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

After the tutorial, I made my way to the starter area called Sanctuary where everyone was friendly and had a quest for me. There was so much to do that it almost became overwhelming. I learned to train, bathe, and feed pets. I had a chance to ride karts in a race. Some citizens needed to put my skills as a Brawler to work in combat. One original quest spruced up the tired “postman delivery” concept we’ve all played millions times by making it an actual postman delivery. Literally, I turned into a mail man and delivered letters! It sounds dorky (okay, it is dorky), but it was fun.

My only real complaint in Sanctuary was that there were almost too many options too soon. I felt a bit like I was going straight from taking the training wheels off of my bike to the Tour de France. I had wanted to concentrate on cooking and build up my chef levels. Once I had done a basic quest in Sanctuary, I needed only to roam to the next town. Nothing in the game was stopping me; it was years of training by other games to wipe out all of the quests in one area before moving on that had me paralyzed. Still, the paralysis was real and is something I think other “type A” personality gamers will find creates conflict for them.

Since the product I played was a beta, I’ll do SOE the courtesy of not highlighting the bugs I encountered. If the serious ones remain in the client at launch, I’ll blast them for it with due diligence. For now, I’d encourage anyone who can to try the title and see just how free it makes you feel. I will add the caveats that I did not try any of the premium content (some classes, quests and minigames are for subscribers only) and that FR does what it can to make you aware that you need to subscribe. It’s not over the top puns like in Dungeon Runners, but it’s blatantly obvious from the limit of one character slot to the restriction of some classes. Without subscribing, you will not get the full game. That doesn’t mean you can’t have fun.

Parting Thoughts

For a MMO marketed as a great bridge to bring young players into gaming, I think Free Realms will have better hold among casual adult gamers and women than with teens. I found the explosion of available quests in Sanctuary disconcerting despite the fact that I am a reasonably educated adult with a modicum of patience and maturity. I cannot imagine trying to concentrate among all of those distractions as an energetic youth!

Along the rest of my play time over the weekend, I killed a few minor bosses in quest instances, made some more advanced culinary dishes, distracted vicious dogs while I delivered mail, and managed to come in third in a kart race. I even discovered one addicting game that was of the “protect the fortress” variety (“Honey, I’m home!” was the title). From start to finish, my experience was pure check your brain fun. I’d recommend Free Realms to anybody who isn’t solely a hard core raider. I won’t tell anyone how much fun it is to whirl around as you morph into your chef clothes if you won’t.

Have you tried Free Realms? Email your thoughts or post them in our forums!