Monday, July 12

WoW - Blizzard + Frogster = Runes of Magic

No doubt the title alone turned someone off out there already. Nevertheless...I think this game is worth noting (considering I've been giving up my time to it on a regular basis lately.

The game is Runes of Magic. It's a WoW clone if ever I saw one. Don't let that cause you to dismiss it outright though. It's worth trying IMO, if you've ever had the slightest inkling you might like to try WoW, but couldn't get past the corporate, evil empire stuff that goes along with Blizzard. Also, this isn't quite as cartoony as WoW (well, except for the rare evil balloon monster...yes, you read that right, that is what they are actually called). The character models are actually believable.

So what's it like? For the game mechanic, I suppose if you too WoW, and combined Guild Wars' dual class system, you'd get something similar to RoM. You pick yourself a character, then at lvl 10, you can choose a secondary class. It is interesting how they did it. Essentially, it's like levelling up two characters simultaneously. You can only use one class at a time (and the class you're currently using is the one that gets the XP benefit of questing, etc etc), but both classes have a pool of skills to level up that are shared with each other. There are also elite skills that you can get that are dependent upon what your class combination is. For instance, if you're a Warrior/Mage, you can get a skill that allows you to charge your weapon with magical power before you strike. If you're a Warrior/Druid, you get a skill that "causes" your weapon to be wrapped in thorns and adds a bleed effect to your attacks. It's really an interesting system they have.

Remember those good old days of CoX where you weren't living unless you were playing with debt? Well, they're here again in RoM. When you die, if someone doesn't resurrect you, you are res'd at a respawn point, and you gain some XP and TP debt. It's not over bearing though and debt is usually gone rather quickly unless you get stubborn like me and die 10 times trying defeat the elite boss solo even though he's 2 levels over you...

TP is what you use to level up your skills. You gain Training Points by completeing quests, defeating mobs, and leveling up.

There is crafting. It is essentially the same as WoW where you collect x number of y and z resources and voila! You've got a new sword! It'a tad different though as there are certain runes you use for something. I don't know what yet, I've not progressed that far in crafting.

They've got instanced dungeons for those of you that like that stuff. There's guilds, PvP, etc etc. Basically, everything you could ask for in an MMO.

The bonus? It's free to play! The drawback? It's free to play! There is an item shop (which I have actually put out some cash for a mount...there are mounts you can "rent" with in game money, they are temporary. The only way to get a permanent one is to buy diamonds which you use in the in game shop).

Right now my highest is a 30 Priest/33 Knight (it's like have a healer and a tank in the same character), and up to lvl 30 at least, it's fairly easy going. Plent of quests to keep you busy, and prevent grinding too much. The levels cap at 58 right now and they're planning to up it to 60 in the near future. From what I hear, leveling get's a bit rough as you get closer to the cap, but I can't say for sure. You can buy things from the item shop to boost you in leveling, but the game is completely playable without spending any real cash on it at least as far as I've played. I've heard from other players that if you want to be anybody as far as endgame content goes, you'll have to spend some cash to get your gear statted, but if you're like me, you generally don't get into end game content that much.

In any case, try it out. What have you got to lose, except sleep, or maybe your sanity? If you're still reading this, I suspect you might partially have lost one or both anyway. :D

http://us.runesofmagic.com/us/index.html

6 comments:

  1. I haven't read through it properly yet, but where are the pictures?!

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  2. I played this in it's beta stages, what put me off then was the camera/environments, gameplay seemed fine but the inability to see any horizons or get any real depth in an area put me off, mind you I only played for a few levels so I don't know if areas beyond the starting zone improved?

    You make it sound very appealing (scurries off to dig out his ID)

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  3. Uhm....pictures? Hehe, wrote this at work, so I didn't have access to any of my few screenshots I have. *scurries off to dig out some screenshots*

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  4. Ok, how about this. It's mainly the starting zone and a couple others.

    http://picasaweb.google.com/117182620869857512008/Screenies?feat=directlink

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  5. Now that I have read up on it, and seen you lovely pictures *grin*, I think I should give it a try too. Except... I first want to play GW. And even that has been waiting for months now. I created my character, but I haven't left the first town yet.

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  6. The download tested my patience, it insisted on downloading the same 4-5gigs twice, I had to stop the install (due to a cranky PC moment) and instead of letting me restart the installation again it downloaded the same 4-5gigs again before it finally installed ready for the lengthy patching...*sigh*

    The thing I was immediately impressed by was the ability to start crafting and gathering from the minute you start, consequently I've spent more time doing that than questing which seems now to have been a wise move, leveling is fast so you outgrow your crafted items quickly.

    Rolled a Warden on one of the EU PvE servers, last time I played a Human, this time an elf and I prefer this starting area, early days but having fun.

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