For decades now, Massively Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Games have been among the most celebrated and long-lived titles, attracting vehement fans from across the globe. From World of Warcraft and Star Wars: The Old Republic to RuneScape, The Lord of the Rings Online and more, the genre is among the most loved, and most played, in gaming history.
As we transition into a new world of Virtual Reality, it can be hard to see how the genre will translate into the new medium. Given that the cooldowns, movement restrictions and other gameplay restrictions used to balance MMOs (and make them fun) don’t tend to work all that well in VR.
Despite this, there are already a number of VR MMOs on the market creating the new standards for the genre and pushing the envelope in the process. Let’s have a closer look at three of the best VRMMORPGs out there.
Zenith: The Last City
Perhaps the most celebrated VR MMO, Zenith released with great fanfare back in 2021, with many praising it as the first true VR MMO.
Drawing gameplay inspiration from titles like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Guild Wars, Zenith brings the MMO into the new world of VR by using action-based combat and gesture-based interaction to climb, glide, fight and cast your way through the game’s sci-fi/fantasy open-world.
Featuring the full package of class customisation, skills, a vibrant open world, instanced dungeons, quests, guilds and exciting world bosses, Zenith is great for genre veterans and newcomers alike.
And thanks to its sustained popularity, it has managed to sustain a reasonable player count (especially for VR!).
Ilysia (Coming Soon)
Taking on a classic fantasy setting, Ilysia draws its design language from RPG classics like The Elder Scrolls series and MMO successes like World of Warcraft. Set across a variety of different kingdoms, each with their own unique landscape, enemies, dungeons, quests and challenges, Ilysia tasks you with repairing a corrupted world.
Similar to Zenith, Ilysia features fully-fledged climbing, gliding and swimming systems (a la breath of the wild) alongside a vibrant main quest, dungeons and raids.
Ilysia also has a strong focus on customisation. Allowing you to not only craft your own class with great precision, but also to customise your housing, mount and caravan (which you use to traverse the vast world).
Although Ilysia is yet to be released, it is shaping up to be a dream for lovers of the genre. Especially given that the team’s Kickstarter campaign raised over four times their requested budget to produce the game!
A Township Tale
Perhaps more an MORPG than an MMORPG, given the fact that it works with smaller lobbies, A Township Tale provides an incredibly unique multiplayer RPG experience made all the better by being in VR.
The game revolves around a group of friends settling in small township, tasked with growing and surviving the township’s trials and tribulations.
Drawing greatly from Minecraft for inspiration, you’ll find yourself progressing a number of professions from mining, fighting, cooking, blacksmithing and even cleaning to help grow the township. From exploring dungeons and providing your fellow township with raw materials, to crafting powerful weapons for warriors to use, you’ll find yourself immersed in the gorgeous township in no time.
VR is a medium that is still finding its feet, and VRMMORPGs are understandably much smaller affairs than their normal gaming counterparts. However, don’t let that make you believe these games aren’t worth playing. Quite the opposite. Given that these games come from smaller teams, they really push the envelope of what is possible with VR, laying the groundwork for the genre’s transition over into VR.
So, make sure to be a part of that history by jumping into at least one of these games.
That said, if all this talk of MMOs has made you want to jump back into your old favourite flat-screen MMORPG don’t feel ashamed. They’re great too. In fact if you want to jump back into any MMORPG, make sure you get up to speed by getting your hands on the best available deals for various RPG games available on Gamecamp.gg
