Regnum Online review

[Haku2049]

I'm still early in the game (just a level 21 Elf in fact), but I've found that people with low attention spans like me can't get into the story. Well at least I can't. I'd love to but some things like the quests and the battle music are just way too repetitive. I know backtracking is part of any RPG but its so boring after awhile. The story doesn't pull me into anything. Why drag myself around for NPCs that don't move much short of looking at me! I have yet to see an NPC run for their life from a big creature. I just don't feel important. Here's the article I wrote for the November 2008 issue awhile back for my website [link removed]. I know I'll probably get flamed for it but I'm brutally honest about my reviews, zero stars or not!

Regnum Online®

Intro


For those of you with a decent memory you'll know how terrible my first foray into the world of free MMORPGs went. A total flop graphics and gameplay wise. Sure it started out fun (Kill ze wabbit, kill ze wabbit, kill ze wabbit!), but quickly turned into puzzle hell. So on to something a little more processor intensive, eh?


This time I was forced to use my PC. For the zillionth time I hate Windows® so much that I recently replaced most of its look with free Mac OS X®-like enhancements. I should review those in the future *writes it down* but for now I'll let you in on what I've gotten from almost a month of playing the game. In order to do this review last month I would be going off of only two days of play. I would have started way earlier but there were some registration problems, which were happily solved by tech support once I got the gut to ask.


Installation


No problems


Play


First I discounted this game from serious thought. Later I came upon the site again and found the bandwidth was just "an Internet connection" so I gave it a try, but with Dialup the game's slow (but now I have DSL and ironically haven't played Regnum Online in quite some time).


I signed up for an account, but messed up the email address. This was the part where I emailed tech support asking them to cancel my unactivated account. They did so without any proof of my identity. I reapplied with the correct email address and all was good. I didn't even need to fully load the activation page in IE before it let me in.


After installing 2 updates it had me choose a server (I played XP's Spider Solitaire until it was ready). There was a load, then a crappy intro with a good story but no audio (I did solve the audio problem but not until much later - I needed OpenAL). then it had me choose a location: forest, mountain, or castle. Those were also related to the country of your origin but I'm too lazy to look the names up. Having a little Zelda inspiration I choose to be one with the forest. My species choices were an elf, a human, and a half elf. Sadly PrintScreen doesn't work! There is a screenshot function but it can't take a photo of...you know...action.


Next I got to choose face, hair, chair color, and body size. I went for soft cyan eyes, settled with hair that droops forward (though I really wanted a Super Sayian spiked hair), the default hair color (since the others are crap), and the default size.


Then I got to play with 5 attributes points. I put em all into strength. Going for the Zelda thing I named him Link2049. Well, the name wasn't allowed? Alright, how about RandomElfLink2049? The same?!? Minutes later with more rejections I figured out they hate certain characters. Thus my character was dubbed RandomElfLink! Alright! Time to play!


I swear that every second of playtime will at least b that amount of time downloading! Then I got disconnected! Stupid Juno! While I waited for a reconnect I got to take a good look at the 3D model that was my avatar. I really noticed how terrible it looks. The hands float into the clothing! That's probably something I wouldn't have noticed if I had a faster connection!


I continued and got another load screen. 671 of 671 resources loaded already? Well I started supper, threw out the garbage, and started the timer for my next meal. Thirty minutes until i could eat!


Five minutes later and escape doesn't work at a load screen. Great! I forced the dumb game to quit. Restarting verification took an oddly long amount of time. Well how about restarting my computer?


Restarting worked wonders! *gasp* The game loaded before my food was done. I didn't think that was possible!


After eating it was time to train! With my trusty bow and a lot of free arrows I went out to have fun. My first battle started against a Tiny Green Wasp. It won. Cool! Finally I found out about the in game screenshot option, but not about its severe limitations!


The load area was much larger than I thought. i killed some Wolf Cubs. One killed me, I rezzed and killed another, number four, and leveled up. I found the one that killed me and killed it to complete the first quest.


The healing power of the rest action is not immediately obvious. I only got the drift after seeing someone else doing it.


Spells are what break up the monotony of repetitive attacking. Problem is they don't start out being...how should I put this...vital. These stupid things take time to be cast but once you learn one it doesn't go away unless you reassign your ability points.


Oh, some weirdo non-player character somewhere says that baddies can team up against you. I thought that was a bunch of garbage until much later. Two baddies ganged up on me, then after I was dead one killed the other!


Music


At first I used iTunes in the background and it did the job. Playing a free song from Diablo 3® while playing Regnum Online? How heinous! Some I ripped off from Soulbringer®, but once I did get the audio to work I found it to be way too repetitive so iTunes may actually be a better option! I never want to hear the combat song again! Thanks anyway forum people!


Video


Good, not great. Its not designed to be that taxing on anything as of yet, but then again the game's still in beta!


Problems


*Sometimes enemies fall from the sky or they will jump to your location. Usually they are behind things, though.

*As usual the camera has zoom problems.

*Most quests seem to be just about killing X amount of a creature.

*Sometimes says I'm not in range when I really am. When I shoot something and it moves closer to me I think its still in range! Or says I'm not facing my enemy when that's clearly a lie.

*When the enemy is right up against me I don't have to be facing it to damage it.

*You knew I'd gripe about it here. It just plain sucks that I can't take screenshots of combat! At first I couldn't find the non-combat screenshots, but eventually did by rooting through Regnum Online's subfolders.

*Return of the zoom problem! Its just way too slow!

*Every single message stays on screen too long.

*Did I mention how annoying it is when an opponent runs away, comes back, runs away again, comes back...and so on? Great for brief healing while waiting for the idiot to come back, but this is just too stupid!

*At first it didn't remember not to close the damn spellbook after casting a spell!

*Finding quests while ignoring lame story is hard. But its easy to forget!

*Two crashes so far! Makes me laugh at what I wrote "Like I care about anything besides fighting?" or whatever. Its standard talk to everyone to figure out the plot and grab quests. I don't have that sort of attention span. I like to fight, level up, explore, and fight some more!

*Die feature takes forever. Should be prompt then immediate death.
*I wish I had found out how much emphasis the game put on Player versus Player before I bought premium stuff.

*If you don't prioritize your quests right some won't be worth your time or money. It doesn't help that you can only accept up to five at a time.


Verdict


There are way too many problems to be solved for this game to deserve much recognition in the form of stars. The gameplay was a great distraction from reality for awhile, but just like any other MMORPG its hard to hook a player for the long haul unless they are really hard core, and this is just another free MMORPG in the sea of many. If you love free MMORPGs then maybe give this a try. If you have high standards don't bother.








Developer: ©2007 NGD Studios

Publisher: ©2007 NGD Studios

Platform: Windows


3 Non-Combat Screenshots out of 10

[Yawney]

Well it's a review about an RvR based game without even mentioning it... Also the "choosing of the location" as you mentioned is actually choosing a realm, I think you'd have known that, it just needs to actually read what the screen says...

There's more in your review that I don't agree with but you're free to say whatever you want I guess.

[Znurre]

Originally Posted by Haku2049

*At first it didn't remember not to close the damn spellbook after casting a spell!

Next time maybe you should read the Players Guide before starting to play a new game, since it clearly states that you can drag spells to your skillbar.

PS. To say that Regnum is 100% perfect would be to lie, it has its problems and everyone are well aware of that.
However, you did not bring up any of these problems in your Review.

Regnum is targeted to RvR - like Planeshift is targeted to roleplaying...
To judge Regnum based on your expectations from some Asian PvE games (Flyff comes to my mind) is completely stupid.

[ljrossi]

There was a big update on december 2009 to version 1.0.x .

The real game starts on lvl 35 or so, did you ever get to warzone ??

On later days at least you had the realm chat, to know was going on the war zone, maybe now thats not a big thing.

Also would be nice if you get invade by brutals goats.

Technical and software maybe has some lacks, but the RvR gameplay is cool.

[UmarilsStillHere]

I didnt read the whole thing, because the posts above speak for me (basicaly you have no idea :P) And thats as much deu to your awefull attention span as it is to the games weak opening (which NGD is working hard on)

But ofs numbers shouldent be allowed in games, it ruins the "illusion" more, "Hi him somerandomfatdood554!"

No. :P

I hope to god you dont plan on putting this anywere important, I hate "game gurus" who spend 4 hours in game and thing they know exactly how much potential the game has, Its not perfect and many of the issues you pointed out are because of the update 2 days ago, these will be fixed with a hotfix soon enough (eg mobs running off).

"I dont know what to do!!!" Theres a game guide, read it.

All in all, one of the most blind reveiws ive read for this game :]

Good luck in the future im sure you have far more important things to do than blast other games which anyone who plays enough to get to "the game" know are above standered for F2P games

http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/game/279 (the games page)
http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/g...Fview%2Fawards (10th over all best of year, 2nd best F2P, beat several P2P games eg Guild wars)

[Bladnoch]

I agree with certain points, but because you didnt bother to read the instructions on the website or the help guide in game which tells you all you need to know. You cant exactly blame Regnum for that when they have clearly given you what you need to get started.
It would be better if you cut out the negative parts which are down to you not reading the instructions first.

[Torin_Ironfist]

Originally Posted by Haku2049

First I discounted this game from serious thought. Later I came upon the site again and found the bandwidth was just "an Internet connection" so I gave it a try, but with Dialup the game's slow (but now I have DSL and ironically haven't played Regnum Online in quite some time).

It's amazing that he complains about lag when he tested it on dialup

[niclam]

Hello,

I must say this is one helpful review. It sounds honest and you really nailed some of the parts of the game we are trying to improve.

We basically learned (the hard way) that a lot of users leave early, of course, you don't have to be a genius to know why that is but it takes time to tweak everything single aspect of the game to appeal to a broad audience.

The part where you have to load resources and take long to start the game for the first time is a no-brainer really. We will be focusing on getting the first impression better for a great part of the next couple of months.

On the other hand, those who keep playing, find that the game is really fun, the PvP, Realm versus Realm battles, fort captures, endless skmirmishes, the tension when an invasion is coming, etc.

The conclusion we ended up was that we must be doing something right if we do have that many loyal players but we must be doing something wrong if that many leave early without having the chance to experience the end game.

So, I'd love for you to try the game in a couple of months, from the start and do a new review. We really hope to surprise you and all the other new players (in a good way ).

Regards

[Kittypretty]

I do not think he gave an unbiased review for a few reasons..which may not seem important to others, and just my opinion..im not a fanboy (err girl) of regnum, and i know it has flaws and problems, which i have found solutions, workarounds, or are being worked on usually with a nice mention of it by the staff and a changelog which lets me know whats changed..obviously (however i do have to say they do not list everything, and that can be an issue)

"At first I used iTunes in the background and it did the job. Playing a free song from Diablo 3® while playing Regnum Online? How heinous! Some I ripped off from Soulbringer®, but once I did get the audio to work I found it to be way too repetitive so iTunes may actually be a better option! I never want to hear the combat song again! Thanks anyway forum people!"


concerning rpg's repetitive music for combat, being an old school rpg gamer, you should obviously be aware that many many rpgs since final fantasy, phantasy star, chrono trigger, xenogears ect, have use the same songs for battle sequences, to enhance the feel of a flowing and intense fight, even though the basic unerlying mechanism may not be so flashy to watch. thats just my opinion though, and i consider that normal and not an exception..there is more than one song that does play however, and you can turn them off if you like under options, you do check options dont you? almost every game i play go into the settings screens to see what i have at my disposal to change to my liking. the fact that you can turn it off and listen to whatever you like, whether its punk to country, is your choice, and im glad that i have that ability. im sorry that RO doesnt allow you to listen to the songs you like, maybe we should add an mp3 player or a cd drive for listening to cd's..wait my computer comes with one and there are hundreds or freeware mp3 players and the codec available online.

"Then I got to play with 5 attributes points. I put em all into strength. Going for the Zelda thing I named him Link2049. Well, the name wasn't allowed? Alright, how about RandomElfLink2049? The same?!? Minutes later with more rejections I figured out they hate certain characters. Thus my character was dubbed RandomElfLink! Alright! Time to play!"


I do believe regnum needs a small tooltip here or at least a description providing available characters and the naming policies.

"I swear that every second of playtime will at least b that amount of time downloading! Then I got disconnected! Stupid Juno! While I waited for a reconnect I got to take a good look at the 3D model that was my avatar. I really noticed how terrible it looks. The hands float into the clothing! That's probably something I wouldn't have noticed if I had a faster connection!"


"I continued and got another load screen. 671 of 671 resources loaded already? Well I started supper, threw out the garbage, and started the timer for my next meal. Thirty minutes until i could eat!"


to stop the huge resource loading and time it takes, i simply did something that should be obvious to anyone, i looked in options, and i also consulted the help forums..that took me all of 5 minutes to uncheck update all resources at once.

"Next I got to choose face, hair, chair color, and body size. I went for soft cyan eyes, settled with hair that droops forward (though I really wanted a Super Sayian spiked hair), the default hair color (since the others are crap), and the default size."

as for the 3d models of characters, thats a matter of taste, they do not look too bad consdering its a small company with a small staff, that they run on a custom made engine, and compared to similar f2p mmorpgs such as planeshift, pirates of the caribbean online, silkroad etc. the clipping issue is a problem though, but im confident they will polish their product when they have the time and resources (they have already added some new animations and do constant bug fixes, so i do know they are active) as for other colors being "crap" thats an issue against colors in general maybe you just dont like certain colors..i fail to see this as a RO issue.

"Spells are what break up the monotony of repetitive attacking. Problem is they don't start out being...how should I put this...vital. These stupid things take time to be cast but once you learn one it doesn't go away unless you reassign your ability points."

as for skills being "not vital" thats your opinion and this is mine, in any rpg i play when i learn a skill or spell, yes i expect it to stay, and i expect it to be of use in my playing style, and of course you should know that they can be upgraded (this has been DONE since the dawn of rpgs, skills that evolve or better skills as you level, that DO make a difference in gameplay and your advancement (imagine if i played final fantasy using nothing but basic hits...yeah right, and im glad i can change my setup if i make a mistake, that isnt common in many rpgs)


i had no issue using a screen shot while in battle, dont know what your issue is but might try support.

"The healing power of the rest action is not immediately obvious. I only got the drift after seeing someone else doing it."

i got the idea from a tooltip, and also read up on the game (by visiting the website and forums) before playing. it really does help, youre not the sorta gamer that never reads manuals when you buy games whether they be console or pc? i know they make good reading..and they actually show you how to play..amazing.

Problems


*Sometimes enemies fall from the sky or they will jump to your location. Usually they are behind things, though.

*As usual the camera has zoom problems.

*Most quests seem to be just about killing X amount of a creature.

*Sometimes says I'm not in range when I really am. When I shoot something and it moves closer to me I think its still in range! Or says I'm not facing my enemy when that's clearly a lie.

*When the enemy is right up against me I don't have to be facing it to damage it.

*You knew I'd gripe about it here. It just plain sucks that I can't take screenshots of combat! At first I couldn't find the non-combat screenshots, but eventually did by rooting through Regnum Online's subfolders.

*Return of the zoom problem! Its just way too slow!

*Every single message stays on screen too long.

*Did I mention how annoying it is when an opponent runs away, comes back, runs away again, comes back...and so on? Great for brief healing while waiting for the idiot to come back, but this is just too stupid!

*At first it didn't remember not to close the damn spellbook after casting a spell!

*Finding quests while ignoring lame story is hard. But its easy to forget!

*Two crashes so far! Makes me laugh at what I wrote "Like I care about anything besides fighting?" or whatever. Its standard talk to everyone to figure out the plot and grab quests. I don't have that sort of attention span. I like to fight, level up, explore, and fight some more!

*Die feature takes forever. Should be prompt then immediate death.
*I wish I had found out how much emphasis the game put on Player versus Player before I bought premium stuff.

*If you don't prioritize your quests right some won't be worth your time or money. It doesn't help that you can only accept up to five at a time.


enemy location issues are being improved, yes there is a problem with facing issues and mobs that run or move through objects, but its an issue that is being worked on, and an issue that i have seen in other games, not particular to RO. its a hard problem to solve and some mmorpgs i play still have this issue months later.

zoom problems? another simple solution i found by my tiring response of tooltips/game manual/forum visit, hold right mouse button and move mouse, idiot proof. another one..hold both mouse buttons and then move mouse..that might be a bit more advanced for you though..

spell book not closing? did you see the checkbox that states close when cast? im sure it means something important and checking it could have different results!

the story line i could care less, in all mmorpgs ive played, the immersion is not in the npcs but interacting with other players. quests have always been fetch or sleep inducing, i put up with it on wow as well, and consider it nothing out of the ordinary for a game of this genre. as for prioritizing them thats another obvious statement. they are meant to give you more than one option to level up, either grind or do quests, or combinations of both. if you chose to grind and ignore them when they could have done you some use, thats your own oversight, not the games.

death not instant? another obvious reason. you see, if you read the site, and how it prominately promotes its RVR and PVP slant, you would realize what abuse could be had with an instant death. you could avoid any fight you wished instantly. i really am beginning to think you are a troll by now, and even i am not that deep into this game or its strategies but this is simple common sense i have come to realize by giving it a chance..which you did not.


all in all i feel like ive lost time ill never get back, having read an arrogant and biased review, and wasted even more time explaining basic explanations to someone who in my opinion has not given what he is reviewing proper credit, by doing his homework beforehand. i hope i cleared up a few issues for you in the same manner as you have, sarcastically. what really bites me though, is i KNOW you know how to solve issues or ask for help, you just choose not to. my example is in your sound issue, you DID make an attempt to solve it or ask for assistance or explanation..yet with ALL other issues you did NOT.

[UmarilsStillHere]

Originally Posted by Puppypaws

...
all in all i feel like ive lost time ill never get back, having read an arrogant and biased review, and wasted even more time explaining basic explanations to someone who in my opinion has not given what he is reviewing proper credit, by doing his homework beforehand. i hope i cleared up a few issues for you in the same manner as you have, sarcastically. what really bites me though, is i KNOW you know how to solve issues or ask for help, you just choose not to. my example is in your sound issue, you DID make an attempt to solve it or ask for assistance or explanation..yet with ALL other issues you did NOT.

Well, I doubt hell check here and see how much hes been pwned anytime soon but im keen to find his website and lol at some other reveiws from a guy who seems not only reaaaly arrogant but also seems to expect everything handed to him on a platter, this isnt a $140 a year p2p game mate