We all love solo play in our PC games, but sometimes it’s more fun to play with other people. The pinnacle of the multiplayer experience is the massively multiplayer online game, or MMO (also known as MMORPGs). These vast games receive a consistent influx of new content, and let you play with hundreds, thousands, or millions of other people.
Due to their ongoing natures, MMOs feature pricing schemes more in line with mobile games. Some MMOs have monthly subscription fees; others are free-to-play titles that charge you for small conveniences or expansions. In addition, many offer premium bundles with extra customization options, weapons, cosmetics, or other features.
MMOs offer hours upon hours of play in which you improve your avatar, grind levels, and gather better armor and weapons to tackle even bigger challenges. If you give your time to these seemingly endless games, you’ll inhabit new worlds filled with characters controlled by people like you. The experiences you have and the people you meet can be potentially endless. Ready to explore all that and more? Check out our favorites on PC.
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Blade & Soul is a highly stylized Korean MMORPG inspired by martial arts and Asian mythology. The free-to-play game stands out from other MMO titles in the market thanks to the blend of combo-centric action, lush Asian fantasy locales, and bombastic artwork by manhwa artist Hyung-Tae Kim. The combat is amazingly well-balanced for both PvE and PvP, and the game looks great and runs well. The downside? Blade & Soul has a relatively unimpressive questing and leveling system, and most of its dungeons are quite linear. Nonetheless, there is a lot to enjoy with what’s launched so far.
Final Fantasy XIV is the MMO that’s beaten the odds and challenged World of Warcraft’s dominance. Following a rough launch, FFXIV got its second life in 2012 with the release of A Realm Reborn. Now the MMO goes from strength to strength, with a fantastic story, beautiful graphics, and all the aesthetic flourishes of the long-running Final Fantasy franchise. It’s a great alternative “theme park” MMO to Blizzard’s World of Warcraft. The base FFXIV game costs $19.99, with a monthly subscription starting at $12.99.
Lost Ark is an action-focused MMORPG that’s packed with loot, stylish visuals, and an impressive amount of endgame content. It’s a free-to-play PC game that has been available in other regions for years now, but the title finally made it to the West in 2022. As a result, it launched with a tremendous amount of polish, delivering an expansive story with numerous dungeons to run and near-endless activities once you reach the level cap. Admittedly, the story content won’t take you more than 20 hours to chew through, but hardcore raiding, boss fights, character building, and resource farming await you once you get there.
Although many games based on anime franchises exist, they’re usually basic action or fighting games that lack depth and are created solely to pander to their fan bases. Enter the free-to-play Onigiri, a third-person, action-focused MMORPG. Onigiri is an enjoyable, highly customizable anime-meets-gaming experience that lets you mix it up with other online players. Despite its simple graphics and ho-hum music, Onigiri is worth checking out if you want to explore a virtual world that boasts thrilling combat and excellent voice acting.
You may have forgotten that developer BioWare maintains an ongoing MMO. The free-to-play Star Wars: The Old Republic is the successor to Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, a classic RPG that brought BioWare firmly into the mainstream. While fans of that RPG might bristle about engaging with MMO concepts, such as parties, dungeons, and raids, The Old Republic boasts amazing storytelling. Each of the game’s eight classes have their own tales and companions, and the reduced leveling grind lets you enjoy the game like a singleplayer RPG.
Digital Extremes’ spunky, action-RPG has grown a lot throughout the years. What started as a mission-based, persistent online game has expanded to encompass so much more. It now features open-world environments like Destiny, where you can skim across the surface of a planet on a hoverboard or soar through the stars on a Railjack starship. Warframe’s free-to-play nature means that it requires a lot of your time or money to level up or obtain the best Warframes. That said, Warframe has a universe filled with 50 million players, so you’ll certainly find a few dedicated partners.
Since its 2004 launch, World of Warcraft has been the MMO to beat. Azeroth is one of the biggest and best MMO worlds, one that lets you travel from locale to colorful locale while fighting demons, monsters, and fellow warriors at the behest of the Horde or the Alliance. WoW is one of the easiest MMOs to get into now that developer Blizzard added a revamped starting zone for new players and tweaked the leveling experience. The latest expansion, Dragonflight, takes your heroes to the Dragon Isles, the ancestral home of Azeroth’s dragonflights. If you’re a returning veteran who longs for WoW’s halcyon days, Blizzard also runs World of Warcraft Classic, a version that mirrors the game’s launch state.
World of Warcraft isn’t dead, but this expansion spends a lot of time focused on the concept. Shadowlands is the eighth major update for Blizzard Entertainment’s long-running PC game. Since 2004, we’ve seen the world shattered, fought back the Burning Legion, traveled to alternate realities, and even fought the very soul of a far off planet. Now it’s time to conquer death itself. And the mission is highly entertaining.
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