Review by Carl Doherty

The old “you get what you pay for” axiom is thoroughly disputed in this immensely enjoyable free-to-play MMORPG.

Runes of Magic is testimony to the virtues of an open mind.  Just 10 minutes into Frogster’s import of Taiwanese developer Runewaker Entertainment’s MMORPG, I had already dismissed it as a World of Warcraft rip off. Look at a few screenshots and you’ll understand why. Yet after just 2 hours into the game these apprehensions had been pushed aside. 4 hours after that my eyes were bloodshot and my rear had developed chair sores; such is the allure that this derivative but enjoyable game has, and in spades. Yes, Runes is a clone, but it’s far from a cheap Asian knock-off.

Let’s get this out of the way: Runes of Magic looks like World of Warcraft. A lot like it. Squint and you might believe it was Blizzard’s industry dominator. It also plays like World of Warcraft, with an interface system that will be instantly familiar to over 10 million gamers worldwide. But then WoW itself was not particularly original; instead Blizzard took the best elements from previous efforts and crammed them all into a streamlined, extremely accessible package. In several small ways Runes of Magic improves on that approach, and though its presentation is occasionally shoddy it’s a hell of a lot of fun. Further still, it’s “free.”