GameSpy's Free Agent is your advance recon into the world of free-to-play games. His mission: jump into a free game every week and put in some gaming hours to see how much fun can be had without spending a cent, then try out some paid items to see if they're worth the asking price. This week, he puts Rusty Hearts and its new "Reborn" expansion under the knife.
No Money Down
One of the bosses in Rusty Hearts: Reborn's new starter area (which is green enough that it may technically be a licensed GameSpy property) turned me into a seemingly defenseless worm. I, of course, thought I was done for, so I panicked. I hammered the attack key until my finger felt like mashed potatoes, and -- somewhat surprisingly -- I exploded. But it didn't kill me. Instead, this was my wriggly new form's only means of attack. I hopped up and down like a puppy lusting after faces to lick, emitting all-cleansing flames that devoured my foes. It was hilarious – not to mention pretty creative from a mechanical standpoint, even if it was fairly simple. If only the rest of Rusty Hearts was more willing to think outside the box like that.
That explosion is me. As a worm. It's a long story.
I felt like a mix between Sauron and Street Fighter's Ryu as I sent 20-enemy-strong legions hurtling through the air.
There is, if nothing else, heaps of quantity to be found in Rusty Hearts -- even where quality falters. And, most importantly, the best bits are free. On top of the old-school beat-'em-up-flavored MMO's vanilla content, I got the entire Reborn expansion on the house. Among other things, that included an entire, refreshingly un-gothic starter area, new weapon specializations for higher-level characters, new quests all throughout, and a smattering of other tweaks and improvements. Without a doubt, there's a lot to do here: countless monsters to mash, items to hoard, and dungeons to frolic through in the most delightfully murderous of fashions. And initially, I enjoyed myself quite a bit. For the first few hours, I was hooked by the lightning-quick, 10-minute-or-so dungeons and stylish, combo-based combat. I felt like a mix between Sauron and Street Fighter's Ryu as I sent 20-enemy-strong legions hurtling through the air with my flashy spinning attacks and juggle combos. The action here doesn't feel like any other MMO on the market, and it actually flows far better with a gamepad than it does a mouse-and-keyboard.
Battles in Rusty Hearts are part timing, part focus, and part "Ooooo, look at the pretty colors."
Rusty Hearts does, however, have one major thing in common with its genre compatriots: repetition. Whether in the new starter area or a higher-level portion of the eerily vampire friendly main hub, it's usually the same formula: run a highly linear dungeon on normal difficulty, run it again on hard and collect a few things, and then run it on very hard because why not? Non-boss enemies, meanwhile, are too mindless to require much more than basic combos (or exploding worms), and -- as a result -- even weapon specializations (which unlock at level 20) fail to really liven things up. Yes, it's all free, but my hopefully non-rusty heart didn't really start pumping until enemy difficulty and variety picked up 10 or so hours in.
Insert Coin
Rusty Hearts' first 10 levels blazed by for me, but after those initial few hours, it began to show its true F2P colors. Progression slowed quite a bit, and -- while I applaud Perfect World's effort for keeping that curve a bit more reasonable than many other F2P MMOs -- I still welcomed the option to buy XP boosts. Ten percent for seven days ran me $5.00, and that brought the pace just outside of a sweet spot. So then I tried out a $12.50 Extreme Booster Pack, and honestly, its 50% boost felt a bit like overkill. I found myself out-leveling content, which made questing sort of dull.
Potions -- which sit at $2.00 for a stack of 50 -- are also a major lynchpin in Rusty Hearts' cash shop, as they can't really reliably be found elsewhere. There are some alternatives, but they often require farming and diminish in usefulness as HP totals increase. On the upside, Rusty Hearts is still definitely playable without potions -- especially during the first 10 or so hours when enemies are almost snooze-inducingly easy. Beyond that point, playing smart and avoiding big hits from bosses generally kept me out of serious trouble.
Free or Flee
If it's sheer volume of content you're looking for, Rusty Hearts offers some pretty serious bang for your non-buck. The new Reborn expansion is completely free, and so many quests dot the landscape that they're probably visible from space. It's just a shame that things take so long to pick up, and even when they do, the specter of repetition still looms heavy. The anime-themed MMO is, however, admirably playable without spending a cent.