First things do come first, and in this case, the skeletons must be revealed from the beginning. Runes of Magic is heavily similar of Blizzard's seminal MMO, either by design or by coincidence. The way you control your characters is very reminiscent, as are the professions, quests, and general feel. However, Blizzard does not have a monopoly on the fantasy MMO quite yet, and Runes of Magic introduces enough new features to be interesting to even the most die-hard World of Warcraft fans.

There are several standard classes for you to choose from, such as Warrior, Rogue, Priest, or Mage, just to name a few. These classes, when chosen at creation, determine your primary class. Sound familiar? That is because Guild Wars pulled a similar trick on players. That's right, Runes of Magic supports dual-class systems, and it's better for it. For example, if you want to be a tank with a heavy emphasis on survivability, you could go Protector/Priest. If you want to be a mage that lays down the supporting arrow fire, you might give the Mage/Scout combination a look. It allows for much more customization than other MMOs in the gameplay department, and it's a thankful change from standard class systems. Too bad the actual visual customization is lackluster, and the classes follow the World of Warcraft convention to closely. The Warrior uses rage and the Rogue uses Energy, for example.

Professions have also been altered from the current norm as well. Unlike most modern MMOs, you do not have to specialize in one or two professions for crafting. You can choose and use any profession at any time, if you so please. Gathering is relegated to three professions (carpentry, herbalism, and mining) where the actual production professions cover everything from alchemy to blacksmithing. Chances are you will want to find a profession that fits your character, though, as crafting and gathering yields little in the way of skill growth unless you dedicate your time towards furthering it. But it is good to have that option to try every profession, especially for the bored max-level character.

Skill growth is a great part of the game, as it utilizes one of the best systems we have seen in a while. Rather than having chances and probabilities to increase your skill, you have to reach 100% of each bar in order to gain a new skill level. While this may cause the game to be a little slower in the skill building department, it also makes it more reliable. After all, when you can see your progress on getting better at hitting people with swords or chopping down trees, you have much more incentive to continue. They even display this progress, at least with gathering, in the tool-tip that you have. Ease of use is a wonderful thing.

Character growth is very interesting in that you never visit a trainer or allocate attribute points. Rather, you have a set of skills that are unlocked depending on your level, and every level you gain adds to a massive pool of skill points. You can buy new ranks in a skill up to your current character level as long as you have the skill points. It functions much like a mix between the skill purchasing of World of Warcraft and the points allocation of City of Heroes, and it's one of the coolest parts of the game. Naturally, you have primary and secondary skills, and the most powerful, class-defining skills are always primary.

Runes of Magic allows for player-created LUA scripts, which makes it the first free-to-play game we have ever seen that actually supports add-ons. They function much like they do in other games: editing the interface, providing the player with more information or new features, or automating/simplifying difficult tasks such as healing or buffing. Runes of Magic is one of the few games displayed on Curse.com, and we really hope that more developers allow palyers to modify the interface to accentuate their experience, free or otherwise.


Runes of Magic utilizes the ever-growing microtransactions model to generate revenue, rather than the subscription model or even ad revenue like Quake Live. In practice, this leads to some distinct restrictions without the purchase of points to spend in-game. Some quests become harder, as you have to use the normal quest items, you can't get good mounts, and you can't get more bags, limiting your carrying capacity to the first two bags in your bar. Every time you open the backpack, it also opens the item store backpack, almost as an advertisement. It would be nice if games utilizing the microtransaction model didn't gimp and annoy players so much, but beggars can't really be choosers.

Runes of Magic is a simple choice. If you enjoy the World of Warcraft model of MMORPG, you will love Runes of Magic. If you hate it, well, you probably won't dig Runes. There are enough changes and innovations that even the most grizzled MMO player will be intrigued, but it really is just your standard MMO, and does not aspire to be more than that. Good, pulpy, MMORPG fun. Runes of Magic is available from the official site in large or split-up installers.