Eldevin: A Free to Play MMORPG like Runescape

I stumbled upon this free to play MMORPG on steam the other day called Eldevin and I streamed it a couple of times so far.  My impressions of it have been positive, with it giving the type of skilling vibes that I got when I played Runescape.  This game started out as a browser-based game but over time offered its own client download, and it is just the type of new adventure I have been looking for.  Given the MMORPG industry is in a depression, or at the very least, a recession, finding this game now has given me something to enjoy during my free time.

The game starts off with a tutorial far into the future giving you a glimpse of the type of strength your character will one day wield if you end up playing the game long enough.  After we go through this brief tutorial, the game puts us into the game world as a level 1 noob.  You do not pick a class to play from the start.  Instead, the game has a number of introductory quests in this starting area that introduce you to the various combat, gathering, and crafting systems the game has to offer.  From what I can see, you can technically use any combination of weapons or armors, which makes the game similar style to Albion Online in that you are what you wear.  From there though, there is a bit of a differentiation as the game uses skill trees (talent points) and attribute points each time your character levels to customize your experience as you see fit.

I decided to make my character a mage purist, so I have been investing my attribute points into sorcery (which increases spell damage) and my talent points into the mage talent tree which also assists with spell damage, mana increases, and spell accuracy.  While I am only in my early teens in character level, I can see there is so many talents to invest in as I progress the character and make it stronger.  It gives me just the right mixture of dopamine that I enjoy, both the enjoyment of vertical character level progression as well as vertical progression in gathering and crafting.  The game does a great job of showing your progression increase each time you perform an action, specifically on the gathering and crafting side.  So many games get it wrong when it comes to addictive progression that makes you want to grind more, but Eldevin has done it right so far.

I've only played a total of about 5 or 6 hours so far, so I have more to learn and I am sure my description of the game will continue to fill out as I continue to play.  Given that the current MMORPG outlook for new games doesn't look so hot in the immediate future, I plan to put some time into Eldevin and go on this new adventure for a while, even if the game population is lacking (which it is).  The past couple of days though I have noticed that people have been taking an interest from my stream, and I noticed some players running through the newer player zones as I was trying to explore and determine their path in game.  Perhaps if we stick with it a while, we can rejuvenate the population a little bit, which would be a lot of fun to experience a new adventure with others.

Until next time,

Blackboa