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Spiral Knights - a free-to-play MMOG that's fistfuls of fun...

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Edvard:
Did you love dungeon-crawling with your arcade buddies in Gauntlet?
Did you find the Legend of Zelda series fun and challenging, and never complained about it's "cutesy"-ness?
Do you like the social interaction and character-building aspects common in most modern-day MMORPGs, but aren't basement-bound geek enough to take them seriously?
Are you short on cash?
Do you want all this and have a ton of fun while you're at it?

Come, join up with the Spiral Knights and explore the ever-changing Clockworks world!

You have crashed.
You are stranded.
But you are not alone.
The Spiral Knights have awoken on an alien world. Their equipment stores have been raided and their starship, The Skylark, will not recover from the crash. Now they must work together to survive on a journey that will take them to the very core of this strange world.

--- End quote ---

http://www.spiralknights.com/


It's written by Three Rings, the creative hooligans behind Puzzle Pirates and an upcoming Doctor Who game, in conjunction with Sega.
Most of the artwork has been perpetrated by Ian McConville, the creative genius behind the Mac Hall and Three Panel Soul webcomics.
It's browser-based, written in Java (which means it's Linux-compatible  :-*), and offers very creative gameplay that seems to borrow from a fistful of enjoyable predecessors.
It's free-to-play, which means you can sign up and have access to everything you need.
You get 100 units of Energy every 24 hours (EVERYTHING you do costs Energy, some things very little, some a little more...), and at first sign-up they give you a free 100-unit bonus tank for the first time you run out.
I recommend playing as much as you can with the free energy to learn the best energy-conserving tricks, get used to the game mechanics and trading system, then buy some extra Energy for extended play.
The energy pricing is fair and not terribly expensive (you can spend as little as 2 bucks) and they take PayPal as well as the traditional options (they even take a check in the mail :huh:).
I've been playing for a couple weeks now, and having a blast even though I can only spare an hour or two at a time, which is just about perfect.

I don't know enough about the game yet to give it a comprehensive review (there's just so much to it...) but here's a good overview from Giantbomb.com:
http://www.giantbomb.com/spiral-knights/61-34489/
And if you search "spiral knights review", you'll find most of the reviews to be quite positive.
http://www.google.com/#q=spiral+knights+review

I also recommend the Wiki as your first stop; it's well-written, comprehensive and updated often.
http://wiki.spiralknights.com
Go through the Starting Out page first, to get an idea of what to do when you get around to signing up (don't forget to hit all the links at least once):
http://wiki.spiralknights.com/Starting_out
... then read through the New Player Briefing to get a good overview of gameplay mechanics that you will experience:
http://wiki.spiralknights.com/New_Player_Briefing

Whether your cup of tea is engaging in fast-paced combat, building your character, or interacting with others via trading or chit-chatting, it's all possible within this game world, and I highly recommend it for the "fun" gamer in you...
Ready? Good!

https://www.spiralknights.com/register/register.wm :D

Deozaan:
A free-to-play MMO that costs money to buy Energy to do anything? :huh:

Looks like it could be really fun, but this seemingly severe limitation will likely keep me from playing it.

Thanks for the review/suggestion. :Thmbsup:

Edvard:
Au Contraire, Deozaan...
I've been playing 3-4 days a week for the last month, haven't spent a dime on the game and haven't yet felt the pinch (not that it wouldn't have been nice a few times...).
You get 100 units of Energy FREE every 24 hours, which is good for at least an hour or two's worth of enjoyment, and if you need more it's really not that expensive.
As a free-to-play they had to come up with some way of making money and this isn't the worst I've seen.
I think they're trying to strike a balance between not just handing out Uber-weapons for cash in an item mall (making the progression more interesting IMHO) and charging a subscription for "enhanced" features not available to the proles running on free time.
From reading some reviews, this is exactly what some people want, but I like this model better.

So not being a hardcore gamer, a game that's much more than your average casual flash game but needs less involvement than your average MMO, an hour or two of good solid fun is just fine by me.
The game looks great, it runs flawlessly on Linux and it's really fun; which makes it perfect.  :Thmbsup:

Deozaan:
OK then. I'll try it out. :)

EDIT: I'm on there as Deozaan

Deozaan:
Yep. It's fun!

The gameplay is a lot more like an Arcade game than traditional MMO(RPG). It plays like a combination of Guantletw, Zelda: Four Swords Adventuresw, and Final Fantasy Crystal Chroniclesw.

:Thmbsup:

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