Runescape is one of the largest MMORPGs out there with millions of online players. Unlike others, such as World of Warcraft or Starcraft, Runescape is a (mostly) free-to-play game with no downloads and pretty sub-par graphics.
How does such a simple game garner such incredible popularity?
Runescape is an incredibly expansive game. A multitude of tutorials eases players into the basics of the game, but the more you play the more complex the game gets.
Newbies start using the basics of attack, magic, cooking, fishing, banking, and archery.
Attack is expanded into strength and defence as the player starts comparing armors and weapons with different potions and amulets to get the best combat.
Magic is expanded with different enchanting and teleport spells, with runecrafting to make getting runes easier.
Cooking expands with fishing and helps the player adapt into other "crafting-style" abilities like crafting, mining, and smithing to make weapons, potions, and amulets.
Banking becomes more complex with Runescape's own intricate economy, trade and the Grand Exchange becoming important stops for bartering.
Archery is still kinda useless.
The more you use one skill, the more you can do with it. Each levels up to about 100 and allows the player new options as they use it. Leveling up some, such as runecrafting and cooking, is entirely optional but benefits the player greatly.
Questers like me will find a short list of quests for the free-to-play world, but each is completely original and intricate. While one has you baking cakes or sliding across icy lakes in a certain order, another will find you mixing potions for witches or conversing with ghosts.
The world is large and colorful. Filled with interesting NPC and strange monsters, the creators are constantly updating and making it better.
The social portion is not to be forgotten either. The millions of players makes it nearly impossible to find an area devoid of life. While most people are immature or frustrating to talk to, there's always a great opportunity to make friends.
Membership is a couple dollars a month and opens up a section of the world many times larger than the free portion, an insane amount of quests, and many new abilities.
There's a few problems, of course. The graphics aren't very good, and the controls is different than most current styles so it can take some getting used to. There isn't much introduction for some of the abilities, and figuring out how they work can require an online guide or some random guessing (I'm looking at you, Runecrafting and Herblore).
Many of the other players are downright aggravating. They can be childish and crude. The free-to-play world isn't very big and questers will probably be done in a month.
Still, it's quite fun to play, especially with friends. It's diverse enough that everyone will find something they enjoy, and the creator's never-ending stream of new content ensures you'll never be completed with the game.
Rating:
Plot/Characters- N/A
Gameplay- 8/10
Playability- 9/10
Aesthetics- 2/10
Fun Level- 9/10
Style- 6/10
Total- 7/10, Very good.
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Monday, August 9, 2010
Wizard101
If you haven't seen advertisements for Wizard 101 then you probably live under a rock. A rock in the middle of Death Valley. A rock that doesn't even leave you room to move.
Look, what I'm trying to say is that this game is advertised a lot, alright?
So you might be wondering, Wow, I see this game a lot. Is it any good? Well, that's a hard question to answer.
The game is obviously targeted at younger kids with colorful worlds and anime-esque characters. Still, the combat is more strategy-based than you see in most MMORPGs nowadays and being a bit older improves the quality of your gameplay.
Each character is given a deck of cards and a "class" that the cards fall into. Each class had positives and negatives (Storm does a lot of damage but has a low hit chance, Death removes a chunk of the enemy's health and gives half of it to the player, etc) and when a card is successfully played, it summons a monster that attacks the enemy or heals the player. It's like a big Yu-Gi-Oh game.
All battles can have up to four players fighting four monsters and this gives a lot of room for teamwork and putting thought into card choices that would go over the head of smaller children.
All in all, it's a game that tries to fit too big an audience and ends up falling short for everyone. Little kids will enjoy the graphics and social interactions, but the finer details of the combat can be too complex for them. Older audiences will find fun in the exploration and combat, but the characters and quests are almost an insult to their intelligence.
Though fun, the combat becomes boring and there isn't much play-time in the free area before you have to pay to reach other areas. I find it more of a disappointment than anything else. Still, it's a good game to distract small children you're supposed to be babysitting.
Rating:
Plot/Characters- 2/10
Gameplay- 8/10
Playability- 4/10
Aesthetics- 3/10
Fun Level- 5/10
Style- 4/10
Total- 4/10, Okay.
Would recommend if you like: Toontown, Yu-Gi-Oh.
Look, what I'm trying to say is that this game is advertised a lot, alright?
So you might be wondering, Wow, I see this game a lot. Is it any good? Well, that's a hard question to answer.
The game is obviously targeted at younger kids with colorful worlds and anime-esque characters. Still, the combat is more strategy-based than you see in most MMORPGs nowadays and being a bit older improves the quality of your gameplay.
Each character is given a deck of cards and a "class" that the cards fall into. Each class had positives and negatives (Storm does a lot of damage but has a low hit chance, Death removes a chunk of the enemy's health and gives half of it to the player, etc) and when a card is successfully played, it summons a monster that attacks the enemy or heals the player. It's like a big Yu-Gi-Oh game.
All battles can have up to four players fighting four monsters and this gives a lot of room for teamwork and putting thought into card choices that would go over the head of smaller children.
All in all, it's a game that tries to fit too big an audience and ends up falling short for everyone. Little kids will enjoy the graphics and social interactions, but the finer details of the combat can be too complex for them. Older audiences will find fun in the exploration and combat, but the characters and quests are almost an insult to their intelligence.
Though fun, the combat becomes boring and there isn't much play-time in the free area before you have to pay to reach other areas. I find it more of a disappointment than anything else. Still, it's a good game to distract small children you're supposed to be babysitting.
Rating:
Plot/Characters- 2/10
Gameplay- 8/10
Playability- 4/10
Aesthetics- 3/10
Fun Level- 5/10
Style- 4/10
Total- 4/10, Okay.
Would recommend if you like: Toontown, Yu-Gi-Oh.
Thursday, July 15, 2010
The Path
WARNING: THIS GAME IS EXTREMELY CREEPY AND CONTAINS IMPLIED MATERIAL THAT MAY NOT BE SUITABLE FOR MINORS.
The Path is a very... strange game.
It's not really a game, I suppose. There's no puzzles to complete, no monsters to fight, no missions or companions or inventories. The Path is more of an interactive fable.
I downloaded the prologue from Steam, but it can also be downloaded from their website.
The Path follows six different girls as they journey to their grandmother's house and (as you could probably guess) it's an indie version of Little Red Riding Hood. Each girl is a different variation of Red (Goth Red, Shy Red, Little Red, etc) and the mission is simple: walk down the path to Grandmother's house at the end. Don't go into the woods.
Easy. Walking straight forward, grandmother's house isn't more than a minute's walk. As you get closer, the forest glows eerie colors and shadows move across the screen. Still, you carry on and reach Grandmother. But what's this? "Wolf encountered: No"? "FAILURE"? But you followed the rules!
The only hint it gives you is, "You know what you will do."
Oddly enough, the only way to win is to break the rules and venture into the forest. Scattered across the woods are items that draws a different response from each character (a wheelchair, a fort, etc), building their diverse characters.
Each character has a "wolf site" where, upon your character reaching that place, she encounters her own personal wolf and "dies". To win, your character has to die.
After your characters "death" they make their way to grandma's house again, where the items and places you experienced in the forest can unlock rooms and turn others nightmarish creepy. Each character's trip through the fully unlocked house is different and relates to their own personal "story."
Each person who plays interprets the events and stories differently. Is it exactly how it looks? Is it symbolic for death? Is it symbolic for maturity? Who knows.
Rating:
Plot/Characters- 10/10
Gameplay- 7/10
Playability- 4/10 (really, really EASY)
Aesthetics- 7/10
Fun Level- 4/10
Style- 9/10
Total- 7/10, Very good.
Would recommend if you like: Silent Hill, horror movies, psychological horror and exploration.
NOTES:
-The creators, Tale of Tales, has only made one other game. The Graveyard is an extremely short game where your elderly character walks into a graveyard, sits on a bench, and listens to a song. Seriously. That's it.
-Tale of Tales created a livejournal for each of the six girls. They actually post, in character, and have the livejournal accounts for the other girls comment and hold conversations in character. (Hint: Look at the usernames kidred, sternred, gothred, sexyred, tomboyred, etc.)
-Once you venture into the forest, the only way to get back on the path is to have the mysterious Girl in White lead you back (whom you play as in the free demo).
-In the demo, the items all the girls can interact with (baby carriage, wheelchair, etc) are gone, but the wolf sites are still there. The sites, however, are missing certain items and shooting giant clouds of smoke.
The Path is a very... strange game.
It's not really a game, I suppose. There's no puzzles to complete, no monsters to fight, no missions or companions or inventories. The Path is more of an interactive fable.
I downloaded the prologue from Steam, but it can also be downloaded from their website.
The Path follows six different girls as they journey to their grandmother's house and (as you could probably guess) it's an indie version of Little Red Riding Hood. Each girl is a different variation of Red (Goth Red, Shy Red, Little Red, etc) and the mission is simple: walk down the path to Grandmother's house at the end. Don't go into the woods.
Easy. Walking straight forward, grandmother's house isn't more than a minute's walk. As you get closer, the forest glows eerie colors and shadows move across the screen. Still, you carry on and reach Grandmother. But what's this? "Wolf encountered: No"? "FAILURE"? But you followed the rules!
The only hint it gives you is, "You know what you will do."
Oddly enough, the only way to win is to break the rules and venture into the forest. Scattered across the woods are items that draws a different response from each character (a wheelchair, a fort, etc), building their diverse characters.
Each character has a "wolf site" where, upon your character reaching that place, she encounters her own personal wolf and "dies". To win, your character has to die.
After your characters "death" they make their way to grandma's house again, where the items and places you experienced in the forest can unlock rooms and turn others nightmarish creepy. Each character's trip through the fully unlocked house is different and relates to their own personal "story."
Each person who plays interprets the events and stories differently. Is it exactly how it looks? Is it symbolic for death? Is it symbolic for maturity? Who knows.
Rating:
Plot/Characters- 10/10
Gameplay- 7/10
Playability- 4/10 (really, really EASY)
Aesthetics- 7/10
Fun Level- 4/10
Style- 9/10
Total- 7/10, Very good.
Would recommend if you like: Silent Hill, horror movies, psychological horror and exploration.
NOTES:
-The creators, Tale of Tales, has only made one other game. The Graveyard is an extremely short game where your elderly character walks into a graveyard, sits on a bench, and listens to a song. Seriously. That's it.
-Tale of Tales created a livejournal for each of the six girls. They actually post, in character, and have the livejournal accounts for the other girls comment and hold conversations in character. (Hint: Look at the usernames kidred, sternred, gothred, sexyred, tomboyred, etc.)
-Once you venture into the forest, the only way to get back on the path is to have the mysterious Girl in White lead you back (whom you play as in the free demo).
-In the demo, the items all the girls can interact with (baby carriage, wheelchair, etc) are gone, but the wolf sites are still there. The sites, however, are missing certain items and shooting giant clouds of smoke.
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
What will be here when I stop being lazy:
So I decided to ditch the old blog where I said nothing of importance and do a blog of useful stuff.
Since I play almost every free (or semi-free) game I come accross, I'll review them here so people can tell which to bother with and which to just avoid.
Everything from World of Warcraft to Toontown to Portal to The Path I hope to cover. If you like a review, leave a comment. If you have a game that's free (or atleast has a free trial) and you want me to review it, leave a comment.
Peace out losers,
Hal-E
Since I play almost every free (or semi-free) game I come accross, I'll review them here so people can tell which to bother with and which to just avoid.
Everything from World of Warcraft to Toontown to Portal to The Path I hope to cover. If you like a review, leave a comment. If you have a game that's free (or atleast has a free trial) and you want me to review it, leave a comment.
Peace out losers,
Hal-E
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