Realm of the Mad God

Overall: 3.5

Gameplay: 3.8

Addictiveness: 3.6

Drag: 2.6 

Fun: 3.7

              Extra Credits has given me another 8-bit wonder to explore and I'm happy to say that this title delivers on all the hype. Realm of the Mad God is a free to play co-op shooter MMO that's just plain fun. You know, the kind of fun we used to play video games for. I'm talking Mario Kart fun. I'm talking Kirby Airide fun. I'm talking about busting out the N-64 to play Goldeneye with your uncles fun. Realm of the Mad God keeps it simple. They toss your pre-made character into the realm and you begin your click and shoot glory, fighting along side several other players who would like nothing else but to save your ass. That's because in this world all human players are friendlies and all AI are the enemy. You sprawl your way around large terrains, constantly switching between soloing and teaming up so that you may finish the randomly generated quests. The quests are simple. Kill this guy. Usually this guy is surrounded by several other non important guys, who also want to kill you. If you kill all of them, non important and this guy alike, then you are rewarded with xp and drops. But be quick about sorting through your spoils because chances are the next this guy is just around the corner waiting to kill you. 

             What keeps you hooked is the vast expanse of classes that you can unlock. You're started out with a mage, but after getting the mage to a certain level you can choose to destroy your character to access the new class you just gained (a priest). This level up, unlock, cycle makes the game incredibly addicting, except for the fact that it has drag. When I say drag (which is by no means a term used in the literature, I'm sure somewhere in behavioral psyche papers about video games there is a better term) I mean a kind of wearing on you the game accomplishes by either having a predictable reward schedule or by being plain repetitive. Realm of the Mad god is plagued by both aspects. After playing through one realm, you've essentially played through them all. Environments certainly change and foes do become more challenging, but the core gameplay is still the same weave, click and shoot that you've been doing since your days as a mage. Also, the reward schedule, which comes to you in the form of class unlocks and leveling up, is all easily calculated and predictable. Especially for the class unlocks, where achieving a certain level is the tangible threshold the gamer must meet to unlock a class. Since the threshold is so tangible, one finds themselves weighing the playing time against other options (like watching some tv). I'm not saying that classes should be unlocked randomly, I'm merely pointing out that the predictable reward schedule set by class unlocks proves to be detrimental to the long term experience of the gamer.

         But, some games aren't meant to be played endlessly. Perhaps the creators of the Realm of the Mad God didn't want their players to feel enslaved to the game. Sure this goes against all the MMO logic we've been fed by all the big names in the MMO business, but who cares. Sometimes I prefer having a game that doesn't compel me to play for hours, but can still captivate my attention for 45 minutes. 

        Play this game. It's free. You don't need to download anything. Just google Realm of the Mad God. Actually just click this link http://www.realmofthemadgod.com/ and begin having fun. A small warning, don't play a shooter on a computer without a mouse.