Quest for Free Games – Perfect World International (PC)

In a start to my Quest for Free Games I review Perfect World International, a free MMORPG much in the style of World of Warcraft.

Title: Perfect World International
Platform: PC
Genre: MMORPG
Release Date: 2 September 2008 (Open Beta)
Developer: Beijing Perfect World
Publisher: Perfect World International Entertainment
Rating: N/A

WHAT IS… PERFECT WORLD INTERNATIONAL?

Perfect World International is the international release of Perfect World, a free to play MMORPG originating in China where is has been quite a big success. Beijing Perfect World hopes to try and capture this success and export it overseas and with that they have stuck to their promise of free and accessible gaming and simply translated their game for a western release. It is heavily based and influenced from Chinese culture and is set in a region known as Pangu.

GRAPHICS 5/10

The game is presented in pretty much the same way as any other MMORPG and has similar graphics to those found in World of Warcraft or EverQuest, however I will say that whilst it looks very similar the lack of really talented environment designers who, when designing the vast open areas managed to create huge barren areas with no defining features, which makes it really easy to get lost whilst wandering the wastelands. It’s not meant to be built up by wasteland, this is not a fallout-esque post apocalyptic MMORPG, just many of the areas are so featureless you can be forgiven for mistaking them for wasteland. Whilst you are in a town the game does look quite good there a plenty of nice looking areas, it’s just a shame there are miles of wasteland in between. Given the technology that it runs on technically it pulls some good things off it’s just ruined by completely uninspired environments.

+ SOME interesting areas in towns or cities
– LOTS of bland and uninspired, repetitive areas

STORY 2/10

I’m pretty sure there is meant to be a story line somewhere in this game. It tries to present itself as having a storyline and they claim the games is based upon Chinese Mythology. I however, must have completely missed where the story is supposed to start, maybe you have to play for around 100 hours and get to about level 30 before they let get even the slightest glimse of the story. Usually with a game like N+ where there is no story and they don’t pretend it has a story I will simply leave this section alone as there are many games, like puzzle games, that simply do not need a story. MMORPGs do not fall into the section of games that do not need a story line as any RPG with no story or no direction is simply a waste of time. It could be argued that the story comes through the quests but having played a million different variations of the same damn quest which simply involves walking through wastelands, killing x amounts of creature y and walking back through the wasteland gives you no more insight, or more fun, than watching paint dry or an episode of hollyoaks. Suffice to say the quests are really repetive and really really really boring.

– Overall storyline is absent
– Really repetitive and dull quests
– Fantastically boring

LONGEVITY 7/10

With this, and indeed many MMORPGs, if you’re into this kind of thing you can easily get well over 100 hours of gameplay. Whilst the quests are very similar to each other and very repetitive there are literally thousands within the game and also as there are diffent races and classes which give you a different playing style and so potentially you could, if you were incredibly dedicated, to get get around 300 – 600 hours depending on how patient you are, and it’s not often you can get that from something that is completely free. Whilst you can say many things against MMORPGs in general one thing you cannot say is that they don’t have very much content, there is so very much to do, if you don’t mind a bit of repetition.

+ Well over 100 hours of gameplay for many people
– Some repetition in quests
– Only for MMORPG fans

GAMEPLAY 5/10

This shares many of the gameplay flaws that plague many other MMORPGs, namely clunky control systems and one click combat. If you’ve ever played any MMORPGs then you will know how combat works, you click an enemy and your character runs up to them and waves a stick until one of you falls over, if you’re an advanced player you might press f1 or f3 every now and then (or whatever you link skills to). Whilst this isn’t very advanced or particulaly fun, it works and whilst there are many better control systems but many of these have been shown not to work in a MMORPG. So whilst it isn’t a great system it’s tried and true and is probably the best fit for a MMORPG.

-/+ Uses the standard MMORPG controls

FUN 4/10

This basically comes down to whether you find MMORPGs fun. It is a completely standard MMORPG yes it’s fun to play with other people, but then some people are annoying b******* which can detract from the fun. On my first night playing I was constantly annoyed by one player spamming the world chat system which just makes the game not very fun for anyone. Also there is the balance of longevity and tedium, if you are happy to play the game despite it’s repetition then you are very likely to play it for a very long time and probably enjoy it for a very long time. On the other hand, if constantly replaying the same quest over and over again sounds as boring to you as it does for me then you might want to go for a game with a little variation.

+ Lots of people to play with help make game fun
+ Could end up playing far more than 100 hours
– Some people are annoying and should be locked up
– Playing the same 5 quests over and over for 100 hours is NOT fun

OVERALL 4.6/10 

This game could really go both ways depend on how you feel about MMORPGs. This is pretty much a standard MMORPG and such is plagued with all the same problems but also can easily be played at great length and loved fanatically. As a free game it does seem like a fairly decent idea, personally given the choice between this and World of Warcraft I would probably go for this one as they’re very similar, WoW has more direction but given that Perfect World is free the price of WoW does not cover the very minor improvements compared to this.

BETTER THAN: Runescape (WEB)

WORSE THAN: World Of Warcraft (PC)