14th September 2010, 5:03 PM
Free MMOs... yeah, I've downloaded a few here and there, but never stuck with them for more than a couple of levels. I always lose interest in them compared to the much better Guild Wars...
Still though, I could mention a few words on the ones I've played, though I don't know if I've played any of them enough to say much informed about them. (These are any free MMOs I've played in the past five years or so)
Anarchy Online -- I played this a little back in the mid '00s after it was made free, but it didn't seem too interesting. Not-so great graphics too.
Saga of Ryzom -- I actually played this a little in open beta, and then again when it was free. It's a pay game again now, but it was free for a while. The game has a big focus on crafting from what I remember, and somewhat interesting art design as well. It's not free anymore though.
ArchLord -- ArchLord is an alright Korean free MMO. Okay graphics, basic MMO gameplay, but the art design's decent and the game's reasonably fun for its genre, for a while at least. I particularly like the soundtrack, I still listen to it frequently (it's just MP3s or something, you can make it into a playlist). Very limited character creation options.
Dungeons & Dragons Online -- I've only played this one a very little bit, but it's quite obvious that you really need to play in groups for this one, and that's difficult to do with random people in a game designed like this... it seems okay, if you have people to play it with, though. Certainly didn't seem to be as good as GW or (though it is different, with its instanced design) WoW, though.
Sword of the New World -- Some nice graphical design and a somewhat different theme (Carribean pirate era), but it's Korean so there's sure to be lots of grinding. The little bit of it seemed alright, but I haven't played this any more than the ones above. You control three characters at once, instead of one, so it's sort of a party based game. That at least is different.
Allods Online -- WoW clone... Russian title. It's alright, but nothing amazing. Decent game. The graphics really do look a lot like WoW though. I meant to play a bit more of this, but somehow never got around to it... maybe I should.:) Good soundtrack, with some Mark Morgan songs in it.
Dungeon Runners -- Mediocre graphics. The game thinks it's funny, but the jokes are all just genre in-jokes, "laughing at the genre while being a part of it" stuff, that kind of thing, and only sort of work. You need to pay to access a lot of the more interesting stuff. The game quickly got boring and I lost interest quickly.
Probably better than all of these, but definitely not official, would be the SCHTHack server for PSOBB... Diablo 2 style though the game does delete characters if they aren't used for 3 or 6 months or so though, which is something newer games in the genre generally don't do, but PSO is still a great game...
Still though, I could mention a few words on the ones I've played, though I don't know if I've played any of them enough to say much informed about them. (These are any free MMOs I've played in the past five years or so)
Anarchy Online -- I played this a little back in the mid '00s after it was made free, but it didn't seem too interesting. Not-so great graphics too.
Saga of Ryzom -- I actually played this a little in open beta, and then again when it was free. It's a pay game again now, but it was free for a while. The game has a big focus on crafting from what I remember, and somewhat interesting art design as well. It's not free anymore though.
ArchLord -- ArchLord is an alright Korean free MMO. Okay graphics, basic MMO gameplay, but the art design's decent and the game's reasonably fun for its genre, for a while at least. I particularly like the soundtrack, I still listen to it frequently (it's just MP3s or something, you can make it into a playlist). Very limited character creation options.
Dungeons & Dragons Online -- I've only played this one a very little bit, but it's quite obvious that you really need to play in groups for this one, and that's difficult to do with random people in a game designed like this... it seems okay, if you have people to play it with, though. Certainly didn't seem to be as good as GW or (though it is different, with its instanced design) WoW, though.
Sword of the New World -- Some nice graphical design and a somewhat different theme (Carribean pirate era), but it's Korean so there's sure to be lots of grinding. The little bit of it seemed alright, but I haven't played this any more than the ones above. You control three characters at once, instead of one, so it's sort of a party based game. That at least is different.
Allods Online -- WoW clone... Russian title. It's alright, but nothing amazing. Decent game. The graphics really do look a lot like WoW though. I meant to play a bit more of this, but somehow never got around to it... maybe I should.:) Good soundtrack, with some Mark Morgan songs in it.
Dungeon Runners -- Mediocre graphics. The game thinks it's funny, but the jokes are all just genre in-jokes, "laughing at the genre while being a part of it" stuff, that kind of thing, and only sort of work. You need to pay to access a lot of the more interesting stuff. The game quickly got boring and I lost interest quickly.
Probably better than all of these, but definitely not official, would be the SCHTHack server for PSOBB... Diablo 2 style though the game does delete characters if they aren't used for 3 or 6 months or so though, which is something newer games in the genre generally don't do, but PSO is still a great game...