The Blogtastic Blogfest That Is Getmeoutofthis.net!

“Hey poetfox! I bet you just got a lot of really cool games!”
Yeah, I did! Look, here’s the new Shin Megami Tensei game! I always love those! Ooh, and look, here’s some awesome Tower Defense games… and I got some Co-op action in Killing Floor and GRAW to play…
“Then what the fuck are you doing? You aren’t playing those.”

You’re right. I’m playing MOTHERFUCKING FREEREALMS.

I decided to boot up FreeRealms, You know, just to try it. It was free! I already had an SOE account. I could just give it a try. Maybe see what the card game was all about… And I tried it, and I went “Woah, okay, this is pretty good. It’s target audience is going to love this. That Demolition Derby is pretty cool, and the combat is MMOesque but accessible… the card game isn’t half bad. Yeah, that’s cool.” I closed it.

But then I went back to it.
And again.
And again.

Soon, I had maxed out the Card Duelist job by literally doing every single card quest that existed in the game. The starter deck they give you is quite effective. In the paws of someone who knows card games, like myself, I had little trouble beating the in-game challenges with it. “Oh well, that was fun.” I said. “Well, I’m sure that now that I have no more card games to play, I’ll put this down…” Then I started leveling Chef… and Brawler…

The game is just really well designed. You can play just one part, like I did with the cards, or you can do a little of everything. In every town, there is always something additional to do, and even if there isn’t, you can teleport to any other town instantly. There are tons of mini-games, including puzzlers and a decent tower defense clone. The combat is just another mini-game. You find an enemy, click on him and say you want to engage, and then you go to an instanced mini-game map where you have a little combat mini-game. If you just want to play Cooking Mama and be a chef, then you never have to fight anyone. You just run right past it. Everything gets you experience in your job, and likely some equipment for that job. For Card Duelist, it’s mostly cosmetic, giving you gear like a cap with your favorite element on it or whatever, but they have stat bonuses for relevant classes, like Brawler.

I both hate and love its business model as well. You can buy “Station Cash” which is 100 points per dollar, and buy things in game. Some, like healing potions, just seem stupid to buy. Some are pets, which you can use for the Pet Trainer job and can show off to your friends. They range from 2 to 4 dollars. You can buy virtual card packs for the card game, which gives you like 12 cards for 4 dollars. You can also “upgrade” and subscribe for a reasonable 5 dollars per month, which gives you access to more interesting combat jobs and more quests and, and this is key for me, gives you one free card booster a month. So if you’re going to buy one pack? You might as well subscribe for a month for the extra dollar.

Anyway, I’m kind of shockingly charmed by FreeRealms. I honestly don’t know why anyone would, say, party up, as it doesn’t seem at all necessary, though I suppose the combat would be as fun in a group as alone, and playing the kart racer and demolition derby games with friends would be fun. But yeah, this is the real deal. It’s obviously interesting enough to entertain me, but it’s still simple enough that a kid would enjoy it which, combined with the cheap subscription price and free nature generally, would make this a perfect game for a parent to play with their kid. I think I’ve told someone that FreeRealms is the real deal. It is. There is plenty to do without paying, and the price for paying is mostly right. I hope it’s successful. This is how free-to-play games should be.