What is the best free-to-play or single-purchase MMO?

[Barbas]

I'm currently thinking that it's Guild Wars 2, partly because of the new expansion and partly because of all the convenient little aspects that cut down on things like grinding - the bane of some MMOs, particularly subscription-model ones. It's also got a lovely art style that makes it feel like wandering through a landscape painting.

But what I'm really interested in, because I'm really that bored, is what you think is the best free-to-play or single-purchase MMO currently on the market, and why.

 

[Silvanus]

GW2 is the only one I have proper experience with, but it's an extremely worthwhile purchase. Grinding exists, but is very much avoidable; the game is far more enjoyable if you just take your time, and you won't need to kill a thousand rats to get to the appropriate level at any point.

Plus, rich world, well realised, yadayada.

 

[Barbas]

GW2 is the only one I have proper experience with, but it's an extremely worthwhile purchase. Grinding exists, but is very much avoidable; the game is far more enjoyable if you just take your time, and you won't need to kill a thousand rats to get to the appropriate level at any point.

Plus, rich world, well realised, yadayada.

Oh, I love it. I love the jumping puzzles, which somehow manage not to be the pain in the backside that they should. I love the little caves tucked away in the edges of an area that yield some great little side-quest and loot haul. It's all so nice, so very nice. I was feeling melancholy today and it's cheering me up a bit just thinking about it. Man, I'm going to reinstall it right now...

 

[Angelblaze]

Depends on the genre, in my opinion.

Currently, I'm in a bender of Path of Exile: A staggering amount of content and, frankly, an incredible story if you care to pay attention. There are few games that allow this degree of in game battle customization.

Ripped my lvl 70 trapper right after I decked them out in their last piece of unique equipment. Luckily, trappers are cheap as fuck and quick runners with the right equips. And I still have a lvl 70 rf totemer..but now I'm getting ahead of myself. In short, great game. Definitely recommend.


Also; shout out to a game not many would count as an MMO - Warhammer: End Times - Vermintide. Same as above but with rats.

 

[Barbas]

Path of Exile.

I love that game. It's rare for me to come across something with that many Aussie accents in it. The only downside I can think of is the difficulty in telling enemies apart from the scenery. Probably just my eyes, though. I've been meaning to pick up Vermintide; is it worth the price and have they added much of consequence since it appeared on Steam?

 

[Paragon Fury]

Guild Wars 2. Bar none. The end game is a little weak, but it probably has the strongest PvP of all of them.

Unless we're counting TERA. TERA was pretty good too, though it doesn't have the players to justify much anymore.

 

[sanquin]

I'd say Guild Wars as well. With Elder Scrolls Online coming in second. ESO is good, imo, if you don't expect a skyrim online out of it.

 

[kiri3tsubasa]

For me it is Warhammer 40,000: Eternal Crusade. It is the multiplayer component of Space Marine.

 

[Zykon TheLich_v1legacy]

Non subscription:

Guild wars 2. Probably my favourite. Looks great, plays decent, feels big, thematically quite interesting, an "eastern" take on western fantasy without being too animu. Size of the world means you don't really need to grind, there's going to be another area of the world that fits your level that you can play through to level up, although that can make it feel a bit disjointed. Login bonus' are pretty sweet. But it's one I tend to play for a bit for a week or 2 then not touch for a month.

Fully free to play:

Tera plays really nicely but the world feels very...plastic, like it's an arena that's been dressed up in themed scenery and then filled with oddly out of place enemies for you to kill. The fact that it's primarily populated with animu fuckdolls in lingerie armour doesn't help, but that's more personal taste I suppose.

Neverwinter. Plays really nicely, very "actiony", but feels like your playing a single player RPG. A good one, but still not quite an MMO. End game got a bit better with the updates but still not great. Could do with much more variation in the look of armour and weapons. Since It's free I'd suggest giving it a go to play through the main campaign, but you probably wouldn't bother after that.

 

[The Wykydtron]

Right now i'm waiting for my new PC to arrive so I can finally start leveling in Blade and Soul. Which is going to be my answer to the thread by the way. I got around level 15 in the beta before my PC just keeled over and died so i'm not just blinded by pure hype. Don't pick Blade Master though, it's easily the most boring class in the game. Effective but boring, apparently they get better once you unlock all your moves and you can progress past the spam LMB, parry, continue spamming LMB.

Honestly I dunno how well it functions as an MMORPG on a world level (apparently its questing mechanics are a few years behind the curve?) but the combat is fucking fantastic and the PVP is easily the best PVP from any MMORPG ever.

Ok it does help that the game is the most anime thing ever from even character creation. You can have all the Naruto eye variants on your character, if that isn't knowing your audience I do not know what is.

I'm just going to leave this shining example of BnS PVP right here. Godspeed Trin.


"Round 2! I'm not going to fall your your cheap tricks this t-fuck"

 

[Bombiz]

. Don't pick Blade Master though, it's easily the most boring class in the game.

this severely limits the amount of classes I can play now. Can't play KF because ping isn't good enough(neither am I) and I wont play any classes specific to the lyn race because I don't like how they look. S know I'm stuck between FM and Destroyer.

Also how's the PvE in that game?

Path of Exile.

I love that game. It's rare for me to come across something with that many Aussie accents in it. The only downside I can think of is the difficulty in telling enemies apart from the scenery. Probably just my eyes, though. I've been meaning to pick up Vermintide; is it worth the price and have they added much of consequence since it appeared on Steam?

I'd wait until the new expansion/Leagues are out before getting in to Path of exile.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

Oh probably GW2. The whole genre is in a spiral though. It's been circling the drain for years now. Very little in the way of innovation or experimentation. Game play has become rigidly formulaic. They cost too much and don't generate the ROI they used to.

 

[NordicWarrior]

I must be missing something with GW2. I bought the original game and for the life of me I can't get into it. I get so bored in the first few hours I just give up. I've tried a few times but it just wears me out.

 

[DementedSheep]

Well I like the Secret World BUT it's not a every MMO-y MMO, it is more geared towards single paly till you start doing dungeons and lairs and there isn't a lot to do when you work through all the story content. It dose however have a fairly good plot and voice acting, the quest are interesting and if you like code breaking the investigate mission are fun and unique.

For a more standard MMO, I'd say GW2 wins. For free Neverwinter was decent when I played it though I got bored pretty fast. It has player made quests which is cool (although 80% of them are "LOL this is actually a video game" with the same jokes)

 

[kurokotetsu]

I'm currently thinking that it's Guild Wars 2, partly because of the new expansion and partly because of all the convenient little aspects that cut down on things like grinding - the bane of some MMOs, particularly subscription-model ones. It's also got a lovely art style that makes it feel like wandering through a landscape painting.

But what I'm really interested in, because I'm really that bored, is what you think is the best free-to-play or single-purchase MMO currently on the market, and why.

THa depends on what you expect. But for me I will quote this guy:

For me it is Warhammer 40,000: Eternal Crusade. It is the multiplayer component of Space Marine.

Why? Well, I was oging to make a thread of this, but it is mainly due to the fact that standard MMOs don't really appeal to me. I wathced some WoW and some FFXI and little Everquest back in the day when a friend played them, and really they didn't grab my attention. SO I've never played an MMO. BUt then Eternal Crusade came to my attention. And I was lucky to get a free copy of the game. ANd even in my potato computer that has a lot of issues I'm haivng a great time. I love the idea of having timed third person battles as a way to win territory and that those might be attacked by the "enviroment" (a fifth race wihtout human players) as well as other factions. I like that the rank or level is less important than skill and just working wiht your team mates, since it is in the bassi a TPS, and weapons so for in the store seem to be mainly cosmetic. I like the idea (and hope they will implement it) that the Orks faction might have the F2P players as fodder, since that faction has a lot of fodder in lore. I like the different weapons and how they work and the classes. ANd I really like how still in ALpha and Early Access, you get casts each week with improvements and see the work of the developers. It is rough and with few maps right now, as weel as a resouce hog on the computer, but hell I'm enjoying it and if you like the idea, join the crusade (and use my referal code). It is very different form the standard MMO and I enjoy it that way.

 

[Barbas]

(Snip).

Good to see you again. And I just looked up the game. Turns out I had it confused with something else; it looks very interesting. I'd love to get into it to follow the development, thank you for the offer! I do like MMOs that try and deviate somewhat from the norm.

 

[kurokotetsu]

(Snip).

Good to see you again. And I just looked up the game. Turns out I had it confused with something else; it looks very interesting. I'd love to get into it to follow the development, thank you for the offer! I do like MMOs that try and deviate somewhat from the norm.

You too mate. I don't post much, that is why it is pretty rare (8 years and uncder 500 posts, yikes), and indeed look into it is a different thing that most things out there. You can check their Oficcial page [https://www.eternalcrusade.com/] to see factions, basics, sign up (you don't have to buy to sing up, if you use a referal code you will get points for the sotre) and see one thing that I really like, the fact that they have extra stories to act a fluff for the game. If you want to see the casts I catch them ofn the official Youtube page [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxH-BQF2CRQV6lXTf41xEeg] where you can sse the live stream of the recoridngs, as well as trailers and see whtat they add and what they plan every week. And for something more infomral but maybe more prractical, for example I would recommend Zoran's THe Bear channel [https://www.youtube.com/user/ZoranTheBear], where he looks into the weapons and gives his thoughts on them and the balance while you see him play the game. It is still in ALpha, so a lot to change, but enjoyable none the less.

 

[Nismu]

For me the top mmorpgs are Firefall and DDO . they actually have fun gameplay that keeps me returning to them year after year.

both very unique with firefall being shooter first and DDO having awesome instances that make it feel like an adventure with traps and surprises and tons of possible characters builds.. and DDo has true reincarnations where you once at cap level you start over , your character gets bonus from being TRed and you can choose different class different build and so on. Just amazing and it keeps things fresh as you run quests with different build. It is not about getting asap to cap but enjoying the road and start again.

 

[RedDeadFred]

GW2 is the only one I have proper experience with, but it's an extremely worthwhile purchase. Grinding exists, but is very much avoidable; the game is far more enjoyable if you just take your time, and you won't need to kill a thousand rats to get to the appropriate level at any point.

Plus, rich world, well realised, yadayada.

Oh, I love it. I love the jumping puzzles, which somehow manage not to be the pain in the backside that they should. I love the little caves tucked away in the edges of an area that yield some great little side-quest and loot haul. It's all so nice, so very nice. I was feeling melancholy today and it's cheering me up a bit just thinking about it. Man, I'm going to reinstall it right now...

This is the best way to experience the game in my opinion. Just exploring at your own pace, seeing all of the fantastic sights, and discovering hidden areas. A lot of people really dislike jumping puzzles but they're one of my favourite parts of the game.

Further on GW2, a lot of the limitations for F2P accounts are simply there to prevent spamming or claiming multiple login rewards and giving them all to your main account. Looking further over the limitations the ones I could see being annoying are only 3 bag slots, and only 2 character slots. Not being able to PvP until a certain level is probably a good thing since even by max level, you wouldn't be prepared for it. WvW is a lot tougher to do if you're not max level since you're not going to have the best gear. To be honest, I would just stay away from PvP in general if you're F2P since you don't have access to the Elite Specs which, despite Anet's best assurances, are not simply another way to play you're class, they're almost universally power creep.

Edit: just realized that you said "or single purchase" so that alleviates all the stuff I mentioned with the F2P account since now, if you buy the game, you just buy Heart of Thorns and everything else comes with it.