Silkroad is a free-to-play, client-based MMORPG. It is based in ancient China.

Graphics
I run a computer with an average graphics card, on the medium settings, and the game looks beautiful. It can run on higher settings, but you might find that it slows down your computer a bit. There are detailed effects for shadows, the sun, monsters, attacks, and the whole lot.

Sound
I am unfortunate not to have any speakers for my computer, thus I can only go on what my friends tell me. The music suits the theme very well; however it gets a little bit boring and monotonous after a while. If you like it, keep it on. If you don't, mute the game and play music in the background yourself.

Gameplay
Silkroad is very different from most MMORPG's, in that it is not based on classes, and only lightly based on levels. When you level up, you get 3 stat points, to put in either Strength or Intelligence. Intelligence increases your maximum MP, your MP regeneration rate, your magical power and magical defense. Strength increases your maximum HP, your HP regeneration rate, your physical power and your physical defense.

Then there's the skill system. There are weapon masteries and force (magic) masteries. For weapons, there is Bicheon (swords and blades), Heuksal (spears and glaives), and Pacheon (bows). For Force, there is Cold, Lightning, Fire and Force (healing). While you are fighting, you get 2 sorts of experience: EXP and Skill EXP.

Every 400 Skill EXP gets you a skill point. You can then spend these points into very skills, based on your mastery. You can have as many masteries as you want, but each one can't go higher than your level. Also, you can only have 300 mastery points in total. Then, when your mastery gets to a certain level, eg. 5 mastery in Cold, you unlock a new skill that you can spend points on eg. Ice River Force. These skills can do a range of things, from powering up your weapon, to a single strong blow, to multiple hits in a row.

This is a very interesting system, as I have never seen one like it.  The only main problem with the gameplay is the grind. You find yourself killing the same monsters over and over and over again, 100s to level up. The makers (Joymax) tried to offset this with various quests available at different levels, but the grind is still noticeable.

Playtime
There are currently 7 servers in the game. You can have 3 characters on each server, with one username. This, along with the endless possibilities of skills, means hours and hours of playtime.

Overall
This game has features from many different games all rolled into one very good game. The first impression is a Baldur's Gate-like game. The skill system is unique, however this skills themselves can be compared to many different games. The "Berserker Gauge" is similar to the "Chaos Metre" in Rakion.

Game Score

B-

Reviewed By: Contributed