Free Realms hurts my eyes
My first impressions of Free Realms aren't likely to lead to second impressions.
Have you ever walked past a Lush or a perfume counter and the sheer assault on your nose makes you blanch? The word fragrance lacks the weight of pure evil that is unleashed upon the world (or at least the immediate area) from these high dosage overloads. That's what Free Realms feels like to me: an affront on my senses from the sounds and visuals.
The combat is, in a word, lame. I think most people are enamoured with the minigames, but combat as the base activity shouldn't suck. Even as a kid's game I wonder why they think kids should put up with inferior gameplay?
I have a complete rant prepared on the optionless web-based install, but I'll leave most of this post at gameplay. Suffice it to say they've dumbed things down in ways that are counter-productive. It sucks to be you if the default settings don't work.
Loading screens galore. Is the whole world this segmented? Imagine how much better things like derbys would be if you could watch from the sidelines or just jump in and go.
The minigames will probably have people accolading Free Realms for awhile, but even there I'm sticking with my adamant opinion that we don't need a Cooking Mama clone as an MMO, it's already a great game on its own. Minigames are available elsewhere in spades.
(Edit: I'll clarify that I think minigames would be a great addition to existing MMOs, but they aren't working for me as the main content.)
I'm sure someone will say I'm not embracing my inner child enough, but to me this is just not the environment I'd do that in. Pick up a DS and/or a Wii and these needs are met.
This ain't my game.
May 12, 2009 7:19am
Yeah, I was in the beta for this and didn't really get the excitement. It feels like someone vomited a bunch of games into a big pile and this was the result. The quality of any random part of the game varies wildly.
I don't know if I'm the target audience or not. Yes, it's aimed toward younger audiences, but I imagine it's also aimed toward more casual MMORPG players. Despite writing about LotRO, I'd never call myself "hardcore" into any of these games. So coming from that perspective, this was still not really especially engaging. I liked the mini-games, yes, but like you said I'd like if they were put into something that was already interesting. I'd rather deal with Vanguard's system for crafting than play a variation of Cooking Mama, but I guess it's different for everyone.
I've been kind of puzzled over the amount of attention it's gotten on some of the bigger sites. I know it's "new", but some of it has been relatively fishy. I'm not a conspiracy theorist by any stretch of the imagination, though lol. I guess some just got more out of it than I did.
May 12, 2009 8:32am
Thank you. Someone who feels the same. I am so sick of all the "love" for this game,....blah!
I prefer meatier games, and less child like.
Cheers
May 13, 2009 10:09pm
The mini games are kinda stupid. That's the part the impressed me the least. It's like I'm back in 1999 playing the Yahoo flash games like Gems and Checkers while waiting for EQ to come back from downtime.
The combat is VERY (read: zomg my eyes are bleeding) simple. BUT - that's where it charms me. If I'm playing Free Realms I'm not going to play because it's like a regular MMO that draws me in. It's not like LOTRO or WoW. I'm playing it because the game is just a whimsical dungeon crawler and I can smack crabs with a huge hammer.
What I like the most is the polish. Simple, unintelligent, all that be damned. It's polished. Will I play it? Not if I have something better to play - But I will occasionally play it. That's saying something.
May 14, 2009 7:54am
Even as a kid's game I wonder why they think kids should put up with inferior gameplay?
I gotta come out and call you on forgetting what it's like to be a kid, or at least who this game is aimed at. Super Mario bros is so simple, all you can do is run, run faster, throw fireballs (sometimes), and jump. But did Mario's simplistic combat hold my attention back then? Absolutely.
Eventually I wanted more intricate systems; but even to this day, some people will heap praise on a simple game because it's simple.
I find free realms combat to be a snooze, but I'm actually enjoying the minigames in a way I wouldn't bother loading up popcap.com to play. Walking to the next mining node is more enjoyable to me than hitting "Back" in my browser for some reason.
The world itself is very polished, and has a distinct art STYLE to it. To this day, I can be found praising WoW's art direction, not because it's OMGWOW and I'm a sheeple, but because the art team at blizzard had a creative vision, and frigging nailed it. WoW has style. Age of Conan is just ugly. Warhammer has a style too (well, some races, black orcs in particular are cool looking). LotRO's graphics are GOOD, but to me, are just kind of generic 'good graphics'. Things look realistic, and the scenery is cool... but it's the difference between Nightmare before Christmas and a realistic render of a city.
The prior is more interesting to look at.
meh, different strokes... I certainly won't be caught telling anyone what to like.
May 14, 2009 8:22pm
@ixobelle: Super Mario Bros isn't an example of 'easy' gameplay. Although it was deceptively simple to get into there was room for players to show off skills and challenge themselves that just isn't comparative to Free Realms' clunky combat. Where Super Mario Bros was notoriously unforgiving at times, Free Realms' combat barely requires you to pay attention. It's also just such an apples and oranges comparison, but that's inevitable because I don't think you could find a universally loved game that does fit the comparison.
I do not forget what it was like playing games when I was younger. I've got Joust and Centipede coin-ops in my living room, although I do admit Mario Bros (the original) is in the garage due to space, standing between Marble Madness and Punch-Out. =P
Overall the games I played when I was a kid were challenging and it wasn't until a lot of mindless product got pumped out that they got numbingly easy, which is much more of what Free Realm's combat reminds me of. I remember what games bored me as a kid and they're similar in gameplay to the ones that bore me now.
It's complete bunk that a kid's game needs to be simple / easy in order for it to be fun. That assumption underestimates kids, so I'd say it's less in touch with them.
Polished is a primary reason to play an MMO? I'm currently playing Plants vs Zombies and it's polished as a shiny stone, but it's also much more fun (minigames and all) and it was a one-time 10 buck purchase. Polish alone may impress since there has been such a lack of it lately, but if I don't find it fun, I'll say so.
I'm also hardly a champion for realistic graphics, you're making more assumptions there too. A game can be colourful and stylish and I'd love it. This game is trying too hard. It's not Super Mario Bros, it's My Little Pony. I'm sure there's an appeal to some, but it isn't me, at any age.
Free Realms IMHO is aimed more at parents for their kids, than the kids themselves. This is the game they want to present as 'safe' so they can get their kid to stop playing WoW.
I'll repeat, it may be someone else's game, but it ain't mine.
May 14, 2009 10:54pm
I should note, I'm mostly just addressing the combat in that big chunk of text above.
The minigames are better and I found myself chuckling at some the humour of it too. Still, I would argue that most of the content in Free Realms is subpar compared to the many, many offerings of minigames out there, especially on the consoles.