So underappreciated, some people may find themselves coming back after their initial quit.
Mechanized "AI"....small, deceptively strong and intelligent people that can construct mechanical things...and Elf-like beings with the power of magic. Add some futuristic items, and this is what you get ...Rising Force Online. THIS IS ANOTHER ONE OF THOSE GRINDER MMO'S, so if you're one with fairly little time on your hands on a regular basis to play a game like this, then this may not be the game for you. This game carries all the usual grind of killing, acquiring items through quests and slain monsters, crafting or buying stuff as needed, working up certain skills and spells so that they're stronger and/or last longer, and being the best you can be. The Player v. Environment aspect is typical run-of-the-mill, except that with enough health potions, a good weapon and armor combination, and good alertness, a player can take a lvl 5 character and do a quest that involves taking out baddies at least 6 levels higher than that of the character. Not only do you have character levels to worry about, but you also have skill and class pts to deal with, whether your character uses melee weapons, ranged weapons, shields, magical force, crafting, and so forth.
The PvP is RvRvR, in that you have the "AI" robot-like Accretians v. the small, mighty Bellato v. the Elf-like, spiritual Cora. Every 8 hours--3:00am PST/6:00am EST/11:00am GMT; 11:00am PST/2:00pm EST/7:00pm GMT; 7:00pm PST/10:00pm EST/3:00am GMT--there is a Chip War, lingo-ed in-game as CW. Each race has a Chip to defend, and they must also work on weakening then capturing the other races' chip. The winning race gets to mine in the core, protected by a powerful entity called the Holystone Keeper (lingo: HSK). This is important because players can get 1 ore every 6-15 seconds in the core compared to 1 ore per minute at the portal. More ore turns into more currency, which can mean more gold, and thus better NPC rates for the race. In addition, the top PvP'ers for each race get special abilities, like communicating with all players with characters of that race, and use other abilities to lead and coordinate CW assaults and defenses.
Technically, there are a few issues at the initial release, even though Codemasters does do weekly server maintenance on Wednesdays. For one, the chat window is pretty small, with no Wordwrap feature--the letters of a single word can be wrapped around individually. Second, there has been some players believing that the excessive use of health potions can be curbed so that players are forced to fight monsters at or around their own level. In this author's opinion, that can only be achieved through a tweak of the quest system so that each quest suits the player's character lvl the best. Third, the hardcopy game manual doesn't do a good job explaining most of the things used in-game, like being able to chat with others in the same region, or that the commands are case-sensitive. This means that in order to Map chat, or to properly whisper to another player's character, you have to type "/Map", or "/" then the message exactly as it is.
Right now, there are four servers available for RF Online, and as of the time of this review, the Chip Wars seem fairly even depending on the server you play in. For example, Cora wins most of the CW's on Spirit, while in another server, it's Bellato winning most of them. This doesn't mean that the winning race gets free pass to the core. They must deal with straggling foes of the other two races by running or sneaking past them, or rely on higher lvl characters to keep them busy or take them out, for some characters on losing races like to move about the mines or sneak into the core, and take out anyone much lower in lvls than they are. THIS IS ALSO A PAY-TO-PLAY GAME, as it is $15/month and you get the first 30 days free. Otherwise, most of today's computers with fast-enough broadband should be able to run this game well. So if you have the time and committment to work up a metallic, AI-like Accretian, a small but strong and intelligent Bellato that can create powerful MAU's, or look hot and magical in a Cora frame, then this is a game worth trying.
AUTHOR'S PREVIOUS MMO EXPERIENCE
Asheron's Call (2000-2002)
Anarchy Online (2001)
Lineage 1 (2001)
Ragnarok Online Alpha & Beta Testing
Earth & Beyond Online Beta Testing
Planetside (2004)
EverQuest 1 (2004-2005)
Auto Assault Beta Testing
Guild Wars ( Currently Playing, will get GW: Factions )