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Pros: Who doesn't love PvP, anime style graphics Cons: East MMO grind heavy, not sure about the PvE content yet
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RF Online is an epic mix of traditional fantasy massively multiplayer online game mixed with unique futuristic sci-fi action to bring an entirely new and original take on the existing MMORPG genre.
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He Says:
RF Online is a MMORPG from developer CCR which Codemasters will launch soon in the North American and UK markets. Fusing traditional fantasy with science fiction and romance, it takes place in the distant Novus galaxy, where three factions, the autocratic Accretian Empire, the spiritual Cora Holy Alliance and the robot-oriented Bellato Union, are locked in a struggle for control of the region's riches.
Although RF Online seems new to us, it has already established itself as a success in the Far East, with a player base reportedly numbering over a million. Accordingly, it seems reasonable to expect the game and the servers will be stable, and that many possible issues related to balance, load, etc will already have been addressed.
The mix of fantasy and science fiction elements may help to foster both awareness and a sense of product differentiation among members of the target audience. The graphics are decent enough, with a varied selection of characters and monsters, and an art style reminiscent of Phantasy Star Online which will keep the anime fans in the audience very happy.
The current beta we played actually was not newb friendly. First you must choose your faction, then your character class, then your weapon, all with very little information as to what each of these choices even mean. Even a hardcore MMO player can feel out of place with how awkward the current system is. This has always been one of the problems that kept the Asian MMO’s from catching on outside their region.
Eastern based games have a tendency to focus on keeping the players' sole focus in the game on grinding. While this seems to be the case for RF Online it all seems to change once the PvP aspects come into play. The game is heavily focused on PvP, putting three warring factions against each other for control of a planet. It's this part of the game that is likely to keep people playing regardless of the grinding. The developers at CCR have built a fascinating system to allow entire races to go to war with each other.
Each race in the game is very unique, from the mechanical Accretia to the spiritual Cora and the military themed Bellato, and when each race evolves to a certain point they become even more distinct. The Cora, for example, develop the ability to drag immensely powerful summoned creatures into battle; the Bellato gain access to powerful mechs.
If PvP is your thing it looks like RF Online may be the MMO to play for the anime fans. RF Online is an interesting game that manages to rise beyond the initial impressions of a boring grind till 30. Early impressions are that it could just have what it takes to get its hooks firmly into a pretty significant number of players.
She Says:
RF Online is very much like the traditional MMO from the start. The Game is based on selecting a faction and class. The game utilizes the 4 typical classes, Warrior, Spiritualist, Ranger, and Specialist.
Warrior: A basic melee fighter who relies on strength and durability.
Ranger: A ranged attacker who relies on speed and stealth.
Spiritualist: A magic-user who relies on the power of magic.
Specialist: A class that has special abilities unique to each race.
Each Character has an inventory which can be expanded to hold more items. The typical spell bars and action keys are there, along with the usual menus and options. From what I saw though they are quite small and I can see some people at higher resolutions having an issue with them. At first glance, RF Online is reminiscent of WoW or Guild Wars. The environment is more of an anime based structure that has the same cartoon type world as WoW. Overall, game play and controls are what we are used to from the eastern MMO’s.
Character movement is based heavily on mouse control, with the same click to move type layout as Guild Wars. Personally, I think the click to move and mouse control only can slow you down if you are used to the keyboard controlled “WASD” type movement until you become more familiar with using the mouse to control all movement.
The game displays the environment perfectly minus some drawing distance issues and good over all quality even if you don’t have a super PC. RF Online can be a bit of a change if you are not used to playing a similar Eastern MMO. A new player, without knowledge of the game will pick a class and faction without really knowing what they are getting in to. The initial game tutorial does not start until you have created your character and entered the world. The Beta version allowed a choice of about 5 servers, an upon joining a server I realized that once you pick a faction on that server, any additional characters made must be the same faction. In order to check out the other factions, I needed to start new characters on another server.
Overall, RF Online follows suit with the MMO world. Graphics are acceptable if you like the anime cartoon feel. Overall introduction is a bit lacking but investing a little time to learn your character before venturing off will help if you are not familiar with the usual MMO classes. PvP is taking hold in the United States, and RF Online has it. I would call RF Online a fresh twist on the Asian type MMO, and from the looks of it, this type of system will soon be just as popular in the Western countries.