MU Online Review

MU Online Gameplay

MU Online is a retro Diablo-like MMORPG, which has authentic dungeon-crawler gameplay, hack-and-slash combat and exotic gloomy dark fantasy atmosphere. It provides players with a strict class-based system of character development: at the beginning, there is an opportunity to choose one of the three basic classes, this list can be expanded with seven more roles. Depending on the selected race and archetype, you will start the game at different locations which have specific quest lines and content. The core activity is grind and PvE competitions because the PvP system is limited by the penalty system, which punishes aggressive players. MU Online is not the best for roleplaying: it has almost no character editor, cliched storyline and simple invariable questlines. Instead of that, it has a unique visual style and fast-paced combat.

The most noticeable feature of MU Online is a reset system: at the specific level, your character’s skills will be reset to level 0. After that, you will have to develop your hero again, but with new abilities gained for the previous playthrough. The game has hundreds of levels and unlimited opportunities to reset character’s skills, which makes MU highly replayable. Still, it causes very monotonous long grind and AFK-based endgame content.

Even though MU Online was released almost twenty years ago, it still has active fanbase; however, the core activity of this game is participation in PvE competitions. At the same time, MU encourages players to participate in social-based activities: it has a guild system, which provides unique bonuses for established teams. Even more, the gameplay of this old-school hardcore project is much more dynamic and immersive when you cooperate with other players who control characters of different roles. This part of the game is made with all classic mechanics of Diablo-like games, so you most likely will have to find at least two players to gather up a party.

As well as many other hardcore video games, MU Online requires players to grind a lot. The questline is not very deep; it’s used to change the character’s class or to move the hero into the new location. At the same time, there is a specific feature called Seasons — the content packs which add new events, places and classes. The original content packs bring up new goals both for experienced and new players because the maximum character level is increased with every update. At the moment, the game already received 14 different seasons.