Platformer meets RPG meets online play. This is your story: MapleStory.
Now, as an old-school gamer, the sidescrolling action appeals to me a lot. Not a lot of younger gamers see this game for what it's worth, and it commonly gets overlooked for similar, more modern games such as World of Warcraft. For me, being someone who grew up playing Super Mario Bros. 3 and has a love for role playing games, this game had an instant charm that has kept me hooked on it for the past two years.
Now, what is it that makes this game so good?
Obviously enough, the fact that this game has a platformer-like feel obviously sets it apart from others, but it's also the gameplay depth and the challenge of progressing through the game itself that keeps people going. From the starting beginner class, you have four main job branches to choose from: Warrior, Bowman, Thief, and Magician. Building your character to it's full potential can be very difficult at times. Sometimes, one or two ability points into the wrong stat could mean that you could end up substantially weaker than others as you progress through levels. Same goes for skills, where not having a fine-tuned skill build could mean that your skills are weak in the later parts of the game or your support skills aren't as potent as others. Usually, it takes a couple of characters in order to get the optimal build you want.
Training at later levels can be rather difficult as well for certain jobs, although rewarding in the end if you're up to the challenge. Once you hit the 70s and 80s (which usually takes a good couple of months of playing to get to) you'll find yourself having to buy a large supply of potions to keep yourself from getting killed by monsters that can ultimately defeat you in two to three hits, but also competing with other players, trying to get these prime training spots. Fortunately, at the later levels players usually organize parties for the larger and harder maps where they can cooperate and train together. In the end, the experience points usually rack up faster as well.
MapleStory also offers a very large amount of quests, most of which involve collecting items or killing a certain monster, say, 50 to 100 times or so. Some of these quests offer good rewards that can help you in the end, or sometimes cause the NPC to help you throghout the remainder of the game. Be forewarned, though, as some quests can take a long time to complete.
If you're up to the challenge, though, you can form a party and either take on one of the various party quests in the game, or go for a boss. MapleStory contains a number of extremely hard bosses that would be impossible to defeat alone. Bosses such as Papulatus, Pianus, or the ever-popular Zakum are usually only beatable with a large amount of party members with their levels in the three figures and provide an excellent challenge for those that may have become bored with the grind.
MapleStory also has an always-expanding world. For the global version, the managing company (Nexon America) updates content on a monthly basis, some of which add new areas to the game, or introduce new quests, events, enhancements, etc... This is to assure the game never gets boring.
Although the game is free, MapleStory also provides a few options that willing players can pay for. Things such as pets, double experience cards, unique outfits, and more can be bought at fairly low prices through the game's cash shop. Nexon offers multiple ways to pay for this, including prepaid cards. (Something that I haven't seen any other game company do yet.)
The game isn't always that friendly though. The first thing most players will notice is the extremely long grind. After playing for a while, most will get used to it, but the distance between levels experience-wise is very large, and it usually takes multiple hours, sometimes days at the later levels, to gain a single level. This has been a major turnoff for beginner players, and for more veteran players who are reaching the 130s and 140s and are slowly running out of efficient places to train. Although other versions have areas geared towards those levels, they haven't been implemented yet and Nexon is waiting for there to be enough players to add those areas.
The community can be another issue to some. This is one of the downsides to a free game; Because the game is so accessible, the community is going to have its fair share of jerks. MapleStory is no exception to this rule. Through the game, you will always have someone out for blood, trying to disrupt your training or just trying to pick a bone with you. Cheaters also used to be a major problem a few months back, but in recent days the cheater problem has been somewhat resolved and the issue is far far less than it was earlier in the year. To be honest, if it hasn't been for some of the jerks I've run into while playing this game, I probably would've given this game a somewhat higher score.
As with many other online game, as changes happen there are usually glitches and bugs that make themselves known. MapleStory has its fair share of those, too, and they do have a couple of annoying ones. If you can figure out how to live with them, though, the game experience should go just as smoothly, as there aren't many glitches with this game at the time of this review.
MapleStory as a whole is mainly a "love it or hate it" game. Either you'll enjoy it for what it's worth or you just won't find any meaning to it. This is definitely a game where I'd say give it a try over a couple of days until deciding whether or not this game is for you. If you're an RPG loving retro gamer with an interest in platformers and also don't mind the cutesy graphics, I encourage you to give it a try. You won't be regretting it. (Until you find yourself playing this game a little too much, if you know what I mean.)