Elderlands, for those of you who are unfamiliar with it, is a 2D tile-based MMORPG developed by If-Else Software, which company is headed up by Jason Ely (of Ultima 8 fame). It offers players an immersive, feature-rich online play experience, not to mention a visual style that is heavily inspired by the earlier Ultima games.

The game world spans two massive continents and numerous dungeons, and players control the governments of every nation and province. Nations can even go to war! NPCs follow schedules, and players can heavily customize their characters as well as build up their rank in numerous skill trees.

And as of this week, Elderlands is in the midst of an open alpha test:

After a very long and productive development run we are pleased to announce that Elderlands is now in open Alpha testing.

Create an account from the Create Account page.

To get the game client go to the download page at the Download Elderlands page to get the game client.

Any questions regarding accounts can be sent to the Help Desk page. And be sure to visit the community on our Forums page.

Many thanks to all the testers that were invited into the closed testing.

Active closed testing members will receive a more official thanks coming very soon.

Enjoy the game!

So if adventuring in a 2D, full-featured MMORPG that has more than a whiff of Ultima about it is your thing, why not give Elderlands a try?