WYVERN

A graphical MUD written in Java. Has quite a large selection of races, and I chose to be a naga as a tribute to Cobra Commander. Interface is a mixture of text-based and mouse commands. It won an award and has a map editor (separate download).

Select from a comprehensive list of fantasy races, undergo a short tutorial and then start exploring. Move from tile to tile using the arrow keys, and you'll automatically start trading blows with any adjacent monsters. Win and you get experience; die and you respawn in the last town you visited, minus a small amount of experience. Leveling up gives you skill points, which can be spent at various trainers to increase stats, of which there are many.

Dungeons are randomly generated, and once you're inside, you "own" the dungeon and have control over who can come in. There are many towns / towers / dungeons to visit, and new things are continually added or changed by the moderators. Wyvern is so magical that moderators are called Wizards!



The inverse of Adventure Quest, Wyvern brings together all the things that people actually like about online RPGs. It has the complexity of a MUD, but the graphical mouse-based interface makes the commands a breeze to use. Also, it looks prettier, and I'm extraordinarily shallow. Giving the players control over who's allowed in "their" dungeons makes adventuring with a party of friends easier to manage.

The races offer a lot of variety outside of simply having different stats (as a naga, I could shapeshift and had all my dialogue put through a filter; 0kelvin played a giant who was unable to wear normal armour because he was too big). The world is huge, constantly being added to, and has enough items / skills / dungeons to stop it getting boring. The starting tutorial is fantastic, and eliminates the confusion and reliance on giant HTML manuals that accompany other games.



I encountered a bit of lag, which more often than not resulted in my untimely death.



It's a full, involving, flexible online RPG. It's a small download, uses hardly any RAM or bandwidth, you can play as a snake, and it's free.

Four and a half Notorious BIGs out of five.