Well here's something you don't see every day. A game on Steam Early Access that's free to play? Almost seems suspicious that I'm not being charged $20 or $30 for an incomplete game. But that's what Life is Feudal: MMO is. It's a massively multiplayer sandbox survival-based construction RPG (take a breath). Open beta begins today, January 12.
The world is roughly 13x13 square miles. Naturalistic weather. Day-night cycles. Changing seasons. Different regions produce different resources. Pick a spot for your humble abode. Grow it into a fort. Get a few folks together and grow it into a city. But be absolutely prepared to defend it from other players, or to negotiate alliances and peace treaties. When diplomacy fails, it's time to take up arms, with non-target, physics-based combat. Build your realistic economy in the meantime. Set up trade routes. Hire guards to escort caravans. I mean, that's all well and good. But I get my rocks off just by watching someone have to chop down a tree and haul it to a build site. That's the kind of construction set that gets me excited.
Sounds wildly ambitious. Looks raw and wild. Just don't forget it's a beta. And though it's free to play, please keep your head firmly affixed to your shoulders when you see downloadable starter packs going for $30, $50, and $100. Play for free if you want to play for free. But don't make it your mission to disparage people giving the developers a few bucks for their hard work in building an MMO. An official, feature-complete launch is scheduled in 12 months.
Life is Feudal: MMO is made by Bitbox, the folks behind 2015's Life is Feudal: Your Own open-world survival crafting RPG. Steam reviews are mixed, on that one. It had 64 players on a 3km x 3km map. Life is Feudal: MMO will have "thousands"
LiF: MMO is available now. I'm personally not excited in beta testing games. But I'm also kinda high on medieval survival games. So we'll see if I engage.
