Ghost Online

"Boo! A Great MMORPG Lurks in the Shadows!"

A little background history that should be cleared up, Ghost Online is not a rip off of Maple Story (which I've also reviewed), but it actually was released in its first form (Korean I believe) about 4 months before the original Maple Story (also Korea) was released. It annoys me when people who've hardly heard of this game come and criticize it just because it's a 2D side scrolling MMORPG, with a similar platform style to Maple Story. It's got a lot more to offer than Maple Story in my opinion, and this is exactly why I'm giving it a 10/10. It deserves it, and we'll get into that a little bit later.

Really, all in all, Ghost Online is a wonderful idea, and a great fun MMORPG to boot. It'll entertain you, even if you don't like MMORPGs for the most part. So let's get on with it, Hm?

--- Gameplay: 10/10 ---

The game play holds this game together nicely. It's incredibly fast paced, and you'll find yourself running all over the place, anxious to fight the monsters that are in the way, the quickness of the game really adds to its excitement, and I appreciate that.

As mentioned above, it's a two dimensional side scrolling MMORPG with 3 classes, Warriors, Assassins, and Taoists. For the most part, you'll fight plenty of monsters, and of course there are slow spawning boss monsters, and tons of places to explore. It's really a vast game; I would even dare to say that in the near future it will be more vast than Maple Story.

I have to give this category a 10/10, it's just so amazing, and you'll find yourself hooked very quickly.

--- Sounds: 10/10 ---

The sounds are unique, and fitting. Most of the time, you'll hear feudal type music, but the music is always fitting, and always real mellow in the background. I think that the background music fits nicely, and it always matches the scenery. For example, in South Sentosa Plains, which are on fire, you'll hear some fairly angry music, while the map is this brilliant glowing red, it's a beautiful thing.

As for sound effects, they fit, and they fit well. You don't get a laser beam when you swing your sword, and you don't have the classic Mario jumping chime, it's just something that fits. It's all orchestrated very nicely.

--- Graphics: 9/10 ---

Really, the graphics are from a several year old game, but they're still dazzling. Especially some of the cities and some of the maps on stuff like the Orchard Road. It's absolutely gorgeous at times, while hideously ugly at others (but maybe that's just an opinion of whether or not I like that map). You'll find yourself pretty much in standard awe at most of the areas though. Ayer Hitam is the big one. The castle is just this enormous structure, where it goes up and up, and the dark blue scenery is just absolutely gorgeous. You really have to see it to believe it.

Yes, it's two dimensional, but two dimensional doesn't really mean bad graphics. Yes, it's not your really high intensity Playstation 3 Graphics quality, but for a 2D game, that would just be plain ridiculous. The monsters are nicely drawn, and some of them are quite scary, or strange, the characters are well developed in terms of looks, and the animations are crisp, clean, and smooth. It's all really a beautiful thing to me, but as always, critics will say otherwise. I say go with what you like, if 2D isn't your thing, then maybe this game wont impress you as much, otherwise, you'll be blown away.

--- Player Vs. Player: 10/10 ---

Alright, without this, I wouldn't be writing this review. This is the most stunning thing possible, and I have never done anything so fun in my life. I've sat for hours, and just fought whoever passed by in town (by request of course), and was sad to stop. It's just so fun, I can't express it in plain words, and you really have to see it to believe it.

Take one part faced paced gameplay, add a competitive angle, and you get something that Maple Story lacks (and would've made my review for it a 10 as well), an awesome PVP. PVP is amazing, almost always, and you don't get any better in this. Not in Space Cowboy, not in Neverwinter Nights, not in anything. This is it, and if you're all about PVP, download this game, and play it now. You will love it.

--- Character Development: 8/10 ---

Character development is, fun, but it's typical for the most part. You get some unique skills over time, and stat points are pretty standard (Str/Dex for a Warrior, etc), and really, it's not the thing that's going to hook you on this game. Would it have helped if it were good? Yes, but it's not amazing.

Basically, you get 2 skill points and 4 stat points, and you apply them pretty much however you want. If you're a warrior, you'll either go pure Str, or some Str, some Dex. Skill wise, you get a little nifty feature, you get to unlock your skills by doing quests for them, which all in all, is a pretty genius idea. I love it, it's an excuse to get a little more exp, and it'll introduce you to future training spots sometimes.

As far as equips go, you get a few options when you first start, but your options quickly diminish to on equip, and two weapons (depending on which one you prefer, and build your skills for). I find this to be rather disappointing, but on the bright side, they look awesome, so at least we're not totally reduced.

The last thing I'll mention in this section, fusing. Occasionally while playing, you'll get some sealed items, whether it be a Sealed Box, Ring, Necklace, Beads, Mirror, Talisman, Gourd, Orb, or something else, you'll inevitably find them, and probably frequently. Once you equip these, the purple souls that you loot will go to charge these. Once you charge one up to 100% (which will take at least 100 souls, more if the item has a lower chance of working), you can fuse it to a weapon, which is in a way like an upgrade. Your sword will gain attack; your staff will gain more magic attack, etc. I find this to be a really cool way of doing things, as you get 10 slots per equip, and you can really get a lot of attack out of doing this if you're lucky (yes, they can fail).

--- Community: 5/10 ---

For the most part, everyone from GameFAQs went ahead, and declared that channel 5 was our official spot, so we've congregated there, and thus, the community is a bit better because a lot of the people you see are from GameFAQs, but otherwise, you'll still run into plenty of the typical “noobs” that exist in MMORPGs. They're all over the place here, too, just a little more obscure. However, when you run into someone screaming “WAHHHH LAG” about 5 times a minute (like I did today, for 30 painful minutes before leaving), you'll wonder to yourself for a minute, and ask why you play such games that have so many idiots in them. Well, you'll eventually get over it, and get back to whatever you were doing before, but you'll often be annoyed, just like every other MMORPG. There's really very few excuses where a game can earn a higher score than 5 in community, but really, if you play on any different channel, and don't have any friends playing with you, the amount of idiots who simply don't have enough intelligence to write coherent English will force you to quit rather quickly. My suggestion: try to make friends, or bring friends with you.

--- Overall: 10/10 ---

This game has all the important things nailed on the head, and I love it. PVP, Gameplay, Sounds, Graphics, and Character development all truly add to your Ghost Online experience, and you'll be happy with this free game. Trust me. If this MMORPG doesn't do it for you, and you don't much care for point and click, you'll have very little other option, and you should probably give up. This is it, this is the best there is.

--- Closing ---

Alright, so hopefully I've helped you out a little bit. Ghost Online is sitting out there waiting for you, and even though it's kind of confusing to find the site (right now), you can ask around the message boards for it, and you'll get a link if you can't find it on Google (or your search engine of choice).

Thanks much~

``Wafles``

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 01/19/07