TO THE MODS: Please do not move. This is appropriately about a beta test for a game that few people have heard about.

THIS POST IS INTENDED FOR THE GENERAL PUBLIC OF MMORPG.COM which is why I reasoned it was appropriate to put it on this Open Beta Discussion forum. The LinkRealms subforum is essentially dead and posting there would not help expand the userbase. Just because my posts are extensive does not mean they need to be moved. That's like moving one of the TSW Reviews off the main MMORPG.com page and putting it only in the subforum. Everyone can benefit from the game I am sharing.

www.linkrealms.com

If you are interested in this beta, or you receive a beta key, I ask that you bump this post so that others can see and get a chance to try this game.

NOTE: This game still is in Closed Beta, so please note there is not an infinite amount of content nor are all the features complete. However, there is plenty to have a very good time for a while.  

Hey guys, you may have heard about a new sandbox mmorpg called Linkrealms. The game is developed as an isometric 3D/2D hybrid sandbox universe where players can customize their own realms which are added as links to the world. I would describe it as a combination of UO with Diablo. The game is absolutely fantastic and the animations are gorgeous and kind of ridiculously great lol. I'm very picky about sandbox games. Usually they compromise graphics/animation for gameplay, but this game really melds them harmoniously together and adds feature by feature to the game until completion. The development team is small, yet this game is more fun than most AAA mmorpgs I've played. 

You can view a trailer here: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBLSEP3-JNA

I started playing the game in 2009, rather early in its development and there has been a lot of development since. Here is a list of major features that set LR apart.

FEATURE LIST

• Races
  • Human
  • Feline
  • Demon
  • Canid
• Skill -based Progression - You Improve Skills with Use.
  • Three Fighting Skills (swords, maces/blunt, and archery);
  • Four Magic Trees (the spell effects are rather impressive as well IMO)
    • Shamanism - similar to voodoo where you craft spells and manipulations;
    • Sorcery - standard teleport, blink, elemental spells;
    • Clairvoyance - Allows you to hinder, debuff enemies and protect your dead body after death including Astral spells that can only be used in spirit form; 
    • Spiritualism - IMO the coolest line, allows you to collect souls from fallen enemies and then summon spirit companions including archers, warriors, healers, and other spells to help you as you fight]
  • Battle Tactics - Special moves for your equipped weapon that allow you to parry, bleed, or precisely attack your foe. Different weapons have different tactics. Higher level weapons have unique skills associated with them.
  • Hiding and Lockpicking (break into chests in dungeons or NPC chests)
• Four Stat Pools
  • ?Strength - affects your life, damage, and how much you can carry
  • Agility - affects attack speed
  • Intelligence - Affects Sorcery
  • Psi - Affects Clairvoyance and Spiritualism
• Player-created content
  • ?Nearly every object in the game can be crafted by users. However, you don't begin with nothing as in Xsyon or other barebones games. There are starting NPCs which will hand out quests items and tutorial tips as you first start out.
• Extensive Crafting
  • ?Cook to heal yourself. Harvest fruits and vegetables. Hunt livestock for meat. Make tacos or a sandwich. Use the juice squeezer all noobs get and heal yourself in battle with some watermelon juice.
• Open-world Dungeons
  • ?Challenging, diverse dungeons that use a variety of mechanics to keep players on their toes. Run into other players and contribute to boss fights with them. It doesn't matter who gets the last hit as long as you contribute. Divide the spoils later amongst yourselves. There is plenty to go around.
  • Learn spells only in dungeons from books that burn into flame upon reading.
  • Experience scripted/unique bosses that require puzzle and tactics management in order to overcome their minions
• Free-to-play with Convenience purchases (developers are adamantly opposed to Play-2-Win methods)
  • ?Rent a realm, buy special portals or crafting accessories for your realm
  • Change your species, gender, haircut 
• Pet Breeding/Fighting/Skills System
  • ?Change your pet's behavior based on what you feed it (give it loyalty scratch or it won't even follow you)
  • Equip weapons on pets to turn it into a healer, a caster, or a warrior. Your pet levels and can then be bred with other animals to create a stronger breed. The game uses an extensive Mendelian-esque (although hardly Hardy-Weinberg lol) pedigree system to combine genes. Your plumage color, tail, and other features will change drastically from generation to generation. This is probably the most extensive system in the game and will develop into great magnificence with more species. 
  • Raise your cockerel in a fight against others and win prizes. 
  • Currently only has cockerels as pets but dog and wolf planned soon (one of the developers is crazy about pets)
• Tight Community
  • ?The game was first developed as a sci-fi futuristic/steampunk game so many of the items may not mesh completely with the fantasy world (lingerie clothing, french maid outfit) which gives LinkRealms its own mature and whismical twist. You have to experience it to know what I mean. 
  • The community is currently small and the game feels tight-knight. Talk on world chat with an asterisk and ask your questions only to have a player teleport to you and spend hours decking you out in high quality gear and skimpy outfits. 
• Hundreds of items/weapons/apparel
  • Capes, hats, coats, overcoats, underwear, skirts, dresses, robes, weird light/fire accessories and glowing things
  • There is a ton to wear and many ways to be unique
• Scripted/Unique Dungeon Bosses Complete with Puzzle Mechanics
  • ?Defeat one boss by connecting all the wires together until you can shock him into life
  • Defeat another by killing colored gnomes in a specific sequence before he spawns
  • You move a lot while you fight (similar to Diablo)
• Affect the Ecosystem
  • Raise livestock, shear sheep, turn the wool into clothing. Grow crops, but don't forget to put up a scarecrow to keep the gnomes away.
• Map-Editor that Allows You to Create Your Own Realm
  • ?External tile-based editor allows you to have full control over creating an asian themed temple to a foreboding fortress. Add doors, walls, furniture, accessories, beds, chairs, chests, teleporters. The choice and freedom is yours. The devs have commented on possibly allowing users to create their own dungeons replete with enemies and quests. 
  • Add your own crops, cultivate them and keep a pen with some sheep for your midnight sacrifices. 
• World Events
  • ?Changing weather and moving species keep realm owners on their toes as one day they might find their home overgrown with lizard men and gnome houses
• PVP areas including partial looting from other players
  • Battlefields realms made by players for players to fight in. Fight for money or resources. This is currently under heavly development but PVP is very much part of the LR experience.
  • EDITED: More popular pvp hotspots currently include open PVP dungeons
• Quests and Possibility of Player-Generated Quests
  • ?Dungeons will sometimes have NPCs to guide your mission and provide you a monetary reward for undergoing peril. However, the game is not quest-driven. It is player-driven and random events and player-created content through NPCs and a player-run economy really turn the cogs of LinkRealms.
• Gestures
  • Special gestures and emotes that can only be attained through exploration of the world and from dungeons
• Strange Combination of New with the Old ("nostalgia for a place I've never been before")
  • ?3D models in a 2D/3D world with extremely well-done animations and beautiful spell effects
  • Drag and drop inventory with the burlap sack, etc. similar to UO
  • Macro your own spells and weapon hotkeys
  • Undeveloped friending system
  • You'll have to drag your windows and play around with them to get a feel for how they work. This game has a sharp learning curve, but once you figure out the patterns and how to get help, you'll never be stumped again. However, this game is infinitely better than Haven and Hearth and Salem in aesthetics, UI, playability and harmony of the game systems. The spell book is an actually book with different pages. The spiritual system is a scroll with different images that represent different spells. Etc. 
• 200 mb Client
  • Magic
• Global Chat and /who
  • Honestly, developers of half the sandbox games must be stupid. The worst feeling in any new online game is feeling completely alone. Global chat allows you to find help, enemies, and a community in a game with a very small community as it is. No need for iiRC (WTF Haven and Hearth and UO). I know, how carebear of me, but I'm one of these people who plays MMOs for the community. Imagine that. 

 

Really interesting game, I had quite a bit if fun with it. Breeding and training fighting cockerels was really wild!

The community is quite small and consequently pretty tight knit, reminded me a bit of old school MUDs. 

Not sure I know why I stopped playing to be honest. Guess I should go and check out what has changed one of these days.

Been a bit since I last played. The "Realm" Editor to create your own plot of land was awesome. However, I got to a point that I had a hard time justifying even logging in.

Not sure, might go back and check it out as I liked their mentality vs how their cash shop should function.

Can't get past the graphics/animations & click to move.

I played UO to death, because back then those were good graphics. Since UO the only click to move game I have ever been able to play was Ragnarok Online simply because the graphics were sprites and easy on the eyes.

I genuinely wish one day a well funded company will take the time to make an in depth game and skill system such as this but add the amount of polish to turn it into a masterpiece.

I will probably be waiting awhile -.-''