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style="font-style: italic;">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
style="font-style: italic;">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.
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The upper levels in
style="font-style: italic;">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.
Do you think the
Realm-vs.Realm combat in Magic
World Online would interest you? href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=27040">Tell
us in our forums.
To read the latest guides, news, and features you can visit our Magic World Online Game Page.
