Runes Of Magic Preview

17 Feb 2009 at 11:21:19 by Bill Vaughan

Its reputation precedes it – Runes of Magic the World of Warcraft clone. As an experienced WoW player, I was very curious about Frogster’s upcoming free-to-play MMO and keen to see if the rumours were true, but when I finally got my hands on RoM I didn’t find what I expected.

For a game that’s completely free to download and play, to be called a WoW clone, just like so many MMOs that are released, is actually a compliment. If the developer Runewalker and the German company Frogster, responsible for translating it for German and English-speaking players, had managed to re-create what Blizzard has mastered without charging their player-base at all, it would be quite a feat. Surprisingly, it’s an achievement they have come very close to fulfilling.

RoM claims to offer everything an MMO player would expect to see in a game and more. Take player housing for example; WoW players have been crying out for it since before the game was launched, but RoM has implemented the feature, and very well too. There’s also an extensive background or Lore, PvP, instances, an Auction House, and crafting professions just to name a few of the things on the long list of attributes. However, these are part of an MMO player’s staple diet, it’s the “and more” that makes RoM stand out from the crowd.

The character creation screen, again, has become a standard - choose the class, sex, hair style, face, etc etc. then you’re normally done. This was my first pleasant surprise. The characters are a lot more customisable than those in most MMOs. There is a huge selection of faces, hair styles and hair colours. In addition, players can also adjust the size of their character’s body parts. Want massive forearms? No problem. Big feet? Go right ahead. Tiny head? You get the picture. When you have your perfectly proportioned (or not) character ready, you can adjust his or her overall height too. This isn’t a new concept by any means, in Oblivion players had even greater customisation options for their characters, but it means that people are far less likely to run into a twin of themselves than they are in WoW.

The only playable race right now is Humans, but Elves are expected to be introduced soon, and there is talk of more being added later. There are six classes to choose from: Warrior, Knight, Scout, Rogue, Mage and Priest, all pretty standard pickings for a game of this genre, and two more classes are to be announced, one of them is rumoured to be a Druid.

Once you set foot in RoM’s world, Taborea, it’s easy to see more reasons why people cried “Clone!” The scenery is very reminiscent of Goldshire, complete with the quaint houses, grassy landscape and nearby forests. The UI is familiar too; the placement of the chat window, minimap and spell bars is identical to WoW and a lot of the keybindings are the same, such as K for skills, L for Quest Log. But get used to using that L keybinding, because there are plenty of quests to be getting into, including daily quests, right from the get go.

Quest givers are shown on the minimap along with the location of the destination Non-Player Characters. What’s different about RoM is that the destination NPC can be tracked. If you’re not sure where to find Mr Smith so that you can deliver his carrots just select track in your Quest Log pane and a handy arrow will appear in front of your character showing you the direction to head in until you reach the spot. You can also open up the map, which has all available quests and turn-ins marked, click any location and your character will make his or her own way there. That’s right, go make a cup of coffee and your smart little avatar will navigate around hills, buildings and fences to reach the place you clicked all by itself.

Unfortunately, the early level quests in RoM aren’t any more exciting than in other MMOs. Kill X of these, collect Y of that is the formula once again, though it has been made slightly as the minimap displays the location of everything, including other players, NPCs and enemy mobs. Mousing over a mob will tell you if it’s required for a quest and your progress on that quest. This is something that’s only achieved in WoW by use of player-made addons or mods, and the same can be said for a number of other features in the game. Runewalker has clearly paid close attention to what MMO players want, and resolved to deliver as much of it as possible.

Another big selling point of the game is the dual-class system. At level 10, players take a trip to the big city, Varanas. Once there they can chose a secondary class, with the option of switching that class to their primary one when needed. This system creates the opportunity to mix and match characters to produce around 30 class variations. With this system healers can posses the ability smash their enemies in the face with a mace if the mood takes them, or pick off a foe from a distance with a ranged weapon. There are no limitations to this; Mix a Mage with a Warrior to make a barbarian with the ability to throw fireballs, or play a robed caster that is match for a knight in melee skills. This is not a new idea either; players of Guild Wars will be familiar with the concept of mixing classes, however, Runewalker’s approach to the dual-class system has come under fire. The two classes that players choose never truly co-exist. While playing as one class, players only have access to the base skills of their secondary class, no class-specific skills. Also, the two classes of a character must be levelled separately. So, just finished that really annoying starter area? Go back and do it again if you want to train up your secondary class. It’s bad enough having to level characters in games, but having to do it twice? It’s possible this feature will be altered in future judging by the amount of whining there is about it, and it does seem fairly ridiculous.

On a brighter note, the size of Varanas puts cities in WoW to shame, although most of the streets are empty right now. Bigger cities usually mean more travelling time, but RoM has a handy transporter system that zaps characters from one end of town to another. These transporter portals are also used to take players from town to town. The normal method of transport, however, is the good old horse and these may be hired for either short or long time periods from an early stage, so no running on foot for 30 levels.

Unlike WoW, players may learn every crafting and gathering profession in RoM, although only one crafting profession - blacksmithing, carpentry, armorcrafting, tailoring, cooking or alchemy - may be learned to the highest level along with all three gathering ones - mining, herbalism and woodcutting. The tools of the trade for a players’ profession can be built into a player’s house – no more searching around in cities for that forge, just put one in your living area, which brings me swiftly onto another key feature in RoM - player housing.

Each player can have their own house. It’s free and players can visit one another if they wish, as each house is given a unique number. All characters on one account will share a house, which is handy for the transfer of items from one avatar to another. The room of the house starts off empty except for a large chest, which players place where desired under the watchful eye of the house maid (who never leaves, just stands there watching you in her skimpy outfit), which is yet more storage for characters on top of the bank and generous backpack space they have to begin with. Additional furniture, including sofas, beds and even dummies that display sets of armour that can be equipped on your character quickly, can be purchased by spending Diamonds, and this is how Runewalker makes its money.

RoM is free to download and play, there is no need to spend money on the game whatsoever, but if players want to decorate their homes, buy a new mount, cool armour or weapons, they can use cash to buy the in-game trading currency, Diamonds. Once the Diamonds have been purchased with real-life cash, they are transferred to the desired character, and may be spent on in-game goodies. As this is Runewalker’s only way to get cash from its users, it’s understandably keen to make sure no one buys Diamonds from anyone except them, and a scrolling message in-game often reminds players that anyone found to be buying them elsewhere will be banned. However, even on the open beta, the generic level one characters with names like “wkstfnsirf” are already standing in towns selling power-levelling services, gold and Diamonds.

So does RoM deserve the tag ‘WoW Clone’? It certainly does share a lot of mechanics, ideas and functionality with it, but then so do most MMOs that are produced these days and, frankly, if a formula works (and we all know WoW works) why mess with it? Will people leave WoW and other games for RoM? It’s unlikely - the visuals aren’t up to Guild Wars, LOTRO or Age of Conan, and the gameplay doesn’t match WoW. However, developer Runewalker deserves credit for listening to the MMO community and providing content and features that other games do not.

And, of course, we must take into account that this game costs nothing to play. Just make an account, download it and you’re away. Then remember you have an enormous world with over 600 quests waiting for you, highly customisable characters, PvP and a familiar layout. Runewalker has made an impressive attempt to enter the MMO market with a new business model. The fact that over 100,000 people registered for the open beta back in December speaks volumes; Runes of Magic is already doing well. With stacks of updates promised regularly, this game is likely to keep people playing. It’s no WoW killer, but it has the potential to become very big.

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