Requiem: Bloodymare

"It's not bad, but I hope it gets better soon."

This is my first full review on a game, so please bear with me!

Requiem: Bloodymare is a "horror MMO" from Gravity. I was able to start playing this after my cable Internet was finally set up. There are people complaining about how patching the game is difficult. If you're one of those people, you just have to open certain ports. One of them is inconveniently the FTP port (21) because that's how patch files are downloaded.

Well, let's get onto the game itself. The 3rd screen that shows up after starting the game is the giant "M" ESRB rating, and for good reason, too. It warns of partial nudity, but I have yet to see it. I'm guessing the login screen takes place in a capillary because you can clearly see individual red blood cells rushing through. Type in your ID and password to be taken through the bloodstream into a mechanical area in a darker shade of red, where you're given 3 server choices, with one allowing PK. Choose a server, and if your account doesn't have any characters, it will go straight to the creation interface. Your characters are also protected from botting programs or keyloggers as you have to click buttons for your custom 4-digit code to log your character in. The loading screen shows a makeshift stitch being undone as the percentage rises to 100%, then your character is dropped onto the starting point you selected. The world is decent looking, with plenty of haphazard doodads and what looks like remnants of mechanical parts and bones scattered throughout. You can choose to do a familiar "meet the townspeople" quest.

Controls:
Some controls may be unfamiliar compared to other free MMOs. Attacking a selected NPC is 1 or F by default, and you have to face the NPC before you actually start attacking. There is no auto-attack function where pressing 1 would make you walk over and start attacking. Picking up loot is H (G to look and pick first). Space is reserved for JUMPING. You can jump in this game. You can even jump off high places without getting hurt, so it provides a nice shortcut sometimes. Mouse controls are the usual. Middle button enables auto-run. It has the usual QEWASD movement scheme, but you can't run backward, which is annoying.

Sound:
The only music I heard so far was at the title screen, which sounds like something out of a dreary film noir, and occasionally in town. Otherwise, sounds are standard.

Graphics:
The world I started in is gloomy and plain. I guess it is fitting for a horror MMO where you're just trying to survive in a desolate world left with mutants after some kind of disaster (there's a basic lore behind the game, which I won't go into). It's kind of depressing to play compared to other MMOs with bright skys and happy days. The best part is the ragdoll death animation powered by the Havoc engine. Upon receiving the deathblow, an NPC smaller than you will usually split in half, one part spinning off into the air with a bloody trail. Both parts will usually twitch or spin on the ground (even if one is a head or a limb) before vanishing. The overhead numbers that appear look like it's in a TrueType font. They're pretty small and boring to look at.

Gameplay:
It's pretty easy to get to level 10, where you get your first job. A few hours of questing should do the job because quests are abundant and they give you up to around 20x experience than an average monster. If you don't feel like running, there are also waypoints you can use to get to one town/outpost to another with a fee. To get to 10 from 9, I just did the very first introduction quest that I missed the first time I logged on and then killed a few mobs. Each of the 4 races has 2 1st jobs and 2 2nd jobs per 1st job, totaling 28 unique classes (4 + 8 + 16) by end game. Getting higher than 10 will take more work, but hopefully your new job will help. You get skill points by leveling, but it looks like stat points are automatically distributed. Level cap was 69 the last time I heard.

I like the skill system. Each skill has a prerequisite in character level, lant (money to buy skills) and skill mastery level. Skill mastery level is the number of skill points spent on all your skills. Each skill generally has a required skill mastery level that is 10 fewer than the required character level. This makes it so that you can't save up all your points and then dump them into one skill. You will end up with many skills by late game, but you can of course choose to level up your previous skills rather than having 1 point in each skill. Provided that you meet the character and skill mastery levels, i.e., spend points into skills you may not want. This way, you'll have a variety of skills you can use, but it may be a con for people who like to play with a few powerful skills, but that's not fun.

Interface:
The various boxes that can pop up from NPCs, inventory or character equipment are clean and easy to follow. Each slot takes up one item, unless they are stackable. Merchants have their items by prerequisites and also by weapon type, so the items you want will be easy to track. One thing that annoys me is that pressing Esc won't close some of the boxes, but it will open the main menu. Another thing is that some text overlap sometimes, making it very difficult to read. Using the skill bar(s) is intuitive and easy. Finding town NPCs will depend on looking at the radar and actively searching the screen because the radar only shows active quests when you're in a radius around the quest giver that is as long as your line of vision (quite near). The overmap only shows the general regions of the town, e.g., "Training Area." The same concept is applied to the world map, which is very useful in contrast.

Bugs:
Some bugs I noticed so far at level 12...
* Jumping near an incline doesn't work as well
* Severed body parts that don't have joints can twitch or spin (probably a side effect of programmed forces on a defeated body)
* Crashed twice during the few hours I played: once out of nowhere and once while changing resolutions
* Using a skill that kills a monster long range makes the monster stop moving toward you and gives you quest credit right as the skill is cast, before the skill hits the monster

Pros:
+ Fun death animation
+ Questing reduces grindfest
+ Runs pretty smoothly
+ Text is legible and understandable
+ Skill system discourages overpowered cookie-cutter powerhouses

Cons:
- Crashes
- Controls not as refined
- Character page doesn't tell how stats and substats affect one another
- Damage/heal indicator font looks too standard
- Background lore is too shallow to have a connecting story yet, so there isn't really a point (like all other MMOs), especially if all you're doing are helping NPCs and yourself survive in a messed-up world. Perhaps getting a buddy to keep you company would help.

I don't have an average score, so I chose the best description: “good—a few problems but worth the time to play.”

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 09/05/08

Game Release: Requiem: Bloodymare (US, 06/16/08)