Combat in TCOS Gold, much like fighting bears in real life, is not a lazy mans game; you're without the option to simply click an enemy then grab a sandwich while your character happily swings away at whatever target you gave him. Combat in TCOS is more akin to First Person Shooters, or your somewhat average action game. You're given a reticule, to hit something your target must be in, or around, the reticule. Clever! An attempt to make all those hours of grinding a little bit more exciting! Unfortunately, that wasn't the case. My usual battles with bears usually started with me trotting up to a bear, alerting him to my presence (real men don't back stab their quarry, no matter how dangerous), closing the gap so we where more or less standing toe to paw, then exchanging blows how one normally would in most other MMO's.

In short, while the combat tries to be a bit different and intuitive, it ends up breaking down to the same old same old. Keep in mind I was playing the game for a relatively short amount of time, so end game bears might prove a bit more crafty and mobile. I think this system could really get the most out of itself if epic bosses actually moved around the combat area, instead of sauntering up like the big bags of hit points that they are and exchanging blows. I look forward to exploring this combat system a little bit more, and hope to find some hectic battles later on.

After getting my ass handed to me by a pack of wild bears a few times, I decided it was time to look over my Skill Deck and make some adjust-

Oh, right. Instead of the commonplace skill bar you find in a lot of MMORPG's today, you're given one WITH AN AXIS! This bar rotates every time you use a skill, and is somewhat confusing and unwieldy at first. All skills are grouped into tiers and have to go to a corresponding “face” on your Skill Deck. This basically means that while you may have 300 skills at your disposal, you're limited to bringing only so many into combat. Using a skill rotates the Deck to the next face, presenting you with your next choices. You're free to configure your Skill Deck any time you wish, out of combat.

The unwieldy part comes from the fact that left clicking will execute whatever skill you have highlighted. You have to use the number keys or the mouse wheel to change which attack you'll execute with the left mouse button. This takes some getting used to, and I found myself staring down at my Skill Deck 90% of the time during a fight. This would probably “fix itself” later on as you got used to your Deck's setup; eventually memorizing what skills you had where.