6 MMO Christmas Miracles

Ah Christmas, the most magical time of the year! Gifts are exchanged, families reunited, and unrealistic goals set for the coming year. With all the traveling and festivities it’s easy to forget the original religious meaning behind the now secular holiday.

The real cause for celebration on Christmas is the birth of the prophet Jesus, top dog of the Christian faith. You might not think there’s much in common between Jesus and free to play MMOs and MMORPGs, but you would be wrong! Among his many miracles, perhaps the most famous is his resurrection after three days. A tough feat to pull off for a mere human, but not so for an MMO or MMORPG! To celebrate Christmas in our own special way, let’s run through 6 MMO titles that, like Jesus, died only to be resurrected.

Hellgate

Originally released as Hellgate: London by Flagship studios, the Diablo inspired hack & slash MMORPG soon ran into financial trouble. The B2P (buy to play) model and repetitive nature of the game made it a difficult sell in an oversaturated market. Luckily, HanbitSoft picked up the rights to the game and it was eventually resurrected as Hellgate London: Resurrection. Publisher T3 Fun brought the game to America as a free to play game under the shorter title Hellgate.

Tree of Savior Lives up to the Hype

Tree of Savior began its second round of closed beta testing in early November, and I’ve been playing it quite a bit since. I wasn’t able to test out the game in its first round of testing, so this was the first time I played it and I have to say right away that I was impressed. Having loved Ragnarok Online from WarpPortal (and various private servers), I’ve long been looking for an MMORPG that filled the void Ragnarok left in my heart when I quit and it looks like Tree of Savior may be it. I’ve played quite a few Ragnarok Online style games in the past, including Secret of the Solstice (was published by Outspark until they shut down), Water Margin Online (some obscure Chinese Ragnarok clone that shut down) and even Ragnarok Online 2, but none of these games came close to the original Ragnarok in terms of variety and depth. Tree of Savior on the other hand, both looks and feels like an improved version of Ragnarok and is easily one of the best fantasy MMORPGs out there. I also love that it’s free to play.

Similar to Ragnarok, Tree of Savior has A LOT of class variety. I think IMCGames, the studio behind it, said they want to have 80 classes available at launch which is incredible, even though it counts job advancements as individual classes. Most newer games today don’t have nearly as much class variety. Wildstar for example, which recently went free to play, only has 6 playable classes. Dragomon Hunter from Xlegend has only 4. These aren’t older games either. Dragomon Hunter launched into open beta in late 2015, while Wildstar came out in 2014. One of Ragnarok’s biggest appeals to me was its huge roster of classes. Whenever you got bored with one character, you could create another one and have an entirely new experience with the game. Tree of Savior is built the same way. Not only are there going to be 80 classes, but players have a lot of control with how they customize their growth. Each class can be advanced into multiple times, which creates a new infinite path of progression. So for example, when it’s time to advance your class early on as a swordsman you can either A) become a highlander or B) become a swordsman rank 2.

Another aspect of Tree of Savior that’s simply excellent is its musical score. SoundTeMP did the music for Tree of Savior and they’re the same company that composed the music for many notable MMORPGs including: Fly for Fun Flyff, Granado Espada, MapleStory, LaTale, Silkroad Online and even Ragnarok Online. If you have no interest in Tree of Savior, I still recommend you check out the Tree of Savior Soundtrack, because the game’s music is incredible. It’s easily some of the best music i’ve ever heard in a video game.

Ultimately, I want to emphasize that so far I’m loving Tree of Savior. The second closed beta is set to end soon, so I’ll need to wait till the next round of testing to resume my journey. Too bad there’s going to be a wipe as I worked so hard on my current characters, but alas, I knew going in that I’d have to restart. This game lives up to the hype. Do yourself a favor and check it out!

Guild Wars 2 Free to Play Review

Ever since Guild Wars 2 from NCSoft officially went free to play, (August 29, 2015), I’ve been playing it pretty casually. I don’t have too much time to sink into MMORPGs the way I did when I was younger, but I still like to sneak in an hour or so of grinding a day. Guild Wars 2 was a game I was always sort of interested in, but never to the point where I was ready to actually pay for it, so going free to play was the sole reason I finally got around to playing it. I actually think the decision to go free to play right before the release of the Heart of Thorns expansion was genius by ArenaNet/NCSoft. Given the game’s age, it was released in 2012, it’s safe to say the pace of sales for the base game slowed down dramatically. Since they aren’t selling very many new copies of the game, going free to play doesn’t cause the company to miss out on any new sales and instead opens the game’s doors to an entirely new set of players, like myself, who never would have played the game otherwise. So with a slew of new players, NCSoft is making more money than ever selling premium currency to their new users.

Savage Lands Early Access Review

Savage Lands is yet another entry into the rapidly expanding survival genre that’s arrived this year. Making its way into the Early Access program, Savage Lands released earlier this year to a moderately positive reception, and has since only improved. While Savage Lands is clearly not a perfect title, it has the potential to be something great. The success of survival games like Rust and Ark: Survival Evolved led to the rapid development of similar games in the genre.

Magerealm: Rise of Chaos Review

Magerealm: Rise of Chaos is a browser-based fantasy MMORPG by Chinese developer GTArcade, publisher of the highly popular League of Angels game. Players take control of one of three unique classes to protect the Holy City from total destruction, recruiting Angels and Heroes to aid in combat against evil. The game was launched globally on June 18, 2015.

Old MMORPGs Are Still Successful

Older MMORPGs like 9Dragons and Divine Souls are still surprisingly around despite their age. These games launched years ago, but can still be played today, even while newer MMORPGs shut down and close their doors forever. Poor ol’ Infinite Crisis is shutting down less than a year after its launch, but 9Dragons is still alive and kicking since its 2007 release. It’s not particularly successful, but it’s still playable whereas many MMOs aren’t.

Victory Command – Quick MOBA Review

I recently downloaded and play a new MOBA called Victory Command from Petroglyph Games. For those that never heard of it, it’s a 3D military themed tactical MOBA that actually plays more like an RTS than a traditional MOBA. The game launched on Steam early access on May 27, 2015 and its trying to disrupt the MOBA market. Unlike games traditional MOBAs like Dota 2, Victory Command doesn’t really have any RPG elements. Instead, the game gives players control of multiple units on the battlefield.

MMOs I’m Looking Forward to Reviewing

I’ve played a lot of free to play MMOs and MMORPGs over the years from the good to the bad. I’ve lately been playing an odd game called Uncharted Waters Online from Netmarble. I say “odd” because Uncharted Waters is one of the few Japanese developed MMORPGs out there. It’s also not super popular in the West. The game has had a lot more success in China and its home country of Japan, where’s its available as a console MMORPG. I like to play oddball games. I guess it’s what makes me the special snowflake that I am. I’m looking forward to a few oddball

Pirates of the Burning Sea – An Old MMORPG That I love

Pirates of the Burning Sea is one of my favorite MMORPGs ever. It’s not one of the most popular MMORPGs ever, and in fact is quite small. I played it for a good month, and I think the game has one of the best aesthetics and some of the best gameplay around. In a sea of sameness, PotBS stands out as completely unique. Since its original release back in January 22, 2008, the game has gone free to play.

Warframe Quick F2P MMO Review

Enjoy sci-fi? Co-operative play? How about 3rd person ninjas? If you answered yes to any of these, then Warframe might just be your cup of tea. Warframe has all of these features, in a package that feels somewhat like Mass Effect 3’s multiplayer with a bigger emphasis on objectives and somehow even less story. Unfortunately, Warframe suffers from some pay-to-win methodology and incredibly slow item farming.