Gamespot Score:n/a
My Score:7.8
(+)Pros: - Excellent skill based combat, - Encourages party play, - Great boss fight experiences for an MMORPG, - Diverse skill system that allows a certain class to use skills from other classes, - Different armor type choices for everyone, - Actually makes you WANT to craft equipment.
(-)Cons: - Encourages party play, - Hunting for equipment can be a major pain in later levels, - Completely rips off monster hunter.
Gameplay time: -
MMORPGs have gotten quite boring as of late, this I will admit. Its always the same thing here and there. Some games tend to mix things up but there has been no MMO that has really SUCKED me in completely these days (the last one was probably "Dekaron" or "Cabal"). "RaiderZ" is a pretty good MMORPG, its combat system already separates itself from the rest of the pack, and since it practically rips off most of its ideas from "Monster Hunter", you can expect many familiar things if you come from that background. If you always wanted a skill based MMO that is free, now's the time, "RaiderZ" might be your game.
Well "RaiderZ" is one of those games that don't really give a shit about making its story have any impact, because I can't really remember anything worthy of notice. Its one of those games where it just points you to a quest, you go, do it, rinse and repeat. You don't learn much about the mythos or the background story, unless you really do a lot of reading, which really isn't too impressive or disappointing at this time for a free MMORPG.
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| Welcome to MMO hell soldier. |
As I said earlier, if there is something awesome about "RaiderZ" is its skill based combat. As of now, other than "Tera", "Guild Wars 2" or "C9", I don't know of any other skill based MMO other than "RaiderZ". Of course, like most of these other titles, the skill based combat in "RaiderZ" is masterfully made. Like in a good monster hunter game, you have to block, dodge, and attack enemies at the right intervals. This makes for some tight game play even when you're playing against normal enemies. You can defeat enemies stronger than you are, as usual, as long as you have the skills to do it. And since most enemies tend to hit harder than in most MMOs, this is pretty much something you have to master.
"RaiderZ" is also another one of those games that completely encourages you to do everything in a party. Main story quests force you to go into instances which you CANNOT clear alone. But also, in a party, the rewards yielded are always superior to that of a solo player, so its not really a bad thing. And since everyone is split into different classes you get your classic MMO rule in parties. You always need to have a ranged DPS, a healer and your tank. Its like this, and it always will be. This however makes for some extremely well done boss fights. Since this IS a skill based game, bosses take TREMENDOUS skill to beat. You need team work, synergy and communication to take down these beasts, and it is oh-so-fun when you do get to fight a boss like that when your skyping up withing some friends.
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| The enemy is down! Everyone, time for an all out attack! |
Another really good thing about the game is the way they handle skills. As I said earlier you pick one of multiple classes and you play as that class throughout the game. In a normal MMORPG, it would end there. You would follow the skill tree that class provides you with an follow it all the way through. In "RaiderZ", once you hit level 10, you get the ability to throw points into skill trees of OTHER classes. Now this is insanely cool. Ever wanted DPS as a cleric? No problem, throw some points into the mage skill tree. Want to be a self healing tank? Put some points into the cleric skill tree as a defender. The possibilities here are endless, and the fact that they let you do something this cool, is pretty awesome.
The choices of armor are pretty similar. You get to equip any type of armor that you craft, though some types of armor only fit to some classes. Still, it doesn't matter. Want to be a priest wearing metal armor? You can. Want to be a warrior wearing cloth armor? Sure. This leads to varying player appearances, instead of taking one look at a guy and say, "Oh, this guy's a mage". The game also gives you kind of like a "Monster Hunter" feel, where you defeat bosses/enemies and they drop materials. You'll want to kill the bosses over and over to get enough materials to craft your armor, it gets pretty addictive early on, and serves as a powerful drive to push you through the grind.
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| Solo hunting is a pain. |
Now onto the flaws, some of which are obvious. First off the complete rip-off of "Monster Hunter" can be a little bit offensive to some players (though I really don't care as long as the game is good), so it should be mentioned here. The encouragement of party play can also be a turn off for anti-social solo players. You NEED to find parties at some point in the game to effectively take on instances, and you NEED to do instances to progress with your main story/quest line. Also since later bosses (the ones after level 20) are majorly difficult and take a lot of effort to kill, repeatedly killing these beasties for materials can become quite a turn-off.
"RaiderZ" stands on its own as a good skill based MMORPG, that's all there is to it. It has a substantial player base to keep the game running for now, and it should be fine as it is. The "Monster Hunter" inspiried theme easily impresses those who dig the original idea, and the skill based combat, combined with the fact that any class can use any skill, pretty much makes this game a little bit more special than the others. Why not give your inner hunter a chance to shine?
Happy gaming.
