If you are anything like me, then you enjoy killing things. Now, I am not talking about real life things. I am talking strictly digital things. Things that consist of pixels and electrically colored blood. To me, there is only one thing better than killing digital something and that is killing lots of digital somethings!

In the course of searching for a new game to review for the arcade, I came across an MMO called Realm of the Mad God. It was recommended to me by our Arcade Manager, Zach Zebrowski -- whom I have both thankedand cursed the last few days for this. Simply put... I can't stop playing the game!

My initial thought when I loaded it up was, "I don't get the hype. The game is very pixelated, there is seemingly no real win, and all I am doing to trying to level up."

...



Four hours later I was still playing and had to force myself to stop playing and go to sleep. I now see pixels in my sleep, pixels in my cereal, and pixels in the road while driving... it's like a drug addiction and I don't know if I want to fight it. The game is seriously addicting, so if you want to suddenly lose 10 hours, don't click this link -> Realm of the Mad God!

The game puts you into a position where you have been transported into a strange world by an unknown entity for the purpose of being food for his minions. Through the game, the guy taunts and shouts you down while you play. It's a great way to incite a riot, and we will definitely get to the riots in a moment. But first, you should know that the game is an MMO-Shooter. Meaning, you have no ammo limit, you just have to survive as long as possible and blast monsters as you go. The game is also strictly Co-Op, so there is no PVP and as you progress, you learn how much easier the game is in packs... leading to the riots. Again, I'll get to that in a moment.

You start off able to play as a Wizard, but you plainly see that there are 13 playable classes. The problem is that only the Wizard is selectable. If you point at the others, you will be informed that you must obtain a level of 5 or 20 in another class to unlock this class. In the beginning, you must unlock the Priest by getting to level 5 Wizard. Getting level 5 Priest unlocks the Archer, who unlocks the Rouge, who unlocks the Warrior (all of these require level 5 of the previous class). That is where is starts getting hard and frustrating.



The next tier of classes requires that you to get level 20 in two of the previous classes! The first one that I unlocked was the Necromancer, who required level 20 in Wizard and Priest. I then unlocked the Assassin, who required Wizard and Rouge to be level 20. The combination of level 20 in Assassin and Necromancer unlocked the Sorcerer.

Each class is pretty different, but can be similar at the same time. You will really need to tap into your inner FPS and utilize the circle strafing and backpedal pulling. In general, all of the classes have a primary shoot attack, which is firing some sort of pellet (daggers, magic bolts, arrows, etc.) and an alternate attack which is more suited to the class, and really separates them. For example, the Priest area heals as his alternate while the Wizard area attacks and the Warrior incites berserker speed in his neighboring allies.

Each class additionally has a set of six stats: Attack, Speed, Vitality, Defense, Dexterity and Wisdom. Each stat is tied directly to an important aspect of your characters survival. From my experience, nothing is more important than Dexterity, however, since it is the stat that governs how fast you shoot. The higher your dexterity, the more pellets you can have in the air and that increases your chances of survival. As your character levels, your stats increase. It is my assumption that the stats increase according to a pattern that is determined by the selected class.

What I came to notice is that as you level and get higher speed and dexterity scores, the game seems to actually get slower and easier as you are able to out speed the enemy monsters and they feel as if they are moving slower. You can also get your hands on higher level gear which can increase your stats as well, making some of them pretty valuable.

Now, as promised... let's talk about the riots!

There are a group of monsters whom the Mad God really likes apparently. These monsters are ultra-powerful and tend to require a group of guys to beat down. These guys are no joke and are usually called Gods themselves. Whenever these guys get taken down, the Mad God begins to talk a little junk about how "you might be able to take So-and-So God down, but you are no match for me". His next line is that he has locked the realm... and it's time to RIOT!! (I added that last part.) The entire world begins to shake and the adrenaline begins to pump because you and every last person on the server are being teleported to the Mad God's castle.

Once you appear, you note that EVERYONE is indeed here and EVERYONE begins firing at the castle doors. As the encounter progresses, you quickly figure out that you need to remain in the swarm or get picked off by the incoming minions, who are supremely powerful. The progression through the castle resembles the sentinel attack on Zion in the third Matrix movie as the players sort of flow through the halls of the castle in a liquid swarm of firing ... things. It is very, very easy to die in the castle, so if you find yourself in this position, stay within the swarm and as close to a Priest or Necromancer as possible. If you stray, you will die!

Speaking of dieing... It is permanent. Don't do it if you don't have too. Any equipment that you were holding is lost. Any levels that you obtained are lost. All fame that you had gained on that character is lost... sort of. So be sure that you understand that you must accomplish these leveling feats in a single character lifetime.



I have to end this article here and now because my hands are shaking and I must go and play some more. If I ever stop playing Realm of the Mad God, I will get on to reviewing other games!

You can find Realm of the Mad God HERE