This weekend I finally got to dig into MapleStory 2 beyond the character creator, and I have to say my initial reaction was oh no. It felt super awkward, and I was immediately off-put by the fact that my character seemed to keep going dumbly into cutscene fights and waking up in a hospital or equivalent. Even my kids watching over my shoulder started laughing at my character’s scripted absurdities.
But after about 30 minutes of that, I started actually enjoying myself: The controls felt more natural, I was skipping cutscenes (sorry), combat started to feel a bit Diabloish (in a good way), and I was loving exploring the city, gazing over player homes, and watching people whip out pianos for impromptu concerts. Plus, something about zoning into the Halloween hotel and seeing a hundred or so other players crammed in there just made me giggle.
Either way, I’m glad I didn’t judge the game solely by its base controls and goofy plot.
When was the last time you were wrong about your snap judgment of an MMO?