MMORPG.com Correspondent Robert Sollazzo writes this look at Runes of Magic and talks specifically about how the game relates to the 600 pound gorilla that is Blizzard's World of Warcraft.

So tell me, esteemed gamer, what do you do when your competition is an MMO with a worldwide user base of over ten million subscribers, unparalleled growth and a net income of 1.27 billion? Oh sure, you could attempt to be the next big thing and slay said beast with your own bare hands, but really, trying to be the next Warcraft killer is overrated; Especially when there's another way.

You copy the hell out of it.

Lazy? Maybe. Opportunistic? Definitely. But there is plenty to be said about riding the coat tails of another's success while raking in your own cash, and so what if it looks like half your realm map was lifted directly off the face of Azeroth? We won't tell if you don't, right? Even though such a description really doesn't do Frogster Interactive's new title justice, there is no mistaking the parallels between Runes of Magic and Blizzard's own behemoth. From environmental visuals to combat mechanics, it would be tragically easy to write this game off as a Warcraft clone. To stop there, however, would only overlook a promising new MMO unique in its own right.

Take A Look at Runes of Magic

This sight has been for years anti wow and blizzard, in everything it reports, and now you are saying that this game after eveythign war and aco that thsi site actively hyped and promoted is somhow going to go head to head with wow??? 

Really have the editors and reviewers on this site just totally lost their marbels?? While we are at it lest put perfect world, gw and evey other game another wow toppler.  jesus this game is obessesed with the downfall of wow, if their own previews of another game refers to wow in every sentance.

Originally posted by Ahiles

This sight has been for years anti wow and blizzard, in everything it reports, and now you are saying that this game after eveythign war and aco that thsi site actively hyped and promoted is somhow going to go head to head with wow??? 

 

Really have the editors and reviewers on this site just totally lost their marbels?? While we are at it lest put perfect world, gw and evey other game another wow toppler.  jesus this game is obessesed with the downfall of wow, if their own previews of another game refers to wow in every sentance.

With all due respect...

What article were you reading? I honestly didn't see at any point where the article said that the game was going to go head to head with WoW. Comparisons to WoW were made, and the writer even said that tjhe game stacks up in some areas. He does NOT say that the game will topple WoW.

Also, I think it's perfectly legitimate to take a new game and look at it in comparison to the biggest game on the market.

While I'm here, we don't hype and promote any games over others. We work with companies to bring you information about upcoming titles. This year's most anticipated titles, as decided by our readers, were WAR and AoC, so we brought information about those games.

No one here is "obsessed" with the toppling of World of Warcraft. In  fact, the large player base that WoW has is part of what helps this site flourish and grow. The more people playing MMOs... ANY MMO, the better.

I'm also rather curious how we've been ina ny way anti-WoW on this site, let alone "This sight has been for years anti wow and blizzard, in everything it reports,"

Anyway, hope that clears some thigns up for you.

Merry Christmas.

I've read a lot about this game, so I quickly downloaded it when I got an email about the open beta.

Now with every single free MMO ive played, and thats pretty much all, I usually make it a point to try it for a good week or two before forming an opinion.

I know WoW is a good game, it cant be denied, but Ive never like playing it!  its visual aspects really put me off and I find myself stopping..  its kinda like trying to watch childs TV programme that you used to love as a kid, but now you scoff and just turn it off, remembering that your older now!

Runes of Magic, well, I loaded it, I walked around, I logged off.  It was like Wow, except the graphics, look and feel were even more childish to me than that of Wow, in fact Wow probably goes up a few notches in my view since having laid my eyes on this game.

As with Wow, Ive no doubt its a good game... but I cant imagine me ever installing it again.

Edit:  Op, I dont disagree with anything you say really, and cant deny most of what you say.  except about some of the animation and visuals surpassing Wow.

"Melee combat effects, for example, are vastly superior to that of WoW and spells get similar treatment. "

First off I did not notice hardly any difference if combat effects or spells from other games, pretty much the norm here.  So I plainly disagree with that statement whole hardedly.

As to Runes of Magic, it is an ok game, it just did nothing for me.  It is far too simplistic in my opinion.  I suppose a lot of players like all the hand holding, that rather is a minus in my book.

I just think there are better f2p games out there than this one, of course it is still in Beta and has some issues.

Great review, and I totally agree with the comparisons to WoW. I have played WoW for 3 years now, and I also spent some time in the RoM CB. Since Runes went OB I have been playing nearly non-stop and have a Mage/Scout at 28/15 currently and have found the game to be amazingly good for such an early state. In some ways it really does surpass WoW as the reviewer stated, but it is true that there is much unrealized potential which is not in place yet.

The "improved melee" animations may not be evident to someone who has NOT played WoW for 3 years, but I definitely know exaclty what the reviewer was reffering to. In WoW a Warlock (for example) has a pitiful animation of swinging his staff at a foe if the lock is ever stupid enough to let something get within melee range. The Warlock (or mage or priest for that matter) just kind of awkwardly whacks at his enemy but in RoM, the caster whips his staff around while doing a spin leaving a glowing trail behind him...it just LOOKS awesome (kind of like Gandalf in the movies fighting with his staff. You say to yourself "holy crap that wizard is baddass!")

Its the little touches like that which really show a lot of polish although there are plenty of rough edges too. A lot of them. Being an early OB I expect that however. There are tons opf people playing so Runes must be doing something right besides simply being F2P. I see a bright future as long as the devs make some wise choices.

Originally posted by Ahiles

This sight has been for years anti wow and blizzard, in everything it reports, and now you are saying that this game after eveythign war and aco that thsi site actively hyped and promoted is somhow going to go head to head with wow??? 

 

Really have the editors and reviewers on this site just totally lost their marbels?? While we are at it lest put perfect world, gw and evey other game another wow toppler.  jesus this game is obessesed with the downfall of wow, if their own previews of another game refers to wow in every sentance.

I have to agree with you. It sounds as it RoM is a complete WoW clone, excecpt for the dualclass...

This article doesn't do justice to RoM at all!

First of all, RoM leans more toward EverQuest, Lineage II and other open PvP systems then to WoW. You'll notice this when you hit level 15 and start to PvP. You can kill everyone you want, but killing comes at a price (the hunter becomes the hunted).

Dualclass is boring and you have to grind 2 chars..? True, but there are ways around that problem as well. As soon as you hit level 10, you get 2 skills that allow transportation to 2 different starter area's. The one you're in right now, and one of an other (NPC) faction. Use that, and the dualclass isa lot less boring. Also, using the d aily quests allows you to level up your 2 classes in one area, where you simply change and give the XP of those daily quests (max of 10 a day) to the other class...

I have to agree on the questing... It's mostly a kill X of mob Y or the well known courier run, but then again, you have those in almost every game there is around, but in RoM.

IMO RoM is one of the better games that has been released the last year, and even better, it's F2P. Only problem is at the moment the borken PvP system. You gain bad reputation very easily, but getting rid of it is an other thing... Hope that'll be fixed soon...

Originally posted by sadeyx

I've read a lot about this game, so I quickly downloaded it when I got an email about the open beta.

Now with every single free MMO ive played, and thats pretty much all, I usually make it a point to try it for a good week or two before forming an opinion.

I know WoW is a good game, it cant be denied, but Ive never like playing it!  its visual aspects really put me off and I find myself stopping..  its kinda like trying to watch childs TV programme that you used to love as a kid, but now you scoff and just turn it off, remembering that your older now!

Runes of Magic, well, I loaded it, I walked around, I logged off.  It was like Wow, except the graphics, look and feel were even more childish to me than that of Wow, in fact Wow probably goes up a few notches in my view since having laid my eyes on this game.

As with Wow, Ive no doubt its a good game... but I cant imagine me ever installing it again.

 

Edit:  Op, I dont disagree with anything you say really, and cant deny most of what you say.  except about some of the animation and visuals surpassing Wow.

 

 

I havn't tried RoM yet so I can't comment on that, but I whole heartedly disagree with that statement. I am now 21 years old and still enjoy watching rocko's modern life and other nickelodean shows if I were to ever see them. If I saw teenage mutant ninja turtles on or something I think I would still enjoy watching it.

I think it's the best free to play mmorpg's hands down , even the cash shop is pretty cheap not like perfect world which cost way too much money .

Everyone will see it as a clone and the devs are big fans of wow anyways , nothing wrong with that overall i havent played a free mmorpg that can come even close to ROM .

Nice review and for ROM good luck am afraid i'll still be exploring the mines of moria in LOTR, i still and will never play a cash shop game peroid.

happy christmas all

The main difference between Wow is that Rom is FREE To PLAY.

Having played it for a couple of weeks it really is not bad & would recommend to anyone who is bored & doesn't want to be ripped off.

The community is fine & the content or features surpasses many  monthly subscription mmos.

 Why pay for Wow when this game is free?

HI.

nice test, but i have something to add. Since the Open Beta you can level your Second Class in a complete different area from your Primary Class. So you can for example level your primary class in

Howling Mountains->Silverspring->Aslan...

and your sec-class:

Sacillia Stepps-> Dragonfang Ridge...

if you got them through, your char should be 30/30(me: 26/25), so is mine, and thats the reason qhy i cannot name further maps to play on, but so you can see that it is possible to quest both classes up.

mfg, Mouseff

Interesting review, except I miss any information regarding one of the main pillars that WoW has which is their instances. Are there 5 man dungeons in this game? Are there raids? 10 or 25 man? What are the bosses like, tank and spank like most games or do they have complex strategies like the bosses in WoW's raid instances? Any word yet on what end-game is looking like? And howabout those PVE servers, is there only duelling or are there PVP zones or battleground type minigames that can be enjoyed on pve servers?

Finally the cash shop, i hate the idea and its one of the turn-offs for me for these so called f2p games. What kind of advantage does the cash shop have, does it have any influence on your character, are people who buy stuff in the shop going to have better equipment then people who don't, and can you decorate your house/guildhouse without having to hand in your wallet?

If anyone could be kind enough to answer those questions.

Robert here...

PvP is still broken atm, mainly due to class balance issues they're ironing out. Since we're dealing with a Beta product here, there's no point in even commenting on it in the article as all the classes have and are still undergoing drastic changes. So far I haven't seen anything as ambitious as battlegrounds mentioned yet, and of course, the game has 5m instances and such. Since the level caps are still in place, it's not entirely clear what the scope of these will ultimately be.

As Mouseff pointed out, there are now more alternate areas to level your secondary class as of open beta. However, my point still stands. You're effectively leveling two characters from scratch, regardless of how many ways they give you to do it. Some people will be fine with this, others not so since it's another grind no matter how you slice it. Since the cash shop is still in its infancy and level caps are still in place, it's tough to give you a clear picture of how good or bad it'll be, so I'll defer to the release version review for that as well.

Hope that gives you a somewhat clear picture.

@Conley

IS: There are no weapons or armor to buy in the cash shop/Item Shop. There are mainly pets and perma mounts in the cash shop and you can edit your appearence. Further more there are some items to upgrade your weapons, but you dont need them really ;)

To the houses: There are both Cash shop Furniture and non chas shop furniture. But of course the one from the cash shop is nicer and there are some extra things like crafting sites for your house to buy in the cash shop.

I earned some Diamonds in the auction house that i spend in extending my inventory space. you can also spend them in extending your bank box and your house

@Ozzalos

Yes, of   course you level two different Charakters, but you can use some skills of the other class, so if you choose priest as secondary class(as I did) you can everywhere heal you. that is a big advantage because the potions have a, for my taste, to high CD. So with priest as sec you have some nice skills e.g. to heal you or for HP Regeneration. So you are two in one.

mfG Mouseff
 

Best F2P game iv played, if GW dosent count.

letz say best F2P game if the guild functions are complete implemented...

mfG

Originally posted by Ozzallos

Robert here...

As Mouseff pointed out, there are now more alternate areas to level your secondary class as of open beta. However, my point still stands. You're effectively leveling two characters from scratch, regardless of how many ways they give you to do it. Some people will be fine with this, others not so since it's another grind no matter how you slice it. Since the cash shop is still in its infancy and level caps are still in place, it's tough to give you a clear picture of how good or bad it'll be, so I'll defer to the release version review for that as well.

Just to add my own 2 cents to this...

I would find it odd to hear of many people complaining about having to level 2 classes from scratch in a genre where "Alt-itis" is epidemic, and it's not unusual for a player to have 3+ characters they're working on; sometimes even having multiple characters at level cap.

And the cool part of the multi-classing system is that it allows you to mix up how you play the class a bit, giving it a "different flavor". FFXI has a system like with this with its job/subjob system and it really adds a lot more variety to the game.

So, really, the only people I could imagine having an issue with this system are those who aren't into leveling alts in the first place and focus on one character/class... Or people who simply want to use it as a convenient gripe against the game 'cause they don't like it.

Anyway... again, my 2 cents on that topic.

As for the game itself, I've been checking it out. I enjoy trying different games, even though my main is and always will be FFXI... And hey, can't beat the price of admission :)

Anyways...

I tend to agree with the article in that, at first glance and in many ways the game is very obviously derived directly from WoW. It could be its twin.

However, that's not all in a bad way. Along with the look of the game (environments mostly from what I've seen), it also has the polished feel of WoW. Even with all settings at max and in a pretty populated place, I get consistently high frame rates; ~40fps at the lowest ~60fps at the highest. The controls are responsive and it plays very smoothly.

As far as graphics and such go, I'd say it has a few areas up on WoW in terms of eye candy. The water, for example, is fully reflective and refractive, unlike WoW's merely "shiny" water. The clouds, when set on high, have this really nicely animated effect to them. The flourishes and animations for attacks, as has been noted, are quite nice as well.

In all, it seems that calling RoM a "WoW rip-off" as an insult is moot, as they've very obviously used WoW as the key inspiration for a significant portion of the game. It's actually a compliment in this case, as they've managed to capture some of that polish and flair that sets WoW apart in the genre. 

And besides... if you're gonna mimic someone or something else... might as well do it right.

I will say, though, that forgetting all the WoW similarities in the look/feel department, the game does have enough of its own features and such to allow it to stand on its own.

So.. will I continue playing it? Well.. it's an item shop game, which I am against on principle.. so probably not. But, I will say that as a casual "pick it up and kick around for a bit" experience, it's one of the better ones I've tried.

For all the people asking about " pvp miningames " ...  they are working on Battlegrounds , Arenas , Siege Maps and the Server vs Server vs Server feature. Also once a Guild declares War to another they can atk eachother even inside cities without penalty.

With one of the coming patches , mounted combat will be added.

I have found RoM to be a very enjoyable game. There is a ton of content and options to occupy your time. Never played WoW, was a EQ1 player instead. So versus EQ1 it is a little easy mode, but has enough challenge to keep you focused on the task. Dual class is a fun feature and it adds a nice twist to your character.

Like previous postes have said IT'S FREE!

So download and you be the judge, might make you second guess that subscription you keep paying.

Originally posted by Conley

 

 What kind of advantage does the cash shop have, does it have any influence on your character, are people who buy stuff in the shop going to have better equipment then people who don't, and can you decorate your house/guildhouse without having to hand in your wallet?

If anyone could be kind enough to answer those questions.

Re: Cash shop
 

Advantages: are that  there is no initial cost or monthly subscription the equivalent of which you could purchase buffs & items in the cash shop. It also reduces gold farmers & makes the game compatible for global usage where in some Asian countries they only play cash shop games.

The most useful of these items in ROM are probably the ones that increase exp gained by 50% & others that  remove the death penalty.

You can also rent or buy a permanent horse for about 15 euro.

The graphics are OK slightly less cartoony than WoW.

The main complaint I have about this game is that one or two duel-classes are superb, while the rest are just terrible.

Almost every single rogue or warrior goes rogue-warrior for example; because other combos are bad and/or indesirable.

Originally posted by Korby

The main complaint I have about this game is that one or two duel-classes are superb, while the rest are just terrible.

 

Almost every single rogue or warrior goes rogue-warrior for example; because other combos are bad and/or indesirable.

Well the devs could have forgot about duel classing altogether to make it much easier to balance but i think they have added more to the game by including it.

Yes you have to pick your second class wisely , read THE OFFICIAL FORUMS first.

I heard warrior-knight is very strong at PvP altough most seem to pick warrior-rogue, the game is still in beta so expect more improvements but i have played many other released games in a worse state.

  Main difference is that WoW is a well thought out game, wheras RoM is a rushed, poorly executed copy.  The bosses are poorly designed too. You get a quest at level 8 to kill a boss that kills all but tanks in 1 or 2 hits, Basically all boss encounters are clusterFs of a ton of dps while praying the boss doesnt hit the soft targets,or use his aoe stun or fear.  There is really very little strategy involved.  Game is in open beta, cash shop is open and the classes are utterly unbalanced, some are gimped , some drastically overpowered. 

Game is a total mess, and it is still one of the better f2p games out there , lol.

Originally posted by Airspell

  Main difference is that WoW is a well thought out game, wheras RoM is a rushed, poorly executed copy.  The bosses are poorly designed too. You get a quest at level 8 to kill a boss that kills all but tanks in 1 or 2 hits, Basically all boss encounters are clusterFs of a ton of dps while praying the boss doesnt hit the soft targets,or use his aoe stun or fear.  There is really very little strategy involved.  Game is in open beta, cash shop is open and the classes are utterly unbalanced, some are gimped , some drastically overpowered. 

Game is a total mess, and it is still one of the better f2p games out there , lol.

I would have to say your wrong ... WoW just soften everyone. All you see on the Forums is " oww I cant kill that , oww I cant do that Instance " and so on. People have forgotten what a challange is and RoM is a challange with huge rewards. If a quest has you kill a Elite or a Raid crown boss , wait another 2 levels and then try him again and you`ll see you wont have any problems killing him.

Another huge factor is played by gear .. and from what i`ve seen so far , most people have very crappy gear , even at higher levels.

As for balance ... there is slight imbalance , yes , but thats mainly because most of these skills have just been added to the game. I mean it took WoW what .. 4 years and they still aren`t done balancing. So the balanced / unbalanced thing is just .. bleah.

Rom is the best free mmo rpg by fare. It has a  nice item mall and cheap. There are tons of quests and epic quest lines as well. The crafting syetem is fun also. Anyway it a well rounded game and with pvp and pve server .  The instances are fun and hard so it give you a challenge. Try it out you have nothing to lose and might even like it I do.