If you miss the good old days of role-playing games and 8-bit shooters then Realm of the Mad God is the answer to your unwhispered prayers. Sporting a classic look and gameplay that borrows from multiple genres, Realm of the Mad God provides a ton of content at a bargain price of free.
How to Download Realm of the Mad God
The game can be downloaded from Steam. To proceed simply click on the Download button which you will find conveniently located towards the end of this game review. The game can be also played as a Flash browser experience on the official Kongregate website. The game is tricky to play so be sure to have an eye for a guide, consult the official wiki. We advise against using hacks and cheats. The game has to be played fair.
The Game Review
Originally released in 2012 for Adobe Flash before making its way to the Windows and Macintosh computer platforms, massively multiplayer online shooter Realm of the Mad God from developers Wild Shadow Studios and Spry Fox and published by Deca Games sports an 8-bit aesthetic reminiscent of the glory days of the Nintendo Entertainment System in a title that is best described as a bullet hell game with multiplayer elements.
For those gamers unfamiliar with the bullet hell subgenre of shooter games, bullet hell titles typically involve tons of action on the screen such as enemies and projectiles with deft maneuvering required on the part of the player to stay alive. Naturally, almost everything on the screen can be dispatched with but it is the combination of avoiding enemies and their gunfire as well as getting rid of them that makes bullet hell games so fun and challenging. The addition of cooperative elements to Realm of the Mad God’s gameplay makes it unique and that much more chaotic as you add other players into the mix.
Supported by a free-to-play model, Realm of the Mad God maintains itself through microtransactions that include everything from protective pets and power-ups to cosmetic changes to your character. The setting for the game is the domain of the mad god Oryx who sends his armies at you in wave after wave of seemingly unending enemies. As in most games of this genre and similar to a roguelike game, all upgrades and progress is lost upon death. To keep things interesting Realm of the Mad God also features a class system that gives each player a specialization and focus during combat. The classes include Wizard, Priest, Archer, Rogue, Warrior, Knight, Paladin, Assassin, Necromancer, Huntress, Mystic, Trickster, Sorcerer, Ninja, and Samurai. Death is a punishing experience in the game.
Thankfully, the game does allow you to put some stuff in safe holding if you need it but really the emphasis in this game is on mastery of mechanics and progression from there rather than it is in collecting powerful weaponry. In terms of stats, you can progress, each character has 8 main stats including defense, attack, speed, dexterity, vitality, wisdom, mana, and life. Items in the game have their own stats as well with armor, weapons, rings, and abilities each having their own different tier levels.
Like the popular MMORPG World of Warcraft, Realm of the Mad God also allows players to band together in guilds of up to 50 people. By achieving certain in-game feats guilds can accrue fame and points from that renown which can be transferred into guild hall upgrades. Founding the guild costs the founding player fame but aside from that, the majority of the currency used for guild upgrades and expansions comes from cooperative activity.
