NOTE: The print version of this article was mistakenly published with the wrong author and title, and was changed accordingly for the online version.
ANEURISM IV” is one dirty but ambitious MMORPG whose beating heart is literally rooted in cold, hard labor. That, along with its futuristic atmosphere dedicated to making you feel like nothing more than a cog in the gears, sets it apart from most games in the genre whose strengths are rooted in might and magic.
Right from the get-go, the dystopian metropolis that is the titular “ANEURISM IV” will swallow you whole and spit you back out. Cramped streets are full of litter, TV screens stare you down with big blinking eyeballs, and there’s barely any such thing as fun. The world is absolutely horrible, but in the best way possible.
In “ANEURISM IV,” the proletariat work themselves down to the bone to supply the totalitarian regime called the Cortex who are trying to maintain order. Meanwhile, an anarchist group called the Scum protest the Cortex by trying to spread rot throughout the city. With all these factions combined, the city’s fate rests in its inhabitants.
Everybody starts somewhere, and you’ll always start at the bottom as a prole. To move up in society, you must perform labor of different sorts. Completing tasks like filling up cans of slop or building warheads will earn you anamecytes that you can use to choose a new role. Accumulate enough, and you can even join either the Cortex or the Scum.
Higher roles have access to better tools, but have bigger responsibilities to balance it out and keep players from abusing power. Everybody actually does play a part, and thus, it’s better to play on a server with many players.
For example, if you play as a Liquidator, you must constantly be on the lookout for rot and incinerate any bulbous, pulsating pods around the city. It’s highly important since rot continuously ruins the game’s world and can eventually result in the entire server being reset if it’s not taken care of.
Some jobs allow you to perform similar sanitation-like duties, but others directly benefit the public, like becoming a dealer, a medic, or a shopowner. The more positions are filled, the more the atmosphere of the game comes to life.
Preventing labor from turning the gameplay tedious is the roleplay factor and the amount of interactivity. While you must tend to your needs like food and sanity, you possess an excessive amount of freedom with how you deal with the world around you.
This also means you don’t have to obey the law. Lie, steal people’s rations, loot corpses–do whatever helps you scrape by, just as long as you don’t get caught. It’s a dog-eat-dog world out there.
Any player that is familiar with “Garry’s Mod” roleplay servers will definitely see its DNA in this game since “ANEURISM IV” is the fully-fledged sequel to the “ANEURISM III” gamemode. With this said, it’s highly recommended that you communicate with other players via microphone or text chat.
It’s just a shame that there’s not many players online. On average, there’s usually about three populated servers of around 70-80 players. This might be from the lack of content because there’s only two maps, even though the developers intend on updating the game.
RATING:
Regardless, the harsh world of “ANEURISM IV” is one that is severely underrated but one to be etched in your memory once you give it a try. It’s an almost-perfect MMORPG, held back by a lack of content and not too many players. Hopefully, with more updates and more maps, more people will subject themselves to this metropolis and see it through.