A game in beta testing is usually small. A game in beta testing usually has a couple of towns, a few monsters to fight, and a couple of weapons to get. Free World is in beta testing, but is neither if these. For a game in beta, FW is amazing. It has everything a reliesed mmo has. Pets? got it. Housing? got it. Full movement system? got it.
Graphics wise, this game is ok. They are pretty good, comparable to late Dreamcast graphics. It has some nice little effects too, like when a storm is blowing up, you look up into the trees, and you see the leaves rustle. Although the actual rain drops are kinda cheesy, it has cool fog effects and darkness effects. Another advantage of FW is the night and day system. In the tutorial, you get a lantern, verry useful in the nighttime. Char models are pretty good. The best part about the graphics though is that they dont take much. I have a dial-up connection and i can run all of the animations smoothly without a single bit of lag.
The sound in FW is mediocer. Whenever you attack, you get an odd little “Ungh!” sound. You kinda squat a little, too. There isnt any voice acting, and the only really good thing in the sounds is the weather effects and score. At night you hear happy little cricets, chirrping their heads off, and the wind sounds are really loud and pronounced. I loved the rustling leaf sound. The score is nice, and it serves its purpose for background music.
Gameplay was where FW really shines. It has a nice set of skills, although the system is confusing. I still havent figured it out. The controls may take a little getting used to, but they work, and they work perfectly. This game is really open ended, and you can lvl up without fighting. Although there are only like 20 people that play it (one reason im writing this is to raise the hype), they are all friendly. Someone is always ready to play a good game of hide and seek in one of the maze like towns (if you have certain armor, you really blend in with the enviroments. I was playing Hide and Seek once, and a guy hid in a bookshelf. never found him.). The npc’s are cleverly named, and give you the occaisonal quest. Pets are a great conveniance, because you can ride them on that 30 minute hike youve been neglecting. The charecter costomization is ok, but it needs to explain the skills a little better. The tutorial is a nice learning experience, where you get to know the look and feel of FW. The archery range was awesome, so i just wasted like an hour screwing around (: -P.
The battle system was wayy to hack-and-slashy to me. I perfer the battle style of, say, Guild Wars, or WoW. One of the major drawbacks of FW comes to PvP. There is no PvP. None. Zip. Natta.
So, overall, if your intellegent enough to figure out how FW works, its worth it.
~~SLJ x
