I believe it's high time we revisited this topic. My original post on the subject about two years ago was, at the time, some of my most extensive work. However it was done with information and experiences gathered loosely over a period of several years in a time when MMOs weren't nearly as big and widespread as they are now-- and this says a lot, considering they weren't exactly in their infancy at the time either. Some of the games we will touch this time are new to the blog, some we will be revisiting from previous installments. So, without further ado, I present to you the genre that turned gaming into slavery!
- DC Universe Online
My love for the DCU led me to devoting countless hours into playing the game and then countless hours into reviewing it. I had given it a glowing recommendation at the time, but now that three months have passed since its release, do I stand by my original review? Absolutely. I said it's fun and it is. It's also the best DCU game out there. But I also did say that whether or not it will succeed depends on how much content it will offer in the months following... and that's where the creators of the title have failed miserably. With a cap at 30 and a generally easy and quick leveling up system, there is not much fun to be found in the lacking endgame. The last few updates have mostly focused on refining the game, so at least those that will come in later will find a technically better and less buggy game, but in terms of content, all I recall off the top of my head is a couple of new raids.
It's not uncommon for updates to just add a raid or a new dungeon every now and again, but DCUO can't afford to follow this type of steep content update. Granted, it's only been three months, an acceptable time for any MMO to find its footing; but it's been three subscription-based months! That's three months of 15 bucks each (not counting the trial time). It takes but a few days to cap one character and how many alts can one do or how many times they can take part in the same raids before they just give the fucking thing up? I said back in my review that it's possible DCUO wants to focus on the kind of audience that favors raids and legendary gear hunting, but upon reflection it's the worst direction they could've taken. Considering the setting and universe this is based on (a comic book world, i.e. a medium based on story) and that this is the introduction of console gamers to the genre, it's a bit contradictory.
I'd probably let it slide, considering how little time has passed since the release, if there seemed to be any fucking intention to release rich content in the following months. But after that cool "In Lex We Trust" trailer, we've got no actual news about a major (and much-needed) content upgrade. So, as the game stands now, is it still worth it? Honestly, if you've already bought it do what I do and hold off renewing the subscription until we get that upgrade, because there is literally nothing new to see here. If you haven't got it yet, you should wait as well, at least until we get an official announcement for something new.
- City of Heroes
I also touched on this one recently. If you want to know what the "expansion" offers, read that short piece I did a few weeks ago. I was utterly disappointed by how poor and insubstantial Going Rogue turned out to be and for better or worse, the game has remained so stubbornly faithful to its original format that it's grown stale. Having said that, after I was done reviewing the expansion, I went back and started playing again and I realized I was having fun! The problem is that I started having fun after I stopped playing in that ridiculous new setting and went back to leveling my oldest character, who I had given up on a couple of years back.
This means that City of Heroes remains the best comic book-based MMO out there and it is very much a well-designed game. It has depth and it's a lot more accessible than other games of the genre. It utilizes its theme well and despite the small oddity of having an entire game-world of superheroes removing any kind of uniqueness from your characters, it's still immersing enough to draw you into its world. I still think that anyone who has yet to play it, they should. I promise that, if you like MMOs and comics, you can't go wrong with CoH. For the rest of us... there is still nothing to do if you've seen everything already. This hasn't changed; for all the small updates, Paragon Studios has yet to give long-time players reasons to return to a vastly dated game.
The community has decreased radically, even though that will finally be addressed; soon NCSoft intends to merge the North American and European servers, so at least you'll find a few more people to play with, a major drawback that surfaced in the past couple of years when trying to utilize the party function. Again, though, if you've already played the game and have no real interest in returning, stay away. If you're a first-timer, do try it. I guarantee there is fun to be had with it.
- Champions Online
I hated that game when it first out. It didn't look nearly as pretty as its system demands claimed. The universe it offered was kind of too generic, even by comic book standards and immersion/roleplaying were nowhere to be found. The gameplay... oh the gameplay. An effort at an action MMO that fell flat on its ass with laggy response times that caused more deaths and retracing steps than one should ever have to go through, a result of -ironically- the stunning amount of depth it put on its extensive "builds"; you had to know how to build the perfect one before-hand, otherwise weeping blood was guaranteed.
The game proved a commercial failure; not a bomb (i.e. bad enough to be pulled off the Internets), but far less successful than Cryptic and Atari required it to be in order to keep supporting it. So, they moved to a free-to-play model, like others before them that officially came online at 25th of January 2011. Let me tell you; going 'free' was the best thing that could've happened to CO.
The free subscriptions come with limited access, naturally. For one, after the tutorial you're immediately brought into the city where you get to play super-hero; an improvement over the original gameplan that had you deal with a crisis in Nevada or Canada, before you could keep the streets clean from super-villains. I do have to admit, I *kind* of miss the two Crises; they were well-designed for what they were and if nothing else, I spent much time in them trying to decide whether or not to take the fucking game back and trade it for something else. But this new direction makes the game a lot more accessible and provides better foundations for roleplaying as now you can instantly go ahead and satisfy your typical superhero fantasy.
In more practical terms, the Bronze and Silver (i.e. the free) subscriptions have dumbed down the builds a lot. You no longer have access to them; instead, when you level up you either pick one of two super-powers or the game does it for you and the same goes for traits and skills. The truth is, it's a little too limiting. It's fine for one character, but once you get to make alts, they will probably play more-or-less the same. Still, since the game makes the builds for you, the difficulty has been decreased noticeably, making the game a lot easier to play solo, without breaking flow as much as it used to. I think what I'm missing the most are the various travel powers. The free version still offers the three basics: flight, speed, leaping. If there was one area that CO had impressed me even back in the day was the sheer amount of variations of the above, like ice-flying (ala Iceman) or swinging ala Spidey.
Most of the above, powers and costumes, are now available for purchase in the game's store-- for real money, obviously. The odd thing is that the "Gold" subscription model, which is pretty much the standard MMO subscription with everything unlocked, is still available. Here is why it strikes me as odd: I was browsing the store the other day and most (though not all) of the stuff from the Gold subscription are available for purchase. If you buy something, e.g. a costume set, it gets unlocked indefinitely for all the characters in your account. If you go with the Gold membership you have everything unlocked; but only for a month. If the subscription expires, the characters made during the subscription are locked and can't be played again until you renew. In other words, it's a lot cheaper to just buy what you think you need for the game from the store and never bother with the subscription again.
I'm not complaining; it's a good model for the player. You only get what you want to get and it sticks. I'm just wondering why Cryptic and Atari haven't just canceled the Gold membership, as it doesn't seem to have any real practical value.
So, what do I think of Champions Online now? It's still not the best game out there and CoH still knocks it out of the park; however, you can do a lot worse with a free-to-play MMO. If you can't afford either of the other super-hero MMOs, CO will satisfy your hunger. The gameplay's been streamlined and it can be somewhat fun (despite becoming occasionally repetitive) and since F2P started, the community just skyrocketed. Have a look.
- World of Warcraft
The last time I talked about WoW, I admit I was considerably uninformed and I didn't hide it. I was basing my comments on a few hours of gameplay, where I got up to level five before I gave up. I stand by what I said, the good and the bad. I didn't intend to go back to it either, but last month Blizzard sent me an e-mail with a seven-day-trial for my account, so I could return to the game. It was free game time and I haven't logged in for literally three years, so I thought I'd give it a go.
I do have to admit, I hold WoW in much higher esteem now than I did back then. Even those few hours all those years ago were enough for me to realize that it's a well-designed game, but only now did I see why. With the myriad of MMOs out there and the genre becoming as bloated as contemporary gaming itself, the comparisons are even more defined. World of Warcraft is meticulously designed. The content is properly paced, as is leveling, the gameplay easy and accessible, the areas intriguing and it's just so.... damn... addicting!
I'm pretty sure that someone out there will take offense to that, so keep in mind I don't even really like the game all that much, but WoW is a perfect MMO. If you can find any faults, they will be small and rare. It's immersing and extremely addicting. It's the kind of game that has cartoony visuals on an engine that's nearing a decade of life and still manages to be one of the prettiest games out there, because of the level design and the art direction. It's also the kind of game that features no substantial story (I personally don't even read the quest descriptions) and doesn't cause any emotions to the players and still manages to maintain one's attention for hours on-end. It's just a very well-done game.
Having said that, it's a time-sink. All MMOs are, but exactly because WoW is the perfect MMO it makes it all the more obvious. I played for a total of eleven days, over the course of two 7-day-trials. I had to stop at parts, because the game wouldn't give me any more quests or any indication where to find some (an issue that needs to be resolved, badly), but I still devoted a lot of hours into it and got up to level 20 or something. For as addicted as I was, I can't seriously look back to it and remember anything noteworthy about it. I went places, I looked at the nice scenery, I killed some things, I learned some skills and that was it. No feeling of accomplishment, not even actual fun.
I go around and defend games to anyone who will tell me that I'm wasting my time with them. I have laughed, I have had fun, I have cried, I have even learned from games things I would otherwise not know. It's a medium that has a lot to offer and I will never, ever let anyone go with the misconception that gaming is insubstantial, either as art or as simple entertainment. But MMOs and especially WoW are the kind of game that advocates the other side. There is literally nothing, practical or emotional, to be gained from the game.
That's not to say you should necessarily steer clear of it. For as much as gaming (or any other medium, really) has to offer, we all need to use the timesink every now and then. If you're looking for the best MMO, that's still it. Just keep in mind that the community seems to have decreased noticeably from the last time around and, while the aesthetic changes that came with the expansions (like Cataclysm) are available to everyone, if you want to experience all the game has to offer you need to buy all of them-- but I guess, you get what you pay for.
- Perfect World International
It's odd I didn't cover Perfect World the last time around, considering it was my first free MMO (private servers notwithstanding). I first got wind of it in E3 '08 ( I think) and immediately decided to try it out. It didn't stick, that's probably why I haven't talked about it before. PW was one of the better -from a technical standpoint- MMOs back when free MMOs looked awful and felt like playing happy-slaps with the soldiers in Guantanamo Bay (also see: Metin2, 12Sky). A colorful world, decent visuals and gameplay that, while not quite "competent", at least had some foundations.
But I didn't like it. I went as far as the starting quests that had me, *sigh*, kill things like every MMO and their dog and then I walked in to the big city and I was dumbfounded by how busy it was; not in a good way. The community was huge and all, but too much information was peering in my brain, especially from the various NPCs that started giving me information about the game, before I even had a chance to get used to the controls. I quickly gave it up.
I wouldn't have gone back to it, but a bit over than a year ago my friend and myself got bored of annihilating the AI in Age of Empires 2 and decided to try out an MMO, so I remembered Perfect World and we gave it a go. By then a couple of 'expansions' had come out and the game had a little more going for it, but still just not enough. It served us well for teaming up and doing a few quests killing things, but then what? Most of the game is based on that; take a quest, kill x amount of palette-swapped monsters, receive reward, rinse and repeat.
In all honesty, I'm not even sure there is anything else in the game. There is a pretty good chance there is at least some form of economy, but the problem is that the entire game is sloppily designed. Whatever it has to offer doesn't seem refined, everything is laid on you and you have to pick through the mess.
I went back to it a couple of weeks ago and what once felt somewhat adequate now feels extremely outdated. The worst thing about it is that a new expansion had just come out and it added bugger all to the core gameplay. Everything looks the same as it did back in the day. They haven't fixed even the most basic glitches. The game still crashes whenever it feels like it, alt+tabbing kills it and the gameplay is still a mess. Even the once daunting community is entirely gone.
Considering that nowadays F2P MMOs are readily available all over the Internet, there is absolutely no reason for this game to even exist still. If you run into it, pass. You can do a lot better than that.
- Forsaken World
Which brings me to Forsaken World, a game by the Perfect World team, who apparently can't be bothered with making decent titles for their games (or, in fact, their company). I ran into FW once my friend and I, fresh out of the military and without a job, tried to find something new to play. After PWI was met with frustration on our parts, I accidentally ran into this one.
Forsaken World is, for all intends and purposes, PWI-done-right. It was still under development when we were into PWI and even now, it's still in the early phases of open beta. Still, from what I've seen, it's worth keeping an eye out for.
The first big plus for me, upon installing and logging in, was that aside from the standard fantasy MMORPG races (humans, elves, dwarves), there was also the race of "Kindred". For those of you who don't know, that essentially means vampires. I admit, that drew my attention, as I've been looking for vampires in MMOs for a while now. But that aside, even when I started playing, I was shocked! The PW team managed to get something that good out?
Okay, it's still a free MMO, with whatever that entails, but it's a good one. Everything they knew from commercial MMOs (like WoW) and even their experience with their own products (like PWI) they took and made into a solid game. It looks good, with distinct visuals for the different areas and races, the interface is clean and easy to use, it sounds good and the gameplay is actually competent. Also, gone is the overload of information from PWI, as FW starts off a lot simpler and more streamlined, and pulls the player into its world instead of scaring them away.
To give you an idea of how much more work has gone into this as opposed to other free MMOs, the game has starting villages for each race. It sounds like an RPG staple, but just consider how many MMOs don't do that anymore. Off the top of my head, I only recall WoW and Lineage 2 doing it. Starting villages for different races is always a good idea and really, people should go back into making those. They not only ease the player into the game-world, they give them a reason to follow the story and overall, they greatly add to immersion. Once I emerged into the Vampire village, with the giant castles, the dark sky, the full moon and the cemeteries and ruins surrounding the area, not only did I start reading the quests, but outright acting them out. The story isn't any better than your run-of-the-mill MMORPG, but I was drawn to it, because of how well the set-up was.
Once they moved me to the open world, the immersion kind of diminished, but only slightly. I'm still liking it enough to keep playing. It's not perfect; it still needs refining. It's stable and surprisingly lacking glitches (hear that, DCUO?), but the party system is unintuitive and even somewhat stiff, the character model animations are laughable and we ran into the quest-finding-problem, resulting in my friend getting stuck with nothing to do in the game. Again, though, keep in mind it's still in beta.
I don't really have much else to say. I've been having loads of fun playing this one and keep in mind I don't even like this stupid company or their previous work. I'm hard-pressed to call it one of the best free MMOs out there, because there are even better ones, but if you want to play the type of setting and visual style of L2 or AION for free, this is probably as good as it gets. Honestly, when you get the time, have a look. It's not particularly impressive, but it is solid fun.
- AION
NCSoft's most recent MMO, "AION", was largely promoted as a WoW killer. Of course, we've had lots of those over the years, each and every one of them falling flat on their ass, so you may be surprised to hear that AION was actually a viable candidate!
I'm mostly speaking from memory here, as I didn't have the chance to play again recently (cut me some slack; I've been juggling seven MMOs for this stupid article), but I was in the closed beta for the game and later did join a private server, since I couldn't afford the subscription at the time. I enjoyed it! When it was first announced, it looked a little too much like Lineage II, but as I found out, it wasn't even close. AION borrows that aesthetic for the most part (as most Korean-developed MMOs do), but it plays almost exactly like WoW. The game has an overarching story, explained via the odd cutscene here and there. I can't call it anything more than 'standard', but it works in establishing the setting. The game looks good, both from a technical and an artistic standpoint. I don't have much to say about the gameplay; if you've played WoW, you've played this one.
Well, almost. While battle and economy are extremely similar to Blizzard's mammoth title, AION has a bigger party focus. It's one of those games that past a certain level, you're more than just advised to have at least one friend playing with you. As the game progresses and you get more and more stuff to do, you start visiting more aggressive enemies in more crowded areas and quests become increasingly longer and more complicated.
To be honest, maybe the similarities are the reason AION didn't manage to win over WoW. WoW is still the better game, with years of refinement and content. But if you're bored of it or don't want to bother with the separate expansion packs you have to buy, AION is a great alternative for the subscription-model MMORPG.
-Dungeons & Dragons Online
Fuck you, I was well-within my rights to delay playing this one, considering the name D&D and its fans have even among the nerds. DDO was one of the games my friend and I tried, I believe shortly before we got into PWI. We liked quite a bit, but it was basically trial at the time and we had to give it up after a handful of quests.
Now the game has adopted the F2P model, i.e. no subscription required, but certain stuff need to be purchased by the game's store with real money. Don't let that drive you away from it though; DDO is actually quite a good game and probably one of the best free MMOs out there.
Two things make it stand out for me. The first one is the setting. Now, I have absolutely no idea about the story and universe of the D&D games and books and whatever. Also, the game doesn't make much of an effort to set the foundations to it or explain it one iota. It takes it for granted that you are at least somewhat familiar with it and just throws the various names and story bits at you. You could take this as bad, if MMOs generally had a sense of linear storytelling, but since they don't it's forgivable; preferable, even, as I assume decades of history would be daunting for a newcomer. Having said that, the setting is well defined from a visual standpoint and it's particularly distinct among its competitors. The fantasy RPG is the prominent type in the genre and the (free) MMO scene, in particular, is dominated by the Tolkien-style fantasy setting with the Korean-facelift. DDO is still very much a fantasy world, but there are no pretty lights or floating cities or anime-like characters with bad hairdos. Most of it looks like a standard medieval world, with the occasional fantasy element thrown in. It looks good and it feels different, even if you are not familiar with the back-story behind it.
The other reason is the gameplay. Just as you would expect, most of the battles in DDO take place in dungeons. Even the ones that don't are usually just cannon-fodder enemies on your way to a dungeon. Because of that, special attention has been put into constructing them. Fighting is still the name of the game, but you are called to explore the dungeons, look for different pathways and solve puzzles to open doors and even complete them. Traps are set all throughout and various objectives specific to a dungeon surface every-so-often. It's particularly refreshing when put next to the old, same-y dungeon-grinding of every other MMO out there. The battle mechanics themselves are a little more active than other MMOs. It's not action, like DCUO or CO; the rolling dice still does most of the work. But if, say, you're a Ranger, aiming your bow to the target (with the provided crosshair) is necessary, as is rolling away from an attack. I kid you not, you can get headshots if the attack is timed correctly.
There doesn't seem to be much in terms of economy or skills and jobs; at least I haven't ran into any so far. The biggest focus of the economy in the game has to do with buying and selling gear and items, no small task as everything's pretty pricey and it is necessary you carry the right amount of potions to get through a quest. That doesn't detract from the game at all, though. These things have always been added to MMOs to provide variety, but DDO doesn't really need it. The dungeons are all diverse enough to enjoy, even if after a while you know there is only a set number of variations, but most importantly it's a team game.
From some point on, you are required to have a team with you to get through the longer and harder dungeons (some taking up to a few hours of gameplay). It's not original in that regard, but it is the dungeon design that makes the experience worth the trouble. Having party members from different classes is a lot more important than it is in most games, as they all specialize in different skills for the various tasks that need to be undertaken while on a quest; for example, not having a rogue with you while in a dungeon may very well mean you will miss out on the best loot because you couldn't unlock that treasure chest or it may mean you get sucker-punched by a trap you weren't able to disarm.
I'm not a team-player, as you know, but I've had a lot of fun with this one, even when I played solo. The best thing about DDO is that, unlike other MMOs, it's ideal for picking up and playing in moderation. It's never as addicting as WoW and never as needy as pretty much every other MMO out there. Boot the game, clear a dungeon or two in a pseudo-hacky/slashy style of gameplay, log off. It's a lot more fun than it is a job. It's not perfect; hit detection is often-times off, more than it should be allowed to be and a considerable amount of content is locked away for purchase from the store for real money. But it's still one of the best options out there. Highly recommended.
- Age of Conan
Ah, Age of Conan. One of the earlier 'WoW killers' that fell badly on its ass. When it was announced people actually bought that it would really replace WoW; the previews looked promising enough, with a new battle system that focuses on quick action (remember, that was before CO and DCUO) and quite pretty graphics, plus the whole theme. Conan is one of those things that are niche even among the nerd fandom, but apparently there is mainstream appeal to be found in big, muscle-bound men that run around in their underwear and hang out with whores-- I mean, appeal outside the audience that likes it rough from behind. And I know that, because I have a friend who just won't shut the fuck about it, so that makes me a scholar on the subject!
AoC was developed by Funcom, who most of you know from the adventure series " The Longest Journey", but who I know from "Anarchy Online", a space-themed MMORPG that's cross-platform (i.e. it also plays on Linux). My experience with Anarchy Online extends as far as logging into the game, making a character, then logging off and never touching the bloody thing again. So you know we're in for quite a ride!
Things did not start well with AoC. I downloaded the trial about a month ago; it's a rich trial. It takes away partying privileges (or the social tab altogether), but it does offer the entire content of the first 20 levels. After a lengthy installation with a buggy installer, I got to play the game. I could bitch about the lack of character customization, but I can't say I really care. What really pissed me off and made me procrastinate playing the game was that I had run into inexplicable stuttering. Every two minutes, persistently and punctually, the game would completely freeze for about 10 seconds, without fault. It happened no matter what I did, no matter what settings I used, always the same problem-- and it was the only game this happened to. I looked online and didn't find squat. The game was absolutely unplayable at this state.
After about two weeks I decided to just solve the problem. I couldn't post in the forums for help (game and forum accounts are linked and trial accounts aren't allowed to post), so after a lengthy research to find their contact information, I turned to the company's tech support. After detailing my problem, they replied to me that they can't offer advice on specific game settings to improve performance. I got back to them, reminding them that this is not a performance issue, but they insisted they couldn't help. So, I decided to fix it on my own. I went to lengths to find an app for monitoring my entire system and I started testing the game in different settings. After a while, I realized that whenever the freeze happened, CPU and GPU usage would drop to zero (i.e. IT'S NOT A FUCKING PERFORMANCE ISSUE), but the hard drive usage would spike at 90%. Turns out Age of Conan likes write caching a little too much, a Windows XP feature I generally keep disabled on my system to minimize the risk of disk failure.
After I solved the problem I purchased the game, because what I did manage to play during the trial I liked quite a bit. Well, far be it from anyone to call me a smart buyer!
Age of Conan physically hurts me. The amount of potential found in this title, potential that could've been realized if handed over to a more competent studio (or at least some better investors) is astounding. I'm not familiar with Robert E. Howard's Conan mythos, but the setting seems to be well-realized. The environments look great and, much like DDO, they are a refreshing departure from most fantasy-MMOs out there. Even from a technical standpoint they look good-- and the main character's animations must be the most fluid found in any game of the genre.
From a gameplay standpoint it also looked promising. The rolling dice is naturally the judge of all things unseen, but the combat mechanics of the game focus on performing combos. You start off with three basic moves and as you level up you unlock combos that are vital to surviving any given battle. It's actually a very interesting system that makes the battles feel a lot more involving than simply activating an ability and waiting for something to die.
But all the good are negated by the bad. Did you know AoC has a single-player mode? Yes, apparently there is some big storyline, where you are the savior of the world or some shit like that. Only, to play that storyline, you need to go into a separate, solo instance, that locks you away from other players. I wish I was making this up! You're paying subscription for a game that neutralizes the most important aspect of any Massively Multiplayer Online title and forces you to play the storyline solo! I'm not entirely sure if you are required to do it, but the game certainly seems to imply so.
The most painful thing about it? It's the only good part of the fucking game! Every other quest is the same "find item, kill pirates/animals/whatever" crap. You know what's even worse? There are dozens of NPCs in the city of Tortage (where you're stranded until you reach level 20) and all of them give quests at one point or another. However they never, ever tell you what level the quests are supposed to be about. I have not run into a single quest that I reached the mission area only to find enemies at least two levels above me. There are some cool stuff added to the game, like the ability to use stealth if you're a Ranger/Rogue, but these are moot point when whether or not you're discovered by the enemy is left entirely up to the game with no prayer of knowing before you've been gang-banged by a group of white tigers out of the blue!
Even the, by all accounts, intriguing combat system ultimately fails, because of the game's other shortcomings and mainly the horrible key-shortcuts. A Ranger is allowed to wield dual knives and a bow and leveling up grants skills and combos for both. But changing between them is mapped to Ctrl+R, so when an enemy is pulled/aggroed and is heading your way to slice off your nipples, you better make sure you don't accidentally hit Ctrl+something else because then you have to fix your fuck-up while you're getting hammered by the enemies. With the lack of auto-attack and a generally fast-paced combat system this becomes deal-breaking. The most common mistake was accidentally hitting Ctrl+number, which changes to the other hotbars. To make matters worse, changing between them becomes mandatory later on when you have far too many skills to fit in one. Other, more pretentious games allow you to lock more than one hotbars on the UI, but not AoC, no sir! Age of Conan thrives to be different, so you can have only one bottom hotbar at all times. Because Age of Conan is special... or at least that's how most states would put it.
The "day" quests are probably made with groups in mind, but fuck you game; you either force solo-me in the storyline or force-group me during the rest of your content? What the fuck kind of logic is this? At least give me some goddamn indication of what I'm about to face!
It's really frustrating. AoC has proved repeatedly to be the game that the moment I'm starting to enjoy it, it's bound to fuck up and piss me off. Not long ago, I finished a quest on an island where I had to pick up a bone. The bone was in the middle of a camp choke-full of thugs three levels above me. I went in, sneaked my way to the bone and left without anyone knowing I was there. Yeah, this was pretty awesome. But then, I went on to finish another quest on the same island and was immediately killed by three enemies that guarded the entrance to I cave I had to go inside. And all this would've been avoided, if the fucking journal came with a small number to indicate the recommended quest level!
AoC is unrefined; both from a technical standpoint and a design one and has been since its release. It can offer some fun, but its drawbacks just aren't worth the trouble. Not with much, much better titles out there. It's not the worst MMO I've ever played, but it's certainly in the top three for "least fun". Pass on this one and if for some reason you don't, make sure you remap the keys to a more user-friendly layout.
- RIFT
Yet another supposed 'WoW killer'. Fortunately, unlike AoC, this one is good. At the time of writing, RIFT is still a very new game, with only a couple of weeks on sale. As such, I can't in all good conscience recommend it for purchase right now, but it is one of the very, very few MMOs that launched with very strong content and great technical support.
RIFT has, unfortunately, a storyline. I'm saying that, because it's the worst part of the game. Some tyrant unleashes hell on the world and you are supposed to stop it, either as a deceased hero brought back to life by the gods or a renegade that defies the gods and does his/her own thing. It's an okay premise, but it's just very hard to maintain a story-mode in an MMORPG. Storytelling requires some form of linear fashion and MMOs can't support that. The only one that managed to do it was DCUO and that was not a point in its favor.
Visually, it's not anything you haven't seen before. It's dudes or dudettes in armors killing generic monsters in the middle of endless forests. The most impressive part about it is that, like DCUO, the game runs well on mid-range machines with most of the settings cranked up to 'high'.
The gameplay is just far too deep to detail here. The basics remain; pick a weapon, train a skill, use said skill in combat. What makes the game stand out is how rich the skill system is. You pick two roles that should compliment each other and then you choose from gigantic skill trees what you think will serve you best. You can toy around with the way you play the game endlessly. Think of it like what Champions Online did; only RIFT does it right. It's not just deep and rich, it's also extremely functional.
It's not perfect. The level cap is low at a mere level 35, but leveling takes considerably more time to do than, say, in DCUO. The blandness of the visuals may be a turn-off. While by no means ugly, there are far too many forests in the game-world and most of the quests take place in such areas. I couldn't help but laugh when I ran into a camp where I got quests for the "green" area of the world, as if any other area isn't already green in this fucking game.
Another issue I had was the fact that disengaging is impossible. RIFT was the game that reminded me it's high time MMO developers came up with a better 'death' system than the one utilized now. It uses the same "ghost/resurrect" technique of WoW, but unlike WoW if something goes wrong and you need to turn tail, you can't. Your character is extremely slow and enemies can always catch up. Furthermore, there were times where I'd be running away from an opponent and I would still take hits, even when the distance between us was big. It doesn't help that the open-areas are sometimes way too busy in terms of enemy presence and taking one step to the wrong side can cost you your life.
Also, the game offers party events that appear randomly in the game world. These are the story's "rifts" that open up and bring demonic fiends with them. They are completely ripped off from ESIV and its Oblivion Gates. They are kind of neat at first, but when they show up every twenty meters, they start feeling repetitive, even if you ignore them.
Having said all that, RIFT is the only game that may effectively de-power WoW a bit. AION itself managed to draw more than a few people away from Blizzard's celebrated title, but RIFT's got even more potential. Do keep in mind, though, that if it does turn out to be an actual WoW killer, it will be because of how competitive a time-sink it is. Just like with WoW, I was playing like an addicted little crack-whore and only after I stopped did I realize I was just following like a hypnotized zombie instead of having actual fun with it. I had only a weekend trial to play through to level 15 or so, but once the price drops a bit, I recommend you give it a try if you're still looking for that timesink. It's a good game.
-EVE Online
Ouch. I was really a bitch to this one the first time around, wasn't I? Well, the trial of the game had proved to be a bust; far too time-costly and not nearly as involving as WoW or RIFT. So yeah, I didn't really intend to go back to it.
You guessed it; it was yet another impulse buy! I should probably make that my middle name or something. I found EVE Online, now a few expansions into its life-cycle, during a Steam sale for 3 bucks + 30 day trial, so I thought, why not? I spend more on smokes every day.
I don't have much to say about the core elements of the game; they are as they were. Visually it looks good and atmospheric, albeit a little dead and empty, but that's a good thing; space should look dead and empty otherwise its vastness its diminished. The gameplay still revolves around its exhausting economy and the overload of information and tutorials for every little thing, so no improvements there either.
But I did end up having a lot more fun with it and that's because I chose a profession based on that economy. When I first played the game, I had picked a warrior profession. After all, give someone control of a spaceship and the first thing they'll want to do is blow shit up... IN SPACE! Just ask the fucking Power Rangers (obscure nerdy reference, har har). However, EVE isn't really designed for space combat. It retains the turned-based design philosophy, which is manageable when you swing sharp sticks, but doesn't work as well during interstellar combat, without distinct surroundings and with drop-down menus for relaying commands.
So, I picked exploration this time around. I proceeded to doing the tutorial for my chosen profession and thirty minutes later even I coudn't believe how much into it I was! Okay, it still didn't feel like playing a game, it felt more like working for NASA, but it was good work and work I liked!
Of course the economy reared its ugly head once again, so when I was done with the tutorial and had to look for wormhole equipment to start exploring on my own, I couldn't even find the stores where I could get them and what I did find was either too expensive or too far to bother.
Honestly, none of this is to say that EVE Online is worth a purchase, let alone an actual subscription. It still doesn't feel enough like a game and the information overload is still very much there. But you can now level characters even while playing (a gigantic design flaw when the game launched) and the expansions are free, so you get the whole package. Furthermore, huge props out to the company for not only officially supporting Linux (albeit via WINE), but also being the only company I have seen that didn't require me to enter a credit card to get my free game-time.
More than all of that, EVE Online remains the king of space-MMOs. Yes, it's mostly because nobody else has seriously tried to make something better, but you get what you can get (a.k.a. the "Battlestar Galactica" paradigm). If you can learn how to handle its economy, even if you don't fully embrace it, it becomes generally enjoyable. Take of that what you will.
- 9Dragons
We last left 9Dragons as a competent free-MMO, taking its thematic cues from Ancient China and handled by Acclaim, once of Mortal Kombat fame. I had liked the game quite a bit at the time and while in retrospect it wasn't that great even back then, it was a solid effort in an era when free MMOs mostly played like crap.
Well, since then the game apparently went under for a while and was then sold to one of those serial MMO-making companies. As is customary with every new management of pretty much anything in this world, they proceeded to cock it up.
Aesthetically the game remains the same. Its dated graphics don't detract from its effective and beautiful oriental atmosphere and while the gameplay is largely focused on grinding, the illusion of an organic process of learning and using different forms of martial arts carries the game well.
But while it retains most of its original content and form, there are three distinct changes that made my immersion break constantly and eventually give the game up once again:
The first one is the "lightfoot" skill. That's essentially the travel power for 9Dragons, a technique of very fast running. In the original game, you used to get that skill after a specific quest at level 15 or 20 (I forget which). Now you have it from the start. For starters that takes away from the impact of the environments, as you just speed through them without paying attention to any of the details. Secondly, it no longer forces the game to pace itself as it used to (i.e. gradually open up the world according to the quests and the player level instead of making it all one running-trip away). Thirdly, the fucking ability consumes mana and considering that the game no longer paces itself and often-times sends you through dangerous areas you shouldn't be anywhere near to, you better make sure you use the rest function every three minutes to restore mana if you don't want to run out when a group of death ninjas drops from the sky and tries to decapitate you.
The second big change is that they removed the starting villages! Those motherfuckers! I mentioned earlier how important it is for an MMO to have starting villages; it adds to the immersion and the distinction between the races and if there is any sort of storyline, it's borderline necessary to have them. Originally, there was a very short tutorial level in the game and then you got to pick from one of six martial arts clans, then got transported in the area where their bases are located. Well, no more. The tutorial level is gone and now everyone starts in the same village. There you can find 'representatives' of each clan and pick which one to join, but it's not the same. The village, called Bamboo Village, offers quests up until level 15-- at least. The players have neither any idea nor any incentive to go to their clans' home-village. So everyone spends their early levels in the same place. I left at level 8 or so, because I had already played the game before and I knew there should be a way there, but what if you don't already know? I know it sounds like a petty argument, but if there is one thing this stupid game did right was building well-designed environments that nicely depict the setting it takes place in. It's a bit of a cockslap to the face to have that taken away from an entirely unnecessary decision. Plus, the aforementioned pacing issue also enters here, should you decide to leave Bamboo for your own village.
The third one is a baffling little thing. Apparently now 9Dragons has force-teaming. What's up with MMOs and force-teaming these days? Don't you know players need a better incentive to team-up than hard quests? Every now and then an NPC would task me with killing some big-shot in his parts of town. These 'bosses' are generally strong, but manageable, considering how easy it is to level up in the game. Well, apparently if you dare not follow the game's advice for teaming up during those fights, you can't win. Killing the Bosses solo makes them instantly respawn at the exact same point the moment you deliver the finishing blow. It doesn't even matter how much stronger you are than them; they respawn right in front of you and get instantly aggroed, which is a pretty big problem when you're already half-dead from your previous battle. I was originally going to blame it on a glitch, but it's happened in all three bosses I fought. Either it's indeed intentional or it's a game-wide glitch, in which case somebody really needs to lose their job for that.
These are my main three reasons why the game should have stayed dead. Those aside, it's still the same game it was. Competent, but ultimately lacking when compared to the much richer competition these days. I once did have a lot of fun with it, but these days have passed and I don't see it capable of offering me, or anyone else, anything noteworthy. The content itself seems lacking, as all I've seen of it are battles in the wild; no real economy, no dungeons, just grinding. The only thing it still does right and best from all the similarly-themed MMOs out there is the atmosphere, via both visuals and music/sounds. Try only if you're really thirsty for the oriental setting.
- Battlestar Galactica Online
Okay, I'm only putting this here because of the IP it's based on-- not that this means it's a bad game, mind you. Battlestar Galactica (that is, the 2003 remake, not the original '78 series) is probably the best sci-fi show in history (just as EVE is the best space-themed MMO....). It was successful with the mainstream audience and it spawned a fanbase of nerds, who I generally avoid talking to in fear I will be dragged into one of their nightly stalking sessions of Katee Shakhoff, before I even get the chance to buy some doughnuts and a cup of coffee.
The show ended in '09, so it's kind of strange it took them that long to release an MMO based on it. What you need to know about the game is this: it's a Bigpoint browser game. That means that, while somewhat fun to play, if you have the money you have a terrible advantage over the other players and you can pretty much buy your progress into the game.
Having said that, I do occasionally load it up and spend some time with it. It's in full-3D and looks sharp enough, with visuals faithful to the series and even music cues from the show. For those of you who have seen the show, it's a separate storyline that seems to take place in the 3rd season, some time after "Exodus".
The gameplay, however, is where things start getting a little hairy. It borrows a lot from EVE Online in terms of controls and content, only it discards the economy and focuses on the combat... which as we established a few paragraphs ago EVE can't do for shit. Navigating your ship is done either via WASD, which lacks precision, or the mouse, which is slow-moving and problematic during high-speed dogfights in space. Eventually you get used to it and find strategies to cope, but it takes a while to get there and there is no guarantee it will work.
Another issue I have with it is that the economy is bullshit. Many pretty things for your ship cost cubits, which can be acquired via missions and open-space firefights, but in steep quantities. You are highly encouraged to outright buy cubits with real money, which is completely damaging the game's flow. Also a problem, I'm at level 3 right now and I can't find any missions. I've spent the last fifteen times I logged into the game flying around in space shooting down the occasional Cylon that jumped in my turf, or just mining nearby asteroids.
The game is still in (open) beta and there is a lot of refining to be done; it's already pretty clear that it's not going to 'woah' anyone. But if you're a fan, it's really not that bad a game. The atmosphere is very faithful to the show (and even has some nice throwbacks to the original series) and once you get used to the gameplay, you can at least get by. Give it a try.
- Runes of Magic/ Mythos
I'm putting those together, because both are distributed by Frogster, a German company with a lengthy list of released titles in the free MMO market. Runes of Magic has been praised and awarded by the great Internets as the "best free MMO". I had played RoM once before and I was very much impressed as well by how functional and rich it seemed. I gave up on it for no particular reason-- I just got bored of MMOs then. I recently went back to it and it holds up. The setting is familiar, but distances itself from the standard Korean-designed fantasy setting even if only marginally.
The gameplay treads familiar territory, but the interesting thing about it is that the battles are slow-paced, while everything else moves fast. An abundance of quests that can be solved in mere seconds, granting experience points and items dominate the game-world, but during the usual 'kill things, gather items' quests, things move quite slowly.
The turn-based philosophy is particularly obvious in this one and great focus has been given on the various skills and buffs. The standard attacks don't seem to do the damage required to get through the game at a proper pace, but the special attacks consume a lot of mana/stamina and aren't always as effective as one would expect. That's probably a big reason why players insist that the only properly balanced class in the game is the Mage.
I myself played a rogue originally and now I'm playing a knight and I can attest to that as far as balance goes. My rogue got along just fine for a while, thanks to her ranged attacks (i.e. her bow), but once things got a little harder and needed to aggro more than one enemy, soloing became impossible. Likewise my knight, a defensive class, needs to save up on mana rather than health, as the basic attack isn't effective even against a single enemy that can decrease his health below half a bar without the constant use of the special abilities.
Having said that, it really does play well. For a free MMO it's a refined piece of work that can offer fun and, as it stands, I can recommend it.
Mythos is a very recent game, still in beta. It rips everything off of Torchlight; visuals, weapons, camera, cartoony graphics, overall gameplay and the only thing that changes is that the color-palette is on the light side, as opposed to Torchlight which used the darker colors of WoW. The company sent to me a total of fourty keys for the closed beta, in a monumentally bad business move, as characters got deleted when the open beta started. To put this into perspective, the last twenty keys were sent to me five days ago and the open beta started today. I'm not complaining, but I have to point out that I didn't get the chance to get far into the game and as such I didn't get to explore most of the things that define MMOs.
Still, what I did play I liked. It's a visually pleasing game, very light on the processor, that moves at a generally fast pace. The rolling dice seems mostly absent and attacks are successful as long as you mash the mouse button repeatedly. It's not a great game, or even noteworthy. But it's a small, easy and accessible MMORPG that's actually quite an addicting little hobby. It walks the line between the overbearing and hypnotizing WoW and most other games, making you get glued to the monitor while playing, but never going as far as making you lose sight on when you should stop playing and go take that shower, you smelly nerd! I recommend it as well, especially if you are extremely casual about the genre and your system's capabilities are overall limited.
Of course, good luck dealing with Frogster! The company is colossally bad in terms of account management. My original RoM account was blocked, either due to inactivity or hacking and when I returned I was asked to change my password. Doing so meant inputting three new passwords, following specific rules regarding length and what characters should be used and they all had to be different. When I booted the games up (either game) I was asked to create yet another, "secondary" password. I realize you're trying to prevent my account from being hacked, Frogster, but this shit won't fly.
Free MMOs should be picked up and played in a matter of minutes, including the account creation. This is a chore that may very well scare away the less experienced user, not to mention that outside of the obsessive compulsive ones that write down every single one of them, just a few weeks of inactivity will cause a big bulk of users come back and mash the "Forgot PW" button on your page. If your system security sucks, don't take it out on the customers (for they are customers, even if the product is technically distributed for free).
Also, I wish sites would drop that "password strength" bullshit. The algorithms for these things are inherently flawed. Never once has such a system proved valid and never once have I input the same password into two different such algorithms and got the same answer regarding how "strong" it is.
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Games covered:
DCUO: http://www.dcuniverseonline.com/
CoH: http://www.cityofheroes.com/
CO: http://www.champions-online.com/
WoW: http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/
PWI: http://pwi.perfectworld.com/
FW: http://fw.perfectworld.com/
AION: http://www.aiononline.com/
DDO: http://www.ddo.com/
AOC: http://www.ageofconan.com/
RIFT: http://www.riftgame.com/
EVEO: http://www.eveonline.com/
9Dragons: http://www.gamersfirst.com/9dragons/
BSGO: http://battlestar-galactica.bigpoint.com/
ROM: http://www.runesofmagic.com/
ME: http://www.mythos-europe.com/
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