Horizons Hands-On Preview

GameSpot is next in line with a hands-on preview of Artifact's upcoming MMORPG, Horizons: Empire of Istaria. Check it out:
Since we were equipped with extremely powerful characters, we were able to easily dispatch our enemies, like Spirit Island's zombies and giant maggots. Engaging in melee combat simply involves targeting enemies, then clicking the "attack" icon in the upper-left corner of the screen to initiate combat. Interestingly, Horizons locks your character's view onto your target while you're in battle so that moving from side to side causes your character to automatically strafe around your target in a circle. While this is an optional feature that can be toggled off, it should help new players keep sight of their targets in battle. However, zombies are the weakest members of the withered aegis--the legion of undead creatures who have begun to invade Istaria. As we saw, their influence extends beyond a few shambling corpses. High-ranking liches, for instance, can corrupt entire areas, turning grassy fields into twisted forests of blackened trees that are shadowed by swirling green nebulas in the sky, effectively blocking out the sun.