Sponsored

Once upon a time, not so long ago, restless Sheylara ran off to a distant land in search of new adventures. It wasn’t her first time. She can’t seem to keep still, that flighty lass.

After some time running about aimlessly, she stumbled upon a strange place called Trainee Island, where they told her that she had lost her memory but, to help her along, here’s a cute outfit to wear!

Whee!

On Trainee Island, she met many strange folks who made her run errands and kill monsters.

Uh… okay.

There were also those who raved nonsensically.

Woah.

It took a while to get used to all the strangeness, but Sheylara decided after a while that she liked the place and would stay put for a while. Although people were strange, they were friendly.

Fighting was fun. There were big chicken-like things to kill for dinner, so Sheylara didn’t mind so much being told to kill this and that.

And, like, cool effects danced across her eyes every so often. It was all quite impressive to the fun-loving girl.

Before too long, Sheylara met a pretty blue-eyed girl who told her something strange.

Her memory stolen? How awful!

In order to investigate this mystery, Blue Eyes made Sheylara kill zombies and other icky things. Well, apparently, that was how the world worked, so Sheylara set to work.

It was really tough work. She even got killed in the process. But the neat thing about this world was that when people died, they didn’t really die. They only lost some experience and popped back into town.

Anyway, since things were starting to get challenging, Sheylara decided to recruit an ally. She was taught how to summon a pet and make it fight alongside her!

The town people also told her that when she got stronger, she’d be able to have up to three pets at once fighting together with her, and the pets would grow up and get stronger as they fought battles.

A personal pet army! How nice! For now, though, it was just Mr Cat.

But it was getting late. Time to retire for the night! The zombies would probably wait. They had nowhere to go, anyway.

As Sheylara slept, she started dreaming of the many exquisite adventures that awaited her. There was a huge world outside of Trainee Island to explore! How would her life unfold? Would she get her memory back? What pets would she get next?

And where could she buy this sexy number that the town summoner was wearing?

You want to know what happens next, right? Well, you can wait for Sheylara to find out. But then, she may or may not tell you.

So, how about you find out for yourself?

Yes! You can visit the same world and go on the very same adventure!

Introducing… Rappelz by EagleGame!

Okay, I’m coming out of third-person narration to talk about this game from a reviewer’s point of view. It’s easier and a bit less retarded that way.

Rappelz is a free-to-play fantasy MMORPG. For a free game, it’s actually very good. The story seems quite simplistic in the beginning but it gets deeper as you play along. There are one-off simple quests as well as quest series that follow a story arc.

New players will find it quite easy to get into the swing of the game by doing the tutorial quests on Trainee Island. Once you’re around level 12 or 13 (I can’t remember), you can leave Trainee Island and venture out into the main world (which is very big), although you’d still have outstanding quests on Trainee island, so you can choose to stay there till level 20.

I like the look of the avatars. You can see many cute girls and handsome boys in the game! Avatars are customisable. You can choose your face and hairstyle and even facial markings. I also like the music in the game. The different soundtracks go with the environment very well!

But what’s more important to know are the two unique features of Rappelz.

I) Unique Pet System

You get a pet early in the game to help with battles. Depending on your class, you can have a maximum of three pets. As your pets level up, you can customise their skills and give them equipment to make them stronger.

II) Dungeon Siege

Guilds will get to participate in player-vs-player dungeon sieges after competing and winning in the qualifying raid levels of killing two big bosses in the shortest amount of time.

These events happen on a weekly basis. Fame and fortune await the best guilds on the servers!

Since Rappelz is a free-to-play game, don’t act shocked or anything if you find it not as polished as some of the more popular subscription MMORPGs. For example, while the environment and character art are pretty, the textures won’t be as detailed.

There are also a few minor things such as quest descriptions not being as comprehensive as I would like them to be. But these things don’t stop the game from being fun, and I have no trouble at all figuring things out.

Rappelz has me hooked for now. The gameplay is complex enough to provide enough suspense and challenge but not so complex as to require uber gaming PCs, which will suit casual gamers.

Compared to other free MMORPGs, Rappelz has good character customisation features. There are only three main classes to choose from — Deva, Ashura and Gaia — but each class branches out to more specialisation classes with their own unique skill trees.

Here’s an Ashura, a master of the dark arts with distinct offensive skills and high evasion:

So handsome! Awww.

Doing quests and killing monsters don’t only give you experience points and money. You also get job points, which you spend on class-specific skills. Common sense is required to spend your points wisely.

I didn’t get a chance to reach the higher levels yet, but it supposedly gets more fun and challenging, with more storyline quests, cooler monsters and even cooler pets!

Open beta for Rappelz starts tomorrow!! That’s August 6! Yay! Everyone can register for an account and try the game out for free, so there is no reason not to do it!

REGISTER and DOWNLOAD Rappelz here.

If you don’t want to download, you can request for a free DVD installer via the website, or SMS [RZ] space [name] space [NRIC] space [address] to 9002 8065 (normal SMS charges).

Oh, one more thing. Very exciting thing! There will be a Rappelz launch event next Saturday, August 14, 2010.

Three lucky gamers will win an invitation to attend the event as Sheylara.com VIPs!

Will it be you? :D

As a VIP, you will be admitted to a private gaming area to play the game together with me! Food and drinks will be served!

Me:

SO COOL RIGHT!

To be one of the lucky three, e-mail the following:

1) Your name
2) Your NRIC number
3) Your phone number
4) Game(s) you’re currently playing

To:

Closing date: Wed, Aug 11, 2010, 2359 hrs.

Winners will be picked by good ol’ Mr Randomiser! Whee! Don’t y’all miss him? =D And you’ll be notified by e-mail after the draw if you win.

Now, even if you don’t win, you can still attend the launch party! I took a screenshot of the announcement. :D If it’s too small to read, you can see it at the Rappelz site.

Key info:

Rappelz launch party
14 August 2010 (Saturday)
3pm to 6 pm
@ E2MAX Orchard Cineleisure, Level 9

All guests will enjoy free goodie bags, free gaming and a chance at the lucky draw! Register before Aug 11 to receive limited edition goodies.

Okay, good luck, then! Remember to send me your entries for VIPship! If I don’t see you at the event, I’ll see you in Rappelz!