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Runes of Magic Review

I’m a former WoW player, but don’t want to go back (subscription fees). I paid for years and can’t even see my characters unless I pay again. They’re held hostage! All those hours I spent belong to Blizzard, not me.

I tried a free trial of RIFT and loved it so much, but knew it’d be the same subscription hazard that I’d run into with WoW, and I’d be unhappy eventually. (working hard on being wise with my money!)

So I went out digging for some other MMOs to keep my mind off wanting to play RIFT. I found EverQuest2, Allods, and Runes of Magic. All free games – all really great in their own way. All have their own shortcomings too but so does WoW or other paid MMOs.

Runes of Magic starter areas (Elf/Human) are charming, as is the music. I was surprised how much nice gear you get, as well as a starter mount for a day (so take full advantage of that whenever you make a new character and make sure you can play for a day!)

There is cute player housing, but it’s tied in to the Item Shop. If you want to spend money in your games, make sure it’s somewhere you can get enjoyment out of it again and again.  I’ve not bought anything in there yet, but there are mannequins in which you can show off your favorite gear, and equipment racks (for that favorite sword!) There’s plenty of in-game storage space between your bags, the storage locker they give you for your house, and your bank. I’m a hoarder so I’m sure that I’ll start to overflowing soon.

It’s too bad there are only two races, but the class and secondary class combinations would keep anyone busy for quite some ime.

Their crafting is great – you can take ALL the crafting+gathering skills in the beginning (kind of required if you want to make some of your own starter stuff). Later I read that you specialize in one specific profession.

This is definitely a game to check out if you’re a former WoW player, or if you’re younger and have been playing stuff like MapleStory and want to try a more full-featured MMO that’s fantasy-based.

More game reviews to come later!

Related:

For the techies, there’s a podcast called RoMCast. The game’s Community Manager covers things like upcoming changes to the game and class discussion. If you play the game, try it out!

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