Ryzom

Ryzom is a MMO I had not really heard much about. I was reading an article and one of the comments mentioned it, so I took a stroll over to their webpage. I was actually surprised that this was the first time I checked this game out. It looks like it has been out for quite a while. I saw there was a free trial and gave it a try. There are several reasons why I gave Ryzom a try, as opposed to Spellborn.

Skill Based. No real classes here just 4 basic skills: Melee, Magic, Crafting and Harvesting. When you defeat a monster, you get XP into combat (Yea Darkfall, looking at you. No casting at rocks to advance.) The same goes for the non-combat skills. You can then spend that XP (as points) on abilities. There is really no limit, so you can make your character be whatever mix you want.

Stanzas. The best way to describe a stanza would be as a compound action. These are abilities you create out of your other abilities. For example, I can create an attack that consists of a basic attack, a DoT and then a cleave. This is not a free lunch though. You have to pay for each action with things like Stamina.

Seasons. There are actually seasons (Summer, Winter) in the game. They affect the harvesting resources available and even the types of animals you will see.

Ryzom Ring. This system lets you create scenarios (instances) for people to adventure in. It would be a predecessor to CoX's Mission Architect system. Not only can you create detailed instances (including placement), you can be the Adventure Master (aka Dungeon Master) or let it run hands off.

Those features were enough to get me to download and give it a whirl. In the end though, Ryzom will not be a game I will be playing. It just looks and feels too dated. It also has an uncertain future, as it has been struggling over being a free to play game for so long.

Ryzom appears to be JRPG influenced graphically, which doesn't do anything for me. While I wouldn't call it anime, it just feels odd. It's lore also seems to be a mix of fantasy and Sci-fi.

The folks who made Ryzom put their engine (the whole thing, Networking, Graphics ...) up as an Open Source project. If you ever wanted to learn how a MMO works, this is a good opportunity. You can check it out at http://dev.ryzom.com/.

Overall it looks like a game with a lot of nice ideas. Hopefully there will be a Ryzom 2 someday.

Posted in: Ryzom