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Contents 1 Redmoon Online 2 Here comes the Sun, it's All Right 3 Holding out for a Hero 4 GUI of the Mind 5 Make War, not Love

Redmoon Online

• Platform: PC/Windows

• Genre: RPG

• Publisher: JCEntertainment -

• Developer: World Netgames, Inc. -

• Good Thing 1: Character driven MMRPG.

• Good Thing 2: Nice looking character graphics

• Good Thing 3: Easy to use interface.

• Bad Thing 1: Isometric viewpoint sometimes blocks view.

• Bad Thing 2: Mechanics much like other MMRPGs.

• Bad Thing 3:

• Summary: Redmoon Online is one of the few MMRPG's that actually focuses on role play with a story and quests to follow.
• Score: Rent

Here comes the Sun, it's All Right

One upon a time, there was this great place called Signus. The folks on Signus were cool - you name the power, and they had it. Cable on their TV watches, Linux running on handheld 800 MHZ computer with 1 Gig of RAM, best Cheese Whiz in the galaxy - you name it. Especially in the arts of psychic ability, which they used for benign purposes, like telepathy and teleportation (teleportation so strong they could beam themselves all the way to Earth for some Starbucks Hot Chocolate).

And of course, somebody had to go screw it up. Seems that Aguilas, known to the public as "Champion Ice Cream Eater" because he enjoyed the Ice Cream Headaches, went out and got Signus all broke. (Seems he shut down all the ATM machines, and that caused a few dozen riots.)

But, there was still hope. A prophecy said that a "Sun" would appear, one with the power to stop the tyranny and evil (like "Liver Tuesday") and put Signus back to rights.

Now, for those who want more on the background, you can check out the whole " target="_blank">18 volume graphic novel the game is based on]. And this is the strength of Redmoon Online. Unlike other MMRPG's out there, it actually has a background story with its own mythos and history to dig into. And it keeps a hold of that story, using it to shape the quests and action of Redmoon to give you a real goal to shoot for.

Holding out for a Hero

Redmoon Online is a massively multiplayer role playing game that takes place on two worlds, Earth and Signus, where thousands of people can be playing at the same time, interacting with each other and the central storyline in the game.

From the beginning, the backing of this story is apparent. Your on screen avatar is chosen from a cast of characters from the graphic novel series, each with their own backgrounds and goals. Once that's done, you choose the hair color and clothing style, some basic powers, and set out in the world.

After a tutorial session (which I thought was rather welcome - too many MMRPG's just throw you out in the world like a newborn babe), you're out there in the world, facing the challenges around you. There's two kinds of monsters out there - Good Monsters (with their name in Red Text) and Blue Monsters. (Well, there are Yellow and White which are neutral monsters that anybody can kill, but that's another issue).

it's what kind of monsters you kill that determine what path you'll take in life and what powers you'll accrue. Kill the Good Monsters, and the Red Monsters will leave you alone, and your powers that you'll accrue as you gain experience and levels will be different from those who go out and kill the Bad Monsters.

But for a story driven game to work, there's quests that have to be fulfilled to keep you moving. The game starts on Earth is a nice little rundown area with cool cars you can't drive (seems the keys were stolen and the cars left behind) and stores selling health-giving items like Hamburgers, mental replenishing items like Grape Juice, and weapons like guns, staffs, and the like. Sure, the game is a futuristic sci-fi style romp, but hey, would cool science fiction story didn't have swords?

From Earth as you complete your quests, either alone or with the help of the other people you meet online, you'll make your way to Signus - where your Earth based money is useless, but at least you can buy really cool weapons (since your character is around level 200 or so by the time you hit Signus. Or at least you should be if you don't want to get dead).

GUI of the Mind

Most games live or die by their interface, and Redmoon's isn't bad. There's two main windows - one on top that shows your character (and how good looking they are) and the world around you, the bottom which has a series of buttons for things like Status, Items, etc.

Luckily they take advantage of the keyboard. F1-F10 each brings up the same window that the buttons bring up, and you can move them around, though if you open up too many you'll probably clutter yourself up. Mainly you'll use the Status Bar which tells you how much health, mana, endurance and other attributes, and the Quick Menu which sits up at the top where you can put in your most commonly used items and the Skills that you want to use on your enemies.

The various skills (mainly psychic in nature) have an interesting way of being used. Skills you use on yourself are activated by double clicking on the skill, while skills you use on your friends/enemies are done by "dragging" the skills onto other people. Pretty simple to use, and with those skills in the Quick Menu you don't have to go hunting for them.

Which is good, because I enjoyed looking around the areas in Redmoon. It reminded me of Fallout, with the god-like camera sitting up in the air looking down at my character as I wandered around. The characters are all well drawn, with nice looking spell effects. It wasn't a total eye candy presentation, but it still looked good.

There were a few problems with the graphics, like when I was following someone, and when they stepped behind a building I couldn't see them. Or entering buildings - sometimes I'd try clicking on a door, and would have to move around until I got the right location.

Of course, some skills are highly desired by others. One of the spells, a shield spell of sorts, makes a very pretty and sparkly egg shaped globe around you (or friends of yours). And that leads to conversations like this:

Me (having no idea what's going on with my new level 600 character donated by World Netgames for this review): La, la, la, I'm just out to kill monsters... BlueArrow: Plz gv me egg. Me: Give you a what? BlueArrow: Cn I hv n egg, plz? Me: Dude, I don't have an egg in my inventory. (Not realizing that the shield spell is referred to as an Egg.) BlueArrow: LOL. Egg, plz? Me: Freak! (Runs off as fast as I can, since my character looks like a cute anime schoolgirl.)

Actually, I have to say I was rather impress with the people wandering about Redmoon. Everyone I met was polite, offered help or items, and generally played nice with each other. Then again, the annoying characters were probably out doing something else. Like, war.

Make War, not Love

Many MMRPG's are plagued with Pkillers - aka Player Killers. These folks aren't interested in killing monsters as much as they are into killing other players of the game. And I have to admit, as someone who's dabbled in PKilling myself back in the old Diablo days, there's a certain guilty rush involved.

Redmoon does allow for Pkilling, but there are certain restrictions. First, you can't Pkill beneath certain levels, or in certain areas. And once you've killed another player, your own is frozen for several seconds - long enough for friends of the victim to take their revenge on your frozen corpse. And your own name turns black so other people can avoid you when you come by.

And, if you're noticed by the Warden, Pkilling can lead to jail time, which is where you sit...and sit...and sit...and sit some more until you're finally released. So the thrill you get from blasting away that little punk can be dimmed by sitting on your keister for some time.

But Redmoon also realizes people have a violent need to get out. So for those who want to Pkill without consequences, there's Battle Arenas, which are free-for-all areas that folks can beat the crap out of each other, and nobody gets punished.

Or for those who want to hunt in groups, there's always the Battle Dimension. This is an interesting twist, since "armies" can gather as many of their friends as they can, and meet in an alternate arena. The first half of wars are set up where players can't hurt each other as they kill the hard monsters, gain experience, and jockey for the best locations on the map. The second half is just death and destruction - each army trying to wipe out the other ones and declare themselves the victors.

So the folks who just want to play the game and fulfill the quests are out there, discovering the strange connection between Earth and Signus, while those who just want to blow stuff up can do that too.

I'll be the first to admit that I'm not much into MMRPG's, mainly because I don't have the time and social need that these games require. But Redmoon Online works well as a story driven social game that lets you hang out with different people to either enjoy the story, or just enjoy some death and destruction.

As always, I'm [mailto:dpaladin@gamerspress.com|Johnhummel]. And that's my opinion.