Requiem: Bloodymare

Requiem: Bloodymare is the goriest MMORPG that I have ever played. It has a ton of blood and gore, a lot more than any other MMORPG out there, to my knowledge at least. To start it off, every hit on a monster makes them spray out a burst of blood, and to top it off, the blood that sprays out does not just disappear in the air, but it stains your character's clothing. When you kill a monster it's almost always execution style, meaning that their head is chopped off or you cut their body up into pieces that fly all over the place. The game also has rag-doll physics which contribute to your in-game death. When you die, your corpse usually flies around (depending on the force of the final impact) and gets tossed around like a rag-doll would. At the end of every battle, there will always be a bloody mess and a decapitated corpse. If you want to see a small sample of this gore, watch the video above.

The gameplay is just like any other MMORPG: hack and slash. It does seem like a typical grinding game(grinding = killing monsters to level up your character) with a list of quests thrown in it to supplement your acquisition of experience, skills, items, and Lant(The currency in the game, i.e. gold, cash, coins). The quests are pretty simple and include slaying monsters, delivering items, and searching for people. They are important because some of them allow you to obtain jobs in the game. For example, I chose to be the human race and at level 10 they can chose a job between being a Defender(Melee type class) and a Templar(Magic type class), but before you were able to become it you had to complete a few quests that led up to a quest where you had to go and summon a monster and slay it to prove your worth. What I'm saying is, if you want to progress in the game, just do the quests and try not to pile them all up because chances are you won't know what to do to progress so you'll run around town like an idiot asking silly questions, like me.

The user interface looks confusing as hell at first, but just like any other game you'll get used to it and some of the hot keys. I really wish every game would have the same hot keys; it would make game play so much easier, but that's not the case, so you better get to learning these new ones. To move, you have to use the WASD keys on your keyboard for basic movements and the Q & R keys are used to strife left and right, respectively. Space is used to jump, and the only use for jumping is so you can parkour in town or anywhere because jumping during a battle to confuse the enemy or do aerial attacks doesn't do shit. Unfortunately, you cannot use the mouse to move your character which is a big let down. The mouse is mainly used for attacking, talking to people, changing camera angles, basically everything but movement. In order to attack a monster you have to be next to it and facing it, other wise you will just stand there all day wondering why you're not attacking. The number strip on your keyboard is used for skills, potions, and other shortcuts.

The graphics are not the best thing out there, but compared to World of Warcraft, they are great. I was just focused on playing the game and not really on the graphics so I didn't bother checking if I could improve them, but I'm sure just like most MMORPGs they were set on medium detail or something. Remember high detail equals great graphics but slow game play(unless your computer is built for gaming) and low detail equals horrible graphics but fast game play. The choice is yours, do you want to see more realistic gory body parts flying around or do you want to play the game with less lag?

Overall, this is a great game and I only played it up until my character reached level 10, which is when you can get your first job. The game play is great and there's a ton of stuff to do besides killing monsters, for example: parkour. The graphics are decent, but not optimal. The controls are worthwhile, but if you're too lazy to use your keyboard to move around, then this game isn't for you. I give this game an 8/10 because the graphics could use some work and the fact that I can't use the mouse to move around just pisses me off.