Trying some Free to Play

Aside from my various adventures in WoW, I also tried a few of the many Free to Play MMORPGs out there. Here are my impressions.

Runes of Magic: I guess, if someone would want to play WoW without playing, I’d tell that person to play Runes of Magic. This is an RPG that plays a LOT like Blizzard's hit. Graphically, it is about on the same level; there are some nice effects and models, but the game suffer from a general lack of polish. While the character models from Warcraft are outdated, they have much more polish. Playing Rune of Magic, it is plainly obvious you are playing some free game. Not a terrible game, but if you play any subscription-based RPG, you probably don’t need to even bother with it. 3/5

Mabinogi: I heard a lot of good things about this game, and I would like to like it, but even if the fighting mechanics are interesting and the many side activities appealing, the interface is clunky and there is a serious lack of customization in it – or if there is, I have not managed to find a way to create a properly functioning interface. Some example: quests appear in your field of view, but for some reasons, I sometimes had trouble seeing it, as if somehow the pointers had disappeared… only to reappear later. I will probably retry the game one day, simply because of its charming appeal and its original concept, and maybe you won’t mind the interface as much as I. Since it’s free, you might as well try it.3.5/5

DDO: Dungeons and Dragons Online is a good game, the best of the free games I tried. It has good graphics, a nice interface and a very interesting skill system, compared to other MMORPGs. I don’t play it as much as I should, simply because I’m really into WoW and console games right now, but this is definitely a game that’ll stay on my computer. 4/5

Dofus: Note that I am not sure if there exists an English version of Dofus (I play it in French). The game is flash-based, meaning it has charming but very simple graphics. It has original classes, and stay away from the traditional tank-healer-DPS template so many games embrace. The game is also, interestingly, turn-based. However, it is not entirely free. Your time in Dofus will be limited unless you want to pay. Unless you really dig the French-Manga style and find some friends with whom to explore dungeons, you’ll be stuck in the beginners area, and the game does not, in my opinion, warrant a subscription. The graphical engine is too simple, and it suffers from a problem common to most Free games: spam-bots. Although, given the limited time I had with Dofus, the problem might have been punctual. 3/5 (it’d be more if the free to play zone would be bigger; as it stands, it is a glorified demo…)