Nanvaent is the MUD of choice for me for many reasons. [quest and kill medieval setting mud]

DETAILS There is great detail in a concentrated way for most areas. You will often notice ambient messages, nearly always varied [you won't see the same exact ambient msg repeated over and over]. The environment can be heavily examined and often this leads to quests or new areas or just fun surprises [ and deadly surprises].

There are varied texts for many thing, although not everything. For example, one monk skill, slam, has over 40 random descriptions that can be generated during it's use. Although it is not one of the most colored MUDS, it certainly has many colored texts, especially for important texts.

Races are generally quite different and unique, rather than simply different cosmetics and stats [ not always though ] Many races have unique commands and some have unique equipments they can wear. Even the best players/creators who have played forever still only know probably 80% of the game, there are incredibly large amounts of secrets, secret areas, etc although not always useful or good [aka deathtraps].

QUESTS There's a wide variety of quests that are very unique and designed to be realized and solved by the play as they play [Partly Nonlinear]. The rewards ranging from befriending npcs who will aid you, to powerful items or skills that you may keep, to a simple thanks =P, all quests give quests points which increase skill. While asking for quest info in public is discouraged, if you have trouble, most players are willing to talk with you privately to provide aid.

GUILDS/JOBS The different jobs[guilds/classes whatever] are designed to be unique from each other, and generally feel that way, basically meaning that each job will bring a totally new experience and style of play as opposed to 'different' jobs with nearly similar skills named differently.

All the standard jobs[fighter,wizard,knight,cleric,thief,bard] are there, with many more unique jobs such as necromancers, monks, foresters, barbarians, wolf pack, and elementalists. While some guilds such as necromancers are 'subguilds' each guild has its own separate skills, which will not carry over. Necromancers aren't a continuation of wizards, they have their own skills and lose their wizardry, wizard too have their own skills for people who choose to stay wizards.

ENVIRONMENTS: Built from scratch basically, many unique and large environments, while areas may not be large from a simple run, they often have multiple hidden, or connected areas that increase their size and complexity. Night/Daytimes. Weather [often but not always cosmetic], diseases [bad, very bad]. Complexity and detail are key.

COMMANDS: There is a pretty powerful alias system [ one of my turnoffs to a MUD is a weak alias system ] that allows aliases within aliases, and multiple chained commands. Syntax feels pretty natural most of the time [ open with , put in , get all , 2 , and 3 -> third z in the room]

RPIN: Rping is rather weak, if done, it is usually done/implied through soul/emote commands. It is allowed but not enforced in any way. This is for personality RPING, jobs are very well built and realistic in many ways, thieves can mug and steal items from enemies, NPCs necromancers raise will be intact with their skills/race and can be given commands/equipment rather than simply transforming into generic zombies etc.

Players: There aren't as many players these days, the average being around 10-20, which is the purpose of this review. =P Most have quit from overplaying the mud so they can get on with their lives. Generally, players are friendly and even playerkillers/ serialkillers will help you with information and knowhow [ until you get into their range ( within 10 levels ). However since the motto of the game is: explore and discover, some people tend to tell you this rather than giving help. It is true that its .often. more fun to find out things yourself rather than having it ruined, but if you really need to know, try asking different people privately.

Gameplay: Food and drinks provide healing, but aren't required, you have a health and energy bar which decreases as you get hurt [you can not know exact damage dealt, and exact current hp/energy] degrees of damage are shown through messages [ you cut/slash/lacerate/create a gaping wound etc]. Stats are chosen by the player and slightly effected by races, stats heavily influence abilities. There is a VERY VERY wide range of choices for race, and uniqueness is attempted. NPCs tend to be well designed and well descripted, often they have several unique messages or descriptives, and many die deaths specially described for them rather than just 'you kill x, it dies' Combat is in rounds and is fought automatically leaving the player to use special skills, switch attack modes, use items etc. Mud clients, triggers, etc are allowed, as long as it isn't used to play FOR you, to cheat [multiplay where characters interact with each other], etc. PlayerKilling is allowed within 10 levels, a killer becomes bountied, and many kills will make them a serial killer [ANY level player can attack the serial killer], there are safe grounds protected from PKs. All jobs/guilds are well made, unique, and balanced to be powerful. All the jobs play like you would expect them to, and all jobs are very good/powerful. While there are no bad/weak jobs, the playing difficulties of jobs do vary.

I dunno what else to say really, so here goes anything else i can think of. The strengths of this game are in the gameplay, descriptions, and quality, its weakness might possibly be in RPing, it is slightly hard for unskilled players since it only gives 9 lives [more can be bought], it is extremely complex in areas and descriptions [makes quests harder, and newbies get lost very very very often, even advanced players can find themselves stuck in an area than most people have not seen or heard of]. Creators/immortals usually don't interact directly in the game.

Give this mud a try, and make sure to try the various guilds, while you may not like most you play, there maybe be one that you enjoy greatly because of the different playing styles. (make sure not to throw away the newbie guidebook, it's useful)

Btw you might see me: Kuch/Shini/Sait/Shift/Shirk