General: Five Underappreciated MMOs

SBFord

In The List this week, MMORPG.com's Bill Murphy gives a nod to five MMOs that he feels are truly underappreciated by most of the fans of the genre. He's got a few thoughts about what makes these games so special and why you may want to try them out. Check out The List and then add any games you think are underappreciated in the comments below.

In the interest of remembering the other guys, here’s a list (in no specific order) of five underappreciated titles, and why you should care about them. Some have been launched already, and others are still in the pipeline, but each has unique reasons for you to check them out. There are plenty more that didn’t make today’s list, and that doesn’t mean they’re not deserving. It just means we simply don’t know enough about them at this stage to include them here. Apologies for leaving anyone’s favorite off this list, and feel free to make a case for any other game in the comments below. That’s what this is all about, after all.

Read more of Bill Murphy's The List: Five Underappreciated MMOs.

TheDarkrayne

Vangaurd shuold have been on this list IMO.. then again, it is highly rated on this site.

kjempff

Good list with a bit for every taste.

In the blur of games beeing released and general despair over the quality, I forgot about Earthrise which might be in my taste category.

Paragus1

I was pretty interested in Earthrise, then I saw the videos released and honestly I find myself a bit discouraged about how that might turn out.

tman5

How do you consider a game that has not launched, i.e. Earthrise, underappreciated?  Who's had the opportunity to appreciate it?

shakermaker0

Good list, great to hear ATITD getting a shout out

Unknown

What you failed to tell the reader is that Earthrise, as can be seen in their most recent official trailer, is in a horrible state. The whole game runs extremely choppy, there are devastating clipping/AA issues and everything seems to be coded pretty badly, overall performance as in "running fluidly" is nonexistant.

It has a good concept and it could certainly become a decent title, but not for a long time.

Hekate27

I am attracted by the crafting in earthrise and it would make a nice change in direction for those times I am fed up with flying around in EVE or slinging spells in WoW.  But I was a bit concerned to watch the video with characters equipped with High-tech weapons standing about 10 feet apart blasting into one another.  I would hope for prone long range fire or at very least combat while taking cover, but I am still very open minded and will await developments.

 

 Glad to see that Darkfall was on the List, I played that for a while from launch and really did enjoy it.  The early battles with hundreds of players fighting hand to hand and spell to bow from castle walls were chaotic laggy affairs but the closest thing to what I would fear real combat of this typle might be like.  The full loot aspect encourages you to learn crafting skills and to keeps plenty of replacement sets of equipment in you bank vault, and is also condusive of  the sort of wariness when travelling alone that should be engendered in a dangerous world, incase some sneaky alphar pops out of the undergrowth to chop you to pieces.

kjempff

Just watched that latest Eathrise trailer and I understand what you mean, combat does look odd.

And yet my gut feeling is better than when I look at gw2 videos for example - But I must read more about it to form an opinion.

Ozmodan

You would not have put Atlantica on there if you had played the game to any significant level.  The game is a huge money sink!

Other than that your list is a good one.

TheLizardbones

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Originally posted by tman5
How do you consider a game that has not launched, i.e. Earthrise, underappreciated?  Who's had the opportunity to appreciate it?

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Vanguard and Earthrise seem to be more underappreciated by their developers than the players.

SBFord

I would have included Wizard101 in that mix. It's a great game, subscription rate is low and is tons of fun to play. KingsIsle is always adding something too.

And, c'mon now...no shout out for the "Underappreciated" Fred Astaire/Ginger Rogers photo? I worked hard to find that one at MotiFake.com.

mackdawg19

No reason for a game yet to be released to be on that list. Maybe someone needs to read over the term in the dictionary! :P You can't appreciate something that has no substance, or better yet nobody has played.

ericbelser

This will PO the fans, but Perpetuum is a bit over-rated in this topic.

It is a solid game, well done technically and stable. It is also a great deal of fun...for a while and that is where the commentary goes off the rails. The game has NO depth and there really isn't any indication the company is working to add it. The gameplay areas are tiny, the missions few and repetitive...even the "pvp" side is just too small.

The mechanics and concepts are sound, but saying it has depth is either delusional or just rampant faboi-ism.

TweFoju

Originally posted by tman5

How do you consider a game that has not launched, i.e. Earthrise, underappreciated?  Who's had the opportunity to appreciate it?

 

+1

Agreed, i think this list should be only given to the MMOs that have been out, we dont even know the appreciation outcome for Earthrise yet since it's not even OB yet , ER should be put off this list, and instead, put Vanguard or Ryzom, because these 2 are truly more underappreciated

Ice_Hole

I think I would add Pirates of the Burning Sea to that list.  The game has it's weak points, but IMHO some of the other aspects of the game make up for them.  Besides, having gone F2P makes it a good one to check out.

 

 - Ice_Hole of OMG Im Drunk

weircui

I think The Chronicles of Spellborn should be on there. It had a unique combat system combining 3rd person shooter with mmo's melee/ranged/magic classes. The AI in Spellborn was also good enough to make each battle challenging.

gaeanprayer

I'll be ignoring Perpetuum and Darkfall for fairly obvious reasons (one is good, but too sci-fi, the other is....no) but addressing the others, ATID is a really nice concept, but to me the lack of battle is its major drawback. It doesn't have to center around battle like typical games, but a world where everyone is essentially at peace is unrealistic, and one where there is no antagonist feels without real purpose. You need both dark and light in order to complete the circle, so to speak. The player-driven society is a nice touch, but the enactment of laws and petitions makes progression and change feel sluggish. I understand some like that slow pace, where they literally want to feel like they're 'living' in the game. I won't share my thoughts on that mindset, but it's not for me.

 

Atlantica is a wonderful game, but it has a drawback of a turn-based battle system. I don't happen to mind that, but it's not for everyone. I can attest to the complete lack of item mall necessity, as well. It's a great change. I've never spent a dime, though I don't play it very often. It stays installed, but I only play on rare occasion. In 2 years I've only hit 54. There's a lot to do, a fairly large community, and nothing has ever felt out of reach due to either grind or profit. It's a very balanced game.

 

Earthrise looks really interesting actually, despite being sci-fi, which isn't normally my cup of tea. I think part of that is nostalgia for Tabula Rasa, which I also enjoyed, for some odd reason. However, it's not even out yet until next month, so how can it be underappreciated if it doesn't actually exist outside of betas? It's not available for the masses to love and/or hate it yet, so I don't believe it belongs in this list. There are other games which would have made more sense here, and added more to the article as well.

BillMurphy

Originally posted by weircui

I think The Chronicles of Spellborn should be on there. It had a unique combat system combining 3rd person shooter with mmo's melee/ranged/magic classes. The AI in Spellborn was also good enough to make each battle challenging.

 

I hesitated, if only because of its closure and as of yet unannounced relaunch date.  Trust me, it's one I have a long history following and I'll definitely be watching for it to make a return.

Unknown

Originally posted by tman5

How do you consider a game that has not launched, i.e. Earthrise, underappreciated?  Who's had the opportunity to appreciate it?

 

This Really, I know that many of us can be a bit negative on occasion, but we haven't even had a chance to hate on this one yet (and it sounds like a game many of us jaded vets might like if we can live without the polish that we will probably see given the indie dev team)

terroni

I think Saga of Ryzom is the most underappreciated..or maybe appreciated but unplayed...

disregard.

Unknown

Vanguard deserves to be on that list, amazing game, bad release timining etc (usual story) but incredible depth of classes, crafting and imo big innovations for an MMO.

Aethaeryn

Originally posted by banshe13

LOL fail 1 game is not out yet 1 game alantica is one on the top FTP games many users  and then theres the dark fall speech  shadowbane anyone?   besides ship fighting

 

I get your point. .and it has been made by other people but he was pretty clear right off in the article that some of the games have not been released.  As far as under appreciated.  You can follow the dictionary meaning and it can still be true.  There is information on the games.  You can see video etc. . yet there is not a lot of buzz.  Is Rifts more "appreciated" than Earthrise. . I would say so.  You could also say there are under appreciated by the media.

Can you still play Shadowbane? 

Greymoor

Darkfall is usually talked about for it's PvP, it's mainly unappricated for it's excellent AI and good PvE.  There aren't scripted boss fights like other MMO's but mobs, especially higher up mobs, put up a real challenge to even high-up characters and react smartly.

 

Kyarra

Darkfall is a decent game (I was just too much of  a wimp to want to continue my sub cause of the full loot). Like others have said, Vanguard needs to be on that list. They had a couple of original classes like Bloodmage that were a lot of fun to play. It took me awhile though to go back to that game. I was in the beta and bought it at launch, and I was very fed up with all the bugs the game had and quit very quickly.

One one other game I think should be listed is Ryzom. It is a decent sandbox game that keeps fighting to stay alive but was an original game.

XoloX

Originally posted by terroni

I think Saga of Ryzom is the most underappreciated..or maybe appreciated but unplayed...

disregard.

 

 Won't disregard ;-)

If Ryzom were not so radically underpopulated and if it were not such a griend galore late game, it could truly be one of the best (and most popular...) MMOs out there.

ofc it fails at taking the casual player by the hand, the only learning curve that's steeper than on Atys is found in New Eden.