May 7th, 2009

Best Free Online MMORPG

If you're looking for the best free online MMORPG, then you're in for a loooong quest. In fact, I don't think there's anyone around able to try them all, but we can try to find out more about the most successful ones, don't you think? Even more, if we take things a few steps further, I will add a bit of my experience, especially what I heard from my MMORPG-maniacal friends. The reason is that - according to them, and I must agree - there are still a lot of awesome free games out there that don't get the attention they deserve.

First of all, a little warning - some of the games I'll name below are free to play, but have some premium content, available for some kind of credits that can only be purchased with real money, but sometimes premium content is also offered for accomplishing various tasks, depending on the game. The idea is that the list below contains games that are free to download, play, and can be enjoyed without having to pay, although premium content sometimes usually gives you an advantage.

Ready or not, here's the best free online MMORPG list I can come up with today... just don't take the order seriously - I just write them down as I remember them, and between calls/YM discussions with my friends, asking for the best free online MMORPG they know.

1. 2Moons and 9Dragons come both from Acclaim, and while the first one is a completely free classic MMORPG with a fictional story/realms, the second one is a martial arts MMORPG set in China during the Ming Dynasty, including actual geography and places, like the Shaolin Temple or The Great Wall, also free to play.

If you have at least 1GB of memory and a GeForce MX video card, you can enjoy both these games, although you won't be able to push everything to max on that ancient card. Just as a side note, both games have awesome graphics, and worth checking out.

2. Anarchy Online is partially free to play, supported by in-game advertising, with additional realms available to paying gamers only. I tried it, I hated it, I moved on, but I must admit it's a pretty complex game, and despite the fact it was released back in 2001, looks pretty good. After all, it comes from Funcom, the creators of Age of Conan...

3. Archlord is a completely free to play MMORPG that I played and enjoyed, without becoming addicted. I saved my user and password for later retrieval, and stopped somewhere along the way. Graphics are pretty good, and action can get boring from time to time, but I am sure some consider it to be the best free online MMORPG... and I think you should give it a try. You will hate it or love it pretty quick, I can bet on that.

4. Atlantica Online is a game released in late October, 2008, set in an alternate history, combining fantasy with steampunk elements. It is free to play, generating revenue with the help of the online shop of the company behind it. Most reviews were extremely good, and since the graphics are looking great... this is another MMORPG to try!

5. Last stop today in our quest for the best free online MMORPG is Cabal Online, another good looking game set in a mythical world, but while this is free of any charge, premium items require players to spend real money to get them.

This is all for today, but be sure we'll continue in the near future our trip in the free MMORPG universe, because there's a lot to find in this world!