Platform: PC Company: Games-masters.com A free to play and free to download MMORPG, one that stands out in the sea of games of it's ilk, but it runs into a few problems... Graphics: Graphically this game is lacking, but then again, all MMOs are in one way or another so they can appeal to a larger customer base by offering a game that will work on a wide variety of graphics cards. It has a lot of graphical glitches such as running through people/enemies/NPCs or even terrain, but that doesn't stop it from looking nice. The game takes place over a large universe and you can tell the difference between the areas immediately, the first three areas are vastly different, from desolate wasteland, to tropical jungle and even barren snowlands. While the character detail does look very nice at first glance, the level of customisation the user is offered is severely limited, the only 3 changes in appearance (apart from gender) are hair style, hair colour and face. Because the game is best viewed with a partially zoomed-out view, it's hard to tell the difference between faces really. Sound: The sound could be better, seeing as there are no different races to choose from, the sounds that your character make are either generic male or generic female, so the combat sounds tend to get dull rather quickly. The monsters (known as demons in-game) are gifted with unique sounds so that is some salvation, though hearing the same noise every time you hit a demon of the same kind does get frustrating after a good 15 minutes. The music is something I can't judge one way or the other, there IS music and it sounds better than most MMORPGs out there, but it's not at all atmospheric, it really just sounds like the creators bundled their favourite songs into the game but stripped out the lyrics first. Gameplay: This is the redeeming feature of the game, like most MMOs out there, it's entirely open and there are no newbie areas, everyone can go to and from all areas as they please, and new characters are gently immersed into the game through a series of tutorial quests, teaching the finer points of the class and the world you now inhabit. Though many quests have a level requirement, forcing you to go out and kill things until quests become offered to you, they are a lot more than just kill things and go back to the quest giver, you're given quests to search areas, kill a certain number of enemies within a time limit. The community is a bit more friendly than I've come to expect from MMOs, with most people in Cabal leaving you to your own methods until you start asking for help, the spoils of battle are visible to everyone nearby but only the one who actually put in the effort in killing the demon is awarded the items/money. The experience system is something I have never seen before, you don't get experience for killing monsters, you get experience from using your skills and doing damage to the monsters, thus bringing in the closest I have ever seen to a system where you use your skills to improve yourself, in an MMORPG that is. Storyline: The storyline isn't what these games are about, 9 out of 10 people who play these games ignore the quest text and just go into the quest, levelling, getting items and killing things. Because of this, the creators have made the game easy to follow whether you choose to follow the storyline or not. But I can tell they have put a great deal of work into the storyline. Overall scores: Graphics 6/10 Sound 3/10 Gameplay 9/10 Storyline 5/10 Total 7/10 In conclusion this has to be the best 100% free MMORPG I have ever played, I would go as far to say I personally prefer it to Guild Wars, the only additional problem is that you can't play with people from different parts of the world and when you register your account they want all your address details even though you don't pay a penny. I hope you found this review helpful and informative
