==========================SHORT REVIEW============================== Player Score: 9/10. --- FANTASTIC! Pros: The custom coding makes it hard to believe it's a Diku/ROM base. Nearly every NPC is interactive, as well as many room elements. Dynamic casting -- Casters don't just spam c 'spell'. Even melee battles don't use the same tired damage verbs. Whew. Personal merits and flaws chosen at creation ensure uniqueness. ASCII additions such as Element Field and Map make game fresh. Ever wanted to have your very own skill? Help Limit Break. Cons: I'm personally not a fan of extended creation options. Some custom syntax's are harder to remember. Limit Breaks take a little work to set up. Overall: Between the largely custom yet (mostly) memorable syntax, fun and never tedious quest/discovery system, and the ability to TALK to almost EVERY NPC in the game (Similar to Square/Enix games), End of Time is *easily* one of the best MUD's in existence. ==========================LONG REVIEW=============================== So I found this MUD about a week ago while I was searching through some MUD forums. Logged into it last night after finally having a moment to play it. Although I never really liked MUDs with a game/anime theme (I will not digress into why at this moment), I decided to give it a shot. The member on this specific forum had given it it's praise, and so I decided it was worth at least 20 minutes. The very first thing I will say is that I was initially put off by the creation system. I personally am not a fan of largely customizable characters, especially when it can make the creation process take as long as 5-10 minutes, when I just wanted to play a game. I will not spoil exactly what you can customize, but as a new player I just sped through it ;). So after going through the creation process and materializing in the End of Time MudSchool, everything seemed as normal. Another Diku/ROM MUD to fully explore it's custom areas, reap their treasures, and learn its (probably) small quirks...Right? Hah, I was in for a shock. The custom syntaxing alone will blow any MUDder away. And it's not so robust that an experienced (or even newer) player will be lost. Some syntax's could have used some more thought, but like with all new things with heavily-documented help, I picked it up in less than 20 minutes. The first thing I have to mention is NPC interaction. Just like all of the Square/Enix games it's based on, in End of Time you can talk to any NPC, simply by typing 'talk '. NPC's will give you a wealth of information, and not just at Mud School where you'd expect. Throughout the whole game, you can talk to NPCs to activate/end quests, find out information about the game or other areas...literally everything. Whatever you could find out in a traditional Final Fantasy game by pressing Action on an NPC, you can find out in End of Time. In Narshe, you find...
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