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The Free MMO Überlist (updated: Oct 11)
Aldo
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
FREE MMO UBERLIST
Goal of this thread: make other PA'ers aware of free MMOs and point out whether these games are actually fun to play or should be avoided. I hope people will check on this list when they want to play a free game and have the balls to jump into the retarded world of free MMOs. There is fun to be had in them, really. Just not in all of them and not for everyone and certainly not when you're jumping in them with high expectations.
MMORPG
Next post more!
Goal of this thread: make other PA'ers aware of free MMOs and point out whether these games are actually fun to play or should be avoided. I hope people will check on this list when they want to play a free game and have the balls to jump into the retarded world of free MMOs. There is fun to be had in them, really. Just not in all of them and not for everyone and certainly not when you're jumping in them with high expectations.
MMORPG
Spoiler:
2029 Online
RTS/RPG hybrid, placing your favourite fantasy races in a sci-fi setting. Graphics are 2D and look dated, interface makes JamesDM's brain hurt and their website does not provide much in the way of information. Please let me know if you know more.
4story/Gates of Andaron
A game that looks almost identical to WoW, but with characters a bit like FFXI. They seem to have copy/paste'd a bit too much from those games, because there's nothing remotely original in this game.
9dragons
Acclaim has a thing for games starting with a number. 3D grind-mmo based around Asian myths. The classes have fairly original backgrounds, but they all boil down to killing loads and loads of mobs. Everything about this game looks a bit dated. It was fun to play this game for a while, though.
Adventure Quest
An in-browser 'lunch break mmo'. It's just a whole lot of grinding in ugly flash environments. The game is tailored for young players and has a strong focus on the pay to play aspects.
Adventure Quest Worlds
An in-browser 'lunch break mmo'. It's just a whole lot of grinding in ugly flash environments. The game is tailored for young players and has a strong focus on the pay to play aspects.
Age of Armor
A game that looks a tad bit like transformers/gundam wing/whatever other mecha stuff you can think of. Not sure about the actual gameplay, but it looks decent enough and come on: giant robots.
AirRivals
Penny Arcade thread
Space Cowboy restarted, this game is a hybrid between a space shooter and a MMORPG. The game has been going strong for a few years with gpotato, but they recently shut it down. Now someone else is going to host it. And deliver a patch for it.
Anarchy Online classic
wiki
Penny-Arcade thread
Part of this game is for free, the original game plus three expansions. The rest of the game is only accessible for paying costumers. These two groups can play together. Anarchy Online is one of the very few successful MMOs not set in a fantasy theme. It is very complex, even without the extra expansions you can buy.
Angels Online
A 2D game with sprites where you control a cute little character and can deploy robots and all sorts of pets to fight with you against an endless stream of cute mobs. The game looks horribly dated and the features it offers hardly make the game unique. See also: Wonderland Online.
Aranock Online
Spiritual successor of Astonia. This old MMO looks terrible and the game seems to be focused on people who do not play games for fun. It's way too old fashioned to be a viable option for us modern age gamers.
Archlord
Game didn't cut it when it was Pay to Play, so they're trying to cut their losses by making it Free to Play. By free MMO standards this game is pretty decent. Game has a strong focus on PvP. Main selling point is the "Archlord" every once in a while there's a massive battle and the winner becomes Archlord. No idea how popular it is.
Arctic MUD
A MUD that started back up in 1992. It has PK'ing, full loot and certain items are literally unique, so if someone has a specific shield, no one else can have it, unless they murder that person. If you are nostalgic and old, you might enjoy this.
Asda Story
The quote on their site made me giggle. Besides that: this is a game you should play with someone else. You can be soul mates and share exp between each other. You also gain access to special skills. The game looks painfully cute and is obviously tailored towards girls. If anything, it will be fun to see desperate teenagers asking you to be their soul mate.
Ashen Empires
A rather old game, graphics look dated. Fairly standard by the looks of it. Vile Toxin had the following to say about this: Really fun PvP system(free for all), MANY items to craft, lots of tradeskills to master. Paying members also gain access to their revived game. He wrote that years ago. The game is still supported, though.
BattleKnight
In-browser mmorpg in which you develop a knight in shining armour.
Battle of Phantasia
This is what digital vomit looks like. Avoid avoid avoid.
Benign
Site hosted on freewebs, looks hidious. AVOID AVOID AVOID
BlackMoon Chronicles
An ugly 2D MMO from Canada. It seems to be based on a graphic novel, but the game looks so bad that I don't actually believe that. It's your standard point-n-click RPG.
Bitefight
Vampire vs Werewolf in-browser game. Focus on PvP, but no useful information available on their site.
Bounty Bay Online
Free to play or monthly subscription
A game set in the age of sailing to far off places and killing the locals. It used to be pay to play only, but a Free to Play server got released. The game is in full 3D and has a heavy focus on naval combat. Buttcleft had a lot of lag while playing and every time you close the game it opens a webpage. These are bad signals.
CABAL Online
Open Beta for North-America
Played this game for a while. It plays like World of Warcraft on speed. Combat is fast paced and good looking. However, that is pretty much all there is to this game: combat. All quests involve ripping through loads of enemies, all levels must be gained by ripping through enemies, all every ever has you ripping through loads of enemies. You don't really have to play together with anyone else until very late in the game. At the rate you're leveling this takes months. It's fun a for a while and it looks pretty.
Cartoon Network Universe: FusionBall
In-browser 3D MMO for the kids. For an in-browser game it looks surprisingly good and it is being made by a big company. The game has no classes, but you collect "nanos" which give you abilities.
Conquer Online
Ridiculous grind MMO set in medieval China. Everything boils down to killing hundreds upon hundreds of identical mobs. It doesn't look very pretty as well. It is somewhat enjoyable for a few hours, though. After that it's time to uninstall it. Ask SkutSkut about it some time, it's kinda funny when he does that thing that makes his head turn red and veins pop out.
Crazy Tao
A 2D mmo which gives you control to 3 pets at once. Besides that it looks like standard MMO fare. This appears to be a predecessor of Eudemons, also hosted on that 91.com thing.
Cronous
Grind-based Korean MMO. It has a lot of skills, though. And there's something about controlling castles. It's obviously aimed at boys, what with the bulky characters and ridiculous monsters.
Daimonin
Little European MMO. No screenshots on their sites, which usually indicated that the game looks horrible.
Dark Eden
Grind-based Korean MMO in a fairly unique, gothic setting. Good ol' vampire vs human, but with sci-fi weapons tossed in the mix. The previous thread warned against heaps of hackers etc, but considering the game is still going strong and receives regular updates, it appears that problem isn't really *that* game-breaking. The game looks a bit like Diablo 2, but much slower.
Darks Swords
Ugly 2D game claiming to be revolutionary in its social aspects. No idea where they base that on. The site looks smooth, though so they aren't complete idiots.
Dead Frontier
Some sort of top-down zombie survival MMO thing. Think Diablo1, but with zombies and guns. You get to fight in instanced areas and you can decide to go for a single player instance or a multiplayer one. Multiplayer is laggy as fuck and you'll die in a slideshow. The game has a cash shop, but half the game's elements aren't in (yet). If an apocalypse happened and this turned out to be the only game left on earth I might consider playing it.
Deco Online
An Asian game with a strong focus on PvP, cute graphics and a lot of skills to tune your toon with. The game is a huge ever-grind, but leveling is fast, there's just no good reason to waste time on this game. As with most PvP-focused games a lot depends on balance and if it is worth fighting over something with a bunch of 13 year old boys with big mouths.
Deicide
Generic looking fantasy mmo, they seem to be very proud of their 3D sound. I have no idea what to make of this.
Dekaron/2moons
Asian styled fast paced MMO. Main selling points are its original story, nice concept art and raids that end in a free for all death match. Gamehi appears to have taken over and the game has received some new classes and has a much nicer website.
Deliantra
A 2D MMO with a strong focus on exploring and there is a strong focus on playing together. The game is being made by a very small team. At the moment there's only like 10 people playing on an average evening, so it's really unknown/unpopular. The tutorial is very good, so at least try that out and cheer up the developers or something? I don't know, they sound adorable.
Discworld MUD
A MUD based on the glorious books of Terry Pratchett. Various classes and subclasses, shops, houses, newspapers etc.
Dofus
What a name for a game. Maybe it's referring to the players or maybe it's referring to who made this game. I don't know. Anyway, the game looks horribly cute and not very hardcore. It's 2D and plays in Flash. It plays kinda like Final Fantasy Tactics, but you only control one character.
Dragon Fable
An in-browser 'lunch break mmo'. It's just a whole lot of grinding in ugly flash environments. The game is tailored for young players and has a strong focus on the pay to play aspects.
Dragon Sky
Yet another ugly MMO based on Asian mythology. There is nothing that sets this game apart from other MMOs. This game automatically installs Xfire for no apparent reason. Avoid this game.
Dragonica(European version) (American version)
PA thread
A 3D sidescrolling arcade fighter with adorable graphics. Quick gameplay, slaughtering mobs by the dozen, strong focus on teamplay, good graphics, easy to pick up, hard to master. Very good game.
Dream of Mirror Online
European version
Penny-Arcade thread
Cell shaded graphics, lots of classes and a system that makes teaming up with other people actually interesting. The Goons of SA also seem to appreciate this, so there must be some redeeming value to it? A note for European players: we can't play with North America at the moment.
Dungeons & Dragons Online
PA thread
After charging a monthly fee for a few years they're now going f2p with a cash shop to buy more content from. The game follows the D&D rulebooks up to a level, but instead of the turn-based it's all in real time, there's still dice to be rolled, but it's all behind the scenes. The game is heavily instanced and requires teamplay...pretty much like the source material.
Dungeon Fighter Online
Announced at the 2009 GCD as a 2D sidescrolling beat-em-up like Double Dragon. It's kind of like Dragonica, but it appears less polished and according to PAers it sucks more. Still, not a terrible game.
Dungeon Runners
Name of the game says it all: it's a dungeon crawler. This game has a lot of humour in it, mostly at the expense of *other* MMOs and Diablo. The game offers F2P content and P2P for extra utilities such as the stacking op potions and allowance to wear special (better) gear. Not quite sure if it has enough content for freebooters, but it should be fun for a few days.
Elysaria
Is this even a game?
Emil Chronicle Online
Cutesy Asian grind MMO, this one has fairly original classes. Developed by Gravity, but the localisation is worse than RO's or ROSE's.
Endless Online
AVOID AVOID AVOID.
Entropia Universe
in game currence<-->RL money system
This game tries to market itself as a sort of reality 2.0, but without a crazy AI trying to kill you. No idea what the fun in this game would be, but it had a turnover of 360$M in 2006. They also took a license on the CRY-engine 2. Again, no idea what the point of this game is, other than throwing money at it and maybe making profit out of it.
Epic Duel
PA thread
An Adventure Quest clone with equally ugly 2D graphics.
Estiah
Penny Arcade thread
In browser MMORPG which recently started. The site looks very slick and it seems to offer a sort of M:tG sort of gameplay where your actions are determined by the cards you play. Lezard says you can enjoy this game on as little as 10 minutes per day.
Eternal Lands
Has been in beta for years, doesn't look like they're really trying to sell this. Maybe cute for a while, maybe you'll even see another player. I don't know, this looks more like something some guys made after work than a full-blown MMO.
Eternum Online
An in-browser hideous 2D MMO. It seems to play like Runescape, but it somehow managed to be uglier than that.
Ether Saga Online
(beta-something)
From the same company that released Perfect World in the US. It looks ridiculously cute. Strong focus on getting a pet to do the dirty work for you, also a ridiculous uninspiring grind. Perfect World remains the flagship of this company.
Eudemons Online
Cutesy Asian MMO with 3D isometric view. It seems to offer a smooth experience with a strong focus on community.
EUO
An extremely old school mmorpg, they like to compare themselves to the early Ultima games and with that they mean: just as ugly and complex.
Exteel
PA thread
MMO with mechs. Heavy focus on PvP. Looks pretty enough, but there is a lot of grinding to be had and if you're not playing with a premade team you're pretty much fucked. Frosteey also states that gear is completely out of balance. I guess it's fun if you're really into mechs, but otherwise I would avoid it.
FaitH
No idea what the point behind this game is, from their site: FaitH is a team-based Massively Multiplayer Game. Lead your Kingdom to Religious victory by kidnaping Children of Targar and wreaking Chaos! across the Aloradius! Looks very dated to boot. Best to avoid
Fallen Sword
In-browser fantasy RPG. Not much in the way of extra information on their site.
Fiesta (Same game on gamigo.de)
Not so sure if this game is such a party. It looks like a standard grinding game, at least it has asdw support and tab-targeting. Graphics score high on the *schoolgirl voice* kawaii *cough* -scale and are kinda smooth. Classes are standard, site doesn't elaborate much on anything.
Florensia
Open beta
A cutesy looking Japanese MMO set in the age of sailing. It's like a cute version of Voyage Century, maybe this game is more for your baby sister?. The website looks rather decent for a free MMO, there's no Engrish on it and the art style has a certain charm to it which is enhanced by the lighting.
Fly for Fun
Don't be fooled by the title! Flying is not fun in this game. It's about as much fun as it is in World of Warcaft; which is to say-- kinda neat for a while, and then you're back to grinding. This game is a grind-MMO from Korea. Everything is pretty basic, grind grind grind level grind grind grind. Et cetera. Probably fun if you can play with friends.
FOnline:2238
A MMO version of Fallout 1/2. It's hosted on blogspot...Perhaps the actual game does not suck, but I doubt that. You need several files from a Fallout game to even run this game.
Fordana
Small MMORPG being developed by two people. It's set in a fantasy world and you are a hero, that's pretty much the jest of it.
Free Realms
PA thread
SOE's free MMO providing all sorts of entertainment for the younger gamer. It looks fairly cute, you can play chess, do races, burn down monsters, dress up your toon and tons of other things. All in all, this seems like some sort of 3D alternative to what Gaia and Neopets do on their websites. Just provide tons of silly mini-games but with achievements that don't go away after closing the game.
Fung Wan Online
Western version evaporated from the internet, Malaysian version still has a website, but it does not seem to be kosher. Best to avoid.
Furcadia
...Yup. A MMO for furries. It's almost completely focused on community aspects to boot.
Ghost Online
Sidescrolling 2D fast paced grind MMO from Korea. If you dig Maple Story you probably dig this as well. For everyone else: best to protect your sanity.
GhostX
A cell-shaded MMO beat-em-up set in a futuristic setting. This game sets itself further apart from the mainstream by using nano-bots: weapons that you can personalize to your liking, or something. Hit detection is off and combat manages to get boring by having all enemies fall to the ground in 3-4 hits.
Gladiatus
In-browser RPG that puts you in the codpiece of a gladiator who kills everything that looks creepy.
GodsWar
Cutesy MMO in an ancient Greek setting. Nothing sets it apart from other MMOs.
Golemizer
An in-browser MMO in which you are a mad scientist and create a golem to do your laundry and fighting.
Graal Online
Hideous 2D MMO with a strong focus on the community. No idea why anyone would play it.
Gunz
Open beta
This game has been in development for a long time. The artwork looks amazing and the idea of a FPS mixed with an MMORPG is original and exciting. No idea about the actual gameplay, but a lot of people have said that it was fun for a while.
HellMOO
Penny Arcade Thread
Promoted as a text based MMO Fallout. This MUD says it gives you absolute freedom, meaning you can rape and abuse women to your liking, fuck dead dogs oh and maybe kill some mutants while you're there anyway. This game can best be described as "way fucking old skool, dude!" Check out the PA thread if you feel like raping some dead babies.
Hero Online
Asian fantasy 3D MMORPG with old-fashioned graphics. Plays like diablo, but doesn't reallly have any skills and is very slow. Huge grind-fest.
Hostile Space
(site only accessible on internet explorer
A space MMO with ugly 2D graphics that started in 1997. Combat is "twitch-based" and the focus is on playing in small groups. The game has a lot of kinky alien races and there's a lot of exploring to do for the Doras among us. Even though the game looks pretty horrible it might hide some beauty in its old and wrinkly shell.
Illarion
A 2D old MMORPG that sells itself as the game in which you don't have to fight. Strong focus on roleplaying.
Illutia
Formerly known as Aspereta. It's a 2D cutesy grind MMO in a fantasy setting.
Irth Worlds
Pretty old fantasy MMO at the end of it's life cycle. The game was pretty decent, but the game is mostly dead. Check it out before it breaks down for good.
Jade Dynasty
A standard fair Asian mythology based grind MMO, it has pretty graphics and an interesting story. EXP is easy to get: you get it from medidating or by setting up a script so you can do other things while your toon levels.
Kal online
Game looks generic. Site is full of Engrish and lies about being the first 3D mmo set in Asian mythology. Try at your own risk, I suppose.
Katsuro
A game with no information about gameplay available on the internet. All I can figure out is that it takes place in medieval Japan, that it is in-browser and that it is published by Gameforge. My conclusion is that this is an in-browser poop flinging game.
Kingdom of Loathing
PA thread
Hilarious in-browser MMO. The graphics are amusing, the fact that there is a haiku chat channel makes the game awesome. You only get a limited amount of actions per day and you navigate the world from screen to screen.
Knight online world
MMO with a focus on PvP. No idea about actual gameplay.
Land of Magic
This game has been live since 1994. Players from way back when are now NPCs in the game. Actual gameplay, however, appears to be hidden away on their site. It is clear that a MMO from 1994 is not going to be easy on new players.
Lands of Hope
In-browser MMORPG developed by one guy. It appears to offer a full range of functions usually reserved for bigger titles. Sounds strangely hopeful.
Last Chaos (Aeria version)
Asian fantasy grind MMO with fairly decent graphics. Malaysian version is more up to date than the Aeria version, but Aeria's site usually loads a lot faster. Take your pick, I guess.
LaTale
A game like Maple Story but with more fluid combat, also just as ridiculously cute. Probably still going to be an evergrind.
Legend of Ares
Fantasy MMO with a strong focus on PvP, it looks rather bland and the site offers about zero information besides "hey, it has pvp and you get rewards for clubbing people to death.
Legends of Zork
In-browser MMO that works with limited action points per day. ZombieMambo seems to enjoy it.
Legends of Qin
3D MMO set in Chinese mythology. They say they offer quests beyond the 'kill X' or 'deliver Y to Z' and they give a lot of in-game information on these quests. Their site doesn't really tell you how the game plays. Guess *someone* will have to check this one out.
Luminary: Rise of the Goonzu
Fantasy anime MMO with a heavy focus on economy and politics. According to froggy it is nice. According to Mith it is as exciting as Progress Quest (which is to say: no it is not exciting).
Luna Online
Standard Korean grind MMO, this one has some extra classes to evolve to and you can build a farm with your in-game family. Everything else? Just another cutesy grind MMO.
Lunia
A hybrid between an MMO and a beat-em-up. This is the next step in MMOs: no auto-attack, no automatic anything. You attack by hitting the attack buttons, you dodge by jumping out of the way. The combat in this game is fantastic, there are a lot of items to improve your character with and there's enough content to keep you busy for weeks. I'm not sure if the game is out of beta yet, though.
Mabinogi
Penny Arcade thread
Celshaded graphics, fast paced combat. Graphics are scoring high on "cute" and "kawaii". You can react to what the mob you're fighting does with counterattacks or defences, besides that it plays like a normal MMO. Quests are standard, but there are some dungeons you can run in with a challenging boss at the end of the ride. Unless you're coughing up money you can only create one character. Recently a lot of features went from cash shop to free.
Magic World Online
It's a new game, but already looks dated: Isometric camera, site looks incredibly cheesy and the art direction seems to love glow sticks and Asian mythology. The game seems to offer everything you expect out of a MMORPG, but adds player housing and marriage. All in all it doesn't stand out in any way.
Maple Story
Extremely popular for no particular reason. Only play this if you hate yourself. It's a 2D sidescrolling MMO where you will be grinding monsters for an eternity to gain a level, then you repeat the process. This is not my idea of "fun".
Martial Heroes
Based on martial arts, this appears to be a mundane grind MMO. It appears they have received a shitton of complaints about all sorts of things, so I would advice against playing this game.
Mech Quest
An in-browser 'lunch break mmo'. It's just a whole lot of grinding in ugly flash environments. The game is tailored for young players and has a strong focus on the pay to play aspects.
Metin 2
Asian Fantasy MMO with fast paced combat. And the possibility to fight while mounted. The game is in 3D but looks very dated. Classes are uninspired, text is hard to read, quests are vague and exp gain is slow.
Minions of Mirth
From the old thread: Notes (from Philthy): Basically, an EQ clone. And a decent one, at that. It has a few twists. Instead of controlling one player, you can control up to 6. An entire party. You can then play on the multiplayer server and group up with other players parties and do raids this way. The game also can run in server mode, and you can basically run your own server. You can edit everything within the server, add your own mobs and zones, edit items and quests, stats and models. You can also submit these to the devs to be included on the actual live server as well.
Mix Master
2D MMO with the unique function that you get to mix various components and monsters to create your own awesometastic monster.
Monster and Me
A MMO that takes its influences from neopets and pokémon. Art looks horrible. There should be no reason one would play this game.
Monato Esprit
Cutesy Asian grind MMO. It doesn't seem too bad, although the focus on the cash shop sounds iffy. Looks nice enough for a game that's already been out for a year or two.
Mo Siang Online
A Chinese MMO with very fast combat and very pretty spell effects. The website and game made me very confused, everything seems to move at 2x speed or something. The client is only 450MB so I guess that is nice.
MU Online
Game is tailored for boys, lots of muscled characters and gritty looks. Everything looks horribly bland and uninteresting. No idea about the combat, but it advertises itself as "easy to get in to". Maybe fun for a few hours.
Myth War II
A 2D MMO with hand-painted models. The game only runs in 800x600 so everything looks blurry. Combat is a mix of real-time with turn based, think JRPG. There's also a strong social aspect to this game, players can get in a position of power through politics or can fabricate rumours that might turn out to be true (???). Kasanagi tells you to avoid this outdated POS. This is a slightly updated version of the original, which was closed Feb 13th, 2009.
Neo Steam
This one has a very charming neopunk-ish art style, a lot of classes and races, has wasd-support and feels pretty smooth. It is at it's core a very boring and Korean grind MMO, though, don't be fooled.
NIDA
Fast-paced 'action' MMO. They're proud of their good looks and constant rewards for playing, but I can't figure out what it is you actually do in the game.
NosTale
2D cutesy grind MMO in which you can capture monsters to do your laundry and fighting.
Nowhere Else and Beyond
In-browser MMO with 2D graphics. You move around from screen to screen with the arrow buttons. It doesn't look half bad, but there seems to be little reason to play this game. You can check it out without having to register, which is nice.
Oberin
MAC ONLY MMO! It's been going for 8 years. But seriously guys, it's Mac only.
Ogre Island
Flash-based MMO. Looks fun for 30 minutes or something? At least it doesn't pretend to be something it is not. Does anyone know more about this?
Oz
Community MMO based around cute characters. Appears to cater to teenage girls, one of the games is "spot the pedo"*, others include fishing and making out**
*that was a joke
**this is not a joke.
RTS/RPG hybrid, placing your favourite fantasy races in a sci-fi setting. Graphics are 2D and look dated, interface makes JamesDM's brain hurt and their website does not provide much in the way of information. Please let me know if you know more.
4story/Gates of Andaron
A game that looks almost identical to WoW, but with characters a bit like FFXI. They seem to have copy/paste'd a bit too much from those games, because there's nothing remotely original in this game.
9dragons
Acclaim has a thing for games starting with a number. 3D grind-mmo based around Asian myths. The classes have fairly original backgrounds, but they all boil down to killing loads and loads of mobs. Everything about this game looks a bit dated. It was fun to play this game for a while, though.
Adventure Quest
An in-browser 'lunch break mmo'. It's just a whole lot of grinding in ugly flash environments. The game is tailored for young players and has a strong focus on the pay to play aspects.
Adventure Quest Worlds
An in-browser 'lunch break mmo'. It's just a whole lot of grinding in ugly flash environments. The game is tailored for young players and has a strong focus on the pay to play aspects.
Age of Armor
A game that looks a tad bit like transformers/gundam wing/whatever other mecha stuff you can think of. Not sure about the actual gameplay, but it looks decent enough and come on: giant robots.
AirRivals
Penny Arcade thread
Space Cowboy restarted, this game is a hybrid between a space shooter and a MMORPG. The game has been going strong for a few years with gpotato, but they recently shut it down. Now someone else is going to host it. And deliver a patch for it.
Anarchy Online classic
wiki
Penny-Arcade thread
Part of this game is for free, the original game plus three expansions. The rest of the game is only accessible for paying costumers. These two groups can play together. Anarchy Online is one of the very few successful MMOs not set in a fantasy theme. It is very complex, even without the extra expansions you can buy.
Angels Online
A 2D game with sprites where you control a cute little character and can deploy robots and all sorts of pets to fight with you against an endless stream of cute mobs. The game looks horribly dated and the features it offers hardly make the game unique. See also: Wonderland Online.
Aranock Online
Spiritual successor of Astonia. This old MMO looks terrible and the game seems to be focused on people who do not play games for fun. It's way too old fashioned to be a viable option for us modern age gamers.
Archlord
Game didn't cut it when it was Pay to Play, so they're trying to cut their losses by making it Free to Play. By free MMO standards this game is pretty decent. Game has a strong focus on PvP. Main selling point is the "Archlord" every once in a while there's a massive battle and the winner becomes Archlord. No idea how popular it is.
Arctic MUD
A MUD that started back up in 1992. It has PK'ing, full loot and certain items are literally unique, so if someone has a specific shield, no one else can have it, unless they murder that person. If you are nostalgic and old, you might enjoy this.
Asda Story
The quote on their site made me giggle. Besides that: this is a game you should play with someone else. You can be soul mates and share exp between each other. You also gain access to special skills. The game looks painfully cute and is obviously tailored towards girls. If anything, it will be fun to see desperate teenagers asking you to be their soul mate.
Ashen Empires
A rather old game, graphics look dated. Fairly standard by the looks of it. Vile Toxin had the following to say about this: Really fun PvP system(free for all), MANY items to craft, lots of tradeskills to master. Paying members also gain access to their revived game. He wrote that years ago. The game is still supported, though.
BattleKnight
In-browser mmorpg in which you develop a knight in shining armour.
Battle of Phantasia
This is what digital vomit looks like. Avoid avoid avoid.
Benign
Site hosted on freewebs, looks hidious. AVOID AVOID AVOID
BlackMoon Chronicles
An ugly 2D MMO from Canada. It seems to be based on a graphic novel, but the game looks so bad that I don't actually believe that. It's your standard point-n-click RPG.
Bitefight
Vampire vs Werewolf in-browser game. Focus on PvP, but no useful information available on their site.
Bounty Bay Online
Free to play or monthly subscription
A game set in the age of sailing to far off places and killing the locals. It used to be pay to play only, but a Free to Play server got released. The game is in full 3D and has a heavy focus on naval combat. Buttcleft had a lot of lag while playing and every time you close the game it opens a webpage. These are bad signals.
CABAL Online
Open Beta for North-America
Played this game for a while. It plays like World of Warcraft on speed. Combat is fast paced and good looking. However, that is pretty much all there is to this game: combat. All quests involve ripping through loads of enemies, all levels must be gained by ripping through enemies, all every ever has you ripping through loads of enemies. You don't really have to play together with anyone else until very late in the game. At the rate you're leveling this takes months. It's fun a for a while and it looks pretty.
Cartoon Network Universe: FusionBall
In-browser 3D MMO for the kids. For an in-browser game it looks surprisingly good and it is being made by a big company. The game has no classes, but you collect "nanos" which give you abilities.
Conquer Online
Ridiculous grind MMO set in medieval China. Everything boils down to killing hundreds upon hundreds of identical mobs. It doesn't look very pretty as well. It is somewhat enjoyable for a few hours, though. After that it's time to uninstall it. Ask SkutSkut about it some time, it's kinda funny when he does that thing that makes his head turn red and veins pop out.
Crazy Tao
A 2D mmo which gives you control to 3 pets at once. Besides that it looks like standard MMO fare. This appears to be a predecessor of Eudemons, also hosted on that 91.com thing.
Cronous
Grind-based Korean MMO. It has a lot of skills, though. And there's something about controlling castles. It's obviously aimed at boys, what with the bulky characters and ridiculous monsters.
Daimonin
Little European MMO. No screenshots on their sites, which usually indicated that the game looks horrible.
Dark Eden
Grind-based Korean MMO in a fairly unique, gothic setting. Good ol' vampire vs human, but with sci-fi weapons tossed in the mix. The previous thread warned against heaps of hackers etc, but considering the game is still going strong and receives regular updates, it appears that problem isn't really *that* game-breaking. The game looks a bit like Diablo 2, but much slower.
Darks Swords
Ugly 2D game claiming to be revolutionary in its social aspects. No idea where they base that on. The site looks smooth, though so they aren't complete idiots.
Dead Frontier
Some sort of top-down zombie survival MMO thing. Think Diablo1, but with zombies and guns. You get to fight in instanced areas and you can decide to go for a single player instance or a multiplayer one. Multiplayer is laggy as fuck and you'll die in a slideshow. The game has a cash shop, but half the game's elements aren't in (yet). If an apocalypse happened and this turned out to be the only game left on earth I might consider playing it.
Deco Online
An Asian game with a strong focus on PvP, cute graphics and a lot of skills to tune your toon with. The game is a huge ever-grind, but leveling is fast, there's just no good reason to waste time on this game. As with most PvP-focused games a lot depends on balance and if it is worth fighting over something with a bunch of 13 year old boys with big mouths.
Deicide
Generic looking fantasy mmo, they seem to be very proud of their 3D sound. I have no idea what to make of this.
Dekaron/2moons
Asian styled fast paced MMO. Main selling points are its original story, nice concept art and raids that end in a free for all death match. Gamehi appears to have taken over and the game has received some new classes and has a much nicer website.
Deliantra
A 2D MMO with a strong focus on exploring and there is a strong focus on playing together. The game is being made by a very small team. At the moment there's only like 10 people playing on an average evening, so it's really unknown/unpopular. The tutorial is very good, so at least try that out and cheer up the developers or something? I don't know, they sound adorable.
Discworld MUD
A MUD based on the glorious books of Terry Pratchett. Various classes and subclasses, shops, houses, newspapers etc.
Dofus
What a name for a game. Maybe it's referring to the players or maybe it's referring to who made this game. I don't know. Anyway, the game looks horribly cute and not very hardcore. It's 2D and plays in Flash. It plays kinda like Final Fantasy Tactics, but you only control one character.
Dragon Fable
An in-browser 'lunch break mmo'. It's just a whole lot of grinding in ugly flash environments. The game is tailored for young players and has a strong focus on the pay to play aspects.
Dragon Sky
Yet another ugly MMO based on Asian mythology. There is nothing that sets this game apart from other MMOs. This game automatically installs Xfire for no apparent reason. Avoid this game.
Dragonica(European version) (American version)
PA thread
A 3D sidescrolling arcade fighter with adorable graphics. Quick gameplay, slaughtering mobs by the dozen, strong focus on teamplay, good graphics, easy to pick up, hard to master. Very good game.
Dream of Mirror Online
European version
Penny-Arcade thread
Cell shaded graphics, lots of classes and a system that makes teaming up with other people actually interesting. The Goons of SA also seem to appreciate this, so there must be some redeeming value to it? A note for European players: we can't play with North America at the moment.
Dungeons & Dragons Online
PA thread
After charging a monthly fee for a few years they're now going f2p with a cash shop to buy more content from. The game follows the D&D rulebooks up to a level, but instead of the turn-based it's all in real time, there's still dice to be rolled, but it's all behind the scenes. The game is heavily instanced and requires teamplay...pretty much like the source material.
Dungeon Fighter Online
Announced at the 2009 GCD as a 2D sidescrolling beat-em-up like Double Dragon. It's kind of like Dragonica, but it appears less polished and according to PAers it sucks more. Still, not a terrible game.
Dungeon Runners
Name of the game says it all: it's a dungeon crawler. This game has a lot of humour in it, mostly at the expense of *other* MMOs and Diablo. The game offers F2P content and P2P for extra utilities such as the stacking op potions and allowance to wear special (better) gear. Not quite sure if it has enough content for freebooters, but it should be fun for a few days.
Elysaria
Is this even a game?
Emil Chronicle Online
Cutesy Asian grind MMO, this one has fairly original classes. Developed by Gravity, but the localisation is worse than RO's or ROSE's.
Endless Online
AVOID AVOID AVOID.
Entropia Universe
in game currence<-->RL money system
This game tries to market itself as a sort of reality 2.0, but without a crazy AI trying to kill you. No idea what the fun in this game would be, but it had a turnover of 360$M in 2006. They also took a license on the CRY-engine 2. Again, no idea what the point of this game is, other than throwing money at it and maybe making profit out of it.
Epic Duel
PA thread
An Adventure Quest clone with equally ugly 2D graphics.
Estiah
Penny Arcade thread
In browser MMORPG which recently started. The site looks very slick and it seems to offer a sort of M:tG sort of gameplay where your actions are determined by the cards you play. Lezard says you can enjoy this game on as little as 10 minutes per day.
Eternal Lands
Has been in beta for years, doesn't look like they're really trying to sell this. Maybe cute for a while, maybe you'll even see another player. I don't know, this looks more like something some guys made after work than a full-blown MMO.
Eternum Online
An in-browser hideous 2D MMO. It seems to play like Runescape, but it somehow managed to be uglier than that.
Ether Saga Online
(beta-something)
From the same company that released Perfect World in the US. It looks ridiculously cute. Strong focus on getting a pet to do the dirty work for you, also a ridiculous uninspiring grind. Perfect World remains the flagship of this company.
Eudemons Online
Cutesy Asian MMO with 3D isometric view. It seems to offer a smooth experience with a strong focus on community.
EUO
An extremely old school mmorpg, they like to compare themselves to the early Ultima games and with that they mean: just as ugly and complex.
Exteel
PA thread
MMO with mechs. Heavy focus on PvP. Looks pretty enough, but there is a lot of grinding to be had and if you're not playing with a premade team you're pretty much fucked. Frosteey also states that gear is completely out of balance. I guess it's fun if you're really into mechs, but otherwise I would avoid it.
FaitH
No idea what the point behind this game is, from their site: FaitH is a team-based Massively Multiplayer Game. Lead your Kingdom to Religious victory by kidnaping Children of Targar and wreaking Chaos! across the Aloradius! Looks very dated to boot. Best to avoid
Fallen Sword
In-browser fantasy RPG. Not much in the way of extra information on their site.
Fiesta (Same game on gamigo.de)
Not so sure if this game is such a party. It looks like a standard grinding game, at least it has asdw support and tab-targeting. Graphics score high on the *schoolgirl voice* kawaii *cough* -scale and are kinda smooth. Classes are standard, site doesn't elaborate much on anything.
Florensia
Open beta
A cutesy looking Japanese MMO set in the age of sailing. It's like a cute version of Voyage Century, maybe this game is more for your baby sister?. The website looks rather decent for a free MMO, there's no Engrish on it and the art style has a certain charm to it which is enhanced by the lighting.
Fly for Fun
Don't be fooled by the title! Flying is not fun in this game. It's about as much fun as it is in World of Warcaft; which is to say-- kinda neat for a while, and then you're back to grinding. This game is a grind-MMO from Korea. Everything is pretty basic, grind grind grind level grind grind grind. Et cetera. Probably fun if you can play with friends.
FOnline:2238
A MMO version of Fallout 1/2. It's hosted on blogspot...Perhaps the actual game does not suck, but I doubt that. You need several files from a Fallout game to even run this game.
Fordana
Small MMORPG being developed by two people. It's set in a fantasy world and you are a hero, that's pretty much the jest of it.
Free Realms
PA thread
SOE's free MMO providing all sorts of entertainment for the younger gamer. It looks fairly cute, you can play chess, do races, burn down monsters, dress up your toon and tons of other things. All in all, this seems like some sort of 3D alternative to what Gaia and Neopets do on their websites. Just provide tons of silly mini-games but with achievements that don't go away after closing the game.
Fung Wan Online
Western version evaporated from the internet, Malaysian version still has a website, but it does not seem to be kosher. Best to avoid.
Furcadia
...Yup. A MMO for furries. It's almost completely focused on community aspects to boot.
Ghost Online
Sidescrolling 2D fast paced grind MMO from Korea. If you dig Maple Story you probably dig this as well. For everyone else: best to protect your sanity.
GhostX
A cell-shaded MMO beat-em-up set in a futuristic setting. This game sets itself further apart from the mainstream by using nano-bots: weapons that you can personalize to your liking, or something. Hit detection is off and combat manages to get boring by having all enemies fall to the ground in 3-4 hits.
Gladiatus
In-browser RPG that puts you in the codpiece of a gladiator who kills everything that looks creepy.
GodsWar
Cutesy MMO in an ancient Greek setting. Nothing sets it apart from other MMOs.
Golemizer
An in-browser MMO in which you are a mad scientist and create a golem to do your laundry and fighting.
Graal Online
Hideous 2D MMO with a strong focus on the community. No idea why anyone would play it.
Gunz
Open beta
This game has been in development for a long time. The artwork looks amazing and the idea of a FPS mixed with an MMORPG is original and exciting. No idea about the actual gameplay, but a lot of people have said that it was fun for a while.
HellMOO
Penny Arcade Thread
Promoted as a text based MMO Fallout. This MUD says it gives you absolute freedom, meaning you can rape and abuse women to your liking, fuck dead dogs oh and maybe kill some mutants while you're there anyway. This game can best be described as "way fucking old skool, dude!" Check out the PA thread if you feel like raping some dead babies.
Hero Online
Asian fantasy 3D MMORPG with old-fashioned graphics. Plays like diablo, but doesn't reallly have any skills and is very slow. Huge grind-fest.
Hostile Space
(site only accessible on internet explorer
A space MMO with ugly 2D graphics that started in 1997. Combat is "twitch-based" and the focus is on playing in small groups. The game has a lot of kinky alien races and there's a lot of exploring to do for the Doras among us. Even though the game looks pretty horrible it might hide some beauty in its old and wrinkly shell.
Illarion
A 2D old MMORPG that sells itself as the game in which you don't have to fight. Strong focus on roleplaying.
Illutia
Formerly known as Aspereta. It's a 2D cutesy grind MMO in a fantasy setting.
Irth Worlds
Pretty old fantasy MMO at the end of it's life cycle. The game was pretty decent, but the game is mostly dead. Check it out before it breaks down for good.
Jade Dynasty
A standard fair Asian mythology based grind MMO, it has pretty graphics and an interesting story. EXP is easy to get: you get it from medidating or by setting up a script so you can do other things while your toon levels.
Kal online
Game looks generic. Site is full of Engrish and lies about being the first 3D mmo set in Asian mythology. Try at your own risk, I suppose.
Katsuro
A game with no information about gameplay available on the internet. All I can figure out is that it takes place in medieval Japan, that it is in-browser and that it is published by Gameforge. My conclusion is that this is an in-browser poop flinging game.
Kingdom of Loathing
PA thread
Hilarious in-browser MMO. The graphics are amusing, the fact that there is a haiku chat channel makes the game awesome. You only get a limited amount of actions per day and you navigate the world from screen to screen.
Knight online world
MMO with a focus on PvP. No idea about actual gameplay.
Land of Magic
This game has been live since 1994. Players from way back when are now NPCs in the game. Actual gameplay, however, appears to be hidden away on their site. It is clear that a MMO from 1994 is not going to be easy on new players.
Lands of Hope
In-browser MMORPG developed by one guy. It appears to offer a full range of functions usually reserved for bigger titles. Sounds strangely hopeful.
Last Chaos (Aeria version)
Asian fantasy grind MMO with fairly decent graphics. Malaysian version is more up to date than the Aeria version, but Aeria's site usually loads a lot faster. Take your pick, I guess.
LaTale
A game like Maple Story but with more fluid combat, also just as ridiculously cute. Probably still going to be an evergrind.
Legend of Ares
Fantasy MMO with a strong focus on PvP, it looks rather bland and the site offers about zero information besides "hey, it has pvp and you get rewards for clubbing people to death.
Legends of Zork
In-browser MMO that works with limited action points per day. ZombieMambo seems to enjoy it.
Legends of Qin
3D MMO set in Chinese mythology. They say they offer quests beyond the 'kill X' or 'deliver Y to Z' and they give a lot of in-game information on these quests. Their site doesn't really tell you how the game plays. Guess *someone* will have to check this one out.
Luminary: Rise of the Goonzu
Fantasy anime MMO with a heavy focus on economy and politics. According to froggy it is nice. According to Mith it is as exciting as Progress Quest (which is to say: no it is not exciting).
Luna Online
Standard Korean grind MMO, this one has some extra classes to evolve to and you can build a farm with your in-game family. Everything else? Just another cutesy grind MMO.
Lunia
A hybrid between an MMO and a beat-em-up. This is the next step in MMOs: no auto-attack, no automatic anything. You attack by hitting the attack buttons, you dodge by jumping out of the way. The combat in this game is fantastic, there are a lot of items to improve your character with and there's enough content to keep you busy for weeks. I'm not sure if the game is out of beta yet, though.
Mabinogi
Penny Arcade thread
Celshaded graphics, fast paced combat. Graphics are scoring high on "cute" and "kawaii". You can react to what the mob you're fighting does with counterattacks or defences, besides that it plays like a normal MMO. Quests are standard, but there are some dungeons you can run in with a challenging boss at the end of the ride. Unless you're coughing up money you can only create one character. Recently a lot of features went from cash shop to free.
Magic World Online
It's a new game, but already looks dated: Isometric camera, site looks incredibly cheesy and the art direction seems to love glow sticks and Asian mythology. The game seems to offer everything you expect out of a MMORPG, but adds player housing and marriage. All in all it doesn't stand out in any way.
Maple Story
Extremely popular for no particular reason. Only play this if you hate yourself. It's a 2D sidescrolling MMO where you will be grinding monsters for an eternity to gain a level, then you repeat the process. This is not my idea of "fun".
Martial Heroes
Based on martial arts, this appears to be a mundane grind MMO. It appears they have received a shitton of complaints about all sorts of things, so I would advice against playing this game.
Mech Quest
An in-browser 'lunch break mmo'. It's just a whole lot of grinding in ugly flash environments. The game is tailored for young players and has a strong focus on the pay to play aspects.
Metin 2
Asian Fantasy MMO with fast paced combat. And the possibility to fight while mounted. The game is in 3D but looks very dated. Classes are uninspired, text is hard to read, quests are vague and exp gain is slow.
Minions of Mirth
From the old thread: Notes (from Philthy): Basically, an EQ clone. And a decent one, at that. It has a few twists. Instead of controlling one player, you can control up to 6. An entire party. You can then play on the multiplayer server and group up with other players parties and do raids this way. The game also can run in server mode, and you can basically run your own server. You can edit everything within the server, add your own mobs and zones, edit items and quests, stats and models. You can also submit these to the devs to be included on the actual live server as well.
Mix Master
2D MMO with the unique function that you get to mix various components and monsters to create your own awesometastic monster.
Monster and Me
A MMO that takes its influences from neopets and pokémon. Art looks horrible. There should be no reason one would play this game.
Monato Esprit
Cutesy Asian grind MMO. It doesn't seem too bad, although the focus on the cash shop sounds iffy. Looks nice enough for a game that's already been out for a year or two.
Mo Siang Online
A Chinese MMO with very fast combat and very pretty spell effects. The website and game made me very confused, everything seems to move at 2x speed or something. The client is only 450MB so I guess that is nice.
MU Online
Game is tailored for boys, lots of muscled characters and gritty looks. Everything looks horribly bland and uninteresting. No idea about the combat, but it advertises itself as "easy to get in to". Maybe fun for a few hours.
Myth War II
A 2D MMO with hand-painted models. The game only runs in 800x600 so everything looks blurry. Combat is a mix of real-time with turn based, think JRPG. There's also a strong social aspect to this game, players can get in a position of power through politics or can fabricate rumours that might turn out to be true (???). Kasanagi tells you to avoid this outdated POS. This is a slightly updated version of the original, which was closed Feb 13th, 2009.
Neo Steam
This one has a very charming neopunk-ish art style, a lot of classes and races, has wasd-support and feels pretty smooth. It is at it's core a very boring and Korean grind MMO, though, don't be fooled.
NIDA
Fast-paced 'action' MMO. They're proud of their good looks and constant rewards for playing, but I can't figure out what it is you actually do in the game.
NosTale
2D cutesy grind MMO in which you can capture monsters to do your laundry and fighting.
Nowhere Else and Beyond
In-browser MMO with 2D graphics. You move around from screen to screen with the arrow buttons. It doesn't look half bad, but there seems to be little reason to play this game. You can check it out without having to register, which is nice.
Oberin
MAC ONLY MMO! It's been going for 8 years. But seriously guys, it's Mac only.
Ogre Island
Flash-based MMO. Looks fun for 30 minutes or something? At least it doesn't pretend to be something it is not. Does anyone know more about this?
Oz
Community MMO based around cute characters. Appears to cater to teenage girls, one of the games is "spot the pedo"*, others include fishing and making out**
*that was a joke
**this is not a joke.
Aldo on
This discussion has been closed.
Posts
Free MMO Überlist
Blog | Twitter | Free games | Unmaintained backloggery
Added:
* Drift City
* Perfect World
* Exteel
* Pirates of the Caribbean Online
*Freestyle Street Basketball.
I also asked Echo to move some posts around on page 1, because I hit the limit of the OP and require a second post for it. Once JamesDM finishes up some more reviews we're probably moving that part to a website. I think I'll write some about the cutesy MMOs I've been playing over the years. FlyFF and Trickster Online both are very decent. It seems like the developers finally received those English dictionaries I've begged Santa to give them.
Free MMO Überlist
Jelloblimp, eek, I should stop recommending the game to people, then.
Free MMO Überlist
The fighting is good, you can form different combos and whatnot, only really played as a knight so far. Also it only has 3 characters, the healer, the knight, and the mage.
3DS: 2852-6809-9411
Fun game I played for some time.
t froggy: I'll look into it.
Free MMO Überlist
I did learn one thing today: you can better grind on low level enemies that you can 1shot than kill monsters twice your level by kiting. Tearing through armies of cute little penguins gives more money and exp than slowly tearing down giants.
I'll keep playing this game for a while, at least until my new PC arrives, then I'll be busy with playing demos and playing the trial of LOTRO on max details. <3
Free MMO Überlist
"Go up, thou bald head." -2 Kings 2:23
I got a Raccoon to 40, looked at the XP the monsters at all levels give, and said "wait, what?".
Also, Ghost Blue (I think that's the name) is a ghost town (completely empty), so much of the good low-level training is gone. I haven't dropped by in a few weeks, so things may have improved.
Mech/Account/Ranking: Dreadnought, Aeshma, Private First Class (Before wipe)
Rating: 2.5/5
Player Base: Medium. Plenty of games to play in. Minimal chat, occasional person that tries to organize the team and occasional whiner, but not much else.
Grind: High. In order to rank up, which enables you to buy new parts, you will be playing a lot of matches. The parts themselves are also expensive considering how much money you make per game, meaning you were going to have to play a lot to buy things in the first place.
Storyline: Nil. You're in a mech, and you kill some things. Then you do it again.
Graphics: Quite pretty looking. All the models are well done, and the animations smooth.
Customization: Low. Seems to be about buying a set of your head, body, legs, etc. every time you reach a rank that allows you to buy new parts. There are a good number of types of weapons to choose from, but you can only carry two weapons at a time, as well as a second set to switch to. No shoulder mounted weapons or anything like that.
Fun: Medium. Gameplay is fun, but the grind required to get new ranks and new weapons makes games repetitive after awhile. No real customization, which is a major appeal of mech games to me.
It is, however, reasonably fun for awhile.
t MKR: yeah, that's grind MMOs for you. I picked sheep so I can AoE grind later on. Or at least, if I make it that far. Probably not.
t CmdPrompt: I'll throw it on the list. I'm afraid we'll be needing to host these reviews on some other place soon, JamesDM had a site set up, but I'm not sure how much traffic it would get and what else he does with his webspace.
Free MMO Überlist
Free MMO Überlist
Free MMO Überlist
(except when you spend an hour drilling for a quest item)
And that card game is pretty retarded as well. =_=
Free MMO Überlist
The zones are also huge and emptyish. Would it have killed the developers to make the main areas a tad smaller? Or add that sweet land-skimmer thing from the intro video?
Blog | Twitter | Free games | Unmaintained backloggery
ps: join ANI on the Joymus server.
Awesome, I encourage this. If any of you play a game and feel like writing a mini-review feel free to do so.
Steam, PSN, XBL, Xfire and everything else JamesDM
Free MMO Überlist
If a Game On of sorts is organized, then I'd definitely play.
I get the impression that paid accounts aren't useful until you're at a decent level.
Also, the website's claim of tens of thousands of simultaneous users is suspect. If it's true, they don't get many new players. Relic (the starting planet) is almost deserted.
Is this how you react to criticism from people who play betas to just play them? The game is still being tested last time I checked.
XBL
Playing a free MMO should be something fun, if Disney advertises a game as FREE TO PLAY! and then demands cash to get anywhere it is not something I can recommend to anyone.
--
I have the nagging suspicion you're confusing POTC with POTBS...@_@
Free MMO Überlist
XBL
t Darmak: it shows that good artists are a lot cheaper than good game designers.
Free MMO Überlist
So now I have my level 16 shades and level 13 Eagles stuck on a planet where everyone out-levels me by about 40. You might think I could try the caverns in town to level up a bit, but the aliens there wreck all my units in a few shots. Needless to say, that won't do at all. And I'm not starting over.
I'd generally advise starting over in this situation: The "veteran" planet is dominated by people who are not only 40 levels above you, but some of them have had 20 or more "reincarnations" (Paying customers at the level cap can periodically trade their level and units for a larger unit hangar and more stat points - there's people who've done this to the point that at level 1 they're effectively already level 30). On top of that, paying customers have several units, some of which at high levels are immensely powerful.
If you're going to play Shattered Galaxy for free, my advice is to stay on the lowbie planet with its level cap. You see some of the pay units here, but they aren't quite as impressive as they are on the veteran planet, particularly since they aren't backed up by 50-60 extra stat points from reincarnations. Personally, I felt the lowbie planet had more strategic fights than the higher level planet. Units can't take nearly as much beating, so it's very necessary to hunt down artillery units and specters, rather than just moving high level tanks onto the capture point. A single nuke can turn a game in the last few seconds, too, whereas many high level units can shrug off artillery fire or nukes.
That's a bit moot seeing as I can't change to a faction on Relic ("No factions are available at this time." when I check the pledge thing), and I don't intend to start over.
KRU support wasn't too helpful:
"The Support Staff can no longer assist with faction movement. The only way to switch factions is to use the star portal [which I can't do, since no factions are available to switch to]. If you are trying to return to the lower level planet, you can use the /relicmove command. Transitioning to the upper planet can be tough to do. I suggest sticking it out. Even a devastating defeat should give your units close to a full level of exp. Soon enough you will be fully competitive in the upper planet."
I might have considered paying down the road, but if they can't even click a button to let me get my bearings in an environment that I stand a chance in, I don't want to bother with it.
European version
Penny-Arcade thread
Open Beta--will be Free to play
Cell shaded graphics, lots of classes and a system that makes teaming up with other people actually interesting. The Goons of SA also seem to appreciate this, so there must be some redeeming value to it? A note for European players: we can't play with North America at the moment.
Off the record: if it weren't for playing Baldur's Gate II right now and almost having a new PC so I can play demos of new games (I'm cheap and short on time) I would be playing this right now.
Oh also, Secrets of Solstice (sp?) is hitting open beta. If you appreciated RO, you will probably like this as well.
Free MMO Überlist
Technically still in alpha but it's recently had another large dolop of content so it's looking good. Looslely based on the DC game Armada this is Asteroids the MMO. With giant bio-mechanical enemy crabs.
Six races split into two factions. The game is based around several different zones. All zones are semi-instanced, a maximum of 16 players can be in a zone, if you try and join a zone that's full a new instance will start and any other players who join will join that zone.
Delta 3 is a typical PvE zone where you fly around shooting the Aramda and gaining XP, tresure, and influence (effectively money). Influence can be used to purchase ship upgrades that persist across all zones and it can also be used, along with treasure, to buy a better ship.
Haven is a newbie friendly zone, help escort refugee ships while fighting of the Armada and upgrading your ship. Unlike Delta 3Influence and ship upgrades here only exists whilst you are in the zone. Leave and they're gone. Once you complete the mission you get a large dollop of XP, you get none if you leave early.
The Burn is for players over level 10. It's basically tower defence in space. Defend the star base by purchasing temporary upgrades that allow you to deploy turrets. Hunt down the rogue alien Brains otherwise you're in for a world of hurt later on. Influence and XP work like they do in Haven.
The Neutral Zone is anything but. This si the PvP zone with players split by faction, maximum 8v8. Support NPC constructor ships as they fly out and build bases at various asteroids. Build a line of bases across the map to the opposition side and then assault their star base for victory. Influence and XP work like they do in Haven. Even low level players can be useful by helping to mine asteroids or picking up support powers like Steel Messiah, Echo Locator and Sabotage to make you punch way above your weight in certain situations.
Check out the Wiki to find out what powers require what other powers in the various zones.
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As a game it's easy on eye. One thing I forgot to mention is that in Delta 3 you can choose to solo mobs but at low-levels I think that's fairly similar to pulling teeth as a level of fun. Join a group (and there's always a group around who'll want another member) and your fun and influence/Xp gain increase exponentially. All 16 players in an instance formed together in one convoy of hot plasma death? Oh yes.
You need 4-6000 influence to get a tech-level 2 ship. Join a group and you'll easy have that in 4 hours of unstrenuous play.
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