I’ve been following the progression of mobile MMORPGs for some time now and It’s awesome to see the quality of games increasing. Back in 2010, the only real mobile MMORPG was Pocket Legends and despite the game being revolutionary for the time, it didn’t feel like a good alternative to more traditional client based MMORPGs on the PC like World of Warcraft or Tera. Yes, Pocket Legends had a persistent world, but the game’s visuals were lackluster and the game felt too basic. This isn’t the case anymore though, as newer mobile MMORPGs are catching up to their PC counterparts.
Games like Order and Chaos 2 for example from Gameloft are quite in-depth and can easily hold its own against PC MMORPGs. Order and Chaos 2 has a huge open world, 5 races, and 5 unique classes. The game’s visuals are quite gorgeous too. The original Order and Chaos game was great, but Order and Chaos 2 is even better. The game also has an in-depth crafting system, something most MMOs on mobile don’t have.
Another excellent mobile MMORPG is Blade: Sword of Elysion from 4:33 Creative Labs. Oddly, it’s only available on iOS, whereas most mobile games are available on both iOS and Android. Blade: Sword of Elysion is a hack-n-slash MMORPG that feels fast paced and fluid. The game actually plays a lot like Vindictus and Dragon Nest, so if you’re a fan of those games, give Blade: Sword of Elysion a try.
Ultimately, what I’m trying to say is that the quality of mobile MMORPGs has increased dramatically over the years. In the past, we had countless generic strategy games like Vikings: war of Clans and DomiNations, but now we have high quality titles like Eternity Warriors 4 and Dawn of the Immortals. The gap between mobile and PC has definitely shrunk. Mobile MMOs aren’t just cheap time sinks anymore, they can actually hold their own against desktop games. Sure, there’s no game as massive as World of Warcraft just yet, but I suspect we’ll see a mobile MMO be even BIGGER than WoW in the next few years.