Doctor Jaeger
01-23-2011, 04:34 AM
Before I begin.
Do not ask for my RuneScape name, my Mabinogi name, my Combat Arms name, or my Trickster Online name.
The story thus far:
Roughly ten years ago while I was wiping the asses of old people to pay my way through college, I came across my first MMORPG, RuneScape. I found it lackluster, and was also mad at the way they divided free to play content with pay to play content, so I ditched it.
Several years later, I found out that RuneScape had received a major overhaul and had an entirely new engine. I gave it one more chance to impress me. Again, I was underwhelmed.
Then only two years ago I discovered Nexon. They provided MMO games that were free to play. And while Mabinogi did require premium membership to get to certain points, I found out that they only did that with new storylines and that the older ones would become free to play. Mabinogi was something I liked. Forgiving my characters strange metabolism and the fact that I was never attracted to pigtails, the system applied a level of technique wherein people who don’t have the time to constantly grind there ways to the best level can still survive if they knew how to mix up their combat style. I grew devoted enough to buy my own pet in the game, and later joined Combat Arms, a free-to-play multiplayer shooter.
And then I left Combat Arms because I couldn’t go a single stage without encountering at least one hacker.
Mabinogi and I sadly broke up when a strange server glitch in Nexon caused me to lose my precious gray wolf and reverted all of my stats back to a basic level. And soon after, the tragic death of my PC followed. I vowed to never love another MMORPG again.
Then a few months ago, a friend told me that he needed someone like me to join his clan in RuneScape. A lot had changed since my long hiatus.
…at least according to him. The perk is that he said he would pay for a few months of membership for me at RuneScape.
…why not?
RuneScape
Developer: Jagex
System: PC
Title Significance: RuneScape refers to the in-game runes which are used in the magic skill.
Plot: RuneScape has been up for ten years now, I should have predicted that they would begin adding multi-part quests and an overarching history of the world.
The world of Gleinor, now called RuneScape, was created by an ancient being called Guthix. After creating a beautiful paradise, it went into hibernation for several centuries. During that time, more Gods came to the world, more noticeably Saradomin and Zaros. Zaros had control over a northern paradise and had command of many fearsome creatures. Many gods, Saradomin especially, were paranoid of him, but his power kept the lands at an unsteady peace.
Then one day, Zaros was betrayed by his general Zamorak. Through a series of events, Zamorak achieved godhood and banished Zaros from the land. This sparked a cataclysmic war that later lead to the awakening of Guthix. Guthix was able to put an end to the fighting by stating that it would destroy the world and all the gods with it if they ever directly acted upon the world. After the wars ended, Guthix went back into hibernation.
Then some weird tutorial event happens…
Anyway, the overarching “God Wars” history is something I actually had to look up. Aside from some quests with a goblin race, I never heard much about these gods.
The world of RuneScape now is for the most part free of the influence of the gods. A few lesser gods were allowed to remain in the world, and you can also get aid from the gods through the prayer skill.
And now there is one thing I have to praise. Jagex actually makes it so that the stereotypical “God of Order” actually comes off as a villain. Though corrupt and inflexible justice isn’t a new theme, it is a lot more sophisticated than what I expected from them. A lot of the game survives on humor due to a refusal to add gore, graphics that would have embarrassed Ion Storm in the late 90s, and this weird sense I get that Jagex is woefully understaffed. In the years that passed since the introduction of the new RuneScape engine and now, there were only a couple of new skills, and almost every single one was only available to members.
Gameplay: Certain efforts have been given to balance out the skill system a little more. A farming system makes up for how hard some herbs are to find in combat (sort of), a fletching system gives you extra motive to boost the woodcutting ability…
…but not all is perfect. The newest perk of RuneScape, Dungeoneering, has this rather stupid deal where you must devote hours to the system and boost your level to around 50 before you can get any awards that can function outside of the dungeon. The prayer system takes such an insanely long time to level up, along with farming and fishing, and the smithing ability and crafting abilities need to be in the upper 50s before you can make anything of value. Not enough equipment exists to balance the magic system, and it there are a lot of questions that need to be asked of whoever designed some aspects of the cooking system.
Anyway, MMORPGs are an acquired taste all around. My love of Mabinogi was due to a system that allowed you to employ a certain amount of talent, the inventory system (Yes I actually like the grid based inventory system) and the fact that even at low levels skills like potion making and crafting could get you enough money to repair your tools and upgrade all around. RuneScape has no such quirks. The grinding for levels is unbalanced, and the awards aren’t always worth it.
…
Still… Jagex has been improving. There is special equipment available to medium level players that can let them hold their own against high-level enemies, some potent foods are easy to make, and the health system has been overhauled. Now instead of having your HP be directly tied to your constitution level and the maximum amount of damage you can do being roughly 10-20, it is now your level multiplied by 10. There are quite a few multi-part quests, and I never encountered a grind quest where I had to kill hundreds of monsters to find a specific rare item they dropped one out of every 50 times.
But… it took ten years for me to give basic praise. Maybe it will receive the Mabinogi grade in another 10 years. Who knows? In that time World War 3 might have broken out and I won’t have an internet connection because I’ll be busy dodging the draft. Maybe the world will end. Maybe I’ll become a chef and leave the field of medicine altogether so I can wander the world with my girlfriend.
…and maybe the United States government will do something right. Might as well get that out there while I’m dreaming.
Music/Sound/Voice: I’d say “Absolutely Dreadful” but then I’d have to punch myself. Instead, I’ll say “Hire new talent that has played a game that was released after 1996.”
Graphics: Remember when I said the graphics would have embarrassed Ion Storm?
It doesn’t just end at looking bad. There is an absolutely atrocious quality of animation, especially noticed during certain quests when you transform.
Programming: Jagex gives real efforts to ensure that the game has no fatal glitches, and to that extent it does create a few problems with the sheer inflexibility of some environmental interactions, but otherwise I never actually found a glitch that caused significant problems. There is an issue with a delay between you entering a command and your sprite responding to it, but it never hampered me that much.
Difficulty: Like I said before, there isn’t any real technique to employ here. Everything is done based on a purely statistical system that is little more than “Make the right combat choice to not die.” If you know to not attack a monster that is 30 levels stronger than you with your bare hands, you are officially the best !@#$ing strategist on RuneScape.
Overall: I admit that the game has gotten better over the years and is now half decent, but most of the mark ups were exclusive to members. Is it worth $7 a month?
No. Free MMORPGs or ones that charge for a lifetime membership once as opposed to monthly are always preferable. There are infinitely better time sinks online, and with what I’ve heard about VALVe’s Steam engine, PC and internet gaming may be making a comeback soon. RuneScape surviving that competition…
…well it doesn’t have my support.
My Rating: 2/5: Would appeal if the difference between members and free players wasn’t so wide. If you aren’t a fan of MMORPGs to begin with, don’t touch it.
Do not ask for my RuneScape name, my Mabinogi name, my Combat Arms name, or my Trickster Online name.
The story thus far:
Roughly ten years ago while I was wiping the asses of old people to pay my way through college, I came across my first MMORPG, RuneScape. I found it lackluster, and was also mad at the way they divided free to play content with pay to play content, so I ditched it.
Several years later, I found out that RuneScape had received a major overhaul and had an entirely new engine. I gave it one more chance to impress me. Again, I was underwhelmed.
Then only two years ago I discovered Nexon. They provided MMO games that were free to play. And while Mabinogi did require premium membership to get to certain points, I found out that they only did that with new storylines and that the older ones would become free to play. Mabinogi was something I liked. Forgiving my characters strange metabolism and the fact that I was never attracted to pigtails, the system applied a level of technique wherein people who don’t have the time to constantly grind there ways to the best level can still survive if they knew how to mix up their combat style. I grew devoted enough to buy my own pet in the game, and later joined Combat Arms, a free-to-play multiplayer shooter.
And then I left Combat Arms because I couldn’t go a single stage without encountering at least one hacker.
Mabinogi and I sadly broke up when a strange server glitch in Nexon caused me to lose my precious gray wolf and reverted all of my stats back to a basic level. And soon after, the tragic death of my PC followed. I vowed to never love another MMORPG again.
Then a few months ago, a friend told me that he needed someone like me to join his clan in RuneScape. A lot had changed since my long hiatus.
…at least according to him. The perk is that he said he would pay for a few months of membership for me at RuneScape.
…why not?
RuneScape
Developer: Jagex
System: PC
Title Significance: RuneScape refers to the in-game runes which are used in the magic skill.
Plot: RuneScape has been up for ten years now, I should have predicted that they would begin adding multi-part quests and an overarching history of the world.
The world of Gleinor, now called RuneScape, was created by an ancient being called Guthix. After creating a beautiful paradise, it went into hibernation for several centuries. During that time, more Gods came to the world, more noticeably Saradomin and Zaros. Zaros had control over a northern paradise and had command of many fearsome creatures. Many gods, Saradomin especially, were paranoid of him, but his power kept the lands at an unsteady peace.
Then one day, Zaros was betrayed by his general Zamorak. Through a series of events, Zamorak achieved godhood and banished Zaros from the land. This sparked a cataclysmic war that later lead to the awakening of Guthix. Guthix was able to put an end to the fighting by stating that it would destroy the world and all the gods with it if they ever directly acted upon the world. After the wars ended, Guthix went back into hibernation.
Then some weird tutorial event happens…
Anyway, the overarching “God Wars” history is something I actually had to look up. Aside from some quests with a goblin race, I never heard much about these gods.
The world of RuneScape now is for the most part free of the influence of the gods. A few lesser gods were allowed to remain in the world, and you can also get aid from the gods through the prayer skill.
And now there is one thing I have to praise. Jagex actually makes it so that the stereotypical “God of Order” actually comes off as a villain. Though corrupt and inflexible justice isn’t a new theme, it is a lot more sophisticated than what I expected from them. A lot of the game survives on humor due to a refusal to add gore, graphics that would have embarrassed Ion Storm in the late 90s, and this weird sense I get that Jagex is woefully understaffed. In the years that passed since the introduction of the new RuneScape engine and now, there were only a couple of new skills, and almost every single one was only available to members.
Gameplay: Certain efforts have been given to balance out the skill system a little more. A farming system makes up for how hard some herbs are to find in combat (sort of), a fletching system gives you extra motive to boost the woodcutting ability…
…but not all is perfect. The newest perk of RuneScape, Dungeoneering, has this rather stupid deal where you must devote hours to the system and boost your level to around 50 before you can get any awards that can function outside of the dungeon. The prayer system takes such an insanely long time to level up, along with farming and fishing, and the smithing ability and crafting abilities need to be in the upper 50s before you can make anything of value. Not enough equipment exists to balance the magic system, and it there are a lot of questions that need to be asked of whoever designed some aspects of the cooking system.
Anyway, MMORPGs are an acquired taste all around. My love of Mabinogi was due to a system that allowed you to employ a certain amount of talent, the inventory system (Yes I actually like the grid based inventory system) and the fact that even at low levels skills like potion making and crafting could get you enough money to repair your tools and upgrade all around. RuneScape has no such quirks. The grinding for levels is unbalanced, and the awards aren’t always worth it.
…
Still… Jagex has been improving. There is special equipment available to medium level players that can let them hold their own against high-level enemies, some potent foods are easy to make, and the health system has been overhauled. Now instead of having your HP be directly tied to your constitution level and the maximum amount of damage you can do being roughly 10-20, it is now your level multiplied by 10. There are quite a few multi-part quests, and I never encountered a grind quest where I had to kill hundreds of monsters to find a specific rare item they dropped one out of every 50 times.
But… it took ten years for me to give basic praise. Maybe it will receive the Mabinogi grade in another 10 years. Who knows? In that time World War 3 might have broken out and I won’t have an internet connection because I’ll be busy dodging the draft. Maybe the world will end. Maybe I’ll become a chef and leave the field of medicine altogether so I can wander the world with my girlfriend.
…and maybe the United States government will do something right. Might as well get that out there while I’m dreaming.
Music/Sound/Voice: I’d say “Absolutely Dreadful” but then I’d have to punch myself. Instead, I’ll say “Hire new talent that has played a game that was released after 1996.”
Graphics: Remember when I said the graphics would have embarrassed Ion Storm?
It doesn’t just end at looking bad. There is an absolutely atrocious quality of animation, especially noticed during certain quests when you transform.
Programming: Jagex gives real efforts to ensure that the game has no fatal glitches, and to that extent it does create a few problems with the sheer inflexibility of some environmental interactions, but otherwise I never actually found a glitch that caused significant problems. There is an issue with a delay between you entering a command and your sprite responding to it, but it never hampered me that much.
Difficulty: Like I said before, there isn’t any real technique to employ here. Everything is done based on a purely statistical system that is little more than “Make the right combat choice to not die.” If you know to not attack a monster that is 30 levels stronger than you with your bare hands, you are officially the best !@#$ing strategist on RuneScape.
Overall: I admit that the game has gotten better over the years and is now half decent, but most of the mark ups were exclusive to members. Is it worth $7 a month?
No. Free MMORPGs or ones that charge for a lifetime membership once as opposed to monthly are always preferable. There are infinitely better time sinks online, and with what I’ve heard about VALVe’s Steam engine, PC and internet gaming may be making a comeback soon. RuneScape surviving that competition…
…well it doesn’t have my support.
My Rating: 2/5: Would appeal if the difference between members and free players wasn’t so wide. If you aren’t a fan of MMORPGs to begin with, don’t touch it.