Review
The release of a Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG) can virtually assure two things, at least in 2001. One, immediate and passionate outrage at the publisher for releasing an unfinished product, and two, a steadily growing segment of customers who are willing to accept the problems with the hope they will be fixed at some later date. Anarchy Online follows this pattern to the letter, adding to the unfortunate reputation of rushed products in the online world community.
The pattern many of the new titles follow has a definite upswing after the initial instability, and Anarchy Online is no exception. Funcom offered a policy which stated that the game's first free month did not start until after the initial login problems were fixed, hoping this would appease early buyers. The vocal segments of the online community surrounding the game still took frequent shots at the lack of quality, but Funcom took an important first step towards legitimacy.
Since the game's release, Funcom's efforts to smooth things over with their paying customers have been admirable. Unlike competitors like Verant and Electronic Arts, the company has done everything in its power to avoid the "only in it for the money" stigma. Examples include the obvious, such as opening a new shard despite the initial claim that one would be enough, and the not-so-obvious, such as turning a recent in-game protest of Funcom's decisions into a role-playing experience, complete with Omni-Tek corporate guards surrounding the "rebel" protestors.
Not content with the glut of fantasy MMORPGs pouring into the market, Funcom went with a sci-fi approach. The world of Rubi-Ka is introduced to gamers through a beautiful opening movie, which clearly delineates the good and evil factions. Taken from the perspective of a young girl growing up in the wastelands of the planet, the movie briefly recaps her life and portrays the corruption and filth that Omni-Tek brings to her planet via their mining operations. Simply knowing that Omni-Tek is evil doesn't mean you're obligated to help with the resistance -- after all, what use are good men if they have nothing to fight against?
Your first step into the world of Omni-Tek places you, a relatively featureless, bipedal creature, in front of a large character generation panel. A plethora of in-game help menus are offered, accessible by the expedient means of mouse clicking on just about anything in the world, easing the learning curve greatly. You choose from among four races, ranging from the hulking Atrox to the nimble Opifex, further defining your character into one of 14 classes, such as soldier, martial artist, bureaucrat, or metaphysicist. Further character customization focuses on height, weight, and face alterations. Finally, you choose a unique handle and receive a randomly generated real name, preventing complete user stupidity and also allowing for some highly entertaining results. Choose a side and you're off and running.
The initial introduction of your character to the world of Rubi-Ka is in a "newbie" area associated with your chosen faction. Equip yourself with whatever meager starting items you possess, learn any "nano-formulas" (the sci-fi equivalent of magic, performed by thousands of tiny robots) available, and go fortune hunting -- one monster at a time. The starting zones are populated with entertaining creatures who spout lines like "plz hlp me!" and "I'LL GET MY MAIN!" at you, invoking blissful memories of why you stopped playing Ultima Online or EverQuest. Besides providing a non-threatening way to figure out the game's combat system, these creatures are evidence that Funcom tries a little harder to make the game a bit more accessible than the competition.
A main focus of the game, easily accessed from either the "newbie" zone or several places in any city, is the mission system. Anarchy Online uses mission generators, which provide randomly generated dungeons stocked with a host of appropriately leveled monsters and a goal or quest to complete. Any gamer who detests downtime in MMORPGs will find this single feature to be the most wonderful idea imaginable. Even if you have no idea whatsoever as to where to go to find experience in the world of Rubi-Ka, your next adventure is never farther away than the nearest mission generator.
Anarchy Online characters can carry hordes of medical kits that, when combined with an appropriately high skill, virtually eliminate a waiting period between monsters. Joining other players also quickly proves to be a fantastic way of assuring you'll never be waiting for something to do.
The graphics far surpass those seen in any functioning, previously released MMORPG, combining incredibly lush landscapes with finely detailed creatures, architecture, and skies. And, unlike the majority of its competition, the musical score keeps right up with the view. Ranging from smooth jazz in the city high-rises to throbbing techno in the seedy clubs to dreamy ambient tunes as you walk across the vast wasteland that encompasses much of the planet, the background music is near perfect.
The more you play and the deeper you immerse yourself in the world, more opportunities for advancement and employment become available. The item creation system in Anarchy Online is quite detailed, but the trade skills required are level-based like all other skills and require a fair amount of adventuring to attain. A violence preference system walks the middle ground between outlawing and allowing it, and some zones have "happy gas" which renders players unable to attack each other, while certain disputed zones can easily host large-scale clan-corporate wars.
Despite the existence of some bugs in the program, Anarchy Online designers have fixed a large percentage of early complaints and added quite a few gameplay-enhancing features suggested over the course of the game's release. It's obvious that Funcom has taken heed of painful lessons learned by competitors and realized that ignoring customers is never the road to success.
While catering too much to the whims of a vocal minority, especially on the Internet, can be a bad idea, Funcom seems to know where to draw the line. As a result, their product keeps improving. Anarchy Online provides an important alternative to fantasy MMORPGs, and is designed well enough to warrant a look from anyone interested in the genre.
Graphics 
While some single-player games have a graphical edge over Anarchy Online, the gorgeous atmospheres prevalent throughout the game are unmatched in other online titles (c. 2001). From the daunting Omni-1 city skyline to the vast wasteland of Rubi-Ka, the graphics are quite compelling. Additionally, annoying popup scenery is relatively negligible, as the entire area loads into memory (if possible) when you enter.
Sound
The soundtrack is absolute dynamite and runs the gamut of musical selections from hardcore techno to softly lilting jazz. A separate CD of songs from the game has been released, an indication of Funcom's confidence in the quality. The sound effects are universally quite adequate, though overshadowed somewhat by the excellence of the music.
Enjoyment 
While there are still a few bugs in Anarchy Online, most issues have been dealt with via patches. What's left is the game that was initially envisioned, made better by some newly created features resulting from player feedback. The major problem with the game is nothing new to fans of MMORPGs -- once you tire of either killing monsters, making items, or engaging in lengthy debates about corporate downsizing while staring at a pixellated sky, there's not much left to do.
Replay Value
Anarchy Online delivers on the promise of infinite replay value due to an ever-changing world. Different breeds and classes provide entirely new strategies for gameplay and simply choosing your alignment with good or evil significantly alters the way the game works. Of course, the satisfaction of slaughtering thousands of monsters in a variety of different ways is always pleasant as well.
Documentation
Are you sick and tired of pathetic manuals that provide nothing more than bare-bones gameplay information? Anarchy Online's manual breathes new life into the art of documentation with its huge amount of information and engrossing style, which alternates between Omni-Tek propaganda to clan warnings about potential brainwashing. Unfortunately, it seems to be printed on noticeably recycled paper.
