Runes of Magic, a massively multiplayer online game from Taiwanese developer Runewaker Entertainment, has raised the bar for free-to-play MMOs; at least, that's what the game's press release states. Growing up, my father always said, "If it's free, it's probably for a good reason." However, while Runes of Magic isn't without its flaws, it proves that sometimes the good things in life are free.
While Runes of Magic allows the obsessive consumer in all of us to use real-money transaction to purchase virtual gear, the game never forces you to buy anything. Since you can grab a wide variety of loot through pure grinding, the game is completely enjoyable if you don't want to spend any money. In addition, most of the gear sold through microtransactions merely provides cosmetic enhancements.
No MMO is complete without a pony.
Before you begin your epic adventure; you must first choose a class. The six available classes include the Knight, Mage, Priest, Rogue, Scout, and Warrior. Because I like bludgeoning people to death with melee weapons, the Warrior class and his tanking skills suited me perfectly. Those that like casting offensive magic would do well picking the Mage. Those that prefer using defensive magic and healing spells will probably fancy the Priest. Players that favor the speediest and most accurate fighters will find a lot to like with the Rogue class. Those that enjoy shooting down their opponents from a distance with bows and arrows should pick the Scout class. Finally, the Knight class is great if you want access to exclusive equipment and heavy armor.
What Runes of Magic offers is a huge variety of quests. Sometimes you will encounter a short mission where a non-playable character will simply ask you to deliver a message to a person on the other side of town or sometimes NPCs will ask you to take down multiple monsters in a distant cave. This variance in quest length breaks up the monotony of doing the same things over and over again. However, players looking for innovative or meaningful story-driven quests all of the time might want to look elsewhere as the quests in Runes of Magic aren't always intricate and are, for the most part, pretty light-hearted. One NPC had me killing 10 beetles so that I could use their eyes to make delicious soup; "a delicacy," he called it.
The world in Runes of Magic, Taborea, isn't terribly original and, for the most part, relies on conventional high-fantasy concepts to create a cohesive setting. Throughout the vast landscapes, you've got forests, mines, castles, windmills, small rural villages, and more. One aspect of Taborea I liked is that each area looks quite distinct. The terrain might be filled with rolling hills, small valleys, rivers, snow-covered mountains, and more. Each layout is different, and so the regions do stick out from one another. The deeper you go in Taborea, the more dangerous monsters you will encounter. Discovering new baddies for the first time in an unknown environment adds to the effect that you're entering a new part of the world.
You need to get closer to use a sword.
The combat in Runes of Magic is pretty standard. You can initiate your standard melee attacks via a double click on the enemy. In addition, you can set your classes' specialized skills to hotkeys. Picking the Warrior, I was able to use special slash attacks, steroid-like buffs, and more. These moves come with differing levels of cool down times. I enjoyed lining these moves up in an effective order so that my chains would do the most damage in the least amount of time possible. As you level up, you will earn new skills that you can add to your arsenal. You can level up through pure grinding, but I found that the most efficient way to gain experience is by doing quests. Luckily, there are tons of quests out there, including daily quests which allow you to tackle quests you've already completed.
While the challenge level in Runes of Magic is pretty balanced, there are some monsters that are impossible to take down by your lonesome. Some bosses will require a small army of brave soldiers to overcome. While I had plenty of fun playing by myself, I found hooking up with others wasn't all that difficult. With the simple click of the right mouse button, you can ask others to join your party or become your friends. From my experience playing Runes of Magic, most people are generally doing their own things, so if you want to go around questing with other people, you should probably join a guild.
When you fight in a party, the experience gained is shared. This means that a low level noob can team up with a higher level player and quickly gain levels as the more experienced one does all of the handy work. You can accept quests together or one player can simply help out the other player complete his personal quest. To do this effectively, players will need to communicate with each other. They can do that easily through the game's built-in party chat system. In addition, locating your ally is also easy as the game's mini-map shows you their whereabouts. When fighting together as a party, you can increase the team's synergy by casting defensive spells on them or trade items with them to keep their equipment from going dull.
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