Great game that really shows what Asia has to offer!
RF Online has 3 diffrent races, the Holy Alliance Cora, The Accriatian Empire and the Bellato Union.
The Holy Alliance Cora are your fantasy elves.If you like elves,knights and wizards then the Cora is your thing. they also have 2 classes that has the ability to summon spirits to aid them in battle.
The Accretian Empire is a race of cyborgs. They were humans, but they replaced every body part with metal. The accretian empire are an unique race that you won't see in any other MMORPG. the accretian empire lack any sense of magic, but they have the ability to carry huge Launchers, and they can upgrade them with Siege kits.
The Bellato Unions is a mix of those two. they look like small humans. they use some magic and some sci fi elements. for example, they have the ability to use Holy magic, and some classes can ride a huge mech called an MAU.
Graphics:
RF Online's graphics look really good. The character models are done well, and the maps are full of detail. The graphics have some sort of manga style, which actually works great in this game. the races also really look diffrent from each other, giving you a real "its us or them" feeling. Sadly there isn't a lot of customization avaible (this is for a technical reason), but what is there looks great. weapons and armor look very detailed, and you hardly find any graphical glitches.
Gameplay:
RF Online is focused on Player vs Players encounters, keep that in mind when playing this game. Players have the choice of diffrent classes, a warrior,a spiritualist,a ranger and a specialist which is basicly a crafter with some nifty tricks. all these classes can evolve into stronger classes. for example, a Cora spiritualist can change his class into a summoner at lvl 30, giving him the ability to summon spirits to aid him. An Accretian ranger can change his class into a gunner, giving him the ability to use special skills for his launcher.
Altough RF Online is class based, you are not forced to one way of playing.
RF Online has something called a PT system. by using diffrent types of weapons, your characters stats increase. for example, using a bow or a gun increases your "ranged" PT stat. not only does this increase the damage you do with ranged weapons, but you can also wear new armor and it will increase your stamina. where in other games a mage class will always use magic, its very normal in RF Online to see a mage pick up a sword and shield and head into mellee combat to raise his stats.
PVP:
RF Online's PVP is unique. its fully faction vs faction based. all 3 can try to kill each other in the world of Novus. every 8 hours, an event called a chipwar will take place. in this so called chipwar, thousand of players head over to the mining area to take down the chips of other races and bring them down to the guardian. if the guardian is friendly to your race, you can mine in the core to increase your chance to find Ore. the first race that brings a chip to the guardian wins.
the thing that makes RF Online's pvp differ from other pvp games are the potions. in RF Online, you will be forced to use a strategy called Potion spamming. you basicly keep using a potion every 3 seconds to heal yourself or your force (points you use to use skills, mana in other games). this makes 1 vs 1 pvp pointless and impossible and forced group fights all over the world. you will hardly see anybody fighting alone, its always group vs group. I can tell you that this is actually a lot more fun.
PvE:
Sadly, Potion spamming also has his downpoints. the PvE in RF Online gets repetive fast and can feel like a heavy grind. there is no chalange at all, you can take down mobs 6~7 lvl's above you as long as they don't kill you in one hit. you can just keep using potions. the pve is fully focused on dealing damage and taking damage, as so called De-buffs don't work on pve mobs and only work in pvp. the PvE is not really bad as I make it sound here, its not really annoying, but its definitly not something to write home about.
in Short:
RF Online is a great game that really shows what asia has to offer. this game will give you an unique PvP experience unlike everything seen before. the PvE could use a lot of work but the PvP definitly makes up for it