Magic World Online Review

If you frequent game related websites, you might have come across an ad for a free MMORPG named Magic World Online. I know I did, and not only that, I’ve played it! So those of you who is a bit curious on how good the game is, here is the Squared review of MWO.

To start off, let me just say that their choice of game title sucks. Magic World Online? Who are they trying to entice, kindergartens? But hey, since I’m stuck with this ancient computer, might as well play a free MMO that it can run. So I visited their website at http://mwo.enjoymmo.com/index.php
You can register an account for free and download the entire installer. I would recommend using the torrent download as it is a much faster way in my experience.

And so I registered, I downloaded, I installed, and I played, and here is what I can say about the game.
First off, I was surprised that my generic forum password was given a weak password rank by the registration form. So I tried my generic NT password which includes capital letters, small letters, numbers and !@#$%^&*(). It was given a strong password grade. So after the slight problem with registration, I am now able to play.

There are currently four servers available: Odyssey, Aurora, Genesis, and Daedalus. Of course, if you have been following my personal blog, there is no question on which server I would join. After choosing your server, you would then pick on which side are you on, Dynasty or Empire; I chose Empire. After that is the creation of characters.

Character Selection

There are four classes for MWO, Warrior, Archer, Summoner, and Mage with male and female variants (I picked a male Warrior). You will then be transported to a novice town where you will be given instructions on how to play the game. Different classes transports you to a different location so as different allegiance.

World Map

Empire allies as far as I know are in the southern part of the map, Dynasty is in the northern part. Leveling up like most MMO, is a grind. You kill and kill until you gain a level then the amount of experience needed increases and you’ll just have to kill more monsters. MWO, though, provides two more ways to speed up or lessen the grind for you to level up. The NPCs provides a number of quests which can gain you a lot of experience. Some quests gave me 10% to level up not counting the experience that I got while performing the task.

Bot Setup

The other one is that MWO provides a built-in bot that you can setup to do the leveling for you. Though not as customizable as the popular Ragnarok Online bot, Openkore or the GE crazy of Granado Espada, this bot, with the proper setup, can help you gain level while sleeping.

Gameplay

Much of the game is like Diablo 2. You cannot rotate the camera, there is an inventory and a personal stash (which you would not be able to use to give items to your other characters), and weapon/armor durability. Sockets and forging are also present in the game as well as pets which can grow into mounts.

The feature that I liked about the game is the Growing Weapon. At a certain point of your adventure, you would be given a quest for a growing weapon. You can imbue this to a weapon that you have, and the weapon becomes a growing one. The growing weapon can now ‘eat’ another weapon of the same kind to merge their abilities and increase the damage that the weapon can give. Take note though that the merging can only be done safely for a number of times, after which, there would be an increasing chance of breaking per eating. The game also features several job changes. Right now, I’m a level 33 Templar Knight.

Mirror’s Edge Run

When did parkour last get some respect from mainstream? I didn’t know that term even existed before I played Mirror’s Edge for the PS3. In a jiffy, it’s a first person platformer/quasi-shooter wherein you play the role of Faith Connors (Terminator!?!) as a Free Runner who’s always given errands by a client, if I recall the story correctly, and the task that’s in the game is sort of related to her sister, Kate. Plot thickens after that but I won’t bother spoiling details.

Mirror's Edge

Speaking of the story, it was average at best. Not really compelled with it and I never did bother listening to the dialogues and it’s definitely one that you forget after you’ve played through it. Cutscenes were nice though. Kinda breaks the monotony of the 3D world that you’ve been seeing in-game. It’s all in stylized vector similar to the ones found in Heavenly Sword’s prologue; which brings us next to the graphics.

Jaggies everywhere! I’ve played the PS3 port and jaggies were everywhere. Hopefully, the PC version fixes this as the drawing distance of this game is far and anti-aliasing really is a must for far draw distances. They should’ve put more effort in optimizing the graphics pipeline. Art direction in modeling is superb. The buildings were all like they’ve really hired architects to model those skyscrapers. Textures were rich and high resolution. Shadows were great. Art direction in lighting though, sucks. It’s like everything is made of plastic. The style didn’t really suit my taste as everything seems like they were radioactive. I had to tone down brightness but dark areas made a toll to the visibility. They should’ve fixed these lighting issues early on.

Gameplay, in two words, is very promising. It’s like future Quakes or Unreal can make use of the parkour moves faith has been doing. Gameplay really stands out yet they’ve managed to keep it simple though they somewhat overdid the simplification. I’m guessing they’ll add more features in part 2. They have this unique thingy which keeps you on track called the runner vision. The runner vision points you to where the right direction is by making the target object in crimson red somewhat works but it could be a little more subtler like a little brighter in its natural color instead of turning red all over. Kinda makes the game less challenging. Enemy AI is pretty much simple. Enemies are just there waiting for you to kick their asses. Level design is nice. Makes everything look like it’s non linear but it’s otherwise in reality.

The control scheme is quite unique. You’d have to deviate from what most console FPS controls are like x and [] for jump and crouch. Instead they used the two shoulder buttons L1 and L2 as jump and crouch respectively. The sixaxis mumbo jumbo was completely useless or it’s really not just executed properly once again. The controls were fluid enough and are perfect for the game.

The great techno inspired sounds that are subtle really pumps you up. Not your typical RPG theme song where it etches deep in your mind but it kinda works. I personally like the carrier theme song of the game. Its “Still Alive” by Lissa Miskovsky. Melody is soothing but the lyrics were kinda off; it was written with an ex boyfriend/girlfriend in mind.

Overall, I’d recommend you get this game. I think it’s cheaper nowadays and I got it in a really bang for the buck price as I got a free EA classic game with it. It’s indeed promising and you’ll really be immersed and feel like a parkouree(?). Sorry I don’t know what to call people who do parkour.