Men of many talents

The second place SRO fails slightly is with the creation of your character, as unlike many other MMO’s where you are given the option of changing your facial features, SRO instead gives you the choice of several pre-created faces to select from – unfortunately leading to just about the largest amount of look-alikes in an MMO to date. Combined then with the only available race being human (you are however allowed to choose between either Asian or European descent) your choices feel highly limited.

It does however make up for the loss of visual choice with its unique style of class selection – allowing you to begin by choosing not a class perse but a weapon and armour type (Swords, Bows, Spears / Cloth, Leathers, Mail, Plate) and to level said weapons and armour separately as you progress through the game. As weapon and armour types are levelled individually you are given the option to change your style whenever you choose, simply by using a different style and levelling with it equipped. This plays largely into the overall style of SRO allowing you to not only level your character, but weapon an armour types, specific skills, guild and professions too – essentially allowing every player to be different in style to the next.

Steak, Chips, and a side order of disappointment

As far as the disappointing elements of SRO go, I have 2 more than need mentioning – both of which involve the world, and how you traverse it. The problem with the world lies in its bland appearance and lack of immersion – almost all of the grinding zones are uninspired both in look and sound – with vast planes holding little other than the occasional tree, and usually with no music and very little sound. Cities are marginally better in this department – mostly due to the fantastic visual style present in SRO, and the soundtrack playing in the back. Cities are however quite large and daunting at first – seeing as no real tutorial is offered in SRO at the beginning you may find yourself struggling to navigate their vastness – this will however dissipate with time.

The second issue also happens to be the largest issue I take with SRO, as in many ways it is game-breaking in its entirety. This is of course the click-to-move style of play – with an auto-navigation system on par with that of a blind pigeon. Developers, this part is for you. The people have spoken and click to move is out. W,A,S,D style movement is clearly the superior option, and at the very least should be an available choice. This simple oversight in game development has rendered it un-playable to me personally, but to others should provide no more than a nuisance. That being said – it is a dated and horrible style of movement – and needs to be abolished.

Paper, scissors, profession

You may have noticed that at this point, I’ve yet to mention anything about gameplay. The reason being simple – there isn’t really much to say. Like many a traditional grin-fest MMO before it, SRO provides little gameplay aside from the slaughter of millions of creatures for personal gain. Quests in SRO are dull and badly translated – most of them requiring you to kill 100 or more of a particular creature and providing a sub-par reward for your trouble. The gameplay does however take a rather interesting turn in the form of professions and PvP – in which the two are combined. Upon reaching level 20 you will be given the choice between one of three professions – Merchant, Hunter or Thief. The idea behind this is simple, Merchants buy stock to sell in other towns, Thief’s kill merchants on their way to sell items and profit from the plunder, and Hunters protect Merchants and share the profit from the sales (or alternatively help Thief’s to kill merchants and split the loot). It’s simple, it’s awesome, and it gives you a reason to grind away the next year of your life – what more do you need?

Well, I suppose for many of us we need a lot more really – because as good as the PvP/Profession system in SRO is, it also happens to be the single one thing that is keeping it afloat. The skill system is a nice change – but warrants a harder grind, and its great looking and free – but so are countless other games at the moment too. In the end the decision is always going to be up to you, but if you asked for my opinion – I’d say that you weren’t really missing out on much here and unless one of the features in SRO has grabbed you more than it has me – then there’s probably a better MMO out there to sink your teeth into.

Silkroad Online gets a 2.5/5 from me – as good as it may appear when standing alone, there are simply too many games in the F2P market at the moment that can offer you more for your time. That being said, there are some great features in SRO that could very well be right up your alley – and if SRO sounds like your thing then you’ve got nothing to lose and everything to gain.

Review Cody Hargreaves
October 10, 2009