Runes of Magic (PC) Review

Runes of Magic is the latest game to hit the PC MMORPG market, developed and published by Frogster. The PC market has slowly been becoming more and more flooded with different MMO games, ranging from the unstoppable juggernaut that is World of Warcraft to the dying-out-legend that is Everquest. So when a new title comes into the genre, you can’t help but think, will it be worth trying out? You’ll have to read on to find out what I think of the latest MMO; Runes of Magic.

The first thing which everyone will be asking when a new MMO comes out, is there a monthly fee? And the simple answer is, no. Instead, Runes of Magic uses micro transaction’s to keep itself a float, allowing you to buy things called ‘diamonds’ which you use in the online store to buy things from health potions to weapon/armor upgrades etc. A nice thing I like about the micro-transactions in this game is that it’s yet to affect the games balance, but it’s still yet to be determined whether someone who has completely pimped out armor and weapons with diamonds will have an advantage or not against someone who hasn’t.

When launching the game for the first time, you’ll straight away have to download a tonne of updates, but that’s to be expected with any MMO, but once you’re past that gigantic hurdle, you’ll be greeted by the character creation screen – which is rather lacking to say the least. This is something which any MMO should not have to suffer from – period – as it’s a key feature for the genre, being able to make your character look like something that makes him or her unique in there own special way. But in Runes of Magic every 10 characters you see in the virtual world usually look similar, whether it is hair or facial features.

Just like in every other MMORPG which hits the virtual market is classes, and Runes of Magic doesn’t do anything unique here, but then again, there isn’t really much that can be done. The standard classes are; Warrior, Rogue, Mage, Priest, Scout and finally the Knight. And once you’ve hit level 10 in game, you’ll straight away be able to use the games duel class system where you can select another class which will be your secondary. You can mix and match the skills from both classes, meaning you can have the perfect combination of skills/spells/moves for the situation your in, whether it’s the games fantastic PvP or PvE combat.

With things such as classes, also are crafting and gathering skills, which every player can learn. The crafting skills; Armorsmith, Weaponsmith, Carpentry, Alchemist, Cooking and Tailoring are used throughout the game to make things that you crave however there is a catch, you can only level up 3 of the 6 skills to level 2 and 2 of the 3 to the max level (so think wisely!) And the gathering skills are; Herbailsm, Woodcutting and Mining and all of these skills can be leveled up to there max level, and like other games with these skills, can be a great source of income (gold).

Once you’re past the character creation, you’re instantly thrown into the fantasy land of Taboria, and you can’t help but notice how fantastic the game looks for a free-2-play MMO. The game has a rather cartoon-like look to everything, which works perfectly for this game. The game does have incredibly annoying sound though, which after listening to it for the first half hour of the game, I ended up completely muting because of how crappy it sounds – can’t say I’m fond of listening to the games mining skill when it sounds like tin cans being hammered together and if your into audio (like myself) it makes me die a little bit inside every time.

With every MMORPG which is released comes a crap-load of quests, and it’s safe to say that Runes of Magic does not fall short there (600+ quests to date, and a crap-tonne more on the way). Although they do fall short in the whole ‘explaining how and what the fuck you are meant to do for the quest’ area because of poor translation, which surprisingly, is extremely important where quests are nearing-essential in leveling up (easily) and how to get unique quest items such as swords or armor.

So, I guess it’s time for the final verdict on Runes of Magic? For a free MMORPG Runes of Magic is as good as they come, however we’re not reviewing games purely on there price but we do take that into consideration. The best way to describe this game is it’s a World of Warcraft clone, and a damn good one at that. Only because we’re labeling a World of Warcraft clone is because for any MMORPG, that’s a compliment. Why wouldn’t you want your game (especially when it’s free) to a 10 million+ unstoppable juggernaut.

So if your worried about spending money on a subscription for an MMO, Runes of Magic is the game for you, and with the promised content updates heading towards the game soon – means it’s at least worth a shot. One of the best things about Runes of Magic is that we couldn’t cover every bit in the review that we’d like too, otherwise we’d be going onto 3-4 pages worth of text, so if you want to check out one of the best free MMORPG’s to date, get signed up and get exploring.

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