MMORPG.com's Drew Wood recently had the opportunity for a developer hosted preview of the just-launched Realms Online. Drew's got the full report about the three faction RvR game. Check it out and then let us know your thoughts in the comments.

I had the good fortune the other day to be hosted by the team behind Realms Online to take a look at the game, which dropped yesterday, May 3rd, and to hear a little bit of what the game is all about. The goal, when taking on the project of Realms Online, was to take an international game, update it and alter it to appeal to the North American market. Realms Online, developed in Argentina, originally known as Regnum Online in Europe. Realms Online is a Free-to-Play MMORPG with a heavy focus on PvP combat, hoping to breakthrough onto the scene in the North American market. When speaking with the team, they're not at all shy to describe their desire to bring a heavy PvP game to the market, and they aren't at all shy to talk about how games like Dark Age of Camelot, during the height of its popularity and success, influenced the way they wanted to approach the PvP in Realms Online. It isn't hard to see the influence that DaoC, and other games like it, have in fact had on the free-to-play title.

Read more Drew Wood's Realms Online Preview Report.

Played Regnum off and on sense its release and now with true NA servers this might be good.

The RvRvR combat is fun and just wondering the PvE area was fun as well. This game has had alot of updates sense its release as Regnum from UI to graphics that it has changed allot. But the one thing I remember most was this this web comic for the Regnum game.

http://iwconstructions.com/Regnum/index.php

It'll give you a good laugh but most of all it gives you an idea on what the real game was like before Realm Online.

And remember HOLA HOLA

Although a bit rough, the game certainly has its charms, and the attractiveness of RvRvR can't be denied. My major gripes are the lack of jumping (yeah, I know), tab-targeting, and permanent floating-names. I also couldn't seem to increase the number of hotbars on screen, or assign things like my mount to a hotbar key. I may have been overlooking it, but asking the GMs in world-chat didn't provide any answers, either.

I will say that the quests seemed well-written and had a kind of overarching cohesiveness that's often lacking in F2P games, particularly those from Asia. Personal opinion, of course, but I found myself drawn into the story here much more than I expected, and felt like I had a purpose for questing beyond mere xp gain.

If the adjustments to the cash shop are true, specifically the inability to buy items more powerful than those found in game, I really think this title can find new life under GameSamba, and I wish them the best of luck.

Also, It's definitely nice leveling up with everyone on an even playing field, so I understand why they haven't initially allowed character transfers from the Horus server.

"Maple" in-game character, for anyone who wants to toss me an insult.

I was amazed at how much of DAoC is in this game. I have been playing Alsius which is essentially Albion and Midgard combined. It's cute. Nothing overly impressive graphically speaking but that may translate into good FPS during large battles. There were items in the cash shop that concerned me, namely the ability to purchase elements that improved your armor significantlly. Funny, the one thing that I could not find in this game that personally, I would have expected to be taken from DAoC was their impressive craft system. As far as I can tell Realms has none to speak of at all. Too bad too, that was really one of Camelot's strongest points.

I had never heard of this game until recently.

Upon logging in, i noticed everyone has super bushy eyebrows (This is no doubt to appeal to previous markets ..I think?)

Upon each race I found only 1 face even remotely usable. Moved on.

Logging into the game direct I came into a world with a feeling of 1999 -2002 feel to it (this is a good thing).

Playing a bit I came to like the game more, looking at the world map i noted it's quite small (as it should be for a game where pvp is the focus).

I have found this game to be endearing, I have also found the controls to be a bloody nightmare for a left handed (gotta use a number pad to stay sane) gamer.

I plan to stick with this game a bit more however..The model faces need massive touch ups. (Seriously cro magnum looking people).

I can't see western markets diving for this until they change many core looks of the textures. (You can say it doesn't matter what a character looks like but I'm pretty sure it does).

I'd never be able to play a male avatar with these ....faces.

All in all aside from my gripe this game is Solid. I am a jerk when it comes to judging games and I'm on day 2 of my addiction . The community I have found to be most mature so far as well.

All in all everyone should give this a go, those who pine for old school mmorpg's that is. If you are looking for a wow like game? Not going to find it here.

 It certainly doesn't offer much of a great first impression, and does feel really dated.

 But if you are able to press onward a few hours and are going in knowing that the only real purpose is for the RvRvR area conquest, which has quite a bit going on for it actually. It also has a lot of balancing features (same 3 classes, and the realm with least players gets exp and money bonuses to help catch up, to name what i've noticed so far), then it does not seem like it would be all that bad.

 It is just a matter of pushing yourself to get there I guess, which seems like it could be a chore because it's gameplay isn't all that interesting and is fairly slow paced.

 I played for about 2hrs last night and only made it to lv5, so it seems like it could be too much of a slow burn for some people before they are able to get into the real bread and butter of the game.

 But judging from what i've heard and read, anyone who sticks with it will be rewarded with a great team based PvP game.

Can you re-assign keys in the game? I have seen many asian games that do not allow you to move keys off WASD which I can¨t use.

A lot of the concerns voiced in here are some of the things that are going to be updated by NGD. They started revamping the engine/systems late 2010, and it's an ongoing process. So the map, models, hot key assigning, improved targeting, a better/more customizable UI, etc. are all on tap for updates throughout the year. 

awesome

Originally posted by Slicor

awesome

 

What is awesome?

I may give it a go. The only reason I quit playing Regnum was the low population. Maybe the Realm can get a little more love from the player.

I'm downloading it right now. it sounds like a good game, it just needs people to play it. The forums are quite dead, so I'm hoping they can push out the advertising to get this version of regnum to work.

OK, I have a question...

In North American Realms Online can you see in chat the enemy speaking, and if you can can you read it and understand it, OR is it like DAoC where you can NOT understand it??

Just... I know... it may make no difference to many of you but it does to me... I am interested in this MMO but the only MMO I enjoyed PvP in was DAoC and that was because I could not understand the enemy's speech... I could see that they said something but it was garbled.... I didn't have to listen to my enemy babble when they started their stupid smack talk...instead I could concentrate on the fight and win, and enjoy my time in DAoC RvR (which I enjoyed immensely).

Originally posted by Gardavil2

OK, I have a question...

In North American Realms Online can you see in chat the enemy speaking, and if you can can you read it and understand it, OR is it like DAoC where you can NOT understand it??

Just... I know... it may make no difference to many of you but it does to me... I am interested in this MMO but the only MMO I enjoyed PvP in was DAoC and that was because I could not understand the enemy's speech... I could see that they said something but it was garbled.... I didn't have to listen to my enemy babble when they started their stupid smack talk...instead I could concentrate on the fight and win, and enjoy my time in DAoC RvR (which I enjoyed immensely).

  I can't speak for general chat when in direct contact with an opposite realm, since I havn't gotten that far, BUT what I can say is that each realm has their own individual 'world' chat dedicated only to the realm they are part of.

 Only players of that realm can see and use it, and of course since each realm has their own realm-wide chat, there would be no need to spout orders in general chat and have them encripted.

 So my guess would be, if the opposing side is using the general(local) chat, you'll be able to read it. But only if you have that tab selected on the chat bar, so you can ignore the trash talking entirely if you choose to.

Can you play on this game instead of Regnum Online, even if you live in Europe?