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Free is good. It’s hard to argue with free, regardless of the quality of whatever it is that someone is giving away. Sometimes it’s perfectly clear why they’re not asking for any month, other times it seems like they could or should be asking at least for something. In the case of an MMO called Dungeon Runners it’s plainly clear why the game is free, at least at first. By the same token, we’ve played a lot of considerably worse games that were decidedly not free. This one is fun, addicting, simple, and while it isn’t perfect, astonishingly given the price it’s not that far off.

A Self-Parodying Adventure

Most  MMOs are deathly serious about a lot of things. Indeed most role-playing games in general have very serious storylines with the occasional bit of comic relief here and there to lighten up the mood. Dungeon Runners isn’t like that; it is to World of Warcraft what Monty Python’s Flying Circus was to stuffy 70’s BBC programming. Just about everything in the game is light-hearted in some way, from the initial useless weapons you’ll find yourself going adventuring with to the silly little critters you’ll be hacking at with them.

The game follows the same sort of naming conventions other online RPGs apply to weapons and equipment, made of ever-rarer materials and often named after some fierce mythical beast. In Dungeon Runners initial weapons are said to be made of things like cardboard or rusty scrap metal, and are often named after generally tame critters like wombats and sugar gliders (funny little possum things). The same goes for level names: it’s not too uncommon for a low-level player in an MMO to be called a “newbie,” but it’s pretty rare that the game itself calls you that!

However, despite the light-hearted nature, there’s a solid game underneath here. You’re only allowed a single character, which is a drag, and there are only three characters to select from: mage, ranger, and fighter. However, there’s no reason that you can’t mix and match skills as you progress through the game, because other than an initial set of equipment and adjustment to your stats, there’s no real difference between a fighter and a mage. They can each learn the same skills and equip the same weapons if they like.

Killing critters in the game’s instanced dungeons of course earns experience which equates to increased levels and increased abilities. It also equates to a prodigious amount of random loot that can be brought back to town and sold. Abilities are also available only at towns for sale by “trainers” who offer special skills, spells, and the like. You’ll be heading back to town an awful lot, easily done thanks to an abundance of waypoint spells that warp back there from anywhere. Getting from one town to the next is also quickly done thanks to the big obelisk in the center of each one. No mount is required here … which is good, because there aren’t any.

Is It Really Free?

Yes, the game is totally free unless you choose to pay $5 per month, which of course developer/producer NCSoft certainly hopes you will. Quite nobly, the company doesn’t beat you over the head with nagging pleads for your money as you play. When you log in you’ll get a single window asking if you wouldn’t like to cough up some dough to get a taste of the real life. Once that’s closed only a small subscription link in the bottom-right of the screen remains. You won’t even feel all that guilty just playing this one without fee.

You can access any area of the game and level up as far as you like without paying a dime. The catch is that certain equipment, like high-level healing potions and advanced weapons, is only available for subscribers. Free players are stuck using the junkier stuff, which really isn’t all that bad for the most part. Paying players also get access to in-game voice chat, not necessarily a huge loss, and have access to in-town banks to store their piles of loot.

The game give you lots of nice things for a relatively small amount of dough, but playing for free ain’t all that bad. You’re free to complete any quest and can form groups with members and non-members alike to go running off into the instanced dungeons together. Just about everything in the game, in fact, is instanced except for the town areas. It’s a bit of a lonely MMO at times, especially since the game has a very Diablo-like feel to it that results in quests easily completed solo.

That similarity continues through many aspects of the game, including addictively short quests that will have you wandering all over the map uncovering more goodies than you know what to do with, with no real attempt at an all-encompassing storyline to tie it all together. You’re pretty much out there just wandering, killing, and helping people out which is a lot of fun.

Detailed Bits

The game definitely has a World of Warcraft style about it, with almost cartoony looking environments and characters that have a similar simple but stylistic feel to them. But, again surprising based on the price point, it’s a perfectly presentable looking game. In fact it’s better looking than a lot of MMOs we’ve played lately and doesn’t have especially high system demands.

The audio is decent with some simple background tunes and passable weapons effects. You wouldn’t exactly call the voiceover work good, but it too falls into the parody line, with NPCs that groan about this or that, make lame Sean Connery jokes, or complain about the Renaissance Faire in the next town over.

It’s really only the controls that disappoint here. You can use the typical “click there to walk there” control technique or manually make your character move with the keyboard, but picking targets and attacking is done exclusively via mouse. For close-combat a left-click usually works just fine, making your character swing and attack whoever you’re clicking on. But right-clicking to indicate a ranged attack for whatever reason often leaves your character facing in the wrong direction, launching fireballs or arrows off into the scenery. Not good.

Derivative, But Solid

The game looks like WoW  and plays like Diablo, which most will agree isn’t a bad combination at all. It offers the perfect style of gameplay makes for those who want to jump online and play an hour or so, then get back to their life. It’s only those hardcore MMO players who want to form large groups and go perform some virtual world-changing quest who may find Dungeon Runners a bit too lightweight for their tastes. But, really, for free, there’s no reason to not at least give it a go.

Article by: Tim Stevens