ChangYou.com (US) announced June 24th as the Open Beta date for their innovative free-to-play action MMORPG Blade Wars. The game features 99 motion-captured martial arts moves, choreographed and performed by Chinese Sanda champion Liu Hailong.

Additional unique features include an advanced Combo Skills System and an exclusive Music Skill development path called "Maestro." Blade Wars allows players to chain a series of attack skills together to form special combination skill attacks. Combo strings can be set and tailored to suit varied attack scenarios. The best players have been able to create combo strings that result in a chain of up to 99 uninterrupted hits.

The Maestro system in Blade Wars allows players to make music through use of mouse movements. Following a series of colored lines across the screen, players can begin to play pre-set tunes and then customize them with horizontal mouse movement to change the duration of selected notes and vertical mouse movement to change the pitch. If the player does well, their character earns combos and gains experience toward the next level in Music Skill. Nearby characters may enjoy the music and even join in.

"Besides ’Maestro,’ my favorite aspect of Blade Wars is the Combo System," says Blade Wars producer Eron Garcia. "Instead of simply attacking with the same skill over and over, or repeatedly tapping attack shortcuts, Blade Wars allows players to string together attack skills to form unique Combo attacks. We’ve adopted the phrase ’Think before you act’ as a mantra for the Combo system."