A rewarding game - if you can survive the pre-level 30 grinding
First and foremost, this game is an MMO. Alot of people don't seem to realize this when they complain about the grinding and repetition in this game. All MMOs consist of grinding and an unhealthy amount of repetition to get to the higher levels; because high levels are where the fun is at. This is the basic formula for any tried and true MMO game...
Now, saying that, this game's primary fault is it takes this tried and true MMO formula to the next level by making your grinding experience unreasonably long. The weird part about RF Online is that the grinding isn't necessarily boring, it just seems to take FOREVER. There are also two reasons to grind, instead of just one. The first is your level, which needs to be raised just like any other game. The second, however, (and the reason which makes the grinding experience so over-the-top) is for raising your PTs. When you level up, your class' point cap will raise by two or three. Leveling these is how you define your character and make him stronger; not just by level alone. It's a good idea, since it allows for more specialization, but in actuallity it only prolongs the PvE. Knowing this, I'll carry on with the review.
Gameplay: 5/10
The gameplay in RFO is both good and bad. The action is face paced, which is a positive. Not to the point where it's hard to keep up, but fast enough to keep you on your toes. However, beyond the fast paced action, the action itself is quite repetitive. There is no specific healer class in this game so all players use potions, hence the "potion spamming POS" comments in other reviews. This seems to be a bad idea at first, but it really isn't as horrible as your first impression might lead you to believe. PvP battles don't take 10 minutes to kill one person either since multiple people are always attacking more than one person, so combat stays at the nice fast pace that it starts out as.
The quests are a joke, for a lack of a better word. They're not even quests at all. Your race commander comes on the screen and tells you that you need to kill x amount of y monsters, and once you complete this the rewards are delivered right to your inventory. There's no running back and forth between NPCs that are in different towns and whatnot. Depending on your preference this can be good or bad, I personally love it, but that doesn't distract from the fact that these "quests" aren't even quests at all; they're just instructions to target a specific monster while you grind so that the thought of rewards and a little bit of XP might take your mind off the extremely long leveling process.
Graphics: 8/10
The graphics are where the game truely shines IMO, aside from its excellent PvP aspect. They're not state of the art like Quake 4 or anything, but the game is a fantasy game and isn't meant to look that real to begin with. Instead you get great looking characters and weapons that fit the world very well. There's a sharpness feature in the options tab that adds a sort of blur-like effect to everything and makes things stand out real well. RFO is also unreasonably nice to your system resources, and in-game there is virtually no slowdown or lag whatsoever. The game is able to portay over a hundred characters on screen without your framerate taking a hit of more than 2 or 3 fps, and the only time you encounter an occasional lag spike is in the massive PvP battles. When you're PvEing though, the game plays absolutely flawlessly. The weapons and armor are also very nice looking, ranging from Gundam-based armor lookalikes for the Accretia to crazy looking beam axes and spears and bows for all classes. Once again, having the sharpness feature all the way up really adds some nice touches to these already-great looking weapons and armors.
Sound: 7/10
The sound in RFO isn't anything revolutionary, but it isn't anything to scoff at either. The stabbing sounds from swords and spears are appropriate, and when you get a critical attack during a combo it really feels like you're kicking the crap out of something. It's got a real umph sound to it. Also, the thing that made me the most happy, was the fact that the footstep sounds weren't making my head explode. This is the only MMO I've ever played where running didn't annoy the hell out of me.
Value: 8/10
There's alot of value to be had in RFO. The same can be said for any MMO really, it all just depends on the player. It'll keep you going playing for a long time if you choose to stick with it, and there's a fair amount of replay value should you choose to make another character or choose to follow a different skill branch. I can't say much for what there is to do when you hit level 50 since I'm far from it right now. Supposedly the next big updates are supposed to introduce a variety of intriguing things though; such as vehicles, raised level cap, a crapload of new (and better looking, if that's even possible) weapons, customizable armor (so every person's level 30 armor doesn't look the same) and even space combat from what I've heard. As it stands right now, the game is a typical MMO, but it should have a significantly higher amount going for it a little later into its lifespan.
Overall/Conclusion:
Rising Force Online IS a good game, despite what others are saying about it. It has the best PvP system to date, massive battles, fast paced action, great weapons and armor, and so much more. The one problem with it, as stated above, is that getting to the point where you can enjoy all of this just takes too damn long. For the first 30 levels you're simply training yourself to participate in PvP, nothing more, nothing less. 30 is when you get your first class change, which is a good thing, since all classes pre-30 have exactly the same skills. Once you get your class change, you get alot more customization and different skill trees and you're finally able to be worth something in PvP. Why the creators decided to make you wait 30 levels before you could have or do any of this is beyond me. In all honesty, Rising Force Online isn't an overly deep game at all. The PvE is, in a word, mindless. Not painful, just mindless. The PvP, like so many have said before me, is excellent and the game's main strong point. It's alot of fun, and it's rewarding on a massive level economy-wise. And with so much more coming to the game in the later patches, it seems RFO is an extremely rewarding game - if you have the patience to survive the pre-level 30 grinding.