Water Margin Online
Water Margin Online Overview
Water Margin Online is a generic 2D Fantasy MMORPG with 3D Sprites. The game has all the basic staples of an MMORPG, but unfortunately with little innovation and a terribly small playerbase. Visually, Water Margin Online looks a lot Ragnarok Online in terms of actual graphics and camera controls. You’d imagine that a game that was based off a good game would at least be decent, but unfortunately that just isn’t the case here. Water Margin Online simply isn’t fun. The core gameplay is buggy and lag-filled; on top of that, the game’s interface looks like its from 1999! The game’s classes are:
Major - Majors are the generic Warrior/Tank class in Water Margin. Their raw attack power isn’t that high, but they are capable of absorbing large amounts of damage. Majors can use Sabres/Spears.
Martial Monk – The Monk class in Water Margin Online has incredibly high attack but low defensive capabilities. It plays a bit like the Major class, but with a much higher emphasis on offense rather than defense. Martial Monks use Cudgels and Shovels.
Pesant - Peasant is a pretty silly name for a class, but Peasants in Water Margin Onlne are well-rounded warriors who are capable of using Swords and Japanese Swords.
Thief - Thieves in Water Margin are generic ‘rogues’. They can attack incredibly fast and deal damage quickly but they have low defense and low hit points.
Literatus – The Literatus are a supportive class. They have helpful healing and buff spells, but are incredibly vulnerable in combat when they are alone, and thus are better suited for group play.
Taoist Priest – The name is misleading – Taoist Priests are not healers. In fact, they’re quite the opposite. They’re the offensive spell-casting class in Water Margin Online and are capable of dealing a good amount of damage from a distance, but they have low hit points and defense.
Water Margin Online Screenshots
Water Margin Online Featured Video
Water Margin Online Review
By Omer Altay
I don’t know about you, but I’m tired of playing rehashed versions of good games. It seems that after the launch of every successful game, a bunch of copycat games emerge, and it’s no different with Water Margin Online. The game is basically a bad clone of Ragnarok Online. I say ‘bad’ because it seems like the developers took the games basic art style and used it to churn out a slow-paced, buggy, and overall inferior version of Ragnarok. There’s nothing wrong with borrowing features from successful games, but doing such a miserable job cloning a good game is just inexcusable. At least when Secret of the Solstice (an MMORPG by Outspark) copied the art style of Ragnarok it did it while also creating a good game. To be fair, Water Margin Online isn’t entirely bad. The game has some unique aspects to it.
Starts off on a good note…
One thing that I liked about Water Margin Online is that it had a fair selection of playable classes and even some decent character customization. Firstly, the game has six playable classes: Major, Martial Monk, Peasant, Thief, Literatus and Taoist Priest. What each class does is outlined in the overview tab, so if you’re curious, just head on over there. Now, six classes isn’t too shabby for a free MMORPG considering most only have three or four. I find it disappointing that the ‘average’ is three or four classes, but since that’s the case Water Margin Online should be commended for having six classes. Water Margin Online also has five attributes, STR, CON, DEX, WIS and FAI, but unfortunately the game never really explains what each stat does, so it’s up to the player to make an educated guess. Luckily, each ‘tutor’ NPC explains which two stats are important for their class. The game also has mediocre character customization, which in and of itself means something, considering so many MMORPGs have absolutely no customization. I know it seems a bit silly to be praising a game for mediocrity, but the ‘free MMORPG” industry standards when it comes to character creation, variety and customization is quite low, so Water Margin Online does deserve to be praised for having a fair amount of customization and variety.
Then it falls off a cliff…
Upon actually entering the world of Water Margin Online and experiencing the gameplay, the game really goes downhill. Just about every aspect of the actual gameplay is disappointing. Combat is incredibly buggy, as it feels broken and glitchy. After your character swings at a monster, the damage dealt will register and appear on top of the enemy a good three seconds AFTER your character swings their weapon. This delay really makes the combat feel awkward, which takes a lot away from the game. Another little glitch in the game that drove me insane was the way in which monsters dropped loot. Every time a monster dies, they drop their loot on the floor, but instead of appearing next their corpse or on top of their corpse, the loot appears UNDERNEATH the corpse which is impossible to pick up until the corpse decays. Unfortunately, monster corpses only decay after a good four seconds or so. Four seconds may not seem like much, but just sitting there and waiting for the dang corpse to decay can get seriously frustrating, especially since nearly every quest in the game involves collecting loot from monsters. One other small complaint I had with the game is that progression just felt too slow. Leveling was moderately paced, but each level rewarded players with only a single attribute point, which just wasn’t enough to notice a difference in damage and ability from level to level. The biggest downside to Water Margin Online though is the fact that the game has an incredibly low playerbase, and unfortunately MMORPGs just aren’t enjoyable when the servers feel barren.
But It’s not all bad!
Luckily, even with its faults Water Margin Online isn’t entirely a bad game, especially since its currently only released in Malaysia, which makes the poor English translations excusable. Even though the game’s quests are generally repetitive, the game’s main chain of quests is based entirely on the actual Chinese story of ‘Water Margin’ (an old classical Chinese novel). In terms of gameplay, it doesn’t mean much, but story-wise it is certainly pretty interesting, minus the game’s poor translations of course. Perhaps the best aspect of Water Margin Online is the game’s varied character classes. Each of the game’s starting six classes has seven different job advancements, for a total of ‘forty-two different playable classes’. Each of the game’s job advancements has its own set of skills, which will keep players constantly pushing themselves to reach the next advancement – and they never feel too far out of reach either. The game’s ‘Holy Beast System’ is interesting as well, as it allows players to team up with friends in order to fight a difficult a boss type monster. The twist is that more than one ‘group’ has to fight the boss at once in an open PvP environment, meaning groups can fight each other as well. The goal is to end up being the group that ends up killing the boss, as whichever group kills the boss is rewarded handsomely.
Final Verdict – Poor
The fact is, even though Water Margin Online has a lot of interesting features, the game just doesn’t have a large enough playerbase to make the game enjoyable. I do believe that the developers should be praised for incorporating A LOT of features into their game, but unfortunately the quantity of features alone isn’t enough to make a game good. The fact is, Water Margin Online’s core gameplay is both buggy and bland. Play Ragnarok Online, Secret of the Solstice or Fiesta Online instead, as they’re similar but superior games.
Water Margin Online Videos
Water Margin Online Character Creation Video
Water Margin Online Exploration
Water Margin Online Combat Video
Water Margin Online System Requirements
OS: Windows 2000/XP/Vista
CPU: Pentium 4 1.2 GHz
RAM: 512 MB
HDD: 1.5 GB
Graphics Card: Geforce 2
OS: Windows XP / Vista
CPU: Pentium 4 2.4Ghz / AMD Athlon XP 2400 or better
RAM: 1024 MB or more
HDD: 2.0 GB
Graphics Card: Geforce FX5700 or better