Dreadmyst

TheAwakening
Jan 18
5 min read

Overview

Dreadmyst is an MMORPG that invokes the classic games we knew from long ago. It is an isometric, Diablo-like game with simple controls and aesthetics. You create your character as one of the four classes and start exploring the land, defeating wandering monsters, grinding for loot and getting stronger, completing quests, and exploring dungeons with high-end mobs or taking part in Player Versus Player encounters. One of the highlights is its own open skill distribution system, allowing you to level up any skill or spell to create your own specialization (damage dealer, healer, or tank), making your hero truly yours to shape.

The game is entirely free; there are no plans for paid content or DLCs. The game also uses some assets that are familiar to veterans of other games; these have been purchased by the developer, as they are under license.

Gameplay

You start by creating a character of one of the four classes and also picking a name, gender, and avatar. The classes are all straightforward, but they are all unique in fulfilling certain roles. These roles are damage dealer (DPS), tank, or healer.

The Paladin is a blessed warrior, a fighter that can cast several holy abilities but is also capable of taking lots of damage before dying. They are more suitable for tanking mobs and bosses and still deal damage. To a lesser degree they also have a healing spell, but so far it's more for backup than for healing the main. Paladins are an easier class to play and level with, a good choice to start Dreadmyst and learn the ropes. Their main stat is Strength, but their skills also use Willpower, Intelligence, and Courage. A paladin can equip a sword, axe, or mace, and a shield.

The Mage is your ranged spell damage caster. Their only role is to deal huge chunks of damage to any foe at a distance. To keep them at bay, they have several frost spells that will slow them down, but their main dps comes from fire spells. This wizard is not capable of mitigating any damage taken nor has any healing spells. Because of this, on solo runs they depend on mowing down mobs far away before they reach him. Their main attribute is Intelligence for damage but they can also increase Willpower and Courage. A mage can only equip a staff and a wand as ranged weapons.

The Ranger is a mix between a hunter and a rogue, a ranged damage dealer and a melee combatant, respectively. Their main DPS comes from their bow, which can shoot any mob with arrows from a distance. Should they approach the Ranger, he’s also capable of performing several strikes with his dagger, albeit less powerful than the bow. He can attack with their bow regardless of distance (up to 30 yards). Their main attribute is Agility, and their abilities do not get modified by any attribute whatsoever, allowing the ranger to invest all their experience in offensive skills.

The Cleric is a powerful healer who can cast both holy spells, either to deal damage or heal friendlies, or shadow spells as utility in combat. Their only purpose is to heal allies before their hit points reach zero. Their main attribute is Willpower, but they can also level up Intelligence and Courage. A Cleric can equip a mace or a staff and a shield, but they’re not gear dependent.

Once inside the game world, you are tasked with your first quest (a breadcrumb—a quest without much of a reward to guide you to new places or teach you how to spend your earned experience points) to find a priest that gives you your first real objective: to kill three antlings. Combat is simple, but there is no auto attacking: you must cast your abilities and offensive spells, using different ones between cooldowns, even your basic attacks. Once a monster is defeated, you may loot it. Completing the quest gives you one of multiple rewards, some gold, and experience.

The game’s world is actually not so huge as you’d think; there aren’t many quests to do, hence we must resort to classic grinding of monsters of our level range to earn experience. Once we level up, we get a reminder to spend those experience points to level skills and abilities. This is the highlight of Dreadmyst: you can invest your points into any skill or ability you want. For example, if our main attribute is Strength we should spend points there and on our secondary attributes like Courage. We can level up our learned spells but at a greater cost. Other skills can be spell or ranged critical chance, health or mana regeneration in and out of combat, etc. Careful when choosing, as you must be level 25, and have a lot of gold to reset your invested points.

Gear drop will take some time to grind, but practically any mob can drop very high-tier gear (Uncommon, Rare, or Holy). Once you reach the main city, however, merchants will sell you any gear so long as you have lots of gold. Some merchants on the road will also sell you tomes to unlock new abilities. Other consumables are food that will restore a bit of health and mana, potions, gems, orbs that upgrade your gear level, etc. Though I haven’t reached the maximum level available yet, there are some endgame dungeons and player versus player activities and an arena mode. You can even try dungeons solo! Or form a party of up to five players, including yourself.

Audio & Graphics

The music absolutely nails the ambience of the game, and the sound effects are classic too. Graphics are vintage to the older MMOs; you can run it on any PC just fine. The interface is smaller; however, I had some trouble reading the dialogs because the characters were smaller, but the entire HUD (action bars, nameplates, and character info buttons) was non-intrusive, and they all fit the screen. What I want in the future is to be able to customize my interface to my liking, but the current setting does not bother me at all.

Pros & Cons

Pros

A classic MMO at its core. With vanilla combat and progression.
Completely free, no in-game store or paid content.
Unique customization without skill trees.

Cons

Can’t switch characters without maintaining my spot in the queue.
There is not a separate chat channel, meaning players of level 25 are always spamming WTB/WTS (want to buy/sell) listings.
Servers are always full and queues are longer. (Thanks to a recent update you are put into a queue until you enter your character list. I mean it is an MMO in the end.)

Rating: 8/10

Let’s party like we’re in the 00’s! Good times.