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I’ve played both and I really enjoyed both. DoD:S is solid multiplayer gameplay. Sins: Emergence, while weak in the storyline, was a blast to play with dynamic difficulty and fun weaponry. Unfortunately subsequent episodes were canceled due to poor sales. It comes with it’s Quake-based predecessors, though. No, not everyone will enjoy these games, but for $5 it’s hard to lose. You can even try out DoD:S for free this weekend before you choose to buy. It was just updated with achievements. This post will self-destruct at the end of the sales.

Happy three-days-after-Canada-Day Day, everybody!

Here’s a photo; I blurred out the text as a precaution. Everybody should go buy this issue and send Jeff an e-mail thanking/congratulating him for having a presence in a previously console-only magazine!

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The video is of an interview with two developers of a Nintendo DS application called KORG DS-10. It’s a full-blown synthesizer for your DS that allows you to create entire songs that you can output to external mixers and even save to the flash cart. As I am a huge fan of 8-bit music and especially music that is generated using GameBoy systems (pornophonique, anyone?), this application is quite relevant to my interests! I have read in a couple of places that this will be coming to the States at some point, but in the video they are unsure. I don’t know who to believe, but I’ll import it if I have to. I’m pretty sure it’s coming out in July.

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With that said, I think this week’s cheap game fits the bill nicely. Not only is it free, but it’s the first MMORPG that we’ve covered here. Both published and developed by NCSoft, Dungeon Runners has been available for free or paid play as a download for just about over a year now, but starting last week retail boxes have been hitting shelves. While my boxed copy is still in transit to me (B&Ms are for suckers!), I’ve been playing on a free account and I am ready to recommend it to you guys.

Gameplay

Sometimes you just can’t get away from it: Dungeon Runners is a lot like Diablo. Just don’t hold that against it. I’d also make comparisons to Guild Wars when examining certain aspects. I should probably stop being so vague, but I’m going to assume that interested parties have at least some knowledge of how games in the Action RPG and MMORPG genres function.

You’ll play as one of three classic archetypes that fulfill classic roles: the fighter who specializes in melee combat and taking hits; rangers who are want to attack from a distance with bows or shotguns (YES! shotguns!) to deal damage directly or over time; and finally, mages who have an arsenal of spells at his disposal to inflict direct damage or damage to an area. Each one plays as you might expect, though there are surprisingly very little restrictions on the equipment you can use; my mage rolls around with an axe and my archer wore plate for a few minutes before I found some chainmail that suited me better.

That would be one of the main attractions to Dungeon Runners, as is the case with many games of this type. Loot! Everybody loves loot, especially when it has whacky names, and loot in Dungeon Runners does not disappoint. Actually, everything in the game has whacky names. Upon entering the game from character creation you will find yourself standing in the middle of a small, forested enclave, face to face with none other than The Noobosaur! I almost wish I were making that up, but that’s the name of the small, red, dragon-like creature who helps to acquaint new players with some basics of the game. Humor is another big motivator in Dungeon Runners; most of the game is satire of the entire RPG genre. Even the city names. The first one you’ll come to is called “Townston”. From there, provided you’re on one of the two PVP servers, you can venture to “Pwnston”.

Story

I am not sure yet whether or not Dungeon Runners actually has an overarching narrative. So far I have simply been completing various quest strings of varying consequence, but all of them have been very entertaining reads, almost poking fun at the mundaneness (that’s a word, I looked it up!) of the quests in other RPGs and MMORPGs alike. This, along with the humor scattered around the world and gameplay that feels just nostalgic enough that it’s a welcome treat has been enough to keep me playing. Moving right along…

Graaaaphics

Ah… I’m going to do it again. Sorry, but the graphics are very reminiscent of what Blizzard has done with World of Warcraft, and to a lesser extent, Diablo 3. A more stylized and efficient form of character and environment design as opposed to shooting for photorealism. Because of this, Dungeon Runners should run smoothly on just about any system with a GPU purchased in the last 4 or 5 years. Despite this, they suit the game quite nicely given its lighthearted approach to narrative and the satire oozing from everything in the game world.

Controls

Navigating in Dungeon Runners is where I have been drawing similarities to Guild Wars as you’ve got a couple of options. You can move about as well as rotate the camera using the WASD keys, or by clicking with the mouse (classic Diablo style). The camera is also quite flexible; you can zoom way out to a top-down view or zoom in close enough to a kind of over-the-shoulder chase-cam view, so you’re playing in third person. This view in conjunction with the WASD keys is what I find myself using the most, but I will switch occasionally for a change of perspective; the game feels quite different depending on which way you play. Either way, combat is performed via the mouse in classic Action RPG fashion.

Caveats

As can be expected with just about any free MMORPG on the market, there are a few catches when playing Dungeon Runners on NCSoft’s dime. However, I wouldn’t be covering this game if they weren’t completely tolerable. The most invasive imposition will be the presence of a banner displayed at the top of your screen at all times. At 1680×1050 resolution it takes up about 85px of vertical space. This will typically be advertising some other NCSoft property such as Guild Wars, Lineage or Tabula Rasa. They aren’t monitoring your activity for the sake of targeted ads or anything, and you actually get used to it being there quite quickly. I believe this is the only catch worth discussing ad nauseum, so below I will list the rest of the things that being a paying member nets you, according to Wikipedia:

• Voice chat
• Access to two additional pages in the bank for storing items, while non-paying members receive only one.
• Additional 2 bank pages (unlocked at lvl50 and lvl100 respectively)
• Stackable potions up to 10 (as opposed to 5)
• Access to all Rare (Gold), Epic (Purple) and Mythic(Rainbow) items
• Login queue list priority
• Access to the Member Only world
• No Advertisements
• 15% More Gold and Experience
• Pay less for King’s Coin items

Video

At last, some gameplay footage. I spent a bit more time to record and edit this than I usually do. I felt it necessary to show off at least two locales. Everything you see is from the starting areas; first the enclave, forest and finally a dungeon. Take note of the music playing in the dungeon; it’s pretty great.

Pricing

Believe it or not, the timing of this post is actually quite coincidental, in light of recent announcements. I had been planning on covering this game for a couple of weeks. I think it worked out pretty conveniently as I am sure there are a lot of people that are jonesing for this type of gameplay. Best of all, it’s free! Provided you don’t mind dealing with a few of the annoyances I listed above. If those prove to be too much for you to deal with, the game is actually quite cheap to subscribe to. Since the client is free to download, a month of play costs you only $5. Unfortunately, there is no discount for paying quarterly or annually, but if you buy the retail box, 6 months of membership is included. I was lucky to catch it for $12.99 at GoGamer during a 48 hour sale, but it’s back up to $17.90 now. Additionally, Amazon has it for $18.99 and I believe GameStop will begin stocking it this week. Considering the cost is less than 6 months of membership would normally cost you, there’s no reason not to go with the retail box.

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Speaking of mature content, look out for it in Rasl as well. The main character, Rasl (believe it or not), is an extra-dimensional art thief. However, somebody’s on to him, and he doesn’t know how they’re able to track him down. This is because Rasl hops from dimension to dimension by using a special suit (pictured), but it would appear that where he ends up is somewhat left to chance. So far, Rasl has been able to discern if he is in his home dimension depending on whether or not Bob Dylan’s music exists. I’m also not sure where he procured such a highly useful yet undependable suit; there are still many unanswered questions as the book is only two issues in and appears to be on a quarterly release schedule. I’m hearing that it is to be an on-going series and not a mini, so it’s probable that there is a lot of it to look forward to in the future. I would like to see it put out on at least a bi-monthly basis, though; I had almost forgotten about it between issues one and two as I picked up the first one on a whim. However, after reading issue two this last week, I can safely say that I am hooked, and I would like for others to share my joy.

As of writing this, Sci-Fi Genre has both issues one and two in stock in their back issues section. Think fast!

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A Red Mass For Mars, specifically, is to be a 4 issue mini series about the end of human civilization. Humanity, to this point, has persevered through global warming, super-viruses, nuclear winter, and being ‘cleansed’ by nanobots. However, Earth now faces an external threat, and only external forces can help to save them. I came across a CBR interview with Hickman that took place in September of last year, and even though I personally went into this book blindly, I think it’s probably worth reading his description of the book:

“[CBR:] I don’t want to keep you from your relaxation any more than is necessary, so let’s get right into it. Introduce “A Red Mass for Mars.”

[Hickman:] Well, the story takes place in one of those post-apocalyptic, “Blade Runner” kind of futures that we all as comic book fans are familiar with. Things are bad and now they’re going to get even worse. I set up all of that so that I can play against type and what normal expectations of a story like this usually are. My other new book, “Pax Romana,” and “Red Mass for Mars” are both books about society. One is a historical science fiction story and the other one is a super hero kind of story, but they’re both about society; one taking a look at it macroscopically and the other microscopically and “Red Mass” is the latter. Ultimately, it’s about if one man could actually affect the future of society, what would that mean and what if he chose not to do it? What if he had demands? What if he just wasn’t in the mood? It kind of spirals out of control from there.”

Since I am recommending this so long after the book has been on shelves - almost a full two weeks - I am afraid that you may not be able to find a copy at your local comic shop. Should that be the case, you may be able to find it at some online comic retailers such as Sci-Fi Genre (where I get my comics!), MyComicShop.com or even eBay. Check out issues #1 and #2 of Transhuman while you’re at it; you won’t regret either purchase.

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