Review: Dungeon Runners - John Walker's Electronic House

Review: Dungeon Runners

by John Walker on Jul.31, 2007, under The Rest

At first glance, and perhaps second, third and fourth, it’s impossible to see Dungeon Runners as anything other than a derivative of World of Warcraft. The completely free (well, we’ll come to that in a bit) MMO seems to be going out of its way to ape the 9 million selling behemoth. Everything – from the fonts used to the colour-coding of the drops to the quest window design – appears to be designed to be familiar. However, with comparatively shoddy graphics, jagged controls, and an immediately obvious miniscule scale, this all seems to be shooting itself in the level 23 boot.

That’s until you play it for a bit. At the fifth glance, Dungeon Runners is, against all likelihood, a spoof of the MMO genre. NC Soft, one of the big players in the online world with City of Heroes, Lineage and the forthcoming Tabula Rasa, are taking a cheeky dig at the trend that’s brought them riches. And oddly, it works.

Hooray for free! I really rather like this game, and not despite, but because of how derivative it is. Also because it’s taking the piss.

1 Comment for this entry

H
August 1st, 2007 on 10:37
Have to say I’m really enjoying it. I even subscribed for a whopping THREE whole pounds a month so I could use such things as the Cardboard Rhino Axe of Kippers. Really.

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This is John Walker's Electronic House!
Hello, welcome, and sit down. I'm John Walker, a writer based in the UK, and co-editor and co-director of Rock, Paper, Shotgun. This site is the place for my idle, idle thoughts, occasional rants, meandering tales, television reviews, and photographs of a cat. Contact me by email magic for all your Earthly needs. botherer @ gmail . com
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