First up in my series of free MMO reviews - Alien Adoption Agency.This is a free-to-play browser/text-based MMORPG. The title I find is a little misleading, because according to the game you "adopt" an alien, but when you are playing the game the narrations are in first person. So it's not like neopets or anything. You are the alien. Also, this game has a wildly awesome sense of humour.
The first time you sign up and begin playing, you will visit the main navigation screen (GeorgeTown) and see an astounding amount of places to go. At first, this was a little too much for me, but once you learn what most of the places are for, it's much easier. A good way to think of it is like taking something like Ogrimmar from WoW, and making a large list of all the stores/places inside it. Also, this is not a game you can play for as much of the day as you want. The game gives you "motivation" points each day, which you use to do pretty much everything. If you don't use your motivation, it will accumulate per day and can get up to a limit of 20,000 before you stop gaining it.
So, the main object of the game (of course with any MMORPG) is to level up your character and get more powerful weapons/armor for your character. However, this works a bit differently from other MMOs such as WoW or WAR. Instead of gaining
XP through killing things and doing quests, you gain XP from battling other players and doing daily training, which can get a little grindy.
Fighting in this game isn't anything special, really. You click fight and you are given the outcome, whoever has the best stats wins (though there is some luck involved). Defeating players gives you XP and if you have points in thieving, you can steal some of their credits. Anyone can attack you at pretty much anytime. This can be annoying, especially when you are carrying a large amount of money, but you can always put your money in the bank where it is safe. You can only attack a certain amount of people a day, but you can increase this by training.
Something that I think is really cool about this game is the merchant system, which allows you to become a merchant for a period of time. During this time, you can't attack other players and they cannot attack you. This allows for people who just want to enjoy the crafting portion of the game to do so without being attacked every now and then.
The community for this game is great. The second I created my character, I was invited to a guild (there's a list of noob-friendly guilds here, no joke) which so far have been very helpful. Everyone (not just talking about my guild) is willing to answer questions and give you items and the like. Makes the game more fun to play in this kind of environment.
Although the game is free, there are paid options. If you pay 5 bucks a month, you get access to a bunch of member-only stuff and you gain extra motivation. Really it's nothing much extra, but I went ahead and donated to get rid of the ads (which to be honest was worth it to me). The game has two currency methods - credits and bytes. Bytes are generally used to buy premium items (mainly just clothing) and unlock stuff in the game. You can buy them from other players, do offers for them (which sucks) or just buy them using a credit card. Players can actually make their own clothes and submit them to a GM. If they are approved, they will be available in the clothes store where other players can buy them. The creators get in-game money from doing this, I believe.
Anyway, this is a good game. It's probably the best text-based game I've played and there is a lot to do (I would explain more, but this post is getting a little large). So, a little run-down:
Graphics: (text based, but the illustrations are good) 4/5
Gameplay: (lots to do, can get repetitive, PvP is a little dull) 3/5
Replayability: (as stated above, can get a little grindy) 3/5
Sound/Music: (N/A) 0/0
Originality: (lots of original ideas, a good overall style) 5/5
A good game, not for everyone but it can be enjoyable.
Total Score: 15/20
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