Realistic MMO games are few and far between. And that sort of makes sense – most people play MMO games because they want to while away some time in an alternate but *much more fun* reality. We love flailing huge neon glowing swords as much as the next guy, but sometimes we get an itch to play something a little more toned down.
Realistic MMO games aren’t necessarily just mirror images of real life. It could be argued that the most realistic MMO game might be the one with the most realistic graphics, but we’ve taken a different tact. In this article, we present to you some MMO games that caught our eye, all with some realistic elements of gameplay, environment or strategy.
Second Life
Second Life is a screamingly obvious entry to this list. So realistic is Linden Lab’s Second Life in fact, that it is barely a game at all. Create your avatar and explore whichever destination takes your fancy, whether that be Wonderland (as in “Alice in..”), a rustic seaside town called Butter, beach clubs, English Cornwall replica ‘Frogmore’, Caribbean Jungle… the list goes on, and on.
In Second Life, you can do much of what you can do in real life. Exploring beautiful scenery and taking photographs, going to rock’n’roll concerts, or just hanging out with your friends or making new ones. You can even go on dates. With Second Life, it’s more a question of “What can’t you do?!”. If you like electronic music, you can go to an in-game club; if you love electronic music, you can run an in-game club!
Despite the ‘game’ being almost as old as time itself, there is still a huge and dedicated userbase, with hundreds of thousands of players logging in each month. Perhaps you’re like The Office’s Dwight Schrute: your “life is so great that (you) literally want a second one”. Or maybe it’s not so great right now, and you could use an escape. In either case, your life (and your other one) will never be the same again.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDVALGsbz3M
Gloria Victis
Hands up who hasn’t once imagined being a Viking… No hands? I thought so. Luckily for us, Black Eye Games have offered the opportunity to give it a go. Gloria Victis is a medieval open world MMORPG that didn’t skimp on the realism. You can play as, and fight against, characters who look like they are straight from the history books, rather than something out of Tron. There are a handful of creatures inspired by Slavic mythology, but honestly, they are gritty and hardcore enough that they don’t spoil the realism.
A seamless and beautiful open living world is available for you to explore, ancient secrets to discover, and forgotten treasures to unearth. Have I persuaded you to don that metal bucket you call a helmet yet?
The non-target PVP combat is strategic, tactical, and great fun. Make your name as a formidable duelist, killer archer, or highly-respected admiral. The open PVP combat leads to epic tournaments, huge wars, and even castle/town sieges. The better you are at fighting, the more territory you’ll be able to control. But you better fortify your newly won lands quickly, before someone tries to take them off you!
Life Is Feudal
Great name – we always appreciate a pun here at MMOGames.com. Life Is Feudal is a medieval-themed hardcore sandbox MMORPG set in a large, persistent and seamless world. And the world feels even bigger now due to the dwindling (although still existent for the moment) player base. There is a refreshing lack of rules and confines, and players are free to terraform the world and set up residence pretty much anywhere!
You are able to build yourself a house and garden anywhere in the game world, and dig irrigation channels or raise low-lying areas – you can even dig yourself a moat. And the realism doesn’t stop here…
The entire Life is Feudal world is driven by players: they run the economy, govern nations, and choose when to go to war. There is also an exciting and almost limitless alchemy system, with over 40 million alchemical combinations available to each player.
Even the damage system is realistic, with actual wound effects and damage that is based on the human anatomy. We think this is probably a better choice for the hardcore gamers on this list, and your chances of dying are almost as high as in…
One Hour One Life
It does what it says on the tin: you have one hour to live one life. One Hour One Life is a quirky hand-drawn civilisation in which players all cooperate to rebuild civilisation from scratch. As you log in to the game, you are born as a completely useless baby, and you rely on another random player to give you parental care until you are old enough to look after yourself.
Whatever you do during your lifetime will remain imprinted on civilisation forever. Leave a legacy for yourself or others in the way of help or hindrance! The in-game civilisation has already advanced from hunting and gathering to an agricultural oil-harnessing economy with paved roads and alcohol.
The game developer is quite open about the fact that he has no idea where it might end up – he builds the tech tree at just enough of a pace to keep ahead of the development happening in the game. It is certainly plausible that by the time you read this, the One Hour One Life civilisation have developed flying cars, laser beams and space rockets.
Next time you’ve got an hour to kill, go ahead and join the organised chaos.
Bonus Entry: Enlisted
New from Gaijin Entertainment, Enlisted is a squad-based free-to-play World War 2 MMO. The game is due for release any day now, and we believe it is one to watch!
The game has beautifully realistic graphics, and the squad control is Rainbow Six-esque by using basic squad commands. Games feature up to 150 players all battling it out in areas that are hundreds of square kilometres in size. Even the battle sounds are realistic, as the tinkling of bullet casings hitting the floor mingles with the heavy booms of the tanks firing shells.
We wait with bated breath for the release of Enlisted, and we really hope it lives up to our realism expectations.
That’s all folks. Hopefully you enjoy one of our suggestions for realistic MMO games. I suppose if you trawl your way through every game in this list and find yourself unsatisfied, you’ve always got real life to fall back on!
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