What MMO should my friends and I pick up?
- Thread starter crepesack
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There's lots of stuff out there, certainly a lot more f2p stuff out there.
SWTOR isn't a huge leap of difference from WoW, probably a good bet if they like that sort of thing, and you can afford to subscribe. Rift seemed to follow similar themes when I tried it, but didn't get very far with it.
Currently I play DCUO - I find it a lot of fun, but it seems a bit chalk-and-cheese game. As a f2p you're really not limited in seeing what the game offers, so you can get a good feeling for the game without forking out.
Runes of Magic and Forsaken World end up favouring cash-shoppers. RoM when I played also had massive balance issues, and didn't seem to address certain issues that well. FW I enjoyed, but you really need a guild and to be able to dedicate a certain amount of time to it a day. Found it too daily-focused - didn't have enough time after work to get the dailies I wanted to do done, and on weekends I ran out of stuff to do. Might've worked better if I had a dedicated group to run instances with instead of relying on PuGs.
Global Agenda I found fun, but just didn't have the staying power for me. Loved the classes, but the content was kind of dull.
Champions Online... just couldn't get into it. Apparently it's a lot more fun as a paying player and designing your own class - the archetypes just aren't exciting builds, coupled with quests that failed to engage me meant I quit it relatively early on.
Star Trek, I did the first tutorial mission and haven't played it since. Got bored silly by that.
SWTOR isn't a huge leap of difference from WoW, probably a good bet if they like that sort of thing, and you can afford to subscribe. Rift seemed to follow similar themes when I tried it, but didn't get very far with it.
Currently I play DCUO - I find it a lot of fun, but it seems a bit chalk-and-cheese game. As a f2p you're really not limited in seeing what the game offers, so you can get a good feeling for the game without forking out.
Runes of Magic and Forsaken World end up favouring cash-shoppers. RoM when I played also had massive balance issues, and didn't seem to address certain issues that well. FW I enjoyed, but you really need a guild and to be able to dedicate a certain amount of time to it a day. Found it too daily-focused - didn't have enough time after work to get the dailies I wanted to do done, and on weekends I ran out of stuff to do. Might've worked better if I had a dedicated group to run instances with instead of relying on PuGs.
Global Agenda I found fun, but just didn't have the staying power for me. Loved the classes, but the content was kind of dull.
Champions Online... just couldn't get into it. Apparently it's a lot more fun as a paying player and designing your own class - the archetypes just aren't exciting builds, coupled with quests that failed to engage me meant I quit it relatively early on.
Star Trek, I did the first tutorial mission and haven't played it since. Got bored silly by that.
If you're looking for just playing together and not doing any Hardcore stuff then you could try out Lord of the Rings Online, it's free and you easily get to level 30 and a bit above with the free content.
And if any of you like Lotr otherwise it's nice to get to see the places visited in the books, Shire is a really nice place.
And if any of you like Lotr otherwise it's nice to get to see the places visited in the books, Shire is a really nice place.
Try out LoTRo and DDO. Both are quite fun. F2P but still quite fun. Both games are well balanced, the scenery isn't half bad. Story is ok, but it does pretty good on the group stuff, especially DDO. Dungeons in that game are quite fun indeed. If you want something wacky, why not go back to EQ2, You can try it for free or get silver or gold membership if you feel like committing to it, the game has a lot of options, and it's quite fun to play around with.
Dark Souls. Sure, it's technically not an MMO, but you won't notice that unless you're playing to chat.
Final Fantasy XIV might be worth checking out. I recently renewed with my brother, it's one of the few MMOs where questing and levelling together is actually beneficial. It's cheap as shit with a free month and currently undergoing huge changes, if you play now you're effectively existing and playing in what soon will be the past as at the end of this year they're destroying the map via a questline and replacing it with a better one. Anyway, it's fun and completely different than most MMOs. It's just a shame the release was so bad.
Well Fallen Earth is free-to-play now even so couldn hurt to try that one. It's kinda difrent from other MMO experiences because of the combat system. It also has THE most extensive and well developed crafting system ever as far as I can understand, with every little piece of salvagable scrap being usable in many recipes. Practically all of the items in-game can be made by the players themselves resulting in a rather expansive player-driven echonomy, only some of the items you gain from quests and a few other special are unique and cannot be crafted. Since it became free-to-play there is of course a store for the game where you buy like clothes and upgrades and whatever, but you can still play the game free and get the full experience. Leveling up will just take a bit longer, but that's often nice as it gives you time to take in the western atmosphere. Couldn't hurt to check it out, it IS free after all!
We tried our hands at APB: Reloaded, of course that's a free-to-play Third Person Shooter, so I guess it's not up most MMO fans street.
Then there is WoT, a game I've played extensively since the Closed BETA. It was released around this time last year and is doing pretty well for itself. It is ALSO free-to-pay, but you can only do random battles in groups of 2 without a "premium account" and 2 with one. There is always Company battles for up to 15 players a team and Clan Wars, it should offer plenty if you chose to pay or not. As you guessed, it's a game about tanks.
They are free so cost you nothing but time to have a look at!
We tried our hands at APB: Reloaded, of course that's a free-to-play Third Person Shooter, so I guess it's not up most MMO fans street.
Then there is WoT, a game I've played extensively since the Closed BETA. It was released around this time last year and is doing pretty well for itself. It is ALSO free-to-pay, but you can only do random battles in groups of 2 without a "premium account" and 2 with one. There is always Company battles for up to 15 players a team and Clan Wars, it should offer plenty if you chose to pay or not. As you guessed, it's a game about tanks.
They are free so cost you nothing but time to have a look at!
Hundreds...I'll run down a few.crepesack said:
Age Of Conan: Feels really great, gets dull quickly. (Free)
AioN: Very pretty. Dull quickly. (Free)
Champions Online: Goes from stupid to derp. Pretty but that's about it. (Free)
City of Heroes/Villains : Fun, fun, fun. Avoid PvP as it's still borked. (Free)
DCUO: Oh what a waste. Play Batman for the big missions and then turn off. (Free)
Dungeons and Dragons: Really good fun but gets old quickly. Best with friends (Free)
Eve Online: Very unfriendly but very engrossing. Lot of effort required but gets to be a blast (Paid)
Everquest: Blocky and needs a lot of effort. Quite fun. (Free)
Everquest 2: Pretty, great music, tied up in a lot of pay for content (Free)
Lord of the Rings Online: Good, but can get annoying real fast. Must like LotR. (Free but hammers machines)
Puzzle Pirates: If you can get over the graphics, really quite a fun puzzler. Not really a friends thing though (Free)
Requiem: Good for laughs, not a long term game. (Free)
Star Trek Online: Guilty pleasure. Nice set pieces. (Free)
WoW: Popular, Wave goodbye to your friends (Paid)
Star Wars: The Old Republic: Still being patched, good reports (Paid)
Coming soon: Secret World (Mystical Spies), TERA (Politics and Aliens?), Guild Wars 2 (Either awesome or a letdown - no-one knows)
I found the dungeons fairly variable in quality. Never was a fan of the "let's stick a random puzzle in the middle of this instance for no real appreciable reason" thing either. I mean, I like pipes, but not as part of an MMORPG.vortalism said:
Generally the dungeons added after and the starter dungeons were fun, but there was a lot of unmemorable bad ones, and I didn't find a raid I liked. Is a great game to level up in, but it just got to a point of meh for me towards endgame. Grinding out the better gear and the idea of reincarnation just bored the snot out of me, so that's what made me quit it lol.
Probably worth subscribing for a month or three, but I don't think it really had the longevity for me to come back to it.
@tharglet
I agree with you on the raids, those weren't really good. I just liked the dungeons because those pipe bits and other traps and stuff were pretty neat, although to be honest, I didn't play too much of that game so I only played 2 or 3 dungeons after the starter dungeons.
Come to think of it, I did get bored of it a lot quicker than I usually do in an MMO (despite the fact I love D&D and MMOs so that should totally work).
The time I did spend leveling was very entertaining and especially so in a group. I really enjoyed the fact that you did level in an instanced dungeon, as you would in D&D. Quite enjoyable for the short time I did play it though.
I agree with you on the raids, those weren't really good. I just liked the dungeons because those pipe bits and other traps and stuff were pretty neat, although to be honest, I didn't play too much of that game so I only played 2 or 3 dungeons after the starter dungeons.
Come to think of it, I did get bored of it a lot quicker than I usually do in an MMO (despite the fact I love D&D and MMOs so that should totally work).
The time I did spend leveling was very entertaining and especially so in a group. I really enjoyed the fact that you did level in an instanced dungeon, as you would in D&D. Quite enjoyable for the short time I did play it though.
Requiem: Memento Mori? I'm amazed that someone else has actually played that. It was the first MMO I ever played so I still have affection for it, even if it is extremely grindy.The_root_of_all_evil said:
OP, all of my favourites have been mentioned so I'll just add a few of my impressions of them:
City of Heroes : Excellent if you want to be grouped up a lot, as most every mission is instanced and scales to group size. Really fun character creation and combat.
Fallen Earth : My favourite MMO. Very open world - go where you please, do what you like - wonderful atmosphere, deep crafting system and FPS style combat.
Lord of the Rings Online : Good game with a lovingly rendered world. A must if you like the books.
Star Trek Online : Ground combat is rather meh, but the ship to ship combat more than makes up for that.
...and I'll even throw in a recommendation for The Old Republic. It's pretty much exactly what I don't look for in an MMO, but I wouldn't call it a bad game. If you enjoy Bioware games then chances are you'll enjoy TOR.
I enjoyed it quite a bit; a lot more than a number of other games I've played in that list. Very odd little game and far too much dye-ebaying; but still an interesting mechanic and something I might go back to.Sixcess said: