Runes of Magic
For a lot of people this game fits into one of three catagories:
Well we'd never heard of it, so that puts us under catergory 1 ...
- I've never heard of it
- I'm sure I've seen it mentioned somewhere, but I've never played it
- I've played it and it was too much like World of Warcraft
Well we'd never heard of it, so that puts us under catergory 1 ...
Wasn't that in WoW? Doesn't that look like ... from WoW?
That's exactly what we said - several times - on several different occasions throughout the first 10 levels. There's no point in denying that this game is a WoW clone, in fact from the screenshots you'd be excused for thinking that it was WoW. From graphics to combat, there is little difference here. But ... there's one important difference in pricing, this one's free.
Of course it's not completely free, the money for the server costs have to come from somewhere and that somewhere is the Micro-Transaction system where you spend real-money on in-game items and upgrades. It's not a system that's very popular, here in the UK at least, but the good news is it doesn't seem to get in the way too much.
Of course it's not completely free, the money for the server costs have to come from somewhere and that somewhere is the Micro-Transaction system where you spend real-money on in-game items and upgrades. It's not a system that's very popular, here in the UK at least, but the good news is it doesn't seem to get in the way too much.
Ah but, there's no such thing as 'free'...
So far we've played to level 25 and the only thing we have been told we can't have is a "fungus pet". Not really a big deal for us to be perfectly honest. Customising your characters armour colour requires you to spend real money too, but considering this MMO is almost identical to WoW yet has cost you nothing to play, you can understand why certain things will require you to spend a little.
The game actually does many things better than WoW, combat is generally more interesting with nice effects both visual and sound-wise. Crafting, so I'm told is also much more intricate, with many more options for you to try. But this review will concentrate on the things we did test, that being the gameplay from level 1 to 25 with two different classes partied up together, followed by two other classes done independently.
The game actually does many things better than WoW, combat is generally more interesting with nice effects both visual and sound-wise. Crafting, so I'm told is also much more intricate, with many more options for you to try. But this review will concentrate on the things we did test, that being the gameplay from level 1 to 25 with two different classes partied up together, followed by two other classes done independently.
Grind grind and more grind...
Yes there certainly is a lot of boring quests along the lines of "Kill 20 Boars", "Collect 20 Boar Hides" and "Collect 20 Boar Hides and 20 Bear Hides". This is quite honestly the reason why a lot of people dislike MMORPGs, a lot of repetitive quests with very little interesting story and this game unfortunately is no different. In fact on several occasions we were made to kill 20 of something, do one other quest and then get made to kill the same monster again, but picking up a different item from the loot, happy we were not.
On the plus side there is an awful lot of quests and you should have enough of them to level your character up through the game. One thing to note though is that you have to classes to level up using these quests so plan wisely else you may end up to daily repeatable quests for a very long time.
On the plus side there is an awful lot of quests and you should have enough of them to level your character up through the game. One thing to note though is that you have to classes to level up using these quests so plan wisely else you may end up to daily repeatable quests for a very long time.
Should I switch MMORPGs then?
As an MMORPG that is free-to-play, this is certainly one the better ones. With tons of different loot to acquire and all the extras you'd expect in a subscription-based MMO such as housing, auction houses and special events, this is truly a game that given publicity could well be better than WoW. Unfortunately we don't see that happening anytime soon and with a new generation of MMORPGs starting to surface eg. Aion, ToR and STo, this game may well fly under the radar for many.
We'd certainly recommend though that you keep this one at hand for when your main MMO is under maintenance and you need your RPG fix for a few hours. Long term though, this will only ever be a secondary MMORPG for most people.
We'd certainly recommend though that you keep this one at hand for when your main MMO is under maintenance and you need your RPG fix for a few hours. Long term though, this will only ever be a secondary MMORPG for most people.
The new top MMORPG in town or another WoW clone that doesn't make the grade - The Verdict
The Good
The Bad
The Verdict
If you always wanted to try a game like WoW - give this a shot, if you want an extra MMORPG to play when your main game is down - give it a shot, if you're looking for the best MMORPG to play ... look elsewhere
- Include features is most subscription-based MMOs
- Tons of different loot
- Fairly large world to explore
- It's like WoW ... but free!
The Bad
- Many ... many boring quests
- It's like WoW ... and it's pretty old now
- There's nothing really new
The Verdict
If you always wanted to try a game like WoW - give this a shot, if you want an extra MMORPG to play when your main game is down - give it a shot, if you're looking for the best MMORPG to play ... look elsewhere
