Nexon America Announces Aerial Combat MMORPG Riders Of Icarus

Aerial combat is sorely lacking in the MMORPG genre at large. Aion did a fairly good job, but there aren't any other examples I can think of offhand. WeMade Entertainment wants to change that with their title Riders of Icarus, a new MMORPG set to be published by Nexon America later this year. The game is known simply as Icarus Online in Korea and was first revealed at G-Star back in 2012. Built on the powerful CryEngine 3, it offers compelling visuals on land and in the air.

"With Riders of Icarus, we want to bring an all-new action element to MMORPGs: Thrilling aerial combat. There are many games with dragons and other flying mounts, but they hardly ever impact battles in a meaningful and entertaining way," said WeMade Entertainment's producer Seok Hoon. In Riders of Icarus, players can tame and train "hundreds of different wild beasts," from dragons to owls—as shown in the image above—to land-based mounts such as bears. It sounds a bit like Dragon's Prophet, only with more emphasis on aerial combat and a wider variety of tamable creatures.

In addition to aerial combat, players can fight on land using the game's "frenetic" melee-focused action combat system. "Theatrical" boss battles will take place with some players in the air and some on the ground.

You can sign up for the first Closed Beta test on the official website now. The test will be held between January 28th and February 2nd. This test will be used to stress test the game servers in "North America and Mexico" and will only be made available to users in the United States, Canada, and Mexico. A longer test, available to users in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand, will be held at a later date.