MMORPGs are colossal in a lot of ways. Across thousands of titles, they bring in billions of profits each year have fan bases that expand well into tens of millions of people. In World of Warcraft alone, players have jointly logged more time than humans have spent living on this planet – over 6 million years! The best MMORPGs share the charming ideal that any player from anywhere can become anything they want within the corners of these virtual worlds while grinding out some legendary loot in the process.
The gaming community has come a long way from the text-based multiplayer dungeons of the past. To commemorate that amazing ancestry, PvPlive.net has listed the best MMORPGs that players can download and play right now.
Whether players are looking to kick the butt of some kind of a human-cat hybrid or take down the galaxy as a notorious dictator, this list contains everything that can really get at the heart of what makes each of these MMORPGs excellent.
World of Warcraft
Still going strong in spite of being released for more than a decade, World of Warcraft is an instant choice for this list. Players create and take the role of their character avatar, battle against monsters and other players as well as take on challenging tasks.
It is one of the most famous MMORPGs in the world but it has improved a lot since its initial launch back in 2004. World of Warcraft defined the MMORPG genre and continues to add new races, classes, and areas as well as integrate new visual revamps and release expansion packs over the years. It still is a highly entertaining game to get addicted to even now.
Fans of the traditional World of Warcraft game might also want to try World of Warcraft Classic. This is a faithful remake of the original World of Warcraft experience that most players fell in love with. For gamers looking for more of a grind and challenge, this game is an excellent choice.
World of Tanks
This game is one of the most colossal military-inspired games on the market. With more than 100 million players, there is definitely no shortage of battles. It features various military weapons as well as several hundred tanks.
The main campaign revolves around tanks and lets players to manage multiple tanks. The battle heavily focuses on back and forth between individual players. There are six unique modes for fans to pick from: random, special, stronghold, team, tank-company, and team-training battles.
The game doesn’t need rigorous grinding and only needs simple strategizing about vehicle formats and armor. World of Tanks provides fans the addictive, fast-paced gameplay that gamers can find in arcade games. The ease of use and rate of play makes this game one of the most famous war-themed titles out there.
EVE Online
When asking players what modern sandbox MMORPG they would recommend, there’s one prominent game that comes to mind – EVE Online. The 16 years that EVE Online has been around could complete the pages of a textbook.
Its prominence for being a cruel, heartless universe was made of more than a decade of scandal, betrayal, and war. However, that same barbaric culture has also given birth to the type of camaraderie players will never find in other games.
EVE Online is complicated and obtuse as hell and there will be plenty of times players will just stare blankly at their screens, bewildered of what to do. Developer CCP Games has gone to great lengths to make EVE simpler to comprehend, but a player’s best teacher will always be the feeling of failure.
The great news is that several years ago EVE Online began offering a free-to-play privilege, letting players dive into its sandbox with a restricted set of skills and ships to use. The development team has since broadened the program, letting free players even more options of what kind of ships to fly.
Players who show persistence will find an entire galaxy filled with possibilities at their fingertips and this will always be EVE Online’s greatest achievement. It’s indeed a living world where players with the will to climb to the top can always find a way even if that means putting all those daggers in the back of comrades who trusted them as a foothold.
Blade and Soul
Blade and Soul is a Korean fantasy martial-arts MMORPG and if this is not enough to kindle a player’s interest, frankly, we don’t know what will. Perhaps the title’s sophisticatedly designed world – inspired by the visual prowess of artist Hyun Tae Kim – four one of a kind races, and ten fascinating classes will sway away potential players.
Whether they want to take on the role of the mighty Gon, the talented Jin, master of the natural world, Yun, or the mysterious Lin, fighting battles using the quick, high-octane combat system is certainly a joy to play. Combo chains and quick counters are critical in this game, whether players team up with friends to take on a wide variety of dungeons or want to take on other powerful players through PvP.
Star Wars Old Republic
We wouldn’t be able to complete this list if we didn’t include Star Wars Old Republic. This is the only surviving MMORPG based on the hit Star Wars series as this game still has about 135,000 players per month.
In spite of this count, Star Wars Old Republic can feel empty sometimes and a lot of new players appear to be reeled in by promotional campaigns, keeping the numbers decent. The game focuses on developing around the worlds and stories that were more untold from the films.
Not only that, players get solid choices when building their character, from the weapons they use to the skills that players can enhance.
The Elder Scrolls Online
Fans likely are waiting for a few more years before the launch of the next mainline entry in The Elder Scrolls franchise but The Elder Scrolls Online by developer ZeniMax Online Studios continues to have a faithful player base invested in Tamriel and its settlers.
Set decades before the events of games such as Skyrim and Oblivion, The Elder Scrolls Online features a free to explore map not featured in the other titles and has received various DLCs to cater to longtime fans.
The first expansion, Morrowind, returns players to the time of The Elder Scrolls III, while Summerset introduces the events of The Elder Scrolls: Arena. The game has transitioned into free-to-play after the original game and DLC expansions, there is little to lose in giving this game a try since players from the PC, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and Mac can all join in.
Runescape
While the main gameplay of Runescape hasn’t changed much since its original release, there have been considerable enhancements – sufficient enough that players can still opt to play the original Runescape if they so wish.
Players can level up one of the many in-game talents while they play in the world. Consistently enhancing a job can lead to players trading items in the online marketplace to get leverage on the competition.
With a very giving community, new players are welcomed into the game and can receive advice on tasks or how to get started via the in-game chat. With major expansions as well as a mobile port, this MMORPG shows no signs of slowing down just yet.
Neverwinter
Neverwinter is one of the oldest MMORPG – it has been released back in 1991. Its early gameplay was usually compared to Diablo and is set in the lore of the extremely famous Dungeons and Dragons. This means players can pick between various Dungeons and Dragons characters.
However, the only feature that really sets Neverwinter apart is its storyline. Its storyline is so heavy that one of the game’s designers, Jack Emmert, revealed that the game was meant to be played more like a story-based title than a classic MMORPG.
Newer editions of Neverwinter have a combat style more similar to Darksiders. It is a trademark of free MMORPGs and is available on the Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC. The only drawback of Neverwinter is that its in-game microtransactions are expensive.
Black Desert Online
Korean MMORPGs are usually negatively accepted as ruthless grindfests, and while Black Desert Online doesn’t go far away from that stereotype, it does provide one of the most comprehensive crafting systems ever made for the genre.
While the active, combo-based gameplay provides a lot of fun, there are tons of career paths a player’s character can take in this unique sandbox MMORPG. Players can take on the role of a fisherman, merchant or they can invest all of their time into creating an expansive production empire of beer.
This is all because of Black Desert Online’s complicated node system. Every region is divided up into nodes that give various resources, while lands in the cities can be bought and converted into storage depots, fisheries, and blacksmiths.
Rather than doing all of the hard work alone, players can hire automated workers who can level up and have their own unique skills to do the heavy lifting. It is an aggressive system to understand when players are just starting, but the freedom it gives is unmatched, and it is unlike anything else in the genre.
It can be just as pleasing to spend an entire evening upgrading farms and leveling up workers as it is taking down one of the game’s merciless world bosses. And if that doesn’t suit a player’s fancy, the node system is also the bedrock for weekly guild wars, where guilds rush to seize various nodes for exclusive bonuses, making Black Desert Online an excellent choice if players are PvP fans as well.
ArcheAge
ArcheAge is a very classic MMORPG, with factions, quests, and a totally unimpressive story. However, what makes it one of the best MMORPG out there is that players can ignore all of these and head into the sea.
The game’s ocean is massive. To sail from east to west using the fastest ship in the game will take players at least an hour depending on dangers such as pirates, sea monsters, whirlpools, and storms. There is even a mythical Kraken living in the northern part of the ocean, and it takes an entire squad of 40+ players and ten massive ships, cannons blazing to even cause damage to it. Deep under the ocean floor, players can find shipwrecks full of generous bounties, the most difficult to reach even requires the use of diving gear to reach it.
ArcheAge is free-to-play, with a premium subscription available that provides various perks such as the ability to claim our own patch of land in the game – not instanced, fairly taking up space in the game’s open-world – on which players can build their own house or even an underwater aquarium filled with fish.
Alternatively, there is an ArcheAge Unchained, a new independent version of the game that gives players access to all the advantages of a subscription for a one-time fee. Regardless of what players choose, the magical world of ArcheAge is the ideal setting to embark upon a life of crime on the open waters, where players are basically playing a pirate game and everyone else is an unsuspecting traveler but, rather than a parrot, players take control of a dragon.
The Secret World
When it comes to telling an amazing story in an MMORPG, the whole genre has something to learn from The Secret World. Not only does the game abandon the common fantasy feature for a brave modern one, but it also ties a lot of various themes together – from the vampires to the Illuminati – that it should not make any sense at all, but unbelievably it does.
Not a lot of MMORPGs can say that they have adopted from the pages of The Matrix and Lovecraft and made a success out of it. Like the best of Lovecraft, The Secret World is a unique page-turner that will have players digging deep to discover all of its mysteries.
This love of a tale greatly told is best displayed in The Secret World’s investigation missions that require putting on the detective’s hat to look for clues in order to solve puzzles. Players will have to scour the internet and through backwater, websites searching for that one piece that will make the entire picture come together.
A few months ago, The Secret World was rereleased as The Secret World: Legends, overhauling most of the title’s weaknesses such as its combat system. The revamp doesn’t essentially fix every problem but it does go a long way to making the game much more enjoyable for new players.
Skyforge
The game stands out as one of the best MMORPGs because of its unique mix of exemplary early game, beautiful open world, and one-of-a-kind class system.
Encouraging personal exploration and experimentation, players are able to choose between any class they have already unlocked, letting them significantly change playstyle in just a few seconds without having to go through another several hours of leveling up and everything takes place in one of the alluring game worlds a player can encounter – a charming blend of bizarre sci-fi elements and magical fantasy.
Its early game is intriguing and at the same time varied, with a lot of choices as to how players can accomplish their tasks as well as tons of rewards that let fans choose how they want to play the game. It changes frequently between solo play areas that tell a linear storyline, open worlds that motivate teaming up with other players, and group content that is a lot harder but provides better loot.
Final Fantasy XIV
Final Fantasy games have been around for a long time and it goes without saying that the series is famous in spite of several problems with a few of the franchise’s releases. True to its form, the first edition of this MMORPG was tough, and then they redid it, and now it is breathtaking.
Players have several choices with this game. Characters come from five unique races, and each race has its own deity, which provides gamers unique abilities. There are two types of quests, Story Quests and Levelquests, which are critical for players to unlock new abilities and acquire favor with various factions.
In layman’s terms, it’s a usual Square Enix game. It provides a unique skill tree and combat system and allows for crossplay on the PlayStation.
Rift
Rift led a wave of new MMORPGs at the beginning of the new decade and has proven as the most volatile of the bunch. Not only do its initial strengths still hold up – the impromptu events that witness large groups of players group together against invasion and the extremely customizable class system – but this game has evolved into one of the best MMORPGs over the past few years, too.
Rift is still being updated with seasonal events, adding new delightful features including a cute mummified zombie companion last Halloween
