MWO (Magic World Online) is a 2D fantasy based MMORPG (Massive multiplayer online role-playing game). MWO is developed by Goldcool Limited and is published exclusively in North America by Ingle Games Ltd. It is free to play game. To play it you need to register at http://mwo.enjoymmo.com/ and download the game client (2.5G).
Once you run the client, you must pick the server you are going to play and log in. MWO offers 4 character jobs to choose from – warrior, summoner, ranger and mage. When you reach level 15 you have 2 choices to change job to higher class and 2 new choices at level 50. So each character has 4 choices for jobs - 16 in total. For example, when summoner reaches level 15, player must decide – become an Illusionist or a Necromancer. The first one is a good attacker and the second one is good for healing, which is vital in teams. So the later class transfers define what skills your character will have. The balance of characters is good, but for starters I suggest going with a warrior, summoner or ranger. The game also lets to choose sex of the character (Female or Male) and home country (Dynasty or Empire). Dynasty and Empire are the two fighting sides. Once you find someone from the other side in the map, you can attack him (it is also possible to attack your own country players, but you get penalties for that). There are events, such as War and Siege, where the two sides fight each other with great numbers of players to gain expensive items and gear.
To progress in the game, players must fight monsters or do quests. There are many quests to choose from, but they are not such rewarding as grinding. However, you will never need to worry about grinding, because the game offers legal in-game bot. You don’t need to spend countless hours in front of your computer to gain a new level like in other online games. The bot can do everything for you – it can move character to map you prefer, attack monster, pick up items, go to city, sell items, buy potions and so on. It requires some time to make it work (you need to choose map, choose what skills to use and so on), but once you run it, you can relax and watch it doing all hard work for you. When the bot is running, you can minimize the client and do other stuff you need to do. It is even possible to run a couple of game clients in one time, and with help of the bot, train a few characters at once.
If you are tired of fighting and questing there are living skills to try: ore mining, blacksmith, herbal collection, lumber, alchemy, craftsman, tailoring. The most important is craftsman. It enables you to make powders to feed mounts and to make leech attributes to your items. Other skills also are helpful - by using alchemy, for example, you can make potions, blacksmithing enables you to make gear for you character and so on.
One of most interesting features is growing weapon. To make one you need a special soul (an item, which you can obtain as a quest reward) and a weapon. There are few kinds of souls, but the most useful are physical attack soul (good for attackers) and skill soul (for skill casters). Later you can upgrade your growing weapon using another weapon of the same class - in this way your weapon gains levels, becomes stronger just like your character. At higher levels of it the percentage chance of a successful upgrade will drop significant - you need to get special items (Blessed Crystals) to increase it.
Most of the items you can get by fighting monsters in dungeons. However, the best and rarest items can be bought in MWO Mall, found from bosses, or gained in MWO events. MWO Mall is a similar system to an online shop. There you can buy items using real money - it is the easy way getting everything you need and you also support the game publishers and creators in this way. Some bosses also drop some of the most wanted items, but you need a very strong character and team for it (and some luck of course). My favorite way of getting valuable items is participating in an event. There are few of them. For example, in one of them, game moderator gives a clue where he is, and players look for him. The one who finds him first, gets a prize.
A feature worth mentioning is mounts. There are many types to choose from, the best ones usually are unicorns and dragons. Once you get an egg of the mount, you can try rising one. It is a very hard, but also a rewarding process. While the mount is child, you need to feed it using magic powder (you can make it by decompressing items or using craftsman). Once it becomes and adult, you can ride it. Mounts give additional attributes to your character.
There are other game’s features I should mention – for example, you can have your own house and make or buy furniture for it. One of my own favorite features is an auction house. Here you can bid for everything other players have to offer, or make your own auctions to sell your own items (of course it is possible to sell items in other ways, like trading, or creating a booth in city).
Since the graphics are 2D, you don’t need a superior computer to enjoy the game. The animations aren’t spectacular, but the textures are very good. Every item has a nice model, and there are hundreds of them. I think it’s one of the best looking 2D online mmorpgs available at the moment. I can’t comment the sound, because I never turn it on. Yes, MWO has sounds, music, everything you expect, but I prefer to listen to my own music while playing it, just like in any other online game.
The community of MWO, in my opinion, is a bit better than in other online games. The bot system attracts those who may have less time for playing – that is why there are more mature players playing and that’s a good thing. Communicating is being held through chat or you can pm someone through your friend list. Players can use guild system for making their own community and do quests together or start wars against other guilds. There is even an in-game video chat and a quest for marriage, incase you meet someone special in game.
MWO markets itself as a “new concept MMORPG”. I totally agree with this statement. It’s basic mechanics are similar to other games of this genre, however, it has many new and unique features, such as mounts and legal bot. The strongest part of the game is the gameplay. I find it very fun and addictive. I recommend this game to anyone who enjoys online MMORPG’s.