Game-A-Week Episode 10: Tibia Online

[10:14 PM]

Things return to normal here at game-a-week this week and what better game to get back into the swing of things than Tibia?

[10:14 PM]

Why you ask?

[10:14 PM]

Oh, I'm SO glad you asked!

[10:15 PM]

Tibia was developed in 1996 and published in 1997. So since I was born in '96, its as old as I am.

[10:15 PM]

How could I not play an mmo as old as myself?

[10:15 PM]

You know, a lot of people like to say Ultima Online was the first MMO but this actually came before it.

[10:16 PM]

And the best part is, THIS game isn't even the first MMO..... But we'll get into that on some other week.

[10:17 PM]

Tibia wears its age on its sleeve even more so than EverQuest and Dark Age of Camelot.

[10:17 PM]

The game is simple.

[10:17 PM]

You click on things.

[10:18 PM]

Click on an enemy to fight it, click on an item to pick it up. etc. etc. etc.

[10:18 PM]

With a game so simple, WHY ON EARTH DOES IT HAVE A TWO HOUR TUTORIAL?

[10:19 PM]

Honestly, it might even be three.

[10:19 PM]

Or four.

[10:19 PM]

After the ACTUAL tutorial, the game hits you with this : Get to level 8 to reach the main continent.

[10:19 PM]

Translation: Grind for hours in order to play the real game.

[10:20 PM]

Did I mention this game has absolutely no sound?

[10:21 PM]

I never realized it before, but music and sound effects really illuminate the whole gaming experience. Without, I felt the game was missing something. It felt hollow.

[10:22 PM]

(Who am I kidding? Of course, I already knew this! I love video game music!)

[10:22 PM]

Either way, the lack of sound didn't make the grind any less boring.

[10:23 PM]

After I was finally done with that, I got my first quest.

[10:23 PM]

And this is where the game's charm started to shine through.

[10:24 PM]

I became a wizard's assistant, my tasks were to: Sweep the floor, feed his fish, exterminate the bats in the attic, polish his crystal ball and prevent the apocalypse.

[10:26 PM]

I can't remember the guy's dialogue word for word but his rundown on preventing the apocalypse from this demon he accidentally summoned while trying to turn his old assistant back into a human (Who of no fault of the wizard's was turned into a frog, of course.) was hilarious.

[10:26 PM]

While this game has an old school charm that reminded me much of Runescape, that's unfortunately the last good thing I can say about this game.

[10:27 PM]

I was unable to complete my first quest because none of the required items to prevent the apocalypse were in the wizard's house. I had to wander aimlessly throughout the world and hope I came across them.

[10:28 PM]

For the most part, I enjoyed exploring. It once again, made me feel like I was playing Runescape for the first time.

[10:28 PM]

And then I died.

[10:29 PM]

I picked a fight with a wolf that was for some reason, way stronger than the wolves I've been one-shotting and I was the one who was one-shot instead.

[10:29 PM]

It all went downhill from here.

[10:29 PM]

I lost an entire level and my boots.

[10:30 PM]

Oh, not to mention my backpack and all my items in it.

[10:31 PM]

On my way back to the place of my death to grab my lost items, I was killed by a water buffalo who I guess was really fucking strong for some reason.

[10:31 PM]

This time, I lost my sword.

[10:32 PM]

Remember when I said it all went downhill from here?

[10:32 PM]

I learned the hard way that you cannot walk through npcs, friendly or otherwise like you can in literally any other game.

[10:33 PM]

On my way to get my sword I was pinned down in a dead end by two water buffalo, unable to do anything until they killed me.

[10:33 PM]

I lost my platelegs.

[10:33 PM]

I gave up.

[10:34 PM]

After this, I realized that my sword was the reason I was able to do ANY damage.

[10:35 PM]

I couldn't even kill the most basic of enemies without it. Enemies that I was once able to one-shot were now threats to me.

[10:35 PM]

Did I mention there are no animations in this game, either? So combat is a thrilling staring contest until one person dies.

[10:36 PM]

It DOES get amusing when you one-shot though because it looks like you killed them just by looking at them the wrong way.

[10:37 PM]

Anyway, I later found out that there are no weapon spawns in the game for me to go and pick up a replacement weapon.

[10:37 PM]

There's no iron scimitar in the house in Rimmington for me to rely on.

[10:38 PM]

And I was unable to make gold to buy another weapon because I couldn't fight any enemies without my weapon to get gold from

[10:38 PM]

Not to mention, you don't recover HP and MP naturally over time. You have to eat food to do that and wouldn't you guess? I lost all my food when I died the first time.

[10:39 PM]

I was stuck. That was it. Game over. There was literally no way for me to play the game.

[10:39 PM]

For a veteran player a single death can set you back an entire week but for a new player?

[10:39 PM]

Death means death. You can't play the game anymore.

[10:40 PM]

There's no failsafe, you're just screwed.

[10:40 PM]

Luckily, I was able to snag a sword that another player had dropped. It wasn't as good as my starting sword but at least I could play the game again.

[10:41 PM]

If I wanted to get a sword that was just as good as my starting weapon, I needed 950 gold.

[10:41 PM]

So I got to work.

[10:42 PM]

And quickly found out that gold only stacks up to 100, any more gold after that take up another inventory slot.

[10:43 PM]

Without my backpack, I could only amass 400 gold. I didn't even have enough inventory slots to carry the 950 gold I needed to buy back my starting weapon.

[10:43 PM]

And that is where our story ends. I found myself counting down to 10:00 (My stopping time) because this game was just such a chore to play.

[10:44 PM]

Even though I left the game, being able to play it again, there's no denying that one death is all it takes to ruin everything. And that soured me on the game as a whole.

[10:45 PM]

Remember when I said Everquest might be as old as I'm willing to go for MMOs? Well, so far, that remains true.

[10:48 PM]

I give Tibia Online a 4/10. I wanted to like this game due to it being 23 just like me but its age, while wonderful, is a massive deal breaker due to how cruel the game's death penalty is. Not to mention that its just boring and there are other games to play. Heck, there are 8 other games that we've done right here on Game-A-Week I'd play before this one but at least its better than TemTem. Again I wanted to like this game. Just like Pokemon, it shares its age with me and as a fan of MMOs, I thought it might be desinty. But it was just unfortunately, not in the cards for us to wed. At least Pokemon is still my favorite game so I still have my precious 1996 game.