Saga is a massively multiplayer online real-time strategy game. Saga is touted as the world's first collectible online real-time strategy game. Saga was released on March 4, 2008 after a brief open Beta which began February 26, 2008. Developed by American studios Wahoo Studios and Silverlode Interactive, the game ran a closed Beta starting July 5, 2007. The title has no subscription fees, instead being supported by the release of booster or expansion packs. It's possible to play a free version of the game, with certain features locked, at the Saga official site.
Saga launched into hobby stores around the United States and Canada following GAMA 2008. SAGA has partnered with Alliance Game Distributors, GTS Distribution, Diamond Comics and ACD Distribution, with an emphasis to focus on game and card stores to sell the booster packs.
Plot
Saga is set in a fantasy world where an age-old strife exists between five competing Gods. Each God heads up a faction with unique races and abilities. The factions are Magic (Dark Elves), Machines (Dwarves), Nature (Elves), War (Orcs and Ogres), Undead (Undead) and Light (Giants and Humans). Each faction is diametrically opposed to two other factions. For example, Machines hates Magic (they are naturally opposite, technology vs. mysticism), and Machines also hates Nature (machines vs. living things). Nature also despises War, for their tendency to destroy nature. Light faction are champions of order and justice, while Magic faction delve deep into the black arts, and the circle completes itself. Each faction has an ethos and a strategic quality that sets it apart, giving players a spectrum of play styles to identify with. The system is designed to create a balanced tension between the factions, giving each faction two archenemies and two neutrals to war with or form alliances with. The result is a world where endless war is inevitable.
However, the Machine (Dwarf) and Nature (Elf) factions have put aside their differences to join the Order (Machine, Nature, Light), and the remaining factions have joined the Brotherhood (War, Magic, Undead). The Undead faction is a recent (2008) addition and not part of the original five races.
Gameplay
Saga combines the trading card game (TCG) sensibilities of Magic: The Gathering, the MMO persistency of RPGs, and the kingdom management and mass battles of RTS titles such as Rome: Total War.
Gameplay in Saga is best described in two states: kingdom management and battle.
Kingdom Management
In keeping with the RTS genre, gameplay in Saga revolves around managing a persistent, online kingdom. Each player is given a plot of land by their faction God, which they must develop and improve. These improvements include building defensive walls and towers, researching new technology at the university, and harvesting the available resources.
Players, at the time of nation creation, choose which layout their nation will have. Then, as their resources grow (by questing or by peasant workforce) they can build buildings. Building spots are chosen by a system called "Free Build". Free build lets the user place buildings wherever they want, although there is a limit to how many of each building a player can build. Resources can be played on colored squares (brown = wood, gray = stone, gold = gold, purple = mana). There are an excess of these squares though, so one is not limited.
Additionally, players maintain a population of peasants, which rises and falls depending on the popularity of the player as a leader. Unpopular leaders can suffer riots, leading to extensive damage to structures and mass desertions by peasants. A player will gain peasants by capturing houses in quests or in PvP. At 74 happiness one's peasants will riot and at 90 one gains production bonuses. Any happiness above this is excess and should be used to tax the peasants. Normally, if your happiness is above 74 you gain 4 peasants a day. However, after the happiness system was patched in 2008, peasant happiness is no longer displayed as a numerical value. Happiness is gained by winning battles (PvP or quests), bribery and by having sufficient food and housing. Generally, having happiness in 'jubilant' is considered ideal.