After a long break I am back with another
review. Today I will have a closer look at Realm of the Mad God, a MMO hack and
slash with retro style audiovisuals.
Realm of the Mad Dog was developed by indie
studio - Wild Shadows and it was released as a browser game in flash. However
since about one month it is available on Steam as well. Steam version provides
access to Steam achievements if someone cares about such things, some of the
trophies are very easy to get (like for example unlocking new class), but there
is plenty of accomplishments that require dedication or simply luck. Steam port
is not, however bug free as you can sometimes encounter input lag that doesn’t
occur in browser version. Developers have promised to fix it, but they haven’t
thus far.
I’m writing about achievements and input
lag, but you still have no idea what this game is all about. Basically it is a
2D hack and slash. In randomly generated world danger lurks around every
corner. And I mean literately. At higher levels game get frustratingly hard,
you have to be really quick and agile to dodge all incoming attacks. And if you
fail at it, you die and resurrection in Realm of the Mad God is nonexistent.
Think about it like Diablo on permanent hardcore mode. I find this aspect fun
and really appealing to me. In times when every major game developer is
lowering skill cap in their products, punishing for every single mistake brings
refreshment and pleasing nostalgic feeling. But even if you die, you should not
be worried, as that is perfect opportunity to create another character. So far
there is 13 classes in Realm of the Mad Dog, every one of them have a single
ability that distinguish it from others. Though you start you adventure with
just wizard class unlocked. In order to unlock you need to get your wizard to
at least 5 level. However more advanced classes aren’t that easy to obtain. For
example to unlock necromancer you have to advance both priest and wizard to
level 20, which is level cap in this game. Now, you might be thinking that
unlocking new characters is everything you can do, but it is not. Throughout
playing the game you earn Fame Points, which you can collect by defeating
bosses, exploring the world and helping low level players rank up. There is
even a weekly, monthly and all-time rating for competitive players tracking
characters that managed to obtain highest fame points score. The is only form
of competition as you can’t PvP in Realm of the Mad Dog. But since game
mechanism promotes cooperating with others there is no reason not to do it.
Besides getting fame for helping others you are getting the same amount
experience if you are killing mobs on your own, or with 84 other people (85 is
maximum number of players per realm). The fastest way to level is just to travel
together in so called “trains” and steamrolling through mobs, getting all the
fat experience. A feature called teleport is allowing you to... hmm... teleport
instantly to any other players within a world, so it is yet another element
allowing to enjoy playing with others.
Graphic and music are truly old school. If
I had to compare it to some other game it would be Space Invaders. Is it
deliberate action to gave Realm of the Mad God extremely retro stylization or
plain laziness by developers? It’s not for me to judge, but while I don’t mind
graphics at all, however during longer game sessions music can get annoyingly
repetitive (just as it did in old games). Fear not, as you can always turn it
off and enjoy the songs from your favourite music player.
Realm of the Mad God is free to play game
using microtransaction system. You cannot buy power, only a little things like
additional character slots (as you start with just one) and bank slots.
I
have had enormous fun while playing this game for first time, and I am still
getting some enjoyement out of it. Realm of the Mad God takes no space on hard
drive, cost nothing, it can fill your spare time while you are waiting for some
of your friends to come online, or can be standalone a good product. I enjoyed
the high skill cap when it comes to dodging attacks of higher level bosses and
punishing difficulty level. What are you still doing here? Go ahead play it on http://www.realmofthemadgod.com/ or
download it via your steam account. You can find it here.
As always it comes with video, which I made a little different than usually. Here is the vid:
Hope you like it.
See you later, shitlords!
Anhellius
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