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Thursday, November 29, 2012

Realm of the Mad God


Realm of the Mad God
Price (at time of posting): Free
Style: Action, RPG, MMO
Developer: Wild Shadow Studios
Publisher: Kabam
Released: 20th Jun 2011

Description
WTF did I just shoot?
Realm of the Mad God (RMG) is an action/arcade style massively multiplayer role playing game (MMORPG) produced with a groundbreaking multithreaded loadbalanced 4D graphics engine. Just kidding, it’s a top down 2D Flash style game. It’s not like you can complain. When exactly did you get rid of your NES?

RMG, like most indie games, has couple different features than your typical MMO, first being graphically simple. And the other? Shooting everything, from all directions, all the time! This game will test your ability to track several objects at once and process information. This leads to brain fatigue, which complements the permadeath that users experience if they, well... die. Rounds are short and action packed, which is great for a game that is free to play and can lead to some fun times in-between loading sessions of Battlefield 3 on a DSL connection.

Gameplay


The game (available on Steam) is of the Free to Play model with users spending their money on characters or or upgrades or not and just play the game. The game encourages you to play coop due to the way the developers distribute experience, equally to all players engaged, which of course is a great community growth instrument.

Starting from the Nexus, a central safe area, a user can enter a realm (again, hopefully with a friend or 5) and start shooting away. As mentioned earlier, this is a projectile heavy shooter game which is a stark contrast to classic RPG genre but definitely fits within the arcade/action style of this game. Aim well, pace yourself and shoot anything that moves. The mechanics are pretty straight forward as is the 14 classes which, as expected, vary the weapons/speed/defense characteristics of your player. Just don't expect to experience more than a handful of classes without devoting major energy into advancing.

Money is indeed optional here, only cutting down on some time required, which honestly isn't required here in great amounts when most gaming sessions last less than an hour. Overall, your impression of this game will depend on your aversion to pixelated graphics, how many friends you have, and the general feel of the game which is actually a great foundation to an independently developed game.


Review
Meehandlebars  
Rating: 2




This game... has potential. That's a nice way of saying I don't like this game. To me, it is not worth the 38.4 MB that it takes up on my 750 GB hard drive. The first five minutes were entertaining, learning the mechanics of the game: Where do I go? What do I shoot at? When can I change to a different class? Why is this the same thing over and over? When can I change to a different class? When will I see something new? When can I change to a different class? Why can’t I name my character myself? When can I change to a different class? YAY, I unlocked a new class! This new class sucks! Why do I have to play as this class so I can advance to the next class? Is BF3 done loading yet?

The permadeath thing surprises you the first time, too. Level up your character and collect better gear, die, and cuss at your monitor for not warning you that risk is not rewarded in this game.

 OK, the lag! THE LAAAAAAGGGGGGG! I was running into black squares of unrendered environment as enemies would stop and submarine to the other side of the screen. Also, don't be surprised if it takes a full second/ second and a half to stop moving, on account of the effing lag.

Play this game if:
You have low self-esteem or if you don’t deserve legitimate games. 
Don't play this game if:

You expect content, development, graphics, plot or quality.
Unsalted38  
Rating: 5

RMG is like a perfect storm of my most dreaded parts of games (yes it’s going to be one of those reviews): it’s a mindless shooter; it’s an RPG; it has permadeath; it’s an upsell machine; and it’s got a truly buggy interface.

If you are saying to yourself “Come on ‘Salted, its free and action packed. How can you complain about that?” Because I can, that’s why!

Shooters in my opinion require little to no thought, no strategy, just raw processing speed. It makes for interesting moments but is ultimately unfulfilling. RPGs are the Toyota Camrys of the gaming world. It’s like all game developers are reading the same fantasy playbook. Permadeath is a concept I can come to like, since all racing games punish you heavily for making mistakes, but when you spend your time leveling up and leveling up only to slip in concentration for a moment and start over, feels hollow. This is of course is 100% subjective to the game at hand as you can see from my general like of FTL's permadeath mechanic. In between all of this I’m constantly being upsold using ads that appear to be constructed by a recent marketing major from India. PRO TIP: To developers, don’t design your ads to distract from the game. Games are like movies to most folks and they don’t mind you holding a Pepsi but please don’t hold it label out in front of the camera.

Saving the best of the worst…by far…is the interface (disclaimer: I only tried the Steam version).

The lag is, hard to describe, and no it doesn't feel like the lag we are used to from DSL days. It’s an interface lag, as if your mouse commands are processed the same way as a steering wheel on mid 90’s Dodge dually (a 2 axle pickup truck for those of that aren't from a red state). To make the game worse, simply full screen. That’s right, the game gets worse when full screened. Talk about disposable gaming. The interface lag alone is enough to discourage you from playing, but if not let’s look at some of my gameplay notes:

  • I don’t want to be a wizard, how is this free exactly?
  • Tutorial turns into Frogger
  • Why…am I shooting cum?
  • Just isn’t designed to be full screened
  • Basic functions like pressing Esc to view a menu don’t work
  • Cursor icon is hard to see…which makes windowed gameplay that much harder
  • Hard to play co-op with an actual friend
This game seems to be a love it or hate it affair which is good for the asking price. If you do love it, it will be cause of the hollow gratification you get from leveling up and the mindless shooting which reminds you of NES games of the past. There is some good with this game but the bad just overwhelms me from even wanting to talk about them.
Play this game if:

You have some time between loading screens, and literally get off to ranking up.
Don't play this game if:

Enjoy the immersive and responsive qualities to most games.

Links

Information about the game: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Realm_of_the_Mad_God
Strategy Guide: http://realmofthemadgod.wikia.com/wiki/Realm_of_the_Mad_God_Wiki
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