9Dragons is a fantasy MMORPG with a story placing the game events in China. Originally developed by Indy21, a Korean based company, the game was later introduced to the international English speaking market by Acclaim and GamersFirst.

Making use of an impressive animations system, 9Dragons focuses on martial art combat. There are several clans in the game, all promoting a certain combat style. The clans include, but are not limited to the following: Shaolin, Wu-Tang, The League of Beggars, The Brotherhood of Thieves, Sacred Flower and Heavenly Demon Clan. Each clan has certain admission requirements and choosing one clan over the other can dramatically influence the gameplay.

Players can choose different roles within a clan, but they all point towards four general archetypes: Warrior, Strategist, Chi Kung Artist and Holist. The first is self-explanatory and it generally refers to the heavy melee fighter. The Strategist is the game’s main healer and this character can use the clan’s secondary weapon, unlike the warrior who uses the clan’s main weapon. The Chi Kung Artist is the game’s damage dealer and focuses on long range attacks, thus being pretty ineffective in melee combat. Finally the Holist is a hybrid class being able to perform tasks specific to all the other classes, yet less effective in all disciplines.

PVP in 9Dragons is focused mainly on the conflict between the game’s two factions, each represented by three clans. While the PVP aspects of the game can be quite fun, there are several balance issues that tend to spoil the fun.

9Dragons, while still having some loose ends here and there, is an enjoyable MMORPG experience that brings to the table quite a few original ideas.