Perfect World Entertainment recently dropped by the GamePro office to show off some of its newest projects in the works. The publisher, known for its free-to-play MMOs Forsaken World, Torchlight, and Battle of the Immortals is pushing boundaries and expanding its scope with a fresh round of exciting new titles sure to catch players both familiar and unfamiliar with their library of past games. Running the gamut from hack-and-slash to hardcore action MMOs, Perfect World's catalog has a broad appeal.

Many free-to-play MMOs center around their gameplay systems, but unfortunately often include lackluster visuals. Developers lean on overused or stereotypical art styles. Textures pop slowly in as you travel from bland cave to dull dungeon. Players don the same armors, wield the same weapons, and cast the archetypal spells that have plagued the RPG experience for years. Perfect World's upcoming titles RaiderZ and Blacklight: Retribution use the latest version of Unreal Engine, which was the backbone of popular games such as Mass Effect, Gears of War, and BioShock.

The development toolset is continually updated to meet the demands of today's games, putting power in the studios' hands to craft their vision. An increasing number of titles are built in the engine and the list could go on, but you can do the math: Unreal yields high-quality end results. While the fun factor is always determined by the design, you can at least be sure anything made with Unreal will be pretty. Blacklight's art has proven successful in the previous release, Blacklight: Tango Down. With Perfect World helping guide this newer project, it's certain to be a case of bigger and better.

In addition to Blacklight: Retribution's tremendous graphics, one of the key features is weapon customization. Inspired by car tuning games, players can customize everything from ammo type, stocks, barrels, muzzles, optics, colors, and even tags. Based in a futuristic urban warzone, some of the weapons players can obtain include advanced future tech as well. The Hyper Reality Visor for example allows gamers to see enemy locations, movement and objectives to get into the battle faster. For more epic fights, Weapon Depots supply grenade launchers, hardsuits, rail guns and much more if you can earn enough credits to unlock them. The level of detail Zombie Studios has achieved in their latest creation is staggering, and players should be excited to get into the action with it.

Romps through meadows and fields, hacking and slashing, are standard fare in monster hunting RPGs of today. Attack mobs of various creatures, garner experience, level up, and then rinse and repeat. RaiderZ seeks to go beyond that. Rather than leaving your slain enemy's body to disappear and leave behind some gold, you can take pieces of the beast to fashion into custom armor, or more inventively, as parts to craft and modify your weapons with. The hunt feels like it has a purpose; you as a a player are after these creatures for more than just the experience they reward you with. There comes a unique immersion of actually carrying a piece of a felled foe, like a trophy or a respectful memento of a conquered worthy adversary.

Invention is the name of the game with RaiderZ, wherein no preset class system exists. Rejecting the fixed setup involved in many RPGs, RaiderZ allows players extensive freedom in choosing from a variety of skills to complement their play style and really carve their own character type. They can choose from a variety of healing powers, to casting compelling spells, to masterful swordsman skills and are never locked into one role.

For example, instead of taking the class “ranger”, you could develop a skill in archery, simultaneously dabble in sorcery, and perhaps even take on some sniping traits to boot. This level of personal customization also means that every party will function a little differently. You'll begin to seek out players whose unique set of skill loadouts complement your style, and you'll find closer bonds with individuals, rather than always “seeking healer and tank for raid.”

While RaiderZ brings new advances in weapon customization, Rusty Hearts goes a different route. Already released in Korea, Perfect World is looking to bring the successes to the American market as well. The game introduces a slick and uniquely vibrant look and feel using cel-shading and stylized characters. Instead of open fields and an open play world, you are transported into darker European gothic interiors, with emphasis on well-designed set piece levels.

The popular anime/manga series Bleach was a major inspiration for the art, and Devil May Cry and Castlevania were great inspirations for gameplay. Players can take control of one of several individual characters, each with their own abilities and play styles. For spell lovers, Angela is a sassy witch who tosses lightning and fire. To get up close and personal, players can choose Tude, an enigmatic swordsman with a talent for melee combat.

Tight gameplay is essential for MMOs because players will often need to work with total strangers online to achieve successes. Most objectives in Massively Multiplayer Online games require several players' combined efforts, and even if you could go solo it's never as fun. Rusty Hearts allows up to 4 players in a party, 3 more than just yourself. If you choose to play unaccompanied and run into trouble on a difficult boss or mob, you have the option to call in a team member to come to your aid.

Perfect World has assured us that the quests can all be completed on normal and even hard mode by hardcore solo players. "Blood Mode" is the most challenging difficulty you can take on, and as the name suggests, can be extremely gory with blood splattering everywhere. There are hundreds of quests to engage in Rusty Hearts, and they continually keep you engaged because they play differently each time. PW also states that new content will be added and quests will differ when replayed depending on your progress in the main story as well.

All three games represent the next wave of free-to-play titles; and all three bring free titles closer than ever to competing with their boxed brethren. From the looks of it, the future is now.