So, now that Free Realms is out of beta, I decided to give it a whirl. I'm not going to claim to be an MMO expert, although I have a fair bit of experience with the usual suspects (LOTRO, WoW, Puzzle Pirates, etc.).
Free Realms is, I think, a sort of weird cross between Puzzle Pirates and World of Warcraft. The movement system is fairly traditional; you've got your 3D avatar in a 3D world, third-person camera, and you're wandering about. The graphics are pretty, and the sound is pretty reasonable. So, in that sense, it reminds me of WoW - there's a lot of polish, surprisingly so. The client is super light-weight, too.
However, I'd say that it channels Puzzle Pirates fairly heavily, because almost everything you do outside of combat and racing is a mini-game of some sort. For instance, there's resource harvesting (WoW-style!), but when you come upon some ore, instead of just clicking it and waiting for success, you've actually got to play a Bejeweled-style mini-game. Your success at the mini-game determines how much material you harvest, and what types - so instead of just hoping to get lucky, you actually control your own fate to a greater extent.
The entire crafting system follows this protocol - if you're cooking, you'll need to take those materials you harvested and engage in a mini-game (in cooking's case, a series of micro-games) to prepare and cook them. I personally found this to be reasonably fun, especially if you're not trying to grind something in particular.
That leads me to the class system. Free Realms is basically a classless system - it has classes, but you can switch between them freely at any time. Each class (think: skill) has a level that improves as you do quests and mini-games. This flexibility, combined with what appears to be infinite inventory space, really lets you do whatever you want whenever you want without the annoyance of grinding. If you're not in the mood to cook.you can go racing or delivering mail.
There are traditional-style quests in the game - go up to someone, talk to them, and then go run off to do whatever. Some of these are crafting related, others are fed-ex style. They are reasonable, but the lack of compelling quest lines grated on me a bit. I don't think they expect the text to get read much beyond " go there and do X".
There are some other annoyances, naturally. Combat needs re-working, as you wind up mashing the "normal attack" button just so you can continue to attack - there's no auto-attack or skill queuing. Some of the quests need tuning and fixing. The mini-map is almost worthless - it needs way more customization options. None of these are game-breakers, but they definitely merit patching.
There is supposedly some sort of social aspect to this game, but I haven't found it yet. Similarly, if there's a player economy, it has completely eluded me. "Use what you make" appears to be the rule of the day.
So, what's the financial catch?
There are optional micro-transaction and subscription fees. I can't speak for the microtransaction costs/usages beyond that they use station cash, but subscription fees are $5 for individuals, and I believe $10 for families. Subscribing unlocks a few more jobs (not sure of their awesomeness), more character slots, more items, etc. Family accounts allow for five people on at a time, I think.
In summary, I think it's actually a very appealing game _if_ you understand that it's pretty much the casual gamer's MMO.
Massively put up a review, too:
http://www.massively.com/2009/...lms-a-beginners-guide/
Free Realms is, I think, a sort of weird cross between Puzzle Pirates and World of Warcraft. The movement system is fairly traditional; you've got your 3D avatar in a 3D world, third-person camera, and you're wandering about. The graphics are pretty, and the sound is pretty reasonable. So, in that sense, it reminds me of WoW - there's a lot of polish, surprisingly so. The client is super light-weight, too.
However, I'd say that it channels Puzzle Pirates fairly heavily, because almost everything you do outside of combat and racing is a mini-game of some sort. For instance, there's resource harvesting (WoW-style!), but when you come upon some ore, instead of just clicking it and waiting for success, you've actually got to play a Bejeweled-style mini-game. Your success at the mini-game determines how much material you harvest, and what types - so instead of just hoping to get lucky, you actually control your own fate to a greater extent.
The entire crafting system follows this protocol - if you're cooking, you'll need to take those materials you harvested and engage in a mini-game (in cooking's case, a series of micro-games) to prepare and cook them. I personally found this to be reasonably fun, especially if you're not trying to grind something in particular.
That leads me to the class system. Free Realms is basically a classless system - it has classes, but you can switch between them freely at any time. Each class (think: skill) has a level that improves as you do quests and mini-games. This flexibility, combined with what appears to be infinite inventory space, really lets you do whatever you want whenever you want without the annoyance of grinding. If you're not in the mood to cook.you can go racing or delivering mail.
There are traditional-style quests in the game - go up to someone, talk to them, and then go run off to do whatever. Some of these are crafting related, others are fed-ex style. They are reasonable, but the lack of compelling quest lines grated on me a bit. I don't think they expect the text to get read much beyond " go there and do X".
There are some other annoyances, naturally. Combat needs re-working, as you wind up mashing the "normal attack" button just so you can continue to attack - there's no auto-attack or skill queuing. Some of the quests need tuning and fixing. The mini-map is almost worthless - it needs way more customization options. None of these are game-breakers, but they definitely merit patching.
There is supposedly some sort of social aspect to this game, but I haven't found it yet. Similarly, if there's a player economy, it has completely eluded me. "Use what you make" appears to be the rule of the day.
So, what's the financial catch?
There are optional micro-transaction and subscription fees. I can't speak for the microtransaction costs/usages beyond that they use station cash, but subscription fees are $5 for individuals, and I believe $10 for families. Subscribing unlocks a few more jobs (not sure of their awesomeness), more character slots, more items, etc. Family accounts allow for five people on at a time, I think.
In summary, I think it's actually a very appealing game _if_ you understand that it's pretty much the casual gamer's MMO.
Massively put up a review, too:
http://www.massively.com/2009/...lms-a-beginners-guide/
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