Tibia is a 2d MMORPG that is dating back to the late 90s. Originally being a college project of a group of German students. Eventually it has evolved into the 2d eye candy you see today. A few years ago, it wasn't so flash in 2d art design.

How ever. Aside that it isn't a 3d masterpiece. Tibia has some very admirable attributes in its game play. But Tibia is suffering from a grand number of flaws and inability to cope with modern times.

-Lag. It is every where. 10 seconds of having your character frozen in place or being kicked from the server in the numerous mass server kicks can easily ruin your day. It is usually the fault of the server and the disclaimer you agree to makes all your frustration towards the game developers and maintainers futile.

-Cheating is rampant. Most of the "elite" players use cheats to help level their characters while they are afk and have aids in pvp to get an unfair advantage over most who don't use the cheats.

-Levelling is long and boring. Only hardcore players are committed to the grind. For this reason, many people are buying into cheats that level their characters while they are afk.

-Death is excessive. One death can set you back a week or even a month or two. Depending on how high your level is. Death is very harsh in this game and this causes additional problems.

-Grieving. This is the number one problem in Tibia. In Tibia, if you are disliked by a high level and there is no one to challenge that high level: you're screwed. In Tibia, there are hardly any "safe" places in normal worlds. You can be found any where if a player knows the map well with a basic find person spell. Usually it's the top levelled players on the server that abuse lower levels until they either have lost a huge amount of work on their character (by killing them repeatedly) or by even making the abused player ultimately quit.

It is these same high levelled players that cause the grieving that were the same to use cheats to level their character and/or bought the character at a high level to begin with. As well as using cheats to gain advantage in PVP.
No one can really has a chance.

The makers "CIPsoft" are trying to combat the cheating problem. But they are failing by making poor updates that virtually punish every one for the cheating problem.

That's my take on Tibia. I check on it time to time for old time sake. Most of the time its a bunch of hunted friends who draw me back to fight occasionally against the cheating higher level elite to punish them for punishing us. Ganging up to kill one of them, since there is nothing else we can do if we value our characters. But really, the fault lies with the game.

Only reason why I stuck with this game for so long is because I only recently got a computer that could player some thing better.

This is coming from a 4 year and now retired Tibia player.

James the Mage, Amera.

well you were on one of the most populated server and the most abused server... the gms had to come in a nd break up the guild that was abusing everyone...not all servers are like that, like balera is a good world if you wanna just play in peace. or go for a non pvp server it's really up to you.

My friends and I, who have played for a number of years, all agreed that the incredibly harsh deaths in Tibia... Is a good idea. It's caused me to be very cautious when venturing in to new areas and extremely grateful to friends who are willing to risk their own lives by running back to my body to recover valuable items. If you're smart with the game, you'll go far. Risking life and limb when hunting has made Tibia far more realistic than any other MMO out there.  

I agree with what you say, but me, beeing what you refer to as a "Grieving" player, I also know that if your dissliked by a high lvl, there is usulay a reason for that. Stick with some simple rules, and you are usulay okey.

As a fresh player, it is very important to not stick your nose too far out, and be very carefull what you say in public.

Killing. Killing is usulay what gets evryone in the grief possission of beeing hunted. On the server i play; Eternia, you can risk beeing hunted of the server for killing a rude lvl 6 redskull, if he knows the right people. So word of advice, is too NEVER kill anyone without solid proof of reason.

The older servers are VERY political. Each server usulay has their own rules and guidlines, wich most people respectfully live by. Its usauly when theese are broken, hell breaks out.

As for lagg, id say they are getting rather better with that. If you compare now, with 2 years ago, its been quite a improovement.

Cheating, as you say is what brings this game down ALLOT. Id say 8 of 10 over lvl 50 uses cheats. But for me, i cant say its a very big issue. I play because I like the game, not because I want to become the highest lvl. Short; I value my knowleage in the game over power.

But to play this game, without socialy involving yourself, is imposible. And thats whats so special about Tibia. With a good social conection in the game, a lvl 30 can be hightly respected by even a lvl 250. Girls seems especialy have that ability...

Your's, Dragoonheart

Played since 2003.

Woah, woah, woah, woah...Lois, this is not my batman glass.

But seriously now - angry video game nerd would be at a loss of words when reviewing this game. I mean you don't really know where to start. It's so bad that, if you really want to pinpoint the worst aspect of the game, you have to rack you brain, because there is so many things you can pick from.

Fortunately, there are non-pvp servers in this game. When I first started playing it, I didn't have any doubts which server to pick. My friend showed me this game on a regular server. He was a low lvl paladin and he was just training on some trolls when 2 guys came and killed him for absolutely no reason. He wasn't as dedicated to the game as I was, so he just shrugged his shoulders and told me it's nothing out of the ordinary. You train on low lvl monsters, minding your own business, just trying to develop your character a little, and you get killed for no apparent reason. You loose your backpack you have with you, probably one or more items from your equipment, experience (and, mind you, you can get downgraded to a lower lvl, so if you die repeatedly, no matter if it's monsters or players who kill you, you can quickly get from lvl, say, 70, you were trying to get for the last 6 months, to lvl 8 (enjoy starting it all over again). Oh, and you also loose the proficiency in a weapon you're using, so the downgrade is total - a mean high lvl can thus downgrade you to lvl 8 whenever he wishes. AND THAT'S NORMAL!?! Ok then, I choose a non-pvp server. Two critical flaws of Tibia mentioned here - pvp fights and death in Tibia. I'm not against pvp. That's not the point. But ffs, within reason. I understand being killed when entering an area controlled by an opposite alignment (which, by the way, does not exist in Tibia, so don't get all excited), I understand being killed for stealing, excessive, unjustified killing of other players, I can even understand wars between guilds but this... The important thing to realise is exactly how hard it is to get the lvl, skills and items you can loose so easily. At first it all looks promising, but then you have to spend hours, literally HOURS, to lvl your weapon proficiency or a lvl you can loose in a matter of seconds. Another thing - how an actual training looks like (at least when it comes to knight and paladin class). You lure two monsters, usually the ones you can easily kill and that deal you no or little dmg, equip a basic, low lvl weapon of your proficiency that deals minimum dmg and start hitting one of the monsters. You can block up to two monsters with your shield, the hits from the remaining ones (if you lure more than two) go straight through your shield and either you block it with your armor, or you get hit and loose hp. Thus, it's best to train just with two monsters, while when you block two instead of one your shielding goes up faster. You need to deal minimum dmg at regular intervals of time when you train, so, if the monster,does not heal itself, or doesn't create copies of himself that you can constantly hit and kill, one of the monsters will inevitably die and you'll have to lure another one to continue your training. It doesn't sound entertaining and believe me, it's dreadfully dull. Of course your skills do go up when you're just hunting monsters for the loot and exp, but at much lower pace, that is simply not enough to be able to effectively exp throughout the game. Sooner or later you'll just HAVE TO start training and it's more than advisable to start it as soon as possible. Now bearing in mind that advancing from lvl 79 to lvl 80 in any knight's weapon proficiency takes you 22 hours (during an ideal training, without counting the time for finding a new monster to train on, going back to town for food and other supplies, eating your dinner with the family or just going to the toilet) imagine loosing that lvl instantly because you've just killed a red skull noob with powerfull friends. Exactly how fucked up is that? Mind you, those 22 h is just one, single level. 22 fucking hours spent in front of the computer screen, doing nothing. Seriously, do I even have to comment on that? Isn't it crystal fucking clear? Training on a regular serv is slightly different - you have the option of training with another player: you hit each other, each one of you has a monster hitting you (shielding). Just as unimaginative and boring. But wait, I wanted to tell you something about non-pvp. Well, for one thing you won't get killed by a bunch of mean retards for no reason. But wait a second, you can still get blocked by another person in a narrow passage and killed by a monster chasing you. That's right, you can get BLOCKED by another player! I have never heard of any other game in which another player is a fuckin obstacle on your way. Imagine you're playing a paladin (a class using distance weapons [bows, crossbows] - I still can't figure out why they chose to call it a paladin). You're exping on cyclops, mean beasts who, fortunately for you, have only a close combat attack at their desposal. Your general strategy is to shoot repeatedly with your bow or crossbow and run away from a cyclop until it dies. Sounds logical, while both the bow and the crossbow are two-handed weapons [obvious], so you can't equip your shield [obvious] and you don't want the cyclop to get you without it [obvious yet again]. Now imagine you're running away from the cyclop, you run across a narrow passage and you encounter another player. If he's not a mean son of a bitch, he'll move and let you run. If he is, however, you're pretty much fucked. You can move another player by pushing him one square. But, for example, if you move another player one square left, you don't walk onto this square right away, you have to use the <- to move. To visualise it: A - another player, B - you: 1) before you move him you stand right next to each other - AB, 2) after you move him the situation looks like this - A_B. You have to move in order to take the place he occupied. Since he can do the same, it's generally a question of reflex and speed. Still, if he throws an item considered an obstacle behind him, like a box, a chest, a pot or a parcel, or if he casts a spell that creates a wall, a fire field, poison field or energy field behind him, he is impossible to move. The thing is, you can't push another player on a field that would dmg him, like a fire field etc. and you can't make him walk on a box, a parcel or a chest. In a situation mentioned above a dumb fuck who blocks you wouldn't even have to resort to boxes or energy fields, while the cyclop would get you in a matter of seconds and beat the living shit out of you. But this "ability" of blocking other players can be also used to trap a person in a place with just one exit. N / C on that as well, the conclusion should be obvious. Another flaw of non-pvp servers - thieves. Earning money in this game is just as frustrating as its every other aspect. Basically everything you loot is infuckingcredibly heavy, so going back to town just because you have no capacity left is a waste of time. What you do is you make lootbags. A lootbag is basically a bag within a bag within a bag within a bag etc., filled with heavy crap you'll sell to an NPC, that's too heavy to carry in your backpack, that you drag and drop on your way to town. It's like with controlling a ball in a football game, only that you're not kicking the ball and running after it, but you're throwing a heavy-as-hell bag on the ground. Like in a football game though, everybody else can take the ball (bag) from you. The hardest part of getting the lootbag safely to your deposit box is actually the last stage. If I had to compare it with football, it would be like playing alone against ten or more people. You have the ball, but loosing it once means loosing the game. And, since we're talking about a non-pvp server now, you can't do shit. I have nothing more to add. To say that this game sucks big time would be a polite euphemism. It's the worst game I've ever played. It wasn't merely a waste of time. It was worse.

I can't disagree with zihuantanevo. I played this game for a good while, and it's generally bad.

To start, grinding, grinding and grinding, since the beginning. A new player may spend like three days in the beginner's island with no class, just to reach level 10 and get one. Not to mention that further on, you'll have a harder time leveling. It gets even worse with time, but the highest level people can level unbelievably fast, for reasons unknown. And of course, when you die you lose 10% of your TOTAL exp (if you pay to play that's reduced a bit), so if you try to explore a new dungeon or some area you're curious about, you're most likely going to lose a couple levels and equipments/everything in your bag.

The community is extremely elitist, mainly made of immature brats. Actually, I've never seen such a horrible community in any other MMORPG, and I've played many. Things work a bit differently in PvP/Non-PvP servers, but their communities are equally bad. In PvP servers, as it was already said, there is a group (about 20% of the server) who act and think they are badass, but they're actually ass-kissing puppets who will do whatever the high leveled people tell them to. Unlike what Dragoonheart said, you don't have to do anything virtually wrong to get hunted by this pack of retards. It is not uncommon for one of them to bully and abuse of you, and if you decide to fight back, you're "hunted", which means that the 20% unopinionated part of the server will come after you to kill you until you decide to give up on playing (since the death penalties are absurdly high), which is surprisingly not, by any means, considered illegal by Cipsoft, even though it destroys the gameplay and encourages players to quit. How stupid.

In Non-PvP servers, players can't directly harm you, but don't cheer yet, those kids have several ways to harm and discourage new players from keep playing, after all, their pleasure is your disgrace. They'll use tactics ranging from getting players stuck in areas with mid/high leveled monsters, since, like it was said, they're an obstacle when walking, and they CAN PUSH YOU. So they can always push you to some strait hall and wait until a monster comes to kill you. Of course CipSoft, again, is intelligent enough to make monsters that are deadly for new players spawn in low-leveled hunting areas, such as scorpions (you're dead if they sting you, since their poison is lethal, unless you have a magical spell to heal it) and others. It is also common for such jerks to lure high-leveled monsters to highly visited areas. When I played, it was common for them to lure Giant Spiders into some towns, causing dozens of people to die while walking peacefully across the streets. Cipsoft has fixed some issues regarding luring, but it's still possible in some areas.

There are four main classes, Sorcerers, Paladins, Knights and Druids. Sorceres are highly unbalanced and deal absurd amounts of damage. Paladins shoot bolts/arrows (go figure why) and also are capable of using some magic. Knights only exist to tank and block monsters. Druids are completely useless, their only purpose in the game is making healing runes. As you can see, the classes are fairly balanced.

Going back to the grinding aspect, you also have to spend ages training your weapon and magic skills, otherwise you won't be able to level effectively. Leveling those is extremely boring and takes you weeks, since everything is extremely slow in Tibia. People usually use macros to level their magic level, and leveling weapon mastery has already been described by the user who posted above. It's exactly like that, extremely tedious.

The game has no significant storyline, which is not explored by its staff either. It does not encourage roleplay (I can't even see a possibility for that in this game, considering the community) and has several other negative characteristics.

The only good aspect I could see in this game is the one of quests. Most quests are pretty hard to solve and are forbidden to be spoiled. Users also have to talk to NPCs using their own words, so you need to know what to tell the NPCs to get your quests completed, though this is not well explored by CipSoft. But I do appreciate how there are several hidden and unknown quests that are yet to be discovered.

So, my general experience with this game is horrible, and I don't recommend it to anyone. Many players may argue that it is good for a "free game", but this isn't a free game at all. You can't experience half of the game if you don't have a premium account, and there are obvious explicit advantages for those who pay, like higher HP/Mana regeneration (which believe it or not, means a lot in this game), access to unique cities, better hunting grounds with unique monsters (the strongest monsters, that drop the best weapons/equipments in the game, are exclusive for premium players, unless you buy it from premium players). Premium players also have exclusive skills. You won't reach those high leveled players you dream about without a premium account. There are 100% free MMORPGs that are better than this, I can assure you of that. Perhaps Tibia was a great game some years ago, but today we have many more options to choose from, I'd seriously think twice before playing this if I were you.