Welcome to the oriental side of the MMO world, where Chinese-made games outmatch brains and brawn against their Korean and Western predecessors. One of which is Wan Mei (Perfect World Co. Ltd.) and one of their grandest opus, Perfect World. Wan Mei’s masterpiece unfolds in a grandiose way, an MMORPG that offers a touch of everything from intimate social interaction to vengeful yet sweet wars. In its grandiosity, the game tries to attain perfection by taking bits and pieces of ideas from different MMOs and mixing them together in an oriental blend, with a dash of their homemade sweetener. And there you were, just yesterday, assuming that the last Chinese myth-based MMO had just washed its cup off of the tea leaves from its last serving.
Perfect Tea Blend
To sum up the story, the god Pan Gu had a vision of creating a perfect world gold and its inhabitants able to cultivate the perfect land. Thus, he used his powers to cleanse out the forces of evil and formed the land exactly as he had foreseen. In this land, three dominant races emerged, the humans, winged elves and the beast kind. Pan Gu gave these three races the great responsibility of cultivating and caring for the land. But of course, this responsibility isn’t without trouble, for the forces of evil are afoot once again…
And so the story continues as you write your history in the land of Pan Gu. How you set out as the hero depends on how you tread the path of cultivation. With much glee, most of the quests given to you, the hero, contains a bit of the lore and how you play a part in protecting the perfect world gold. As you become stronger, you will soon come to realize that the land is far more infested by evil than you expected. Pack your bags, shine your weapon, the journey to a Perfect World is within your reach.
Picture Perfect
Perfect World’s realm consists of nothing but an astounding amount of detail. Opulent in nature-inspired colors and oriental design, each area of the map is craftily connected to each other seamlessly. The world seems like it can allow you to travel as far as the eye can see, with the only thing stopping you is an invisible wall on dead ends. Every region consists of something to feast your eyes with, from sheer white snow, to barren sandy wastelands to lush greens and sparkling waters. The sky is also a stunning piece of art, ever changing with the time. Night and day effects are clearly defined, shifting hues of dawn, mid-morning, afternoon, and dusk around the land setting overtones of different moods in different sceneries. Even at the lowest end of the graphics spectrum, you will still find the land of Pan Gu pleasing to the eye.