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Asian MMO in a US Market

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 36 / 38
Date: March 01, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Here's the thing. Reviews are almost always based on personal taste and preference. It has been my experience that MMORPGs, in particular, are a love/hate entertainment medium. So, take my review score above as worth a grain of salt. I can't talk about all of the high level content, yet. I am currently a lvl 30 Cora Spiritualist/Caster. So, what I hope the text of my review will do is help someone who is on the fence decide whether RF Online is a game he or she would like to try; but, again, keep in mind that I can't speak for the higher levels just yet. Unlike most games, MMOs require a lot of time and money. Is this one worth taking the plunge?

To begin, RF Online reminds me of a couple games I've played. There's hints of Asian MMO Ragnarok Online (except much better, polished and in 3D) and Shadowbane. I apologize in advance for making World of Warcraft comments. I do this to put the game in perspective since, with 6 million and growing members, WoW is the dominant MMO in the market and most people who play this game will have spent sometime in WoW probably. People new to the genre via World of Warcraft and don't know other MMOs out there, probably will not enjoy this game. However, those looking for a more hardcore experience with some genuinely fun PvP moments, this might be your game.

I won't lie, RFO is a bit rough around the edges right now. Without straying too far from reviewing territory, I want to give an honest answer to this. It is being developed by a Korean company and being translated and hosted by Codemasters, a UK-based company. Because of this, Codemasters is still playing catch-up by translating and reworking the patches (called Giga patches) for our market. They are constantly trying to fix language misconceptions, filter issues, while at the same time adding in new content. Does this let Codemasters off the hook? No, of course not. But, for me at least, I can give them some allowances since the game isn't being developed internally and, as those of us who remember "All your base are belong to us," translation is key.

But what is RFO? RFO is a faction-based, PvP game. In this aspect, its called a Faction vs Faction vs Faction. The basic jist is that there are three factions vying for control over ore on the planet of Novus. You have the Cora which are a race that believes in magic and are very elvish in appearance. The Bellato are a race of people who fuse magic and technology. One of their classes can ride in Mechs (called MAUs in the game), but they can also use magic. On the other side of the spectrum lies the Accretian, more machine than human. They don't believe in magic, but instead continually outfit themselves with more robotics to make them "superior."

Gameplay revolves around PvP (or FvFvF) in the same way that Shadowbane does (did?). The actual PvE content is nothing inline with games like WoW or EQ. Its virtually non-existent (right now, but more on that later) outside of quests. You receive quests via an intercom and receive quest rewards immediately which is a great feature. No more running around finding quests and then refinding the person to turn it in. However, quests (like in WoW or EQ) are simple "Kill X creatures" or "Collect X items." So, you'll spend your time grinding (again, like Shadowbane or, really, most MMOs). You'll mostly notice that you're grinding more than in WoW, for instance, because most of the time you don't have quests directing you; nor will you have many instanced zones to go into.

Each faction has access to 3 or 4 classes at the beginning. Warrior, Ranger and Specialist (crafters) are open to all 3 factions, while Bellato and Cora can become Spiritualists (casters). At level 30, each of the 4 classes branch off into a subclass and, with the exception of the Specialist class for Cora, are given two paths to go down. At level 40, you further are able to specialize by choosing a 3 subclass path. The level cap is currently 50.

Its after getting to lvl 25+ that the game starts to shine. Having played Beta and participated in the massive Chip Wars, I can say that they are a blast and can really get intense. Chip Wars happen every 8 hours and are fought to control the inner mines for the really quick mining ability. If a faction wins the chip war, they have protected access to the mine for whatever is left in time (usually around 6 hours). Since making money and getting materials for crafting are dependent on mining, it becomes a race for the faction to control the mine. As an example, mining outside the interior will net you a couple hundred grand in 8 hours of being afk. Mining inside has net me over a million in about 6 hours.

Unlike most MMOs I've played, the game does not have strength, Intelligence etc stats. Instead, you have close range weapon, long range weapons, force, summons, shield, defense, etc, called PTs. Everytime you do an action (say cast a spell), you increase your Force stat a percentage. Upon reaching a full point in that stat, your Force Points (like mana points) will increase. Same with Defense.

There are also skills (close, long range and class) and Force (Dark, Holy, Fire, Ice, Earth, Wind) to learn and operate on a PT-based way. Managing your PTs becomes important as it will determine your HP, FP, Stamina, and the damage and strength of your skills/force powers. It will also, upon level 30, open up additional skills and force tiers.

Graphically, the game is nice and not so nice. The character models are excellent. The armor and weapons, also, are terrific. I love the exagerated and huge weapon designs. The environment leaves a lot to be desired. While WoW didn't have the best resolutions for the environment, the artistic development of the lands was outstanding. So far, the environments I've seen in RFO are low res and not very exciting. However, it allows for a ton of people to PvP in an area without the game crashing (like WoW). It is made around PvP and having lower res allow this better.

I should mention controls too. It doesn't follow the normal WASD controls. Its a point and click for movement and attacking (like RO or Flyff). True, you can go into a "keyboard" move, but for some reason I just didn't like using the WASD or arrow keys for moving, probably because it was put in there to appease the American/UK audience. Also, keybindings are virtually non-existent. You can go into the files outside of the games and fiddle with the code, but there's no way (yet) to change the bindings in game. Hopefully this will addressed as Codemasters works to fully localise the game.

I'm not sure how indepth to go with this review. I hope I've given some information that will help people make a determination. If you are coming off of WoW as your first game, you might not like this game. It doesn't offer the same kind of PvE experiences that WoW or similar Pve-related games can offer. In fact, as far as actual content goes, its pretty minimal. Right now. There are plans, that I'll get to in a moment, that will add more to the game. Some of the content mentioned below is scheduled to come in with the next big "giga" patch. Some is planned a bit down the way. The game is also rough around the edges right now. It didn't have a problematic launch like WoW did, though. There's not much lag so far, and the sign-in servers (after the beta fix) are never broken so far. There have been some rough spots, including translation issues and chat filtering issues (though the patch today has fixed them it seems). It probably shouldn't have been launched without everything in it, but name me a game that doesn't launch too early? Or had everything expected in the beginning?

There are a ton of things to look forward to, though. You can zoom out on your map and see what solar system you are in, as well as the galaxies around you. Eventually space travel will be introduced. Talks of guilds running planets, guilds building bases, having guild wars in your faction, controlling areas etc have all been confirmed. Instanced areas reminiscent of Battle Grounds for WoW will be introduced for Guild vs Guild combat. There's apparently at least one or two other mines on the planet Novus. And, of course, there's the other planets ready to be opened and explored. RFO only has room to grow. It might not be the game for you, but if you want a hardcore PvP game, I would recommend looking into it. I hope I have given an accurate and honest portrayal of the game. Fans of Shadowbane or Asian MMOs (Flyff, RO, Rose Online etc etc) will find a more fleshed and out, in my opinion, enjoyable game here in RFO.

Simplistic PvP... no PvE except to grind levels

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 11 / 14
Date: February 23, 2006
Author: Amazon User

With its lack of variety in character models and lack of storyline/quests RF online is a hack-and-slash PvP with guns and spells available to its few classes. The game centers around each of the three races fighting for control of the central mine where mad money can be made mining. Mining, incidentally, is also how materials for upgrades are attained for use in end-game.

Skills are all important and levelling fast will result in low skills and pwnage in PvP in later levels. The system allows AFK mining although PvP normally cuts its use quite short. Potion spamming for health/mana is the rule, not the exception and luckily available from NPC vendors.

All in all RF online is a very pretty game well suited for the PvP hard core gamer who is comfortable with making their own entertainment.

Surprisingly Good. (From a long time MMORPG player)

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 11 / 14
Date: March 21, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Over all Quickie: 3.8 Stars
Graphics -5
Gameplay -3
Sound -5
Replay -2
Reviewer Tilt -4

Ive been playing MMORPGS since before there were more than 16 colors on a computer. When the internet was new and didnt have pictures.

Enough backround on me, into the game:

RF (Rising Force) Online has been out in Korea for around a year or so, and this is a translated version by a UK Based Company, Codemasters.

First off this is not quite the same game they are playing in korea. Thats not good or bad really, just a fact. The US release has seperate players so you will, for the most part, be playing with only english speakers. Also the game is a couple of "patches" behind the Korean game which leaves out some content, levels, ect... that we would hopefully get very soon.

Moving more into the game itself,

There are three races which are basically Cyborgs/Elves/Halfling-Elves. One Race is all Mechanized with no magic, one race is all magic with no real Mechanical aspect, and one race is exactly in the middle. Unlike most reviews I think the races/classes do have quite a bit of distinction which ramps up in huge ways in the upper tier'd levels, each class breaks into two which breaks into two or more again. (and theres probably more with the other patches)

RF is a little typo heavy and if small typo-ish bugs or grammatical errors have you going loopy, you might cry out in pain. These do kind of point twoards a rush to get the game out, but this is very common as MMORPGS need to get some sales/subscriptions to continue growth (and in some cases even really complete). Otherwise the game for me runs increadibly stable and has not crashed once. Lag is really not been a problem at all. (im on 512k dsl)

The games graphics are intense can extremely detailed - yes as other reviews have said the graphics are a little overused. But by the time youve put 50-80 hours into the game (a good mark in any MMORPG) you will notice that your armor/unit/outfit looks so awesome who cares if the other guy looks the same... you are in the army after all, and in a way its nice to know who you are with (also theres different armor for each class and different armor every 2-3 levels eventually so its not really THAT overused).

As everyone has stated the world itself can feel a little empty in spots and the backrounds a little plain, there are a couple of video options you have to manually turn on to really get the most of the graphics. Towns are heavily populated and so are monster locations which there are plenty, also if you ever get into the Mine or PvP, you probably wont complain about emptyness anywhere, ever, again.

Gameplay leaves a little to be desired at first but is anything but simple. Again the game does not shine until your character is level 28-30,but it is still very fun up to that point and after that point and beyond is very rewarding. You can Powerlevel (level as fast as possible) but you could Gimp (damage your character) by not taking your time. Which in a sence makes you take your time, and even though it is slow you do get a great sence of accomplishment and the results in the higher levels are fear and awe from your fellow players.

The game does have a bit of potion popping, but in my mind all this does is make the game have little to no downtime, and downtime is what is truly not fun in a game. (Mineing does have a lot of downtime but it makes you so much money you wont care, cuz all you would see are $$)

I'll have to leave PvP up to you to try as PvP is often a mixed bag as to who likes it and who doesnt. You dont get XP while PvP'ing so its not something you need to feel compelled to do, but you might because everyone that can walk can go and try to help their race (level 25+ greatly recommended).

One reviewer complained about the Community, and Ive got to say either this player/review did something to get everyone against him, or just doesnt have what we call "Da social skills" I have repeatedly asked questions about things that were either in the manual or online, and gotten nothing but polite responses, (Im on #1)Spirit server).

Also about the Communtity there are people who would Killsteal or farm anything, maybe shooting the little monster you were fighting, this is really not a problem for the most part, whom ever does more than 50% of the damage gets the loot and you get xp per hit not per death. This is a minor minor inconvinence and these are the types of players who get yelled at and called names when they ask questions.

Sound - Lovly, a little overrepeating but very nice.

Replay - It is a "Grind" Game, but if you have an open mind, make some friends and play together, level up awesomely godlike powerful characters in a amazingly beautiful sounding and looking world... what isnt fun about that?

Reviewer's tilt: Some will say this is a game for "Hardcore" MMORPGS'ers and they might very well be right. The game does take a bit to get into but you may very well find your self suddenly incredablty attached.

I personally enjoy a good grrrrind leveling up my character, getting new weapons and armor, new titles and skills, fighting bigger and bigger monsters, and with a game that goes to level 50 now, and possibly into the 100's later, again with no downtime inbetween fights, Im excited to play every chance I can.

I know this review probably rambles and misses some spots here and there, I was trying to write it quickly. There is an open access (i think) forum for the game at codemaster's website (dont go to the Korean website :- )) try that for more info.

Thanks for your time reading this.
- L

Needs work..kinda boring.

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 9 / 14
Date: March 07, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I'm kind of a fan of the pros and cons rating system, so here I go. Keep in mind I'm an avid fan of World of Warcraft and I'm still playing it, and I've gone back to it after playing this game 35 relatively boring levels. I use a lot of references back to WoW because I consider it one of the most (if not the most) fun online game I've played in years.

The Pros:

EXCELLENT graphics - I believe this is what first attracted my attention to this game. Compared to other online rpg's that I've played, this one probably has the most detail on the characters and weapons. I just love the huge weapons. I made a warrior class recently and I just love how huge the weapons are when you equip them (the detail on the weapons is great also). The monsters just look sick. They are so detailed up-close. The background and settings are pretty nice as well..however the background and setting needs more detail, unlike the monsters and characters.

PVP - I didn't care much for pvp before I started playing WoW. I hated it before. The way WoW presents pvp is (I believe) how it should be- Skill, equipment and luck. RF Online has kind of the same method. You need skill, decent equipment and luck in order to do well in pvp. Because pvp in this game is 3-sided between the three races, its much more chaotic. No more good guys vs. bad guys. Everyone that isn't your race is considered a "bad guy" unless your faction is allianced with them..

Fast leveling...at first - In the 5 short days I played this game, it probably took me about 10-16 hours of playtime to achieve level 30. You basically grind on monsters (meaning killing them over and over and over for experience), for the majority of your experience. Fortunately you gain experience constantly while fighting and fast too. You gain it for killing monsters by one, and even gain a little bit WHILE FIGHTING using weapons, skills and spells.

Getting cash - Its pretty easy to get money in this game. For the first 2-5 levels you might be thinking how the heck am I going to get x amount for spells/weapons etc? Well the good news is it comes pretty fast by selling stuff that you get from killing monsters (and quest rewards). Later on, you can start drilling for ores and depending on if you win the chip wars or not, money can come flowing in, or trickling in. Most of this is important after you hit lv 30 regarding ores and chip wars though. Past lv 30 you need to have weapons/armor crafted for you by specialists and ores you find are needed to make these items, so they become pretty important after lv 30.

The cons:

Grinding for levels - I don't mind grinding a little bit, or even a lot as long as it stops. I HATE grinding level upon level. Although it is relatively tolerable in this game since you gain xp from just attacking as well as killing monsters. I'll never forget reading the forums regarding this game after I hit lv 10 and wanted to learn more about it. I asked if the game gets fun at all and I was told "You don't actually get to have fun till 30." So 20 boring levels later. I hit 30 and experienced pvp. I'll explain that later.

Lack of mutliple designs - EVERYONE BASICALLY LOOKS THE SAME FROM THE SAME RACE! Yeah this game has nice graphics, but everyone looks the same, and the armor and weapons ALL look the same from 1-50. They even have websites for RF Online that shows all the weapons and armor graphics on each race (male and female) from 1-50. The landscape all looks pretty much the same too. Blah landscapes altogether.

The Con System - I hate this. Colored bubbles in the tooltip at the top of the screen when you target something denotes how high they are in relation to your level. Its very hard to tell how tough something is vs. your level sometimes. I've fought players that have a blue dot (meaning unbeatable), and monsters as well, yet killed them by using a few healing potions to survive. I wish they would just do the same thing WoW does. Its very easy to understand that someone or something that is red or ?? to you is probably too high that it will kill you in one hit or so. Or if they are grey or green they probably aren't worth your time, but in this game you find yourself looking at bubbles and looking for the blue one in particular..not sure why they don't just color the name of the monster or player in.

Rude people - You ask any question in map chat regarding the starting quests from 1-30, you get flamed. Happens on multiple servers too. I made a Bellato ranger and a Cora Spiritualist and got the same thing. Even was told, "Go back to WoW you n00b, we don't want you here." (I didn't even tell them I played WoW). By the way, if you do decide to get this game (which I advice you not to do almost all online games you can't return once you play them). Look up info on the quests from 1-30 regarding from websites other than asking others in-game unless you like getting flamed. "Where are the lurkers?" Seems to set them off more than other questions though.

Unbalanced PVP - Sure you can do pvp whenever you want. But surviving long enough to get some kills is another thing. The rule-of-thumb is to wait til 30 to participate in chip wars, however be wary of a lv 40-50 player that is running around slaughtering people in 1-3 shots.. For the most part there is a 20-level difference in levels between the highest and lowest levels most people are about 30-40 range though. Everyone participates in the same massive pvp fight during chip wars, not separated every 10 levels for fairness like WoW.

PVE mobs - You can't tell if mobs are going to attack you or link with another mob until you attack it or walk past it. I can't tell you how many times I've gotten slaughtered by monsters when I first started playing because I couldn't tell if they aggroed by being near them or if they linked with their buddies. In most other games monsters that attack you when you get near them are colored in red or something, and monsters that are neutral are yellow or blue or orange or something neutral. Only way you can tell in this game is by trial-and-error. Attack a monster, if it kills you or pulls a friend, you learn what to do next time around after you die :(. Thats just the way it is, which sucks.

This game could be so much more, but its lacking so damn much. Boring leveling, unbalanced pvp, unoriginal character creation and most importantly, "leveling to 30 to start the game" is what keeps me from playing this again.

Most boring grindfest ever

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 10 / 18
Date: February 23, 2006
Author: Amazon User

While the characters and some environment sure looks neat, it has less of everything to offer than any other MMO. Practically no character customization, no quests, every character has only one real attack for 30 long levels, the places are small and uninteresting, nothing to explore and to try out. The world is the coldest and more boring I have ever seen.

Unless you value totally mindless grind, safe your money. There is no value that keeps anyone sensible playing more than a week or two.

O.K

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: August 01, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I suppose I'm a veteran of online gaming. I've played Star Wars Galaxies (SWG) and Guild Wars (GW) since their respective launches, including all expansions, as well as World of Warcraft and Anarchy Online. As of right now, I've played RF Online for about 3½ weeks or so.

Here's the thing: RF Online is only a semi-decent game.

Don't get me wrong. RF does have some nice features.

It has decent visuals. The game environments aren't the greatest, but they don't disappoint either. Sound is nice. It's splendid to have a "futuristic" MMO as opposed to Fantasy based, swords and sorcery only. The Chip Wars (massive online Player vs. Player events held 3x a day) are really fun, especially if you have a decent group of players. The Mechs of RF (called MAUs in-game) are decent. The Accretian race's Launchers are pretty slick, as are the Cora's Summons.

But that's just it: This game requires an insane amount of grinding to get to the point where you can use the awesome features. Level 1-30 are spent grinding. There are "quests" of sorts, but they are literally limited to "Kill # monsters" or "Find X of this item."

And, to make matters worse, Lvl 1-30 is exactly the same for each of the 3 races/4 base classes of RF. Same weapons, same skills, same spells. (Armor is different, but...that's just not a saving grace)

That said, this game is only for those who don't mind a grind, or really devoted players with little to no time constraints. Once you Hit 30, granted, the game does get much better, but I feel many wouldn't make it past lvl 15.

Rising Force - Online

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 27
Date: February 22, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Declare your allegiance.
In a distant sector known as Novus, three factions war for control. Engage in an awe-aspiring universe where enthralling fantasy blends with galactic sci-fi. Create you character, choose your faction and take arms with thousands of other players. The battle for supremacy has begun...

This game got a bad rap.

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: April 08, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I wanted to try this game out for a long time. And didn't because the reviews were so bad. Shame on me for listening to them. This game first of all is free to play. And it really is fun. The big complaint is that this game is a grindfest. Anyone who ever says that about an mmo is not a real mmo player. All MMO'S ARE A GRINDFEST. You have to grind in all of them. I made a cyborg character and in 2 or 3 hours hit lvl 10. Just by doing quest and there are a ton on them to do. If you make the choice of just going out and grinding mobs,well that was your choice. The game looks beautiful. The gameworld is awsome to explore. And i would say that you should do alot of exploring before lvl 15 because thats when you get xp debt for dieing. For ten bucks and free online play time,you really can't loose here. Also hit the website. It has alot of game info and the boards are very good. And as a new player,you should make a new character on the new servers.

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