by Jeff Francis on Oct 06, 2011
Rusty Hearts
came across Ten Ton Hammer’s radar during the
href="http://tentonhammer.com/rusty-hearts/E3/2011/preview">E3
2011 show where Ethec described
how the game took him back to the glory
days of Double Dragon,
Golden Axe,
and Streets of Rage.
Being a fan of
old-school smash-them-up games (and being old!), I eagerly awaited the
game and was able to
href="http://tentonhammer.com/rustyhearts/first-look">preview
the game before launch. Now, Rusty
Hearts
is out and I ventured into the gothic setting to slay hordes of
monsters, buy some cool clothes for my character, and review the game
to see if it delivers action and a good time.
Rusty Hearts
is a free online MMORPG developed by Stairway Games and
distributed by Perfect World Entertainment. In this anime-inspired
game, the player takes on the role of one of three characters (a fourth
is coming later) who fights against the menacing vampire lord, Vlad.
While there is a storyline in the game, the focus is on fighting.
You’ll fight your way through countless dungeons, slaying
armies of hideous monsters, to defend the citizens of the realm from
the festering evil.
As you level, you gain new abilities and upgrade those abilities as you
gain in power. Once you’ve advanced enough, a new section of
the city will open to you with a new dungeon for you to adventure in.
The game is ridiculously addictive. It’s tremendous fun if
you’re looking for an action MMO. You’ll be button
mashing like mad to do cool combos and trying to improve your
“style” points as you go through a dungeon. The
action is the centerpiece of the game and it shines. Your various
abilities are executed in a cool manner and you look bad-ass as you
plow through mobs of creatures, dishing out their deserved retribution.
While you will go through each dungeon a lot of times, it
doesn’t get boring. The average time to get through a dungeon
is from between five to ten minutes, so you’ll be breezing
along, swinging your sword through the rotten innards of the undead.
Rusty Hearts
will throw some curveballs to add some spice to a dungeon
by having your complete it within a certain time limit, have limits
upon the number of times you get hit, having a chest spawn with
additional loot to entice you to go through again, having a different
boss monster, or one of a handful of other conditions.
The storyline is interesting the first time around, but later on
you’ll be fast-clicking through the dialogue. The
game’s setting is somewhat serious, but there is definitely a
humorous touch to the game. The character of Angela gets most of the
good lines throughout the game as she constantly belly-aches about
what’s going on.
There are the usual MMO staples in Rusty
Hearts. There are guilds, an
auction house, PvP, and crafting. However, the focus remains firmly on
fighting. If you’re looking for a vast world to travel and
explore, harvesting fizzywig ferns to make enchanted placemats, or
gather with other players to recreate the Battle of Helm’s
Deep, then you’re out of luck. Rusty
Hearts is a fighting
game with RPG elements thrown in.
The biggest drawback to Rusty
Hearts is the lack of
customization.
Since there are only three characters to pick from, everybody looks the
same. While you can get costume pieces to wear (either from quest
rewards, crafting, or the cash shop), you’ll still look like
one of a crowd. Still, you’re spending the vast majority of
your time in dungeons killing monsters, so it’s not a
game-breaker. However, it would be nice if more customization options
would become available.
Cons