Red War: A Free to Play MMO
Graphics (3 out of 5)
The graphics in this game are of good quality, but they are not top of the range, but most.
My biggest peeve with the game is that the classes look nothing like the images advertising them, and, in my opinion, when in-game, it’s difficult to tell the classes apart. Most MMOs, whether free to play or not usually have very defined looking classes, because otherwise what is the point? Players want to Role-Play and that means looking tha part too.
The maps are very basic, and the characters themselves are not very detailed as I mentioned above. One of the most visually annoying things in the game are the NPC players in the towns. All of the NPCs are huge in comparison to the playable characters. And on top of this they are also bathed in a glowing light. I know that these features are there to help everyone locate the NPCs but it actually makes the game look immature, as though it’s aimed towards a much younger audience. I think this alone is enough to put off any serious MMO players once they enter a town.
In-Game Play (4 out of 5)
The controls for the game are the same as you would find in any standard MMO. I have rarely ever experienced any lagging online, and find the characters always move smoothly. Activating NPCs
and receiving quests are very easy and straightforward, as are adding stat points and changing armour or weapons.
Red War offers two unique features known as ‘Red War’ and ‘Monster Race’. The Red War feature is, in fact, a war. It is only open to players level twenty and above. Players can enter the war by activating the Red War Master NPC and choosing to take part. Red Wars are held at specific times each day and a large number of players regularly attend.
Before the war begins all the characters will be split into two teams who will effectively kill each other until a death quota has been filled by one team. Anyone who is still standing after this supposedly receives generous in-game prizes.
The Monster Race is also held at specific times during the day. The Race consists of certain monsters literally racing each other around a track. Players can place bets on monsters using in-game gold.
Both the Red War and Monster Race feature may seem like very simple ideas but that do add a daily event that gets players talking, co-operating and having fun which, in turn should lead to the building of a strong community.
Levelling (5 out of 5)
In comparison to other popular free fantasy MMOs such as Shaiya and Last Chaos, it did not take me that long to level.
The quickest way to level is to actually follow the ridiculously easy quests handed out by the Quest Master NPC. You will earn bonus experience and some very useful items, such as armour, which are hard to find when you are at the lower levels.
By following the various quests, levelling seemed a lot less like grinding which I quiet enjoyed for once. I have a feeling that a lot of serious MMO players would strongly disagree with me on this though, as I know of some players who pride themselves in their ability to grind and dedication it takes to grind a character.
Classes (3 out of 5)
Red War offers three different classes; Warrior, Mage and Ranger. Each class can choose to specialise in one of two types of fighting styles. With a Mage this means that you have the unique choice of deciding to specialise in either white or black magic; white being healing and black being attack magic.
Another feature that characters have is being able to switch between weapons during battle. This is a huge advantage if your aggro is high.
Three classes may not seem like very much but really there are six since each class has a choice between two fighthing styles.
Online Community (4 out of 5)
There is a considerable amount of players logging into Red War. The forums always seem active and there is always a huge amount of people selling items in the town centre. This is mainly because of the cloning feature that the game offers. Red War literally gives you the option to clone your character so that you can have it stand in town and sell items while you pursue a quest. This feature is, admittedly, very handy, but this could make the game a little too easy for some people; yet another reason why I think it could be targeting a slightly younger audience than other games in this category.
Why I Like Red War
Red War is a good game. But the graphics need to be stepped up a notch and, in my opinion, the cloning feature should only be available to much higher level players. The community is growing and the marketplace is active and with the daily community events in place the community is getting stronger. With a lot more advertising and a few tweaks this could be a majorly successful free to play MMO.
