Trickster Online is a free to play MMORPG from Ntreev USA (http://www.tricksteronline.com/). It can best be described as a 2d game done with a very anime-like style. To be very honest it is very, very unique and not like any other MMO on the market. The entire premise of the game is that the incredibly wealthy founder of a game company has passed away and left his fortune to all who are willing to participate in his final game, which is called “Trickster”. You travel out to a desert island to stake your claim for part of the fortune by playing this game.
When looking at the graphics of the game, it is easy to dismiss it since it is only two dimensional. I found that despite the limitations, the entire game was refreshing. So many companies are pushing out games using outdated 3d technology and they look terrible. Trickster looks and feels much like an anime series straight from Japan. While it may not win any awards for being the most cutting-edge game on the market today, there is no complaints about their choice of palate.
The sound inside the game was decent, especially since it is a free to play game. If I was a game developer making free to play games and read that someone had issues with the sound, well I would want to pop them right in the mouth. Considering the technical limitations on the game as the minimum requirements are extremely low, they did a good job. The music fits the feel of the game; while the sounds (especially the drills) help you better experience the action going on around you.
What hooked me about the game was how it plays. Sure there is combat for those who want to go out and smack stuff in the head, but you can avoid that (or at least take a break to participate in) their unique Drill system. To sum it up as briefly as possible there are numerous amounts of drills that can be found, created, or bought (both from NPCs and the cash shop) and used to make holes in the ground in search of items. This is not a passive process either. You have to keep the drill meter within a certain section depending on the drill to be successful. Not only will you walk away with an item or money, but you will also get experience which will help you get levels just the same as combat will.
The community was just kind of average. Most players were afk in town with their personal shops open. The few actual people I met did save my skin a few times when I was out drilling though. This pretty typical of most MMORPGs that are free to play and are not a negative reflection on the game itself, just those who frequently play them.
Overall, Trickster is a solid title. They are continually running events to try and keep things fresh and interesting. Patches come out often enough with new things for players to try out. If you are looking for something more than a little bit different than you are used to I would recommend giving it a spin.
Written by Brian Perry Jr.
