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The
graphics for RoM
may remind gamers of those found in WoW. The level of detail is a
little higher, but both games share a "stylized" art design.

She Looks Pretty from the
Rear, but How about the Face?

For as long as I have known about style="font-style: italic;">Runes of Magic, I
have heard people call it a WoW clone. Let's get this out of the way
right now: the graphics do look a lot like Blizzard's href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/WoW"> style="font-style: italic;">World of Warcraft,
right down to the "stylized" (the industry word for almost realistic
but slightly off) art. Character design uses the same WoW tendency to
overemphasize
certain features for dramatic effect. Landscapes have enough details
(vegetation, terrain textures, and diverse color palettes) to sell the
ideas
without slowing your PC to a crawl. You'll never walk by someone
playing RoM and think he is looking at his vacation photos on the web,
but you won't think
he's playing a game loaded from floppy disks either.

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Ralsu
prefers the
scout class so he can strike from a distance like a sissy. Which class
would you favor?

RoM uses some draw in (or pop in) to render items as you close
the distance between your character and the horizon, but the game looks
nice all the same. Interiors are cluttered with enough items to give a
sense that they are real, and locations vary in their design themes.
Some dungeons
are natural caves while others are castles and keeps.

Armor comes in a few different flavors, too. A large part of
customization comes from the gear you equip, and href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/41235">your party can
look very different at a glance. It's safe to assume crafting
will lend to customization with dyes, but I did not see any different
local styles of crafting like in Vanguard.

Yes, Yes, But
How Does It Play?

First off, understand that style="font-style: italic;">Runes of Magic won href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/events/leipzig08/awards">Ten
Ton Hammer's Best Free-to-Play award for the 2008 Leipzig
GCDC. Also note that the title has spent several weeks in my href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/Top10F2P">Top Ten
Free-to-Play Games
list because I have been excited about the
level of polish that Frogster has promised for the game. My beta
testing was a positive experience. Entomologists need not have
applied; there simply weren't a lot of bugs to find. The worst things I
encountered were some pathing problems for mobs and the occasional
quest that had not been translated into English yet.

I
enjoyed the quests because they made a concerted effort to craft a
story that
expanded to a more global view the longer I played, and I appreciated
the maturity of the community during my testing. Not every quest is
about battling an oppressive evil. One of the first quests asks players
to thin the number of wolves in the nearby valley because they threaten
the safety of the starter village. The player base was
active in global chat, swapping strategies for crafting or debating the
merits of class combinations. Talk about the game tended toward
mature discussion rather than haters hell bent on bringing down the
game
or zealous fans trying to convert heathens.

Parting Thoughts

Runes of Magic
may clone from a couple of the most popular subscription games
available, but it offers its game for free.
It's not generic at all thanks to a thought-out story, so it feels a
bit like getting designer clothes at department store prices. When
all is said and done, the best compliment I can pay to the game is that
writing this article only made me want to play it again. My wife and I
will be logging into the open beta the week of December 15, and I could
see us playing this game for a while.