RYL: Unforgiven Wars

Overall score:

Risk Your Life: Unforgiven Wars game differs from other MMORPGs by being “noob-friendly”. The website (www.ryl.com) has many helpful tips and info for new players. I checked out the game during download and saw maps and monster images and learned all I needed to know to understand the game.  I had no clue about how to get around in the RYL world, but the easy keyboard controls allowed me to play without trouble. In the game, the weakest monsters are closest to the towns and slowly level up as you wander more into the wilderness. It's also not difficult to acquire money in the game and buy better items. All of the monsters drop gold and an item commonly.

Leveling up in the game is really speedy in the beginning and the time to level evens out the higher your level becomes (I leveled up 4 levels in about half an hour). The further you level up, the better armor the player can obtain. It also helps that if you get into trouble, the monster will stop pursuing after you when you flee, and you can run safely back to town and heal. The game also allows the character to sit and regain health (perfect for excursions and wandering around the game). 

The graphics are awe-inspiring with realism. The game’s graphics allows for any player to really immerse themselves into the RYL world. RYL has a realistic 3D environment that is massive in size. The camera angles in the game allow the player to see a full 360 degree view of the world (and controlling the camera is as simple as a move of the mouse). Players can walk up whole mountains or stumble upon the perfect training ground.  If a player wants to “rough it” and go on foot, the world is so large that it takes about a half hour to get anywhere. There are trees, grass, swimmable water areas, and even islands you can swim to. These graphics make this game comparable MMORPGs you have to pay for (for example: Final Fantasy XI).

The sheer size of the game world allows players to be able to train in their own little training area (a hidden valley filled with monsters, or even being an archer and sniping from a boat). The game is great in another way: you can customize your character's appearance and armor. You never lose equipment, loot or weapons when your character dies (Player Death).

There is a fun feature in the game called “Player vs. Player”. PvP, for short, is when one player fights another player. I have dueled quite a bit with my character and even though I mostly lose, the other dueler doesn’t brag over it. There are quite a few polite people in the game; this is great for new people because all the players can help whenever you need some assistance. Players in the game have good manners that I haven’t witnessed in other MMORPGs I’ve tried (*cough* Runescape).

There are some bad things about the game. There is sometimes the uncommon internet lag time (your character will freeze for a moment and resume after a few seconds). It takes my computer about 18.5 seconds to connect (with DSL). These downers occurring to a horrible degree is few and far between, so be patient whenever starting the game.

RYL  is an MMORPG that has a background history that really brings the game to life. The history starts with two warring races that continuously have wars (the Ak’kans would occasionally wander over to the Kerafant side and kill a lot of players).  That’s the setup to how every player’s character will eventually meet the other species (through raiding parties or by being raided). I once was wandering and teleported to a higher level world, and was killed in the middle of a raid on the town by level 90 Ak’kan players.

Players can pick between these two species to play: human (called Kartefant in the game) or Ak’kan (they look like really muscular gray-humans with horns). The game has both male and female genders to choose from for both races. Players’ characters can choose different “classes” that affect their types of attacks in the game. Human characters can become a sorcerer, a warrior, defender (defensive and attack emphasis), an assassin, or an archer (range attacks). The warriors and defender classes use swords or maces/axes, the assassin uses daggers, the sorcerer uses a staff, and the archer has the usual bow. The Ak’kan have basically the same classes except instead of an archer, they have gunners.

The Ak’kans start on a dark soiled coastal area, while humans start on a grassy monster-infested coastal area. Players can raise their “stats” (determines how strong you are defensive, in magic, and attack) by means of “leveling up” (get into enough battles with monsters, so that you gain lots of battle experience).

The monsters increase in the strength the further you get away from a town, and/or going to a different world.  There are high-level monster worlds for both humans and Ak’kans. There is also a Battle Ground level, where players from both races can battle to control three towers.

Players gain fame from killing players of the opposing species (humans vs. Ak’kans). Players can join or start up their own groups (clans) in the game and travel around defeating monsters. People can always just hang out and chat with their friends and other players via “textbox”.

Players don’t really beat the game but just complete quests to raise their level. This allows players to never really get bored with the game.

Because of the fun gameplay, mannered players, and amazing graphics, I would give RYL 5 clocks. RYL: Unforgiven Wars is one game worthy to waste your time on! To those who have read this and are interested, visit the website (above) to learn more and how to dive into RYL right now.

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Written by -Lord-Tylonus- on December 17th, 2007