A lv35 Accretian Destroyer's review of RF online.
That may be a rather blunt thing to say but it's the truth. RF is a bare bone game that doesn't rely on flash and glitter to make its players happy (but it does have excellent graphics), the rewards come from being able to face down an opposing race member and beating them to the ground.
This game is a grindfest. 70% of your time will be spent grinding and leveling up, on the same monsters. Not too much emphasis is placed on teamwork for levels below 25 and you are better off going solo until you reach lv25 since experience is based on damage dealt rather than the kill itself. After lv25 though, the grind to lv30 begins. At this point, groups are a necessity. Trying to get from lv25 to lv30 could take days as opposed to joining a power leveling group who can get you to lv30 in a matter of hours. Once you reach lv30 you can really become useful to your race and guilds will be more likely to take you in when you can be of use to them.
Guilds are the backbone of this game. Joining a good guild is the equivalent of being adopted into a rich family. With a myriad of lv30-40 players ready and willing to help you out it becomes far easier to enjoy aspects of the game that would be impossible to do successfully solo, such as raiding enemy towns.
The main draw to the game, the Chip War is an amazing event to see. Most will tell you to join in the CW when you get to lv30, but to have a better chance at survival lv33-35 are what you should shoot for. Since your leaders during CWs are actual players, it is up to them to determine how an attack should be carried out. The will sometimes ask for diversionary tactics or just a classic Zerg Rush. It's all up to the players in charge.
Each of the 3 races has a unique ability, but that's not the only thing to consider before choosing which side you'd like to join. Accretians make excellent tank characters. Even the Accretian damage dealing classes lend themselves well to tanking. Cora on the other hand are built completely around dealing damage. The Cora spiritualist class is deadly and when combined with their summons they can utterly destroy anything in their path, though that's not to say Warriors can't match them, because they can. Bellatos however are a cross between the Accretia and Cora. They can make good tank characters with their Miller and Shield Miller classes and the MAUS and Black MAUs, as well as powerful spiritualists capable of dealing heavy damage. But Bellato spiritualists lend themselves better to healing and troop support rather than causing destruction by themselves like Cora spiritualists can.
The major twist about RF is that levels aren't everything, combat and still points (pt) are. Every time you use a skill or weapon, you earn pt in that category. The higher your pts, the more bonuses you receive for that skill. For example, high melee pt will give you extra attack power, high defense pt will give you more HP, and this also applies to skills such as combo attacks or Buffs. As you use your skill and your buffs they will level up. High level skills deal out more damage and high level buffs last longer.
Pt is more important than your actual level because it determines what kind of gear you can wear. To wear melee armor you need high melee pt, to wear ranger armor you need high range pt, to use a shield you need high shield pt, etc. Players can choose you only level pts that are required for their class but this will lead to very limited characters. Players that level all their pts will have more versatile characters that can cope with far more situations than limited characters.
This game has great character development and PvP. However, the lack of content will surely turn off players of western MMOs such as World of Warcraft. If you like an RPG that does away with all the candy coating this is the game for you. Otherwise, you might want to spend your $50 somewhere else.