Asheron's Call 2: Fallen Kings

Did You Know?

• Turbine purchased the Asheron's Call intellectual property from Microsoft Game Studios in December 2003.
• In 2004 and 2005, Turbine partnered with Jolt Online Gaming to operate the game in Europe and with Sony Online Entertainment to distribute the Legions expansion under the Station Publishing label.
• The game closed on January 31, 2017, along with the original Asheron's Call.

Updates

Asheron's Call 2 was subscription-based, costing $12.95 per month. The franchise provided complimentary monthly content updates or events that added quests, skills, landmasses, monsters, gameplay dynamics, and bug fixes. Epic storylines linked multiple episodes into story arcs. A major expansion, Asheron's Call 2: Legions, was released on May 4, 2005, adding the Empyrean race and the landmass Knorr. Pre-orders granted access to the Drudge race at launch. The final content update was among the largest, introducing two new monster types and dozens of quests.

Game setting

Both games were set on the fictional planet Auberean. Asheron's Call 2 took place after a major cataclysm that changed the topography of the continent Dereth. Three races took shelter in portal space and later emerged to reclaim the world. The warring factions that caused the cataclysm remained, alongside older, more powerful forces.

Gameplay

Players chose from three races: Isparians (humans), Lugians, and Tumeroks. Hostilities between them were resolved by the sequel, with conflict limited to player-versus-player content. The Legions expansion added Empyreans and Drudges. Race was the only limit on class; classes were damage dealers, tanks, or healers. Each level from 1 to 50 granted a credit for training combat skills. The Hero system was a major update with Legions but available to all players.

Reception

Asheron's Call 2 received generally positive reviews. On GameRankings it scored 83% based on 29 reviews; on Metacritic it scored 82 out of 100 from 22 reviews. It was nominated for GameSpot's Best Graphics (Technical) and Best Role-Playing Game awards, and for the AIAS Interactive Achievement Awards in Massive Multiplayer/Persistent World Game of the Year and Outstanding Achievement in Visual Engineering.