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Mud Theme
Realms of Despair is a medieval swords and sorcery mud, but they break the mold
of many others by offering up a plethora of new areas and heavy modifications
to even the stock ones. Clans, guilds, councils and other factions all lend
credibility and depth to the game's overall feel. It is not hard to get
immersed in your surroundings either, for there is never a shortage of players
on-line if you have questions or even wish to find someone to role play with.
Spells and skills are in plentiful supply, allowing for continual character
growth instead of a quick, easy mud to master.
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Mud Atmosphere
Realms of Despair is almost overwhelming at first. I did a review on another
mud several months ago and thought that their number of players was impressive,
but I have seldom seen anything like Realms of Despair who doubles the
aforementioned mud. Upon my very first log-on I was greeted with over four
hundred people. One immediate concern I had was the importance of a new player
on a mud of this size. However, all of my questions were answered very
quickly, and if I needed an immortal, I was always able to find one. They were
courteous, helpful and incredibly patient with me. Questing is very important
for improving yourself and your knowledge of the world, but should you get
lost, finding a helpful player is usually not a problem either.
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Mud World
A large world, Realms of Despair is listed at 8,000+, and I have no difficulty
believing that. One aspect I enjoyed was the detail of building in several of
the areas. The newbie school did a great job of teaching me the basics and I
quickly realized that I was going to have to be very aware of my surroundings
if I was going to make the most of my gaming experience. Sometimes the size
was a bit overwhelming, and I had no trouble getting lost for an hour at a time
when I was not paying close enough attention, but I eventually figured it out
and played on. Add in little things like MSP, and the overall feeling I had
was one of being impressed.
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Additional Comments
I am a big fan of a well-designed homepages. I am well aware that while these
seldom improve how the mud itself is played, a good site is capable of
enhancing story lines, improving communication between players and immortals
and can just be plain-old-helpful. The Realms of Despair site was good in all
of these aspects, placing help files and information in easy to read and find
formats. Most people use clients but not all, and features such as this are a
tremendous help. There is player killing, though it is limited. However, many
people look for this feature in a mud and Realms of Despair delivers that as
well for those who look for challenges beyond killing mobs and running role
play story lines.
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Summary
Realms of Despair is listed as having been created in 1994. Seven years ago
this team came together to present the mud that can be played today.
Dedication and experience like this is going to make a mud better than most;
there is no way around this. Overall the effort and product are entertaining
and well done. If you have an interest in Smaug muds, then Realms of Despair
is certainly worth your time to look at it. Unless you seek only player
killing or are intimidated by large player bases, then players of styles other
than Smaug would do well to drop in as well, for there are certain to be
elements they will enjoy too.
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