Runes of Magic

Game: Runes of Magic

Publisher: Frogster

Download or web based: Download

What you get if you pay: Diamonds can be purchased and used to buy chests containing various helpful items. Mounts for speedy travel, potions for resurrection, and vials to increase skill levels are also available. Purchasing Diamonds also earns Rubies which can be used in a secondary shop of their own.

Review: Runes of Magic takes place in the land of Taborea. Residents of the land live in small villages and farms, outpost towns, and large, fortified cities. Players themselves also have “houses” that can be entered from many wide-spread areas. The houses can also be customized with furniture purchased from a merchant (for decoration only) or the Item Shop (which can boost experience and other things). Furnishings range from simple rugs and chairs to elaborate beds or even animal head trophies that can be hung on the walls.

Character creation is simple despite the variety of customizable features. Height, facial features, and hair style/color are options along with chest size, arm and leg muscle bulk and hip size.

Choosing a character's class at the beginning isn't as important in this game as it is in some. Other classes can be accessed after achieving level 10 and used as a new main class or utilized as a secondary class to boost the main class's traits and skills. Mages can use a Rogue's throwing skill to get the attention of foes and save their Mana points for powerful spells to take the angry enemy out.

Combat is accomplished by simply attacking a foe or walking past an aggressive enemy that will attack on its own. When the enemy is defeated experience and training points are gained. Training points can be used to increase combat skill levels. When utilizing the dual-class system only the main class's skills can be leveled.

Weapons, armor, potions, and many other items can be crafted from materials collected from many points in the fields. Collecting basic materials increases the level of the basic skills and allows for the collection of items to craft higher level weapons, pieces of armor, and other items. While the basic materials can be found practically anywhere they can be refined and used to craft items only when in range of tool benches for the specific craft type. Hunks of wood can only be made into pieces of lumber near Carpentry Tools in and around villages and towns. There are NPCs near each set of tools that can sell recipes for crafting as skill levels increase.

Player versus player is limited on some servers and wide open on others. Defeating other players in combat can shift one's alignment one way or another, depending on the alignment of challenger and challenged. As one progresses up or down the alignment scale exclusive weapons and armor become available to use.

Rating: 9/10 Excellent graphics and smooth transition from one map zone to another. Large variety of quests in starting areas eliminates boredom when leveling multiple classes for the dual-class system. Combat is straightforward and simple, but allows for quite a bit of strategy whether solo or in a party.