Trying out for ‘Audition’

RAN Online caught the local online gaming com-munity unawares with its modern-day setting, offbeat menagerie of foes, and welcome departure from the run-of-the-mill fantasy MMORPG. Now, it looks as if the guys at IP E-Games, the publisher of RAN, are pulling another coup when the company recently announced Audition, a wildly popular online dance game.

After some digging, I found out some interesting things about Audition: according to IP E-Games, the game is currently number one in China, Korea, and Taiwan. Electronic Times Internet, an IT news website, reported that Audition reached 50 million registered users in China, with 400,000 concurrent players. Baidu, the Chinese search engine, revealed that Audition ranks first in all its searches, and is ahead of games like Crazy Racing and World of Warcraft.

Ahead of World of Warcraft? The skeptic in me stirred as I absorbed this shocking tidbit.

There’s only one way to find out if the hype is true: play Audition till my sinews tell me to stop. Good thing the game was readily available during the event. The question now is can the café’s PC handle my marathon boogie session?

As of press time, the Philip-pine client was still unavailable, so we used the Southeast Asian version to try out our slick moves. The customary client download and account creation was a breeze, and is thankfully in English. I noticed that the client’s security is tighter than usual, but if you’ve been scammed in other online games, you’ll agree that stricter measures are just the thing.

Character creation in Audition is very straightforward. You first choose your avatar’s gender, then select particulars like its shirt or "Top," pants or "Bottom," and shoes. You’ll select from three different servers – Entry, Novice, and Free – each having multiple channels.

Audition’s main menu is designed to look like the section of a city, and the essentials are all here. Sections you’ll see include the broadcasting station that houses the virtual dance floor and the shopping mall where you can customize your avatar.

New players are treated to a tutorial on how to boogie the Audition way. As the name implies, the tutorial’s "Basic" mode teaches you the first dance steps you’ll ever make, and the Freestyle mode coaches you on how to input moves of your choice.

The game’s lobby shows you a list of all the available dance rooms and roster of users currently online. Double clicking on the room of your choice lets you participate in the game, but each can only accommodate six players. If the room is full, or if the players are currently dancing, you’ll have to wait until the next batch gets ready.

Audition uses a clean interface that lets users navigate the game easily. The buttons are sized just right, and are well laid out. Kudos to T3 Entertainment, the game’s designer, for deciding to let users access other parts of the game without having to go back to the main menu.

Once in the dance room, players will see a variety of game settings to choose from. Included is a pull-down menu for background music. There’s also a button for toggling between the Single/Couple game mode, a team selection option, the necessary dance mode, a start/exit button, and the requisite chat function. If you’ve developed a sudden case of cold feet, you could opt to observe a dance session first.

Similar to the Blizzard mantra, Audition’s controls are easy to learn, but challenging to master. Players must press the corresponding arrows shown onscreen via the directional keys. When the directions are keyed in, the space bar must then be pressed at the correct instant. The rhythm bead bar shows when it’s time to hit the space bar, which is done roughly every four counts.

Players score either a MISS, BAD, COOL, GREAT or PERFECT. The avatar’s movement is affected by the score, so everyone gets to see if you made a booboo. A BAD still gives a score, albeit small. GREAT and PERFECT are the ratings to aim for – they give the highest grades. The player with the leading score gets to dance front center, but this is bound to change as the song and the scores progress.

PERFECT scores give bonus points, so if you missed out on hitting the space bar in one sequence, you can always make it up by timing the next press perfectly. These kinds of nuances give Audition’s gameplay a dynamic feel.

Win or lose, players receive experience and Den, the game’s currency. As players receive more experience, they level up; this, however, isn’t a guarantee of one’s skill. Still, gaining levels gives more options to players. Before a player gains experience after leveling up, he or she must pass a License Test that requires him or her to dance in a new room and reach a certain score.

Audition offers a gamut of game modes, which are divided between "Single" and "Group" types. The Single mode includes Practice, which lets players try out their skills and Choreography where players must dance the same steps. If during Choreography, a player scores a MISS, the player won’t be able to execute two moves following the miss.

There’s also Freestyle, where players can input dance moves of their choice. However, you can’t just key in random directions – it’s bound to score a MISS. You still have to stick to the beat and choose from a number of possible combinations.

After mustering enough skill and nerve, I tried out the Couples mode, which paired me with a male dance partner (I used a female avatar). This mode is similar to the Choreography: the pair must hit the same keys to score.

Whenever we scored a PERFECT, we got a heart. Getting three hearts more than the competing couple would result in our avatars hugging each other. We never got beyond an embrace (because of my two left feet – or in this case, fingers), but I was told by my partner that a couple that gets five more hearts than the competing pair will do some virtual smooching.

Thanks to the cap on the number of players per dance room, the game runs smoothly on the test machine. The avatars’ movements had a catlike grace to it that was motion-captured, no doubt. Audition’s audio stands out with catchy tracks that’ll have you dancing to the beat in no time. A boon to the Philippine version is the publisher’s plan to add in local songs to the mix that would give the game a strong Pinoy flavor.

The event may have ended, but my dancing days are not. I’ve been bitten by the Audition bug, and have converted from suspicious skeptic to staunch supporter. Unlike other MMORPGs, Audition is devoid of the leveling grind, and loaded on gameplay. Yes, it’s already a lot of fun, and it’s not even commercially launched yet. We expect to see even more improvements as the months roll by.

Audition is, indeed, showing promise as it is introduced in our shores. Would it achieve the same kind of frenzied following? We’ll find out soon enough when the game goes commercial this November. According to IP E-Games, open beta will happen sometime later the same month.