I remember trying this a while back, and IIRC it was pretty much your generic horrible MMORPG. Pretty bad, basically. I dunno what upgrades it's undergone since I played, but I really don't see it improving to the point that it's playable... I mean, it wasn't as bad as SOME other MMORPG's, but it was still rather on the sucky side...

Shadowmist

I actually PAY for archlord.

In the sense that I subscribe monthly to metaboli and pay £12.95 to play 300 games :P.

I wonder how that works.... Hmmm...

nimagraven

archlord ?

diodegrey

I liked the art style in early screenshots, but I heard it sucked. Its free? I might try it someday, when I'm bored and have beaten all of my games.

TheCleaningGuy

Play it? I do believe this is the first time I've ever even heard of it.

Does it have anything to do with managing a McDonald's?

Eltigro

it's...over 500000!

tigrshark

Don't even bother with the game. I played it for a few months after the subscriptions were dropped, and, while entertaining, it's just not worth the time or effort. If I recall correctly, just so you can get an idea of how the staff treats this game, the content on the games box didn't arrive till at least a year after it's release. I know no one became the ArchLord while I was playing (quit some time in may of last year) and that was supposed to be THE feature of the game to make it stand out. The one saving grace of the game was the soundtrack which was actually very good.

Sir_Crocidile

"Am I the only one that sees that name 'Ed Relf' and reads: 'Red Elf'??? Change ONE letter... c'mon- that CAN'T be his real name!"
@MasterYong:

Same here. Any bets on what Gauntlet character he plays?

kftgr

"ArchLord is a premier free-to-play MMORPG offering significantly more depth and quality than most other free-to-play games"

you have to respect this guy at least for his honesty. every game developer ever exaggerates the hell out of how great their game is. this guy says straight-up that there are already F2P games out there with more depth and quality. hilarious.

mikatron

I played it until about level 30, when I ran out of quests and when halo 3 came out.

kagebutsu

i signed upfor an account and played it once.

make that 499,999 pople playing archlord.

relax_guy

Am I the only one that sees that name 'Ed Relf' and reads: 'Red Elf'??? Change ONE letter... c'mon- that CAN'T be his real name!

MasterYong

That picture looks really cool at least. Playing AOC right now HOX 4tw :)

Sinharvest

For a game named "ArchLord", there are surprisingly no arches in that picture. You'd think the ArchLord would have nothing but arches behind him which he would hoard and lord over, but nope.

jsf49

There are more than a handful of better free MMO's, and definitely better pay-to-play MMO's. I tried ArchLord for about a week before kicking it to the curb.

I wonder how many of those accounts are active? My suspicion is that a significant portion are people like me, who tried it out and then went on to better things.

antialias02

I just started playing like two days ago. It's not the best, but I like it.

TalKeaton: Game Design Major

maybe it's just one guy w/ 500k accounts lol

string_theory

I actually didn't think that Archlord was all that bad, but it kinda pissed me off that the game didn't have 1440x900 support.

kubevubin

I'm already wasting much time on Ikariam, but what are good free Mmorpg's? After reading people's comments on this one, it doesnt strike me as a "must try"

sander_dutch

@hexode:
Jep, I got that movie too. It's based on a true story, except the person it is based on wasn't that...lucky.

I found it a great movie. Very easy to get to watch, very deep as the story progresses. It's quite the mindfuck :p.

As for the game, I know some people who played it, but not many keep playing it. It's probably worth a try though.

marlblank

i remember beta testing for this game. I thought it was okie... might get back into it.

Craig-VN-Gossman

I played it, it sucked... You just kill to level up to fight more powerful variations of the same monsters, to kill them, to level up to fight more powerful variations of the same monsters, to kill them, to level up to... etc, etc... It doesn't help that it takes literally an age to level up.

-MoarPlz-

It's free. So if you sign up to even LOOK at it at no cost to yourself whatsoever that is +1 user for them FOREVER. So basically they are saying "we released a free MMO and 500,000 people have bothered to glance at it"

newtonvoig

I had never played an MMO before, and the box art in the shop caught my eye, and reading about the concept of earning your way through the ranks of the community and even becoming this Archlord sounded really neat.

Of course I'd never heard about level grinding nor any other staples of the MMO world at that point.

However, when it went free I thought I'd give it a try. So I went over to the site, made an account and everything... Yet the process to actually download the thing was like trying to have fun on Bus Simulator 2008. I had to find, then register for some obscure RPG sites, wade through forms and the rest. And of course after that the download links never worked. If you can't just put a link for the link on the official website, I not going to bother getting my hands on, to be honest.

So maybe I'm one of the 500,000? I had an account, just never actually had the game.

Krondonian

I never played it, and I took all my friends' word for it. They said it sucked and didn't have anything "new or glorious". I stayed away and never played it.

Chaospluto

archlord still sticks in my mind as one of the worst games i have ever played... it wouldn't be good even if things worked all the time instead of 1/3

STARSBarry

People still play this damn game?

Yami

@mackattack93: it's free to download too.

ManjiKengo

you said the word
"FREE"
If there are this many people playing it I may buy it I may actually buy it

mackattack93

No exactly related to the subject, but still, I've first seen ArchLord in the movie Ben X, that I saw yesterday, and I must say I found it amazing (the movie, can't really talk about the game ) . The movie uses in-game footage of ArchLord superposed over the actor's play. In any case, a must see.

You can get a glimpse of the movie here :

+ Watch video

hexode

::crickets::

Arch what now?

karasu is my homeboy

"Codemasters Online is pleased to announce they have opened the doors to their 500,000th player..."

An inactive account - a free one at that - does not a 'player' make. This looks like shareholder grandstanding to me. Because there's no way 500,000 uniques log in every week.

Tonx

Tried the game for a week.

Did not want.
I'm trying AOc and Requim at the moment. I'm liking AOC save the difficulty for being an assassin.

ManjiKengo

I bet 90% of those people are bots.

Anza

Thanks a lot Kotaku, chances are you just consumed my entire summer break with power-leveling all-nighters.

Cloudizme

as they never close accounts its really 500,000 have tried Archlord. I did. oops.

Darkedge

Tried this the first 4 weeks or so after it was first released. There was not a single thing that I liked about it. Nothing.

Was stuck working in China for 4 months and didn't have many other options >_>

Coffee Ninja

;y only "MMO" definition of gaming is being #1 in my country Star Soldier R ranks. There is simply no space or time in my life for MMORPGS anymore, free or otherwise.

Shiryu

I completely forgot about this game but now that I know it's there and that it's free...

Kenzya

Not, you know, games.

Atheist Jew

Seriously!? Egh... welp the kiddies love any crap mmo thats f2p so, maybe...

belo

Until this very moment I had never even known of the game's existence. I would check it out, but I like to play games.

Atheist Jew

@CCCombobreaker:
What? I can't see it..lol

enewtabie

I don't, but now that I know it is free I will give it a try.

chrisgriner

That totally doesn't look like Sauron standing at the gates of mordor with a nazgul behind him.

CCCombobreaker