Keepalive: Free Realms, The Red Star

written on Tuesday, May 12, 2009

I played a bit more of Free Realms. I met my first person who talks. I don't think English is his or her first language, but I play at off hours, so I often end up playing with Europeans.

Currently, I'm finding mining and the combat classes to take the most grinding to level. With mining, I play the puzzle game to get ore, just like I did with cooking. It's okay. It's the smelting that's destroying my soul. Smash, pour, stoke, pour. The same 22 second cycle repeats over and over. And it earns almost no XP. And what's worse, I can't actually use the bars because the crafting class is subscriber only. But my OCD can't look at all that ore I've mined and not smelt it. I don't know. I should stop. I probably won't.

I'm feeling the same about combat. I should just forget about it. I've got all of two abilities (outside of normal hitting). Most of the gameplay is just waiting for cooldowns while spamming the basic attack button. There's some situational usage. One ability is better against multiple attackers. But I'm playing a ninja, who generally doesn't hold up against multiple attackers, so at that point I'm just spamming everything and hoping I don't die. It's less interesting than being a mail carrier and takes ten times as long to level. Who would do that?

Also, it's worth mentioning that the game has unpredictable downtime. Often the friend server isn't working so you can't add friends. The code redemption system (for getting special items) wasn't working. I got very used to that being part of MMOs that charge $15 a month, so I barely notice it. But if you've never played an MMO, you'll probably be a little appalled that people pay money for games they can't always play.

Tuesday night co-op featured more of The Red Star. It's gone on longer than I was expecting and we're still having a pretty good time with it. Actually, I think MK: Shaolin Monks was more fun, just because the cut scenes were MST3K worthy. The Red Star didn't have the budget for that. Instead, it has a text briefing from your commander, then he "transfers some data" to you, which is really just the game's loading screen. We joke around that our commander is actually sending us whatever music he's been illegally downloading off of the internet and then amuse ourselves by naming improbable genres and artists for him to be really into this week. :)

The game itself is basically a brawler with guns. Neo-Contra meets Golden Axe. Maybe it's just that I'm playing the burly character, but I find the combat somewhat plodding most of the time. Sometimes we get attacked by enough baddies that it gets hectic enough to get my attention. And impaling guys on my lance and then beating them against the ground is always laughs. But traversing lightly populated areas is just dull. Especially when the bad guys dodge too much. Come on! Get on with it already!

The best part of the game is usually the bosses. They're often presented from an overhead view and I have to think fast to dodge their attacks. We've actually recently realized that since we can shoot through each other, we can use the healthier partner as a boss shield. And by trading off when we fire, we can overcome the game's gun overheating mechanic. Strategy! Yay!

I'm still finding the game pretty mediocre on the whole, but that's typical of brawlers, in my experience. The combat is usually pretty simplistic. The three quarters perspective can make it difficult to judge attacks. The small scale of the characters makes the action feel less important and less intense. Devil May Cry (and later God Hand, God of War, and Ninja Gaiden) brought production values and much more interesting fighting the genre. But they did this by making the brawler one player only. Having only one player lets you get away with more special effects, a closer camera, and a more involved combat system. But I think there's still room for significant improvement in the multi-player brawler.