Dungeon Runners

[Head Mutant]

Dungeon Runners is now live -- AND free, for anyone who wants to play.

It's basically a World of Warcraft/Diablo-lite MMORPG. But the kicker is that they're offering both the download and the gaming time for free (there is an option to spend five bucks a month to get better items, etc, who's going to do that?).

Anyway, haven't tried it yet, but I like free games, and thought I'd pass this on.

[Storm_Rider]

Darn it looks pretty kewl, I might give it a go.

[Head Mutant]

UPDATE:

I've been giving this game some time as my "downtime" casual game, and it perfectly fits that bill. I can't see anyone making this their #1 main game -- well, at least, not me -- but it's absolutely perfect to log on for about 15 min to an hour and slaughter the masses.

It's basically a little bit Bard's Tale (with incredibly sarcastic humor about the RPG cliches), a little bit World of Warcraft (the stylized cartoony art), a little bit Guild Wars (being able to mix and match skills/traits that you find), and a LOT Diablo.

You create a character -- fighter, mage or ranger -- and take on a few simple quests that always involve heading into a dungeon and whacking a whole bunch of mobs. The first really cool thing about this game I noticed is that you are in no way confined to your class. You have the freedom to buy skills of other classes, wear any armor, use any weapon, and assign attribute points in any way you like. Of course, there's incentive to stay true to your class, but it's a huge breath of freedom. For instance, my mage took a ranger skill that gives a nice cheap AOE DOT, which works very well with his class.

The gameplay is fairly simple: a lot of killing, some grouping, and massive looting. The graphics aren't incredible, but they're easy on the eyes and fun in an over-the-top way (some of the fighter swords are twice as tall as the character carrying them). It has interesting loot as well.

The "free" aspect of the game (call it MMO-Action RPG-lite) is a big draw for most folk. You can essentially play the game for free as long as you like. You aren't restricted in leveling, gold collecting, or skill buying. However, there are certain types of gear you can't use at the free level, which makes it a bit tougher to head into dungeons at higher levels.

They also offer a $5/month subscription, which gives you a big bank to increase your storage space, access to all of the good loot in the game, priority in logging in, and a couple other fun goodies. It's just cheap enough to be worth it, if the game appeals to you on any sort of regular basis, and I think I might plunk down a fiver just for the heck of it.

I'm not trying to oversell it -- Dungeon Runners could use a lot more graphic tuning up, and it isn't the deepest game in the world. But if you like fantasy hack 'n slash, it's perfect for your post-Diablo fix.

[Storm_Rider]

I've also started a mage and I found Gaseous Blast very usefull as a non-mage skill. I am however wating for this bad boy 2moons.acclaim.com/ to finish the open beta period.

Dungeon Runners is good exactly for what you said Justin, about an hour of killing in order to relax the brain.

[Spiderdancer]

Sweet!

Sounds like something to try once my family is moved and we're on high-speed...