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Magic World Online may be one of the deepest free-to-play games available. Image from the official wiki.

Harvesting and Crafting
After learning more about the class system in Magic World Online, my next goal was to learn about harvesting and crafting. In my first play session, I had encountered an entire field dedicated to resource gathering. I just needed to learn what it was good for and how to acquire the skills.

I learned that miners harvest crystals to make armor and magic trinkets. Alchemists gather herbs to make potions and salves. Leather workers use beast hides to reinforce and create medium armors. This is very helpful for the Archer class. Tailors make cloth armors that benefit Mages. Lumberjacks can make shields and possibly more, but I wasn't able to get a clear answer for that.

Training starts with a non-player character in town. I lack sufficient play time to say how crafted items compare to drops or merchant items.

The upper levels in Magic World Online really challenge players to rely on one another. Image from the official wiki.

Weapon Growth
Magic World Online features a system through which a player can "feed" one weapon to another to make the second one stronger. In theory, a player could use this system to keep the same weapon all the way to the level cap. I did not get to experience this system firsthand in my limited play time, but it's been done in other games. Since the character models in MWO are somewhat tiny, it's not a huge loss to be unable to change weapon graphics throughout the game. So if growing a weapon could make my character stronger, I would not hesitate to do so. In a more graphically rich game, I usually dislike such advancement systems because I like to see my avatar wielding different weapons.

Upper Levels and Realm-vs.-Realm Action
Even at level 1, I found enemies to be clustered together thickly and that respawns happened in bunches. Luckily, most of the lower level enemies were not aggressive. Most only fought back when I attacked them first. If the upper levels hold to the same pattern, however, I can imagine it would be very hard to solo in this game. I am sure higher-level enemies are aggressive by default, and thick clusters of them could spell doom for an Ice-specialized Mage or an Archer with low hit points.

But the real meat of the upper levels is all about the Realm-vs.-Realm (RvR) play and city sieges. My lowly Mage competed in neither RvR nor city sieges, but MWO seems to build toward it greatly. In full-scale RvR, the low graphical quality starts to make a little sense and hordes of players can be on screen at one time. I'm sure it is both frantic and thrilling.

Parting Thoughts
Magic World Online is an example of a great game being developed with low funding. The class system is deep, players can craft, and the game provides RvR on a grand scale. I'd easily recommend this game to anybody based on those features, but the poor graphics make me hesitate. So many people I know are unwilling to overlook dated graphics for a good story and solid game play elements. Gamers these days want the complete package. Perhaps the fact that MWO is free-to-play with be its saving grace. It's a great game and worth a look for anyone who isn't too attached to eye candy.

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