The Search for the Holy MMORPG: Part Four

(Continued from The Search for the Holy MMORPG: Part Three)

Neocron came next. This is a sci-fi MMO, but it differs from EVE Online in that you control your character rather than your ship, and it's more about action and combat than space exploration and trading.

The game client is another big 1.87GB file. Good thing I have a fast connection! So how is it? Well, personally, I enjoyed Neocron...as a matter of fact, I still have the 10 day free trial installed. The graphics are quite good, the user interface, although initially a bit overwhelming, is quite usable after learning it, and the atmosphere it creates is very cyberpunk.

You can easily describe Neocron as a "first person shooter MMO"...because essentially that is exactly what it is. If you like first person shooters, MMO's, and cyberpunk, this is THE game for you. The action is suspenseful, the character development is deep, and the sound and music is actually very impressive.

So why not stop here and say we found the MMO we were looking for? Well, for one, although cyberpunk is cool, it is not the tried and true fantasy setting we were really looking for. The other reason is the big one...my friend Darryl gets headaches and nausea when playing first person shooters. He couldn't make it through the tutorial without risking a cranial explosion, so this game receives a no-go. Although I haven't decided yet whether I will continue on my own yet :-)

Overall opinion: Excellent cyberpunk first person shooter/MMO with a tendency to make Darryl very very sick.

So what's next? Ok, back to fantasy. I found Shadowbane. They had a 15 day free trial plus an extra 10 days with a coupon code. That's 25 days to try it out! Sweet!

This was only 851MB, so it went fairly quickly. After I installed it, I went right in and started creating my character while Darryl started the download on his computer.

About half an hour later I emailed Darryl telling him to go ahead and cancel the download. This game is crap. Crappy graphics. Crappy movement and camera controls. Crappy everything from what I saw. I mean, my character was walking through a door and the door closed on him, and he got stuck! After 5 minutes I got him unstuck by sitting and standing many times, and trying to select the phantom door during this ridiculous process.

I took a quick look at the online forums for Shadowbane, and I was surprised at how many threads were basically saying how the game sucked. I would agree.

Overall opinion: Crap.

TO BE CONTINUED...