Thankfully, the Free Realms NDA has dropped today – meaning I can blab all I want about the game now.
Disclaimer: Consider me biased. My boyfriend is a designer on the game, and I have lots of friends on the team. I’ll try to be objective, regardless.
I should have prepared some big long writeup, but admitedly, I’ve slacked. Not to mention – I’ve spent more time playing the game than I have writing about it or taking screenshots.
My Overall Prognostication:
Free Realms is going to be VERY successful. Far more successful than any of SOE’s current titles, including the old school EverQuest. SOE are going to make a few “new to the Free-To-Play market mistakes” but it’s not going to matter much in the long run. The game is going to infiltrate households across North America by the million. They’re not going to show the incredibly fast growth that FusionFall has had this year (mostly because of the new IP) but they won’t be far behind. You’re going to see Free Realms all over your television, and trading cards by every store register.
You all know that I am rarely that enthusiastic about something. I’m rather snarky and sometimes negative about the AAA gaming industry as a whole – so consider this a giant leap for me.
The Good:
I’ll just make this nice and bulletted to read. I’m not going to evaluate every feature, because that would take AGES. Instead, I’ll just promise to blog about Free Realms plenty as I play.
- Incredibly fast download. You get into the game in less than 10 minutes including character creation. It’s seamless, feels good, and the “lazy loading” tech is impressive.
- Beautiful character and world art. Has that familiar World of Warcraft-style continuity from place to place and person to person.
- Very high polish level. The most polished game that SOE have released thus far.
- Beautiful UI. Great work on using modern interface standards.
- Kid friendly, parent approved. Adults and kids alike are loving this game – there is really something there for everyone. It’s safe and enjoyable, and a great starter MMO.
- Tons to do. You definitely won’t be bored playing this game. From questing, to mini games, to combat, collections, card game.
- Very casual friendly. You can accomplish anything in the game, regardless how much time you have.
- Great music. They’ve done a great job with the game ambiance.
- Easy travel. Teleport to warpstones all over the world, no need to run. Teleport directly to your friends whereever they are in the world.
- Best digital TCG yet. It really takes all the best parts of any online trading card game. If you’re into TCGs at all, this one is fan-freaking-fastic.
- Has the ‘hooks’ in the right places. They’re going to make money with this game. From buying cute outfits for your pets, to buying new race karts and weapons for yourself…this game is going to make your kid scream for your credit card.
- Free. Sure, everyone likes to whine that a game called “Free Realms” actually has a sub fee. Fact of the matter is – you can play this game in its entirety for free. Sure, you don’t have the best karts and cutest pets and all…but you can add it to your MMO arsenal without costing you a dime (if you choose)
- Part of the station pass. Those of you who already are subscribed to EQ/EQ2/Vanguard/etc. will get a membership to Free Realms along with your other games.
The Not-As-Good:
I’m not labeling this stuff bad, because I think it’s going to change within 6 months from launch. They’ll learn. 
- Pets cost RL money. That’s right, there are no pets available for free – however you can “rent one” from an NPC. However, if you rent one – it’s not yours. You can name it, can dress it, can show it off to others…but it’s not actually YOUR pet. You can, however, still level your Pet Trainer class. But you don’t really feel like that great of a pet trainer if you don’t have a pet of your own. (Pet Training is one of the free jobs, btw..)
There is no way this one will stick around. Monetizing free-to-play games is a bit tricky – but it isn’t rocket science. You make your money off consumables, while giving everyone the non-consumable to encourage them to buy more things for it. Give everyone a free house in EQ2 so that they want to buy a bigger house, and buy furniture for it in Station Cash. Sell cheap Gillette razors but charge a ton for the blades. The pets in Free Realms are fantastic – with a badass AI that allows them to interact with the world. But, it’s unfortunate that a small percentage of Free Realms players will have one – because a small percentage of F2P game players will ever spend money in your game. One of the best parts about Free Realms that could make them astronomical amounts of money is hidden behind a members only screen…so instead a very tiny percentage of their players will spend money on the clothing and upsells for pets, and a tinier number will ever own a pet, period.
To quote m3mnoch – “I will eat my hat if there isn’t a basic pet for free 6 months post-launch.”
- There are some bugs. Go figure, it’s beta. But it is DAMN polished for a beta. And a short beta thus far, at that.
- There isn’t enough voiceover and sound. And of course, this is because the game has a tiny download. I do think for kids, there is a LOT of text, and not enough voice over – but that’s a trade-off you have to make if it’s a downloadable client and not streaming in the browser.
- It’s not in the browser. I’m listing this as a negative, because it will hurt market penetration for Free Realms. But – they’ve done a great job of getting you into the game quickly in about the same time as installing a browser plugin. Second-best.
- Not compatible on Mac. I can’t play this on my Mac at work (probably a good thing…). I haven’t tried it on Ubuntu yet, but I bet I could get it to work with a bit of a struggle.
- Can’t friend someone in game if they’re not online. More of an annoyance than anything, but I think they’re coming up with a resolution for that soonish.
And yep, that’s really all I have for negatives. Others are going to complain that free questlines stop in the middle and turn to members-only quests…but that doesn’t bother me. It makes me want to pay. Same with how Wizard101 halted my free quest progression because I couldn’t enter a members-only zone. I think the decision is kind of split on that – but I’m fine with it.
I’ll post up plenty of screenshots soon. All I can say is that I’ve been having an absolute blast in Free Realms. I played racing and demolition derby for about 4 hours with a friend last Saturday and had a ton of fun. I also played hours of the trading card game and haven’t been bored. Play this game and spend tons of money on it so that Luke can buy me an island, thanks. 
