Review Submitted By: somnus mors
Author Status: Player
Started on RetroMUD: 2004
Submission Date: Jan 31, 2006
TMC Listing: RetroMUD
The following review is the opinion of the review's author [somnus mors]
and in no way represents the opinions of this website or its staff.
RetroMud is an extraordinarily diverse and detailed fantasy mud. It is
mostly team combat oriented, and while roleplay is encouraged and
rewarded, it's not required. This is, in fact, it's biggest drawback:
it's one thing to assault a nun or a demon-summoning cultist, it's
another thing entirely to do so when accompanied by someone who spouts
hitpoint totals.
On the other hand, the areas are vast and immersive, with engaging
descriptions and (normally) great attention to detail. I come from a
MOO background where each room was expected to have dozens of unique
verbs or examinable features, and while RetroMud doesn't normally hit
the dozens, it certainly has enough to give it a great feeling of
depth. NPCs are plentiful and interesting, though conversation is
normally a little thin. Quests abound: roughly 100 are 'official'
level quests with a few details up on corkboards at all the pubs in
the world, each granting half-cost advancement for a particular level.
Counting these there are probably over 200 available, ranging in
difficulty from simply asking the right person the right question to
requiring dozens of hours of research and exploration and combat.
Possibly best of all, exploration gives experience. Just entering a
new room gives xp! Many areas are intricate and mindgame-like, as
well, holding secret rooms or intricate backstories for those willing
to look at the right clues, search under the right beds, destroy the
right weapons, or bribe the right guards. Many players forgo levelling
entirely until vast swathes of the six planets have been explored.
In terms of sheer numbers, I've never seen a mud with as many rooms
(over 15,000), races (over 60), guilds (19 'primary' ones, such as
Templar and Merchant, and hundreds of secondary and tertiary guilds
that you can path into), and skills and spells (over 1,000).
Especially impressive is that these seem to be quite well balanced, no
mean feat as any game designer could tell you.
For new players, an excellent help system a 'mentor' ooc-channel are
available.
There are a few other notable pros: there are great themes for each
planet (ranging from dinosaur-inhabited jungle to subterranean cave
systems), there is the ability to reincarnate and keep most of one's
experience, people spend experience on skills and spells instead of
using the idiotic and tiresome 'practices' idiom, there is equipment
that grants flight or water-breathing (and the worlds are 3D, you can
soar through clouds or flit about in the seas), and there is
beautifully detailed weather. Ok, fine, sometimes it rains, still...
There are also a few other notable cons: you need to buy a castle (or
rent a room in one) to keep equipment across the daily
world-cleansing, there's a slight tendancy towards fighting over
roleplaying, there's only very restricted player killing, and being
in-character doesn't guarantee that others will interact with you
in-character.
Still, as examples: Leprechauns can only see in light and ultra-light
places, Shadows can only see in dark and ultra-dark places, and
Hephastians can see anywhere. To my mind any mud that goes to such
detail as to say which brightnesses each race can see in is worth a
look at.
