May 2021 MMORPG Rankings

SCORE KEY:
[S] 5.51–6 : Top Tier / Best-of-All-Time
[A] 5.00–5.50 : Highly Recommended
[B] 4.00–4.99 : Recommended
[C] 3.00–3.99 : Borderline
[D] 2.00–2.99 : Not Recommended but Playable
[F] 0.00–1.99 : Broken & Unplayable or Otherwise Awful

We focused on fan games and very small team / individual projects for May. The bulk of the games are very low population at the time of writing. Scores are adjusted based on the current state of development of the project and are based on the game itself — not the state of the game’s population — unless the game is designed in such a way where the lack of population hinders the experience for a game that it otherwise shouldn’t.

Recommended

[1] Sonic Network Land (5.0) [Egg & Meg both recommend!]

Sonic Network Land is a Sonic fan-game with over 20 unique levels. Players interact with others in shared hubs and levels, you can choose from numerous characters from the Sonic universe as well as custom options, optional PvP, and more. Sonic Network World is currently in development as a sequel to this title, so updates on Sonic Network Land have slowed significantly. Sonic Network World has more potential but at present, Sonic Network Land has significantly more content and polish.

Other players were active when I played but player count was typically in the single digit range. For a massively multiplayer experience, you’ll likely want to bring friends.

[2] DONTFORGET CONNECTED (5.0) [Egg recommends!]

DONTFORGET CONNECTED (DF Connect) is a fan MMORPG based in the Undertale universe. I’ve never played Undertale and only possess a general understanding of it’s universe and bullet hell mechanics during turn-based combat encounters. DF Connect adopts a similar bullet-hell mini-game to attacks during PvE encounters. PvP in the form of large battle royale style maps and dueling exist. Lots of weapons, armor, and other items and skins to collect. Maps are well-designed, music is coherent and well-composed, and the game uses a variety of systems for opting-in to PvP encounters.

Server is active for a fan MMORPG, with a population estimate of approximately 20–250 at any given time.

[3] Sonic Network World (4.0) [Meg recommends! Egg doesn’t recommend — too early.]

Sonic Network World is the sequel to Sonic Network Land. The gameplay is much more in-line with classic Sonic the Hedgehog Genesis/Mega Drive titles. It is currently in it’s 2nd build of early alpha. Most of the maps are missing textures and many of the gameplay features aren’t implemented yet.

If you don’t mind the early state of this game, it’s definitely worth checking out. It’s too early for me (Aun Egg) to recommend to anyone except the most passionate Sonic fans or those willing to be early alpha testers.

[4] BROKE PROTOCOL Online City RPG (4.0) [Egg & Meg both recommend!]

On the surface, BROKE PROTOCOL is a poor man’s GTA Online. Player-created content is often quite buggy, so it’s not uncommon to fall through the map or end up in other glitched states while playing.

With a buy-to-play price of only $4.99, included tools for creating your own content, the ability to host your own server with a lot of ruleset options, multiple ways to make money, lots of weapon, item, and vehicle options, and a mostly helpful community, it might be worth a look if you are willing to overlook it’s problems.

There’s always at least one server with 10+ players at any given time of day.

[5] Gardens of Gonzo (4.0) [Egg recommends!]

Gardens of Gonzo is a 2.5D action MMORPG focused on player-created content and respecting player agency related to gameplay style. You can approach the world as a standard PvE MMORPG with crafting systems, gear and skill progression, and world exploration or participate in developing your own content to share with the community. A large shared map of user-generated content is available.

This game is over five years past it’s peak and it’s server is largely abandoned. Structures remain from a more active period, making my experience feel like that of an archaeologist more than an active participant in a living community. You’ll want to bring friends if you want to play with others and accept the lack of any upcoming updates, which might be worth it given the relative lack of 2.5D sandbox MMORPGs on the market.

Borderline

[6] Life Forge Reborn ORPG (3.5) [Egg recommends. Meg doesn’t recommend.]

I (Aun Egg) enjoyed this title. My wife (Aun Meg) did not. The open world exploration, well-designed dungeons, large biomes, interesting puzzles, and build / skill progression systems helped this game stand out from the numerous other 2.5D pixel art MMORPGs on the market. The slow-paced movement and lack of anything to significantly differentiate it from other titles on the market left Aun Meg unimpressed.

The active playerbase is in the single digits. There’s typically at least one other player and their alts on at any given time. This is yet another title that’s well-past-it’s-prime, but if you’re willing to seek out other players on Discord or bring your own friends — it’s still worth checking out.

[7] Endless Island (3.0)

Endless Island is an abandoned project which sought to utilize the Endless Online development tools to create a game with a basis in city-building. Instead of the mindless grind and very minimal gear progression of Endless Online, this game offers quite a bit of options with advancing one’s island empire including managing trade routes and resources, invasion dailies, and more.

The underlying game is still Endless Online so if you despised Endless Online — you’ll likely not enjoy Endless Island either. For me, the city-building components were a welcomed addition and helped the game feel less like an unfinished, abandoned project and more like a game with purpose. The writing is unique but very amateurish and a lot of content is unfinished in this title, so play at your own risk.

[8] Blue Saga Online (3.0)

As someone with extensive experience in Java development in the 2000s up to mid-2010s, I love checking out MMORPGs written mostly in Java. After playing so many 2.5D pixel art MMORPGs the past few months, I’m burnt out on projects with excessive grind and repetitive gameplay mechanics. Blue Saga Online, at least on the only public server I was able to locate (operated by Greed), falls into the excessively grindy with lack of meaningful content category.

This project’s source code was released upon it’s closure, so if you want to host your own server, add new content, and adjust rates — it has a lot of potential to be a solid MMORPG. It has unique character race options, interesting overworld and dungeon maps, and intuitive mechanics. With some additional time, it could be a recommend but with it’s default slow progression, lack of content and no active players — it’s probably not worth it for the typical MMORPG player to check out.

Not Recommended

[9] Boundel (2.0)

3D open world MMORPGs require a lot of resources to create and maintain. Boundel is a case of lots of ambition and a lack of resources to sustain the ambitious goals leading to an abandoned project.

Boundel has lots of terrain to explore. You can tame mounts and pets in the open world, with lots of options available. There are tons of items to craft and lots of build flexibility. If everything worked as intended, in a well-designed universe with sufficient lore and story elements to drive progression, this would have the potential to be a definitely recommend.

Unfortunately, Boundel is a bug-ridden mess. It’s easy to get stuck on the slightest changes in terrain. It’s not uncommon for items to disappear from one’s inventory. It’s also not a well-designed universe. Quests consist of time-limited fetch, kill, and craft quests with no real story or lore to give them purpose. Individual cities and camps are laid out in a seemingly purposeful manner, but NPC placement is random and the location of the cities and camps throughout the map also seems to be random.

The final patch of Boundel on Steam included the files for hosting one’s own server but no source code, so a motivated creator could potentially fix the lore, story, and quest-line issues relatively easily but that still leaves the gameplay issues. This title is one to pass on unless you are desperate for a different take on the classic (EverQuest / UO) MMORPG formula and are willing to overlook it’s many flaws.

[10] Kingdom of Sea (2.0)

First Star Online 2’s engine helped spawn numerous small-scale indie MMORPGs, with Kingdom of Sea being one of those. The numerous combat and life skills remain from First Star Online 2 (FSO 2) and the gameplay mechanics are nearly identical.

The issue with this game is a lack of coherent design. You’ll start off in town with no idea where to go or what to do. Talking to every NPC will result in being awarded a few jobs, but fails to provide much to help establish a reason to keep playing. Individual sections of the game map are designed fairly well but are connected in a seemingly haphazard way. The game population was me and “KingdomOfSea” (Admin), or just me, the entire time I played.

Fans of the FSO series will likely find something enjoyable here. Most others are unlikely to unless additional content is added and the existing content is structured more coherently.

[11] SlimieOnline 2 (2.0)

SlimieOnline 2 is a 2D action platformer MMORPG much like Helmet Heroes, Wizbirds Online, or MapleStory. Progression is gear-based. Combat is simplistic but responsive, with numerous opportunities to position yourself in such a way where you can’t be harmed by a mob but you are still able to attack.

I played the older version of this game, given the new engine version wouldn’t connect to the server. The old version is severely lacking in content with less than 2 hours of total content. If I can get the newer version working, I’ll revisit this title. Otherwise, the lack of players and content, and developer support ending over 5 years ago, cause this game to be a likely pass for most players.

[12] Sokpop #502 “Tomscape” (1.0)

Sokpop Collective seeks to provide a new game to their subscribers in development cycles of less than a month. Three of these titles have been MMORPGs: Rock, Paper, Sock, Chatverse, and Tomscape. This title is definitely the worst of the three.

This game consists of a relatively small map with only a few different creatures. You click on the creature to begin turn-based combat which is automatic. There is no gear, no equippable weapons, and no classes. You are a bird and you slap NPC mobs. You get 3 points to increase Attack, Defense, and Hitpoints each level up. Story, lore, and quests are absent. It does have a dozen or so Steam achievements.

Tomscape has a minimalist art style that I love, but the use of light colored objects in the background and a player character that is a light-colored bird makes it difficult to make out details quite often. There’s essentially nothing to do here except obtain the Steam achievements or try to get a high score (based on your level), given it’s also a permadeath game.

This felt more like an experiment than a legitimate buy-to-play game. While I respect what Sokpop Collective is trying to do in the Indie market, I can’t recommend this title as a stand-alone purchase.