Swordscape Version 2

I took a look at this game since it has been recently completed and apparently this is supposed to be a single-player RPG Maker version of a game called Runescape. I'm not exactly sure how you would adapt an online browser-based JAVA MMORPG game into a typical PC RPG Maker game... And I'm still not sure since this game isn't actually anything like it.

Gameplay

I'll excuse the lack of intro and how you just spawn in some random town because this was supposed to be some... MMO adaptation or something. After choosing your gender (limiting you to only two different kinds of characters) the game just starts. I guessed (somewhat correctly) that you just wander around for quests to do, but almost all the time I was met with either some invisible barrier telling me about some random quest blocking the way, or that people have nothing for you to do.



This got really old really fast. It's about as opened ended as a freight train on tracks. Also, finding a lost cat or doing yard work isn't exactly my idea of "jam packed action". Eventually after bouncing around the artificial barriers to places trying to find the next quest I have to do to progress, I found some dungeon in a house. I was warned that it was full of powerful monsters. Look at the bones!



I came face to face to square rooms infested with packs of violent chickens. The combat for this game isn't that great either. It's pretty much just me, my sword, and pressing the C key over and over. I had so much HP I could make chunky salsa out of pretty much everything on the first floors. Eventually I did find something that was tough enough to actually kill me and all what happened is that I spawned back in town to "Oh dear you died!".

There's also really harsh transitions to different areas. Suddenly I'll be in a grassy town and then walk into a winter wasteland. Then suddenly I'll be in a swamp (which had absolutely nothing in it). The maps fit together really strangely and I had a hard time trying to think of where I was in the game. I also found a river where there was a single person on an unfinished bridge offering to sail me to a different place. What, does he carry me on his back or something?



Overall, this game degenerates quickly into a single-person keyboard masher where you just normal attack all the enemies in the game.

Story

There isn't one. What you get is poorly written dialog boxes of half-comprehensible text that make up the small backstories to the quests you do. It was kind of hard to follow and at other times it was embarrassing. I can't really say much about the stories here, that's pretty much it.



Graphics and Sound

It uses the RTP graphics. However, the mapping is terrible. There are many graphical flaws in the map tiles and they're mostly bland and empty. The default system graphics don't help either. The sounds are also RTP and there just isn't anything special about them. It's pretty safe sticking with the RTP, but the mapping in this game ruins it. Sometimes I had a hard time trying to figure out what was blocking my path or where I could move. The door in the house with the dungeon, for example, made it look like the knight inside killed me and tried to stash the body in his closet.



I couldn't stand playing this game for very long since it lacked any sort of direction or features to keep me in. Writing this review was about as hard because there's only so many visual glitches and grammar mistakes you can laugh at. Not even all the basic features of RPG Maker XP were used in this game.