Ten Ton Hammer - Taking MMO Gamers to the Next Level!

By Danny "Ralsu" Gourley

Red Stone is a 2D free-to-play fantasy game from K2 Network. The graphics are decidedly old school, but could the Diablo-like click and kill gameplay and story be worth a look? I had to find out more, so I downloaded the title and spent an evening exploring the world.

Download and Installation
Before downloading any game, it's always best to check out the system requirements, but the system requirements for Red Stone are so low that even a gamer with a bargain bin computer can play the game. If your computer can't play Red Stone, you should buy a football and go outside.

Gamers can download Red Stone as an installer from a few different mirrors. The download is 578MB, and the install size on my hard drive is 1.3GB.

Installation was very quick and pain free, as the installer did the work while I watched. After a few minutes of patching the client, I was ready to log in and play.

Character Creation
Red Stone puts a very different spin on its classes. While there are archetypal classes such as Warrior, Priest, and Thief, the game throws some real curve balls. For instance, how many games let players choose Demon as a class? And Red Stone goes further, matching the classes up in pairs to give the player flexibility. the Priest class is paired with the Fallen Angel. While the former has the stereotypical heals and revive spell, the latter sports some Necromancer-like attack spells. But then, the Necromancer is another class that is paired with the Demon.

If my descriptions are confusing to the reader, it is partly because it is confusing for the starting player. The character creation screen gives a cursory explanation, but it is hard to get a real understanding that you are creating BOTH a Priest and a Fallen Angel at the same time until you are playing the game.

My six-year old daughter was watching me play, so I created a Princess character that I let her name Scaryamy (Scary Amy). That meant I was also getting a Little Witch, too, but I did not comprehend the impact until I had played for a few hours. I had no customization options. I just got to pick a name and get to work.

Interface and Controls
Red Stone keeps things simple on purpose. The goal is to not turn away any gamers because of an overly complicated system. To that end, the interface is familiar to anyone who has played a hack 'n' slash game or another massively-multiplayer online game (MMOG).

A couple of skills can be assigned the to left and right mouse buttons like any good action game. The skills selected show up appropriately on the left and right sides of the screen at the bottom.

Like most MMOGs, a skill hotbar (well, two hotbars of 5 slots stacked) sits on the left side of the screen. Above it is the chat window, where some other user immediately started flirting with my character the moment I landed in the tutorial section.

Over on the bottom right next to the right-click skills are the menu buttons. The open windows for Ability (what I normally call attributes), Equipment, Skills, and the usual. Each of these menus can also be accessed by one of the function keys. Above the menu buttons is a row dedicated to storage.

The bottom center of the interface is dominated by a red stone (see what they did there?) that indicates the player's health. Beneath the red stone is a meter that fills up as the player fights. A full meter can be used to run in stead of walk or to unleash special attacks.

The minimap in the top right corner of the screen reminded me of games I played on the Sega Genesis in 1992. It is simple but effective. Characters who have a quest for the player have a piece of parchment with an exclamation point floating above their heads. Searchable items glow on mouse over.

Controls in Red Stone are just as simple as the interface. Left-licking moves around the character. Clicking on an enemy with either button attacks it. Double-clicking characters and items interacts with them.

There's more to Red Stone. Continue to page 2.