Sorry for the lapse last week; other priorities took over.
I did, however, find a new free-to-play MMO to fiddle around in, this time it's Runes of Magic. This game is, plainly, a WoW-clone. In some ways, it's a shameless WoW-clone (the GUI especially), but there are features which make it stand out as a fairly solid alternative to Blizzard's dominating pay-to-play title.
Originally a Taiwanese production, Runes of Magic (or RoM) was localized for European and North American markets by the German company Frogster Interactive, and they've done a pretty good job on it. You won't find a lot of hilariously awkward engrish in RoM like you will in other MMORPGs brought to english-speaking gamers from Korea, China or Taiwan.
This isn't to say you won't see the asian influence in this game; despite being a WoW-clone, the character designs are far less cartoony than Blizzard's, so the exaggerated proportions and shoulder pads decked out with bright, garish colors and neon lighting particle effects aren't really present. While the game itself takes a lot from WoW, the character designs would be more akin to a cross between Silkroad Online and Guild Wars. That said, graphically, the game delivers pretty well. While it's not spectacular on the level of some games and there's not a fancy physics engine to supply you with interesting ragdoll situations, it's fairly smooth and fluid. The water effects are pretty nice, too, even if you turn down your settings because your computer runs a bit hot due to a lack of efficient cooling (like mine).
There are also the occasional glitch, which don't necessarily prevent you from enjoying the game aside from providing small distractions.
When you make a character, you get a surprising level of customization options: a wide variety of hair and face options, the ability to use a color wheel to create your own hair color, a selection of skintones and sliders ala The Sims 2, Oblivion or Fallout 3 with which to change height, head size, chest and hip width, foot and hand size and even breast size (only in female characters), which can lead to some comical results (see below).
On creation, you also get to choose your primary class. RoM has the standard staple classes to choose from: Warrior, Knight, Priest, Mage, Scout (Ranger) and Rogue. Later, you will take a secondary class to supplement your primary, choosing from any of the above which you did not choose at creation. So far, you only have the option to play as a human character, but with a coming update, Elves and two new elven classes (Druid and Warden) will be added to the game.
Gameplay is relatively straightforward. You move either by left-clicking a point on the ground you would like to move to or by using WASD or arrow keys to direct your character someplace. Spacebar makes you jump, which only really serves as amusement and a way to bypass obstacles; it does not aid in combat and large falls will cause damage. To initiate combat, you double-click an enemy with the left mouse button and use numberkeys or bound hotkeys to employ items or skills/spells while you attack.
Combat itself is nothing new for anyone familiar with the standard MMORPG formula, and while you experience plenty of it, advancing in level and gaining money and items is more often accomplished through the astounding number of quests available at any point in the game. In addition to one-time quests, you have a plethora of "daily quests", which you can do repeatedly (up to 10 daily quests every 24 hours - the timer resets every day at 6am PST). Some quests are difficult and require a full party of capable players to complete, while others are as simple as going from one NPC to another which is not even on the other side of a small village.
In addition, there are instanced dungeons that parties, or even solo players can farm for higher level equipment, materials and gold without having to compete with other parties or players who may try to camp spawns. Not to mention you can freely harvest raw materials such as wood, ore and herbs to craft your own items while in the field.
There's a fully functioning auction house system and it's a fairly effective way to supplement your ability to get equipment through either farming or questing, as people don't seem to jack up prices as much as they do in some games with player-driven economies. You can even buy diamonds (the item shop currency normally bought with real money to get premium items and powerups) through the auction house with in-game gold without fear of breaking the TOS and getting banned.
On a less functional side, there is fully-operational player housing in RoM (something I understand WoW has yet to implement), which you can decorate with furniture and accessories bought either with in-game gold or with the diamond item shop currency you can purchase with real money. Some people use these houses as social gathering locations or to promote their guild with giveaways and contests while others just use them as a place to go and switch between their primary and secondary classes to advance skills and store surplus items.
Overall, RoM might be borrowing from a proven successful game, but it's still doing things to establish itself as an independent entity. As far as the free-to-play, cash shop-supported sub-section of MMOs go, this one is possibly the most polished I've played yet. It's still fairly new, and it does have problems, but I'm hoping it will get better as time goes on and more content is added. It's an excellent alternative for anyone who isn't interested in paying $15/mo to play a game like WoW.
Did I mention it's free-to-play?
Originally published at stale coffee. You can comment here or there.
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