There is an MMO out there, right now, this very second that is looking to kick your ass. It’s 100% free, run completely by an indie developer known only as Zer, and offers damn near everything hardcore MMO gamers have been pining after ever since UO has silently shrunk into a mere shadow of it’s former self. This is an MMO that is completely open with little to no quests, features unforgiving PVPs, and has zero classes whatsoever.

For those curious about the MMO I’m writing about, I am, of course, talking about Faldon, the little known, even littler played, MMO (and really it’s more of just an “MO”) that’s been around for more than a decade, created by the even littlest known developer studio: Illusory Studios.

Before I continue, let me just say that this is not a review or a preview. This article is simply about telling you what Faldon is about. I make no claims about whether it is good, or bad. Everybody gets something different out of Faldon and you will be no different should you delve into this chaotic world.

Faldon, as stated above, has been around for more than a decade. I first stumbled upon it in 1998, when it took a much different form. It was my first online experience and ever since then, has always held a special place in my gaming heart. It was created by a then, teenage programmer, who people only know of as Zer.

Over the years the Faldon’s face has changed, largely, but the key principles remain. In Faldon you are playing in a sandbox with a hundred some odd other people. There are little to no rules and, like in life, the biggest kid in the sandbox always wins.

If that sounds a little disheartening then Faldon is probably not for you. The average World of Warcraft gamer, or even the more “hardcore” MMO gamers out there are still probably no match for Faldon. Not really because they are not good enough, but because Faldon is a tough beast to master that will offer you no respite in your time of great need. That said, I do strongly encourage everybody to at least try it out.

MMOs today largely rely on classes and levels to help players figure out who they are and what they are in their respective worlds. Stuff like “Warrior,” “Priest,” or “Druid” are often used to give the player a sense of belonging and a goal. Faldon doesn’t bother with these kinds of things. When you start playing in Faldon you are a nothing. You have no title, no job, no skills. You’re just you. Faldon, unlike most MMOs out there, is almost entirely skill based. In order for you to “be” something you have to pick a skill and start learning how to be what that skill is.

For example, as a level 1 nothing you can choose any number of skills to start out with. Pick up a sword? As soon as you start using it you’ll be a “Swordsmen.” Something that will be instantly noticeable to anybody who hovers over your avatar as it will say, for example, Geoff: Apprentice Swordsmen. The same goes for varying types of magic, trading, or any number of the hundred or so skills available. Each has it’s own unique title that will be emblazoned upon you so long as it is your highest leveled skill.

Speaking of skill ranks like Apprentice, as mentioned above, Faldon takes the skill points you earn by, for example, killing monsters with a sword and assigns you a rank based on your level of that skill. So for example, you start out as an Apprentice Swordsmen, but as you use it more and more and your character gets better at using a sword you can rank up to Journeyman, Adept, Master, Grandmaster, Godly, etc. skill rankings. While they serve as little more than fluff stuff for pointing out how great you are to other players, it’s still a really cool feature that gives your avatar a little extra character and can set you apart from every other Tom, Dick, and Jane in the game.

Of course, the game does still have traditional levels. It’s pretty standard affair stuff except, instead of choosing a skill after you earn two levels (or whatever most MMOs give you these days), you’ll instead be given 5 stat points to assign. This means that your character can be entirely customized to your exact style of play. Want to be able to sprint for an infinite amount of time to escape slower, more powerful players/monster then you’ll need to sink most points into “Constitution”, just as an example.

So you might be thinking to yourself at this point in the article that everything sounds great, right? Like, this is the game you’ve been after since that time 10 years ago when you quit such and such MMO because it became less like this. This all sounds just peachy, doesn’t it? Well don’t get too excited just yet, we aren’t finished.

As I said above, Faldon has a mentality that the “biggest kid in the sandbox” always wins. Make no mistake, this is 100% true. While newbies are protected for the first few levels, and within the main city’s walls should they venture out beyond them, they are 100% open and fair game. Faldon is a ruthless game where anything goes and if you happen to mouth off to the wrong person they can, literally, make your game unplayable. As unfair as that sounds, this is what Faldon is about.

Moving on to the actual physical act of “dying” the process is pretty simple. When you die, you respawn at your specific respawn point (be it the main city, your guildhall, or house). But don’t think that you are getting away without any sort of penalty. Like the MMOs of yesteryear, to die is to set you back a few paces. While you’ll not only lose some key items in your inventory (nothing equipped) you’ll also lose experience. The amount is a percentage based on how much you have already. This means, while I don’t think you can actually lose a level, you can still go from the point of almost leveling up to having to restart that level all over again.

Oh and don’t think you can get to level 40-80 (where most MMOs cap out) and be a big shot, either. To put it in perspective the highest leveled player, right now, is level 1006 (that’s not a typo, that’s one thousand and six). It’s a long, and arduous road to the top of the mountain and, for most, it’s probably impossible.

But that’s not to say that there isn’t a wealth of stuff to do even if you don’t reach the top. Faldon is one of those games that has so much stuff in it, it’s almost overwhelming.

First off, the game spans multiple maps, all of which are huge and sport vastly varying locales for you to explore. There are dungeons, caves, beaches, islands, deserts, cities, and everything in between to explore. While it may be a bit daunting to get around at first, since there’s no “Zeppelin” or “Train” to get you to anywhere you need to go, it can be really rewarding to finally get to the point where you know how to get everywhere without getting lost, or, more importantly, running into any “danger zones.”

Additionally, Faldon supports one of the few things that all MMO gamers have been clamoring for for what seems like years now, that is livable, show off-able, guildhalls and houses that exist within the same world as everything else, not your own special zone.

Like with most MMOs you can create a guild in Faldon. What’s even better, however, is that, if you have the money, you can buy your guild a guildhall as well. This is a place where you and all your guildmates will spawn if you should die, or log out and log back in. It has a bank, chest, and other amenities depending on the size of the guildhall.

Did I say size? You’re damn right I did. Faldon’s guildhalls aren’t all cookie cutter. In fact, most are completely unique from each other and vary in size and price. You can have a tiny one-room island hut for a few hundred gold coins/day to a castle so large that it’s almost as big as some of the larger cities for what I can only imagine is thousands of gold coins/day.

Additionally, you can, personally, buy a house in the game. These act in much the same way as a guildhall only they are your personal house and nobody, but you, can spawn there. Of course, these aren’t cheap either as, each week, money will come flowing out of your bank account to go towards your “mortgage.” Still though, if you have the money you might as well flaunt it. Houses are located everywhere in the game, from the biggest cities to the most remote forest locations.

Still, being an indie MMO as ambitious as this means the game absolutely isn’t going to be perfect on the technical side. Unfortunately, despite being around for what seems like ever, Faldon still has quite a few technical glitches. These range from slowing down, to a unique way to fighting  by turning at just the right moment when attacking something to turn your single attack, into four or five attacks. Something that can be quite annoying when in PVP. But, ultimately, these are things you come to accept in a game like Faldon, which never claims to be anything more than it is.

Of course, what is a game without a community, right? I mean, MMOs really live and die by the other players who play them. Faldon is no different, and the community in Faldon is certainly a unique one.

While most MMOs usually segregate various servers to: Asia, America, Europe, Oceania, etc. Faldon does not. In fact, there’s only a single server located in Ohio, or New York (can’t remember). This means that no matter where you are, you’re playing with people from all around the world. And, as unusual as it sounds, Faldon seemingly has a robust population from not only the US/Canada, but also from China and the Netherlands.

Additionally, and this may be the turning point for many of you who have read this far into the article, many of these same “community members” are rat bastards. While the game has a few people who are genuinely willing to help out, in my experience, the “noobie” (as is the popular insult) is not highly regarded. This makes for a fairly hostile environment in an already hardcore MMO.

That said though, some of the people I’ve met through Faldon are also some of the funniest and most likable people I’ve ever met. It’s just that you’ve got to get through those initial “noobie” stages before most people will even bother with you, let alone not kill you as they randomly pass you by.

There’s more to Faldon than what I’m even writing about here. There’s a host of religions to join, there are ways to make your character more “holy” or “evil” which will change your name and title from white to either bright blue or bright red, and then there’s the equipment, which is a sure sign of status in the game depending on how “rare” the item is that you have equipped (hint: the more glowy something is the better, usually). For me to include every thing that is Faldon would be an article that I’m sure few would ever actually read.

So, instead, let’s leave it at this. Faldon is not your typical MMO. It’s not going to walk you through the game and gently ease you into any sort of endgame. There are no real goals, no real quests, and no real objectives outside of you want to do. This is a game that’s going to infuriate, frustrate, annoy, and piss you off. If you stick around long enough it’s also going to be a game that has rewards ten fold beyond anything that World of Warcraft can give.

If that all sounds just peachy to you, then don’t let me hold you back. Download button is right below this sentence. Enjoy!

[download via Illusory Studios]

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