Tibia

"A good game, ruined by it's bad community."

Tibia's a Free MMORPG, that at least a thousand people play each day. Tibia is VERY addictive. Most of the time, if you quit, you'll rejoin in a few days. Only when you find out that this game is too frustrating, boring, and slow for you will you decide that you've got better things to do.

Graphics:
For the most part, the graphics are 2-D and a little cheesy. I guess everything looks how it supposed to be; and you have to give them quite a bit of credit for the fact that you really can see that time is passing in Tibia; Bodies rot and decay, puddles will slowly evaporate and grow smaller. It's just too bad most things are just ugly.

Sound:
No sound, no audio, nothing. Nothing to put here.

Story:
Most MMORPGs don't have a story. Tibia's not much of an exception. I guess, pretty much, you live in a mystical world with Dragons, Magic, and stuff. It's got a bit of history that you can look up on a Website or something, but no one really reads that.

Gameplay:

Awful. Simply awful. Tibia's such an addicting game, but the community alone ruins it's gameplay. You'll get killed by another person at least 5 times, I guarantee, no matter what server you're on. Sometimes you'll die of the sheer lag of 800 players playing at the same time. Some people just kill because of the language barrier. If you get killed, and ask the person who killed you why they did it, they'll probably respond in German or Spanish, when the truth is they don't care, either way. Even on Non-Player-Versus-Player combat servers, the community of course found a way to annoy people and waste their time.
People will steal your items in any way they can; On Non-PvP servers, people will also ''Trap Playerkill''..in which you get a player in a position in which they can't move at all, and you let a monster kill them. The community's not all bad in Tibia; in fact, I think when it started out, it wasn't very bad at all. But once you're killed several times, you get items that you worked hard to earn stolen..well..you won't feel like being very kind anymore.

The gameplay is slow in Tibia, even without the lag. Until later in the high levels, your character walks outrageously slow, even with spells that make it walk faster. It doesn't help that the graphics are so bad; you won't have much to look at on your long walks to other towns. In other words, Tibia doesn't get fun until you get high level, which is hard in itself, because you're getting PKed down all the levels you've just earned. At the high levels, you can afford new things to make you (Thank god) walk faster, help you of course, kill more people, get greater spells, and so on.
I think it's dumb that in Tibia, you've got to wait at least 2 months to have fun. Most RPGs have it where you have fun in the beginning, and maintain a sense of fun even later in the game; but Tibia doesn't. Even when you do get into the high levels, after you've gotten 9 million Gold Pieces, 3 Dragon Hammers, 4 Fire swords, the most powerful armor in the game, you'll either feel like quitting or PKing. Either that, or making a new character to start it all over.

In closing: I don't like Tibia myself; It's not for everyone. But hey, you may like it. There's no harm in trying it out, since it's free, but what have you got to lose? Time, and Sanity. If you actually stay until you get high level, you might have some fun, but I just don't think it's worth it.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 12/26/03