller (Charlie and the Chocolate factory reference).  I will say though that the male characters turn out much better than the female to my dismay.  Anyways, you can also choose which weapon you would like to start out with.  This does not decide anything about your character though!  It's merely what starter weapon they'll give you to use for your first few levels.

After logging in and getting sent to the starting town you'll notice tons of NPCs with the classic WoW "!" over their head indicating they have a quest for you.  I recommend going around and picking them all up before venturing outside since at least two require you to kill the level 1 ChonChons anyways.  There is also a little helper guy that will pop up on the side of your screen a lot giving you tons of very useful information as you need it.

The first neat thing I discovered as I began killing my first ChonChons was the combo system.  Instead of the usual target -> auto-attack system, if you keep hitting the attack button your character does up to a 6 hit combo which causes much more damage then just letting your character sit there and do the same swing/stab/punch over and over again.  The next thing I noticed is that there are two experience bars, one for your stat point EXP and one for your level EXP.  So you dont just get stat points when you level up, but occationally as you kill stuff.  There are also Training Points, which I'll mention later.

When you get to level 5, you can go pick a few skills to learn.  Visit the bookstore NPC in town and you'll find you have the ability to purchase tons of skills from weapon skills to healing skill to buffs.  You can choose as many or few as you want.  If later you decide you want to abandon a skill because you never use it, its very easy to just delete it from your skill list to free a spot for something else.  After double clicking on the books in your inventory, they get added to your skill list.  Despite this, you can't use them yet!  You have to go to the Training NPC and he puts you through a test before you can actually use the skills.  The tests are usually easy (kill X monsters in Y minutes) but give you a fun little break from the rest of the game.  After you complete the test, the skill becomes level 1 and you can now put it on your macro bar to use.  As you use the skills, it accumulates its own EXP and levels up.  Every 6 levels (I think) you have to go back to the Training NPC and do another test to continue leveling it.  From what I noticed, when a skill levels up it becomes a little stronger and costs a bit more MP to use.  I also discovered the uses of Training Points, which are just another way to customize your character.  Training Points (which you get from monsters in addition to EXP) can be used on a number of Passive skills like Defense Bonus or HP Bonus.  Each level costs more TP than the last.  Later, you can also use TP to upgrade your crafting skills.

So here I was, level 5, and I was already having an awesome time learning a bunch of skills and trying to figure out how to best use my stat points and training points to support them.  I began going around and doing the quests I had picked up and eventually got one to do the "Dimensional Maze".  Low and behold, the Dimensional Maze is a dungeon.  I made a party with just myself to try it out, and went in.  Immediately I noticed there was a timer (it started at 12 minutes) and a Mission (kill 10 of so and so monster).  So I killed the 10 monsters and the Mission changed to kill 10 of a new monster.  As I completed each Mission, a new harder one would be created which required me to go deeper into the Dimensional Maze.  I was by myself remember, so I ran out of time long before I could complete it.  Later, I went back with a group and we cleared it pretty easily.  There were 6 Missions you have to do in 12 minutes.  If you complete them, you get an additional 5 minutes or so to defeat the boss.  After beating the boss, in addition to whatever items and EXP you got from doing the Dimensional Maze, you also get a bonus based on how long it took you to complete the dungeon and how many party members you had.  Pretty sweet deal.

Some of the items I got from the dungeon were "Runes".  I asked someone what they were for and was told "they're for your Titan".  This surprised me.  I was pretty sure I already knew about all aspects of the game, but I was wrong.  I wasn't high enough level, but apparently you eventually get a "Titan" which is a giant robot that you pilot temporarily to do a bunch of extra damage and you can customize them with the Runes.  I'd give more information but like I said, I don't have one yet.

Ultimately, I am in love with this game.  I've played quite a few mmos, p2p and f2p, and none captivated me as quickly as this one.  It saddens me that it doesn't seem to be advirtised as much as it deserve to be because I think its worthwhile for everyone to try out.  The customization is endless and I don't know who doesn't enjoy being able to mold their character exactly to their liking.

http://titan.eyagames.com/

~Melieza (Titan Online IGN: "Nikki")