Finally Free

A day late sure, but I did save my best (at least favorite) free game for last. It is a game that Aaron and co. have hounded me to play in the past, but being the stubborn mule that I am I left it until now. Realm of the Mad God is by and far the funnest game I've played this month (not including Catlateral Damage).

Let's have Steam give us the low down:

Realm of the Mad God is the first ever free to play Bullet Hell MMO. Team up with dozens of players and battle through the Realm of the Mad God, Oryx. With a retro 8-bit style, Realm is an evolution of traditional MMO gameplay. A dozen classes and hundreds of items to discover means Realm is easy to play but difficult to master. Players can jump in Realm for 5 minutes or stay online for hours because there is nothing to install or download.

The beginner classes are Rogue, Wizard, Priest, and Archer, with each of the other like 20 classes unlockable via either paying money (boo!) or leveling up with the other classes. After beating the tutorial you get sent to the Nexus, or the base area where players gather and merchants reside. From the Nexus you can enter the Mad God's domain.

It can get a little....Mad.

WASD to move, left click to fire. F to drink a potion and E to high-tail your cowardly ass back to the Nexus. I spent hours running around like an idiot, never taking my finger off the fire button. Why would I? There's nonsense to kill literally everywhere. But that nonsense is there to kill you too, a fact that becomes especially painful once you realize death is permanent. Period. You could be level 19, half an experience bar to the level cap of 20, and be just as perma dead as the level one that pissed off an enraged bunny out of the gates.

My first Wizard got squished around level four. I'm still not entirely clear on what did me in. All the better for my foe, as my vengeance is swift and burns like the sun.

My second Wizard, like my first, skipped gleefully from quest to quest, swarm to swarm, until about level 11. About that time caution pokes its ugly head from its dark and sweaty hole, screeching "heeeeeeey better be caaaaaaarefuuuuuuuul or you'll have to staaaaaaaaaaaart agaaaaaaaaaaaain"

Can it, asshole, I know.

Nothing excites the caution monster more than the frantic cramming of the F key while a Tree Ent Ancient attempts to make me fertilizer.

No no, I make the sound effects, you do the work. 

Remember, though, this is a multiplayer game! I was joined by my good buddy Elpizo, aka 'Mat' in the 'Real World', with his level 20 Ranger, who proceeded to wreck face while I kinda 'helped'. However, not all was well, as I encountered a far more dangerous foe than any the Mad God could throw at me: A crappy connection. Every few minutes or so the game would chuck me out on my butt. Well crud.

After hitting 20 with my Wizard on Realm's website I switched over to the Steam version, which is connected to the website version. Besides handing me an additional character slot (you only get one. Delete your character or die to get a new one. Or buy more slots), it also proved to have a better connection. So I repeated the tutorial with a brand new Ranger, who was promptly smashed into oblivion at level 14.  Le sigh.

Play It or Pass It: Play it. Realm of the Mad God is a game that you can either pick up for 10-15 minutes or play for hours. Definitely a great pick to end Free in '14.

Play it yourself! Get it on Steam, or play it here:

http://www.realmofthemadgod.com/