Great free to play MMOs?

[Sixcess]

Lord of the Rings Online and Star Trek Online have already been mentioned a few times, so I'll just add my recomendation to them.

And to Fallen Earth, a less well known post apoc MMO with first/third person shooter style combat a huge open world to explore, in depth crafting and a mainly pvp focused endgame that's pretty active now that they've had an influx of new players with F2P.

Finally, a sort of recomendation for City of Heroes. I've had a lot of fun with it and it's the best (IMO of course) of the superhero MMOs, but I'm not overly fond of the F2P model it offers.

 

[PPB]

The only ones I've played are DDO and LotRO, and they're both pretty good games. I think the LotRO model is pretty good, though as a past subscriber I have quite a bit of stuff unlocked so I can't judge it 100% objectively from a F2P point of view. Still, I think it's definitely enjoyable for free and you can actually earn currency by playing so you can theoretically unlock everything without spending a dime (though that would require serious grinding and rerolling several characters).

DDO is a bit of a different beast despite being made by the same company. If you're tired of the WoW approach (to which LotRO subscribes), you might want to give it a go.

 

[Birdfalcon]

STO...yeah it is a great ftp mmo cyprtic got that right. DC universe a bit laggy for me gonna try and get it on the ps3. Tried APB...was good but between the city zones not loading and the damn punkbuster kicking me every 5 minutes or so to do updates...yeah i cant recommend that also TOR follows the WOW ftp model...once agian showing EA's business model of ripping off the competion while trying in vain to kill them. Age of conan...can't recommend it thier FTP model sucks. Also cant wait for planetside 2.

 

[Jet_02]

Guild wars 2 might be worth a look although you do have to buy the box, no sub though.

 

[GrindBass]

SWTOR is going free to play fairly soon. If you're into the story/levelling aspect then it's one of the best for that, and they're not putting any of the levelling stuff behind a cash wall

 

[Aeshi]

I can second Sixcess's recommendation of City of Heroes.

Spiral Knights is a pretty fun Dungeon Crawler MMO (though it also has some of the Dungeon Crawlers Grind as well)

WoW also has an indefinite free trial mode for the first 20 levels if that interests you.

 

[Kungfu_Teddybear]

The only F2P MMO I've ever really enjoyed was Requiem: Memento Mori.

 

[Lunar Templar]

I used to play DC Universe Online a long time ago, and I'd have to say that it's an OK title. You'll need to find a clan or something pretty early on, though. It can be hard to find parties to run with, and being in a clan would help with that a lot.

Lastly, Dungeon Fighter Online. Well, I enjoy this quite a bit. It's got plenty of depth to it, and the unique style's quite cool. Plus, the F2P players get a fair shake at things. I'd have gone to P2P already if I had money, purely because it hasn't forced me to do so in order to play.

just be-aware that DCUO is ALL about the end game raids, you'll breeze through the content in like 2 days with out trying and be left with just the raids and the continual grind for better gear, and all the extra content is pay only. other wise its fun, combat is pretty good and while they last, the story mission are pretty good.

DFO is good stuff over all, i also recommend this, lots of skills and builds to play with, not to mention the 'holy shit! that was awesome!' moments you can have with combos. also, no two characters play the same, even the 'M/F' characters play a little differently from they're counterparts

lastly, i offer Vindictus.
the only MMO to look at in terms of skill based combat if that's your thing. ever boss can be solo'd (except like 5 due to how its set up) if you have the skill to do so. combat even at low levels of play is visceral and satisfying, there's less depth the DFO in terms of what you can pull off combo wise though, and some of the high level gear is just a massive pain in the ass to get. the cash shop is there, of course, but its more a suggestion that anything else

 

[Lunar Templar]

The only F2P MMO I've ever really enjoyed was Requiem: Memento Mori.

i WANT to like Requiem, but they won't let me D:, first they took away my possession beast form, then, they took away the starting area i liked.

i like the general every thing about it though

 

[Gatx]

I'm gonna have to say Aion. A lot of MMOs that were P2P but changed, like say D&D and LotR, sort of sealed off parts of their game and made them accessible through only subscription or purchase, but everything that was in Aion before is still available to everyone. That alone I think deserves some kind of recognition. It's also a very nice game, obviously because it was P2P before.

star trek online i would recomend.

you will reach max level and finish all the story missions in less than 3 weeks.

great fun, pretty friendly community and a game you can finish quickly.

world of tanks is also a great blast

I actually disagree. It's a lot of fun initially but it has a lot of the annoying quirks of Champions Online. The absolute biggest and confounding one is that any changes to the game settings (not graphics) and keyboard commands need to be redone for ever single new character you make.

 

[viranimus]

Hrm... Well given the nature of MMOs as a whole, theres really no such thing as a great MMO. They are all really mediocre at best. They all have elements of gaming and RPGs and multiplayer facets and stories and the like, but they are at their core a hybrid and much like any hybrid the sum of its parts are weaker than something that were specialized.

However, trying to add input, I would say hold off and wait for ToR. If nothing else do playthroughs and ignore the MMO portion of the game and view it as what it is.. KoTOR 3.

I know as far as f2P went, I was actually very impressed with Dungeons and Dragons online. So much so if I were willing to invest time into an MMO again, I thought I might throw some money at it.

Another idea that might be fun, that others likely would not suggest is the original everquest. Approach it like I suggested approaching ToR. Play through the game, connect to the community sparingly and play it to experience the old worlds, and understand what MMORPGs came from. If you investigate and look there is a wealth of narrative to be had in the game, and honestly its one MMO that has something no other MMO has. Legitimately forgotten lore. For example, If you talk to old EQ players, some of them might be familiar with "The prophecy of Trakanon" "The vision" and
the "Codex of light" but the original codex of light is nigh on impossible to find now. Literally, if you look it up online predominantly what your going to find is mentions of the codex of light, but behind dead links and forgotten message boards that do not have the info. Im sorry but as far as being into role playing games, that is something incredibly cool.

 

[INVALIDUSERNAME]

You could wait for SWTOR to go free, and play some of the stories (the Imperial Agent in particular was pretty good), Guild Wars 2 if you're not above paying $60 with no subscription piled on top, or for a purely free experience, I'd recommend Vindictus. It was fun enough as a F2P MMO, even if most of them are horrendous. Vindictus was aight.

 

[DanielBrown]

I've played LOTRO almost daily for the past three years and I really love the game. Amazing atmosphere, really mature community and the classes feel a bit more pure than in most MMOs. After the last expansion it's started to get a bit hazy with the non-dpsers getting lots of damage boosts, but it's mainly for solo purposes.

You don't have to pay at all for the game, and you can grind all the points to buy stuff, but I do recomend getting a months playtime after you hit level 30ish with one or(prefered) two characters. It'll unlock tons of things for your current characters as well as giving you complete access to the world up to Moria(level 50+) until the month ends. Once you are around level 30 you should know if you'd want to keep playing or not as well.

As for which to avoid... well, personally I can't stand any Korean MMOs, but that's just me. I also used to play Age of Conan a lot before it went F2P, but the games has way too many flaws to be overlooked. Don't know how much they've fixed now, though everytime I visit the forums I still see lots of angry posters, so I'd assume it's still the same.

 

[TechTim]

star trek online is ok & star wars kotor will be f2p soon

 

[Denamic]

Best free MMO I've played so far is DDO. DCUO is pretty good too. I got bored of it pretty fast, but it was fun while it lasted. I played it before it turned free to play, though.
That's not counting GW and GW2, as those costs money to buy.

 

[jollybarracuda]

I'd give a recommendation to LoTRO as well. I was able to get to around Lvl 35 before it started to seem like I really needed to start buying anything to progress. And that's only because the quests are hard as hell right now, so i can't finish them, and I'm not seeing anywhere that I can level up to make them easier. Could just be me not realizing something, but it's worth a mention. But otherwise, the game is immensely enjoyable able to really draw you into the world in some way that other MMO's just can't quite seem to pull off.

Aion is pretty good as well, and i might consider getting back into it myself. I love how they went all out and made everything free, which is great since you'll never feel like you're blocked from doing anything. Plus, the wings are pretty damn fun to get around with, once you learn how to get the most out of a glide.

 

[Codenet]

Thanks to everyone for your comments!

You guys have brought up a lot of interestingly looking games, and I can't wait to give a whole heap of them a try.

 

[Zyst]

Also check out S4 League, it's a third person shooter MMO with a really particular 'Jump' mechanic, basically you can jump off walls but it gets really creative and interesting, there's also a TD (touch down) mode than rather than focusing just on kills like deathmatch focuses on two teams fighting for a ball, then you have to take the ball to the enemy base (sort of like capture the flag, but a bit different) and overall it's very interesting.

If you haven't checked it out yet do check out C9 (Continent of the Ninth) although the cash shop can offer some advantages (skill reset, inventory expansion) it is by no means pay to win, all the cash shop stuff is only visual. It plays similar to GW2.

If you're into MOBA games I'd recommend DotA 2, LoL and for a different thing Smite, I bought in into the closed beta and it's a really fun game overall.

Good luck and have fun!