R.O.S.E. has great potential with its fun, cartoony graphics and feel-good charm, but in-game bugs are holding it back..

User Rating: 7 | ROSE Online PC
R.O.S.E Online is one of those games that you hope the developer pushes back an extra couple of months so that it can finish evolving into a great title. The graphics are excellent, very bright, colorful visuals filled with smooth shadows and lush landscapes. You can, however, tell that this is most definitely a game in its beta stage after messing around with the UI. Many of the words have been abbreviated, such as some of the tab headings, which makes for rough navigation since half the time you don’t even know what it is you're clicking on. There is also a major issue with the tool tips that are laid out about as sloppy as some of the tools tips you see in Warcraft III Tower Defense maps, and at times even sloppier.

The combat system seems to be geared towards the more casual MMO player since all you really have to do is click once (or twice depending on the settings you've chosen) on an enemy and sit back. Even buffers rarely have to do much clicking since buffs in the game are a bit unbalanced and last for a very long time. The combat animations are nice, though, and the frame rate never dip even when there are dozens of enemies on screen at the same time, which is very promising for a beta build of an MMO.

The Sound in the game is great...but get old quick. They play the same tune over and over...and over again. It actually got to the point where i had to mute the computer because it was making me sick. The sound effects are also repeditive since a sword and a staff make the same contact noise along with a pumpkin and a bee making the same dying sound effects. I did, however, enjoy the sounds at first because, like it said, its a very feel-good game and that's exactly what the sounds did for me...at first anyway.

The character creation is quick, easy, and to the point. You pick whether you want to play as a male of female character and then change the facial structure and hair style/color (though each hair style comes with its own permanent hair color) and then you're off. Though rather limited in your options, some of the faces are rather funny and the hair is crazy (i made an old man face with crazy green spiky hair).

All in all R.O.S.E Online is a game with great potential that just needs a little spring cleaning. I recommend you download this demo and spend a few hours messing around in the game world. The people playing are friendly and the game is rather satisfying for a while, especially if you're having a rough day and need a little something to pick you back up. Just don't go in exspecting to be playing a WOW calabur MMO.