Runes of Magic Review
Free MMOs tend to be worth precisely what you pay for them -- although some are worth even less than that, as they waste your time discovering the depths of their awfulness. So I was skeptical, to say the least, when a co-worker recommended Runes of Magic. His claim that it was polished like World of Warcraft and incorporated the best elements of not only that game, but also Warhammer Online and Lord of the Rings Online seemed more than a bit like empty hyperbole.
But I humored him and downloaded it a couple of weekends ago. It's a five gig honker of a file, so I had to plan accordingly. After finally getting it installed, I couldn't get it to accept the user name and password I had just registered. I was about thirty seconds from deleting the thing and patting myself on the back for being correct in my assumption, when I noticed a "Select Region" option at the bottom of the launcher window. It appeared to be set up for Eurotrash by default. So I selected "United States," (which, I might add, should be the default for everything on the planet), and voila!, I was in.
Then something really astounding happened. I played it for six hours straight. And I liked it.
To my astonishment, Runes had turned out to be exactly what it claimed: a commercial quality MMO that is absolutely free to play. No credit card registration. No game time cards. And the micro-payment system is very non-intrusive. It's reserved mostly for cosmetics and a few optional (and completely non-necessary) upgrades to quest items. The game is very playable without spending a dime.
Runes does indeed incorporate the best elements of the big players in the commerical MMO market, and it does so quite effectively. It also adds a few twists of its own, such as multi-classing. There's even an item "socketing" system similar to the excellent Titan Quest, allowing you to upgrade everything from weapons to armor to funny hats. The interface is familiar as well as powerful; veteran MMO players will dive right into it, while it's still quite accessible for newbies who have a little patience and are willing to learn the nuances of avatar control.
The graphics, while not really bleeding-edge, are quite as good as WoW and pretty close to WAR, (nothing like LOTRO, but that game is a showcase of jaw-dropping graphics; you can't expect to get that for free, too). The sound is quite serviceable, and the music is really quite good, displaying a high level of quality and production polish.
Overall, I'm very impressed and shall continue playing. At the price point, why not?
Get it here.
But I humored him and downloaded it a couple of weekends ago. It's a five gig honker of a file, so I had to plan accordingly. After finally getting it installed, I couldn't get it to accept the user name and password I had just registered. I was about thirty seconds from deleting the thing and patting myself on the back for being correct in my assumption, when I noticed a "Select Region" option at the bottom of the launcher window. It appeared to be set up for Eurotrash by default. So I selected "United States," (which, I might add, should be the default for everything on the planet), and voila!, I was in.
Then something really astounding happened. I played it for six hours straight. And I liked it.
To my astonishment, Runes had turned out to be exactly what it claimed: a commercial quality MMO that is absolutely free to play. No credit card registration. No game time cards. And the micro-payment system is very non-intrusive. It's reserved mostly for cosmetics and a few optional (and completely non-necessary) upgrades to quest items. The game is very playable without spending a dime.
Runes does indeed incorporate the best elements of the big players in the commerical MMO market, and it does so quite effectively. It also adds a few twists of its own, such as multi-classing. There's even an item "socketing" system similar to the excellent Titan Quest, allowing you to upgrade everything from weapons to armor to funny hats. The interface is familiar as well as powerful; veteran MMO players will dive right into it, while it's still quite accessible for newbies who have a little patience and are willing to learn the nuances of avatar control.
The graphics, while not really bleeding-edge, are quite as good as WoW and pretty close to WAR, (nothing like LOTRO, but that game is a showcase of jaw-dropping graphics; you can't expect to get that for free, too). The sound is quite serviceable, and the music is really quite good, displaying a high level of quality and production polish.
Overall, I'm very impressed and shall continue playing. At the price point, why not?
Get it here.
posted by Jar(egg)head at 15:21
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