Free-to-play (F2P) MMOs: What's good?

I like cheap. I prefer as cheap as free.

Although I've had many hours of fun with WoW, I don't often feel that ~$15/month is a good value anymore. I like exploration rather than repeated quests/instances/dungeons. When I've explored the world and nothing new comes along, I get bored.

I've tried other MMOs, including Star Wars: The Old Republic, Age of Conan, Lord of the Ring Online, and a few fantasy-based "WoW clones."

Many of them are pretty good, even if I don't usually see the polished controls and interface of WoW replicated or improved upon in other games. Some I'd be playing today if it weren't for aging hardware (SW:TOR and AoC, specifically).

I mentioned in another thread that I'm considering wiping my PC of Vista and installing Ubuntu, before trying to get LOTRO to run on it. My only issue with that game currently is the Vista OS is bungling the launcher.

In the meantime, I've been checking out a free-to-play (F2P) MMORPG called Allods Online. You may have heard of it, but I get the feeling that it's not all that well known out here in the West. It was developed by a Russian company and published there and around the world.

I do pretty much consider it a "poor man's WoW." But it's actually pretty good in its own way. It apparently had a $12 million budget, and with an online item store (for you who like to "pay to win"), it carries on with new updates, etc.

Have a look at the gameplay below. You'll see how it quite resembles WoW in terms of the art style and gameplay (this means it runs well on older systems). But so far I've found that it's different enough to not feel like the same game. Much of the mechanics are different, and the themes/styles of the world aren't replicated from the usual thing you'd see in Azeroth.


View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0YCr8QxDVQ


I say it's worth a try if you want to play a fun game that won't cost anything unless you want it to. It has a similar model as many MMOs these days, even those that started with a subscription model.

There are many out there now, and I'm aware of most of the high-profile ones (even ones that are coming down the pipeline). Is there anything out there you've played or have been meaning to try out?

 

Just started messing around with Star Wars: The Old Republic.

 

VISTA!??!?!?!?!?!?

Do you even MMORPG bro?

 

To be fair, that was four years ago. Bad, but not AS bad.