Weapon specialization, character creation, and you.
As with the great majority of MMO's today beginning Atlantica will have you creating your character - it is however slightly different to the norm, Humans are the only race type available (yes, you can select gender) and instead of choosing a class you will be choosing a weapon to specialize in. Your choices are as follows:
Sword – Combination of medium damage and speed to a single target in the front row.
Spear – Medium Damage to 2 targets in a line.
Axe – High damage to a single target, and enemies to either side.
Gun – Medium damage to all targets in a line.
 

Bow – Medium damage to any target, regardless of position.
Cannon - Medium damage in a triangular cross pattern.
Staff - Healing and Hex spells, Medium Damage to single target in front row.

After selecting your class you are able to change your appearance slightly, and the colour of your clothes. Unfortunately everything here is hugely limited with only a few choices of face and hair, and two clothing colours. With only one race to choose from I think that it is imperative that they add more options here to the full version of the game, as walking around can give you a very eerie feeling…being surrounded by 50,000 other versions of me is almost intoxicating.

Assembling your Army.
Once again sticking to true old-school style RPG gaming, Atlantica will see you controlling not a single character, but an entire party. You will begin the game by choosing your main character just like any MMO, but soon after you will be asked to recruit yourself mercenaries – fighters for hire that will make up the bulk of your party. During the tutorial you will be asked to select three Mercenaries from a list that will be added to your party - ranging anywhere from Archers and Monks, to Witches, Exorcists, Inventors, Oracles, Vikings, Beast Trainers and a heap more, there really is no shortage of class types to experiment with. Throughout the course of the game you will be able to recruit these other mercenaries from towns, managers, drops from monsters and completing certain quests. Although in the beginning you will only be controlling a party, you will eventually be leading a small army of 9 troops handpicked, trained, and levelled by you. It just doesn't get any better than this!
 

Levelling your characters uses a very easy and familiar system - every time one of your characters attacks an enemy they receive exp based on the effectiveness of the attack. Upon reaching level 20 and after meeting certain requirements your characters can undergo a class change making them much stronger, and adding a new look and new skills to their arsenal. As each of your mercenaries are entire characters on there own, they all require attention separately. This includes equipping them with weapons and armour, upgrading their spells with various books found throughout the land, equipping items like healing potions to them specifically so they can use them in battle, and a great deal more down the track. Things like battle formation also play largely into unit management, putting your ranged ‘mercs’ in the back lines and your hardy warriors up front. Many characters also attack in specific patterns – Archers can attack units from any distance and in any row, Gunners can attack multiple enemies at once, Spearmen can attack all units in a straight line and so on. Careful placement of your units, and knowing their attack patterns will almost always be the difference between victory and death.