Albion Online

Albion Online is one of the few successful crowd-funded MMORPGs that are still on the market. Sporting a fixed-position isometric play style, Albion Online is currently free-to-play and has a thriving community of players that continues to enjoy and support the game. Similar to that of Runescape 2, Albion Online is more popular than ever and continues to be updated by Sandbox Interactive.

The Story of Albion

While the story of most MMOs is never the biggest draw to their massively online worlds, the story in Albion Online offers enough meat on the bone to keep players interested without distracting from the all important gameplay moments.

After creating their character, players will find themselves shipwrecked on an island that acts as the tutorial section. Here players are shown how to gather the many resources that are sprinkled across Albion’s world, as well as the game’s crafting mechanics, which will be used heavily throughout their playthrough. Whether it's stone, ore or wood, players in Albion Online will be constantly farming and crafting to get better gear, trade or complete quests.

The world in Albion Online is massive, to say the least. Starting off on the tutorial island, players will eventually make their way to the game’s two massive continents, the Royal Continent and the Outlands. The scope of these sections of the world can’t be underplayed, and the sense of adventure and exploration is unmatched in recent MMOs.

Levelling Up

Of course, as is the case in any MMO, Albion Online is all about levelling up and getting better gear. The game has an expansive skill tree, which Albion calls your character’s “destiny board”, and the game does offer players the ability to become proficient in every skill, meaning you won’t need to start a new character just to try out a different skill. Learning points gained by completing quests can also be used on the destiny board to essentially skip grinding sections to certain levels.

One aspect of Albion Online that will appeal to looters is the mix and match compatibility with all of the game’s classes and armour types. In Albion, you are not stuck with one type of armour depending on your class, instead you can wear any combination that you prefer. Players can be a mage with heavy armour or a warrior in just a loincloth, if they so choose. This really helps to make players’ characters feel individual to them.

Grinding XP isn’t difficult in Albion either. Across the world players will find rifts to procedurally generated dungeons where they can duke it out with all sorts of mobs and bosses. This is particularly useful if players are solo and can’t hop online with a group of friends to make the levelling up process a bit easier.

Free to Play

While Albion Online might be free to play, that doesn’t mean that it’s bad. In fact, Albion is fairly generous when it comes to its membership. For example, whenever players first complete the tutorial island at the start of the game, they are given three days of premium membership to try out.

PROS

• Totally free to play and low system requirements
• Massive explorable world with tons of things to do
• Lots of players and a very active community

CONS

• More difficult playing solo than with friends
• Fixed isometric camera
• Combat is a bit basic