I’m basically late to this party, but I didn’t want to be left out! A few other bloggers have been playing around in the Runes of Magic open beta as of late, and I wanted to give it a try to see what the buzz was about. I played for a couple hours on Sunday before logging off.
For those who like to know the opinion before the wall of text: I was pleasantly surprised.
For those who don’t spend much time in free-to-play MMOs or Asian MMOs, this game won’t feel all that special. If you spend your money on AAA MMOs and avoid the indie titles and the obscure – you will probably be disappointed. But for anyone with a more open mind who wants free/inexpensive alternatives to the bigwigs, definitely try out Runes of Magic.
Here is what I really liked about the game:
- Familiar Interface – So familiar in fact, that some of the UI elements are basically ripped off from WoW. I’m not saying that’s a bad thing – the learning curve to jump right in was a flat line. I think they ‘borrowed’ some of the best things they could from World of Warcraft, and I’m not complaining.
- Avatars – I’m going to go as far here as to say that my avatar in Runes of Magic is probably the best looking character I have in any MMO in the last 2 years. Asian-influenced, but a lot more realistic than stylized. They did realism right, with adjustable proportions, any RGB color hair you want, tons of races and hair styles, and decent animations.
- Graphics – Color me impressed. I think it was Saylah who said that the graphics were “somewhere between WoW and EQ2″ and I think that’s spot on. Granted, I didn’t make it far in, but the environments I’ve seen have been really pleasant to look at. It ran well on both my desktop XPS gaming machine and Luke’s couple-year-old laptop.
- Point system – I really liked the skill points system. Being only level 5, I haven’t gotten to the dual class stuff yet..but I like spending my points wherever I want to.
- The business model – It’s free. Lots of call outs to upsells, but I’m fine with that. As long as you let me play I’m happy. I even got a horse right away that lasts 24 hours, and it was fun to ride.
- The polish level – This is a big one for Runes of Magic, because it does have a lot of polish. It’s not WoW-polished, but it is definitely Vanguard-at-launch polished. A big difference between it and a lot of other lesser-known MMOs I’ve played.
Will I keep playing? Honestly, I don’t know. I have a monthly subscription to WoW, and an SOE Station Pass. I have a lot of options, and I’m not sure Runes of Magic fits in my gaming schedule. I am intrigued by it for sure though, and may keep exploring it for awhile to try out the dual-class system. I worry about myself with microtransactions games though – I generally get sucked in.
Tami Baribeau is the Associate Producer for Metaplace, Inc, currently working on Island Life. She is also the Lead Editor of feminist gaming blog The Border House, and the National Facebook Games Examiner for Examiner.com. She can be reached on Twitter or by email.
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Right off the bat one thing I like that they got right was attention to on-screen text.
Everything from character names, quest text, chat, etc.
This is an aspect games like Vanguard, LotRO, COnan, and even Warhammer to a lesser extent failed at.
WoW is the only one to get it close to correct… and Runes of Magic looks to have learned from that.
Looks interesting. I thought Sword of a the New World wasn’t bad either.
I’ve signed up for this one and downloaded the client a few weeks ago, but I’ve yet to actually hop in. I know a number of people fiddling with it, and they seem happy enough with it – I need to actually just give it a shot. That and figure out what to play as.
I am not really playing it myself, but had the chance to play it when they started their early Beta and I’ve been back for a couple of hours of gameplay every now and then since then… I am not a big F2P player, but this is definitely the best one I have seen.
It’s definitely going to be interesting to see how this turns out for Frogster… German company, yay!
I have no love for WoW, but I’m loving RoM. I think it’s the fact that, being free to play, I can play — or not — and not worry that my $15/month is vanishing into the ether.
The one thing that endeared me to RoM is that any RMT items WILL be available to the player base through regular play. The RMT model allows players who WANT to twink themselves to do so, or to allow players to “catch up” with their friends, without having to run instances ad nauseam in the hopes of rolling on the one required drop.
I’m Jackeen on Artemis, in case anyone’s interested! Whoo hoo!
Looks interesting. I thought Sword of a the New World wasn't bad either.