On the prowl for an indie RPG gem or two in the rough? We’ll start this edition of obscure MMOs with The Warhorn, which sounds a bit like a medieval life simulator. You’ll take on the role of a newly minted adventurer who is attempting to establish a village while collaborating with others, exploring the world, and solving puzzles.
The $20 multiplayer game, which was developed by two Polish guys, just launched on Steam early access this week and will remain there until early 2020. The Warhorn definitely boasts a very colorful cartoony art style, and it’s encouraging to see the developers geek out over exploration and puzzles over straight-up combat.
If your budget is demanding a free-to-play experience, you might want to check out The Hammers End. This MMORPG offers a wide-open persistent world, public dungeons, and playable woodland races.
And if you can stand some rough edges, Auteria offers a quirky fantasy adventure through its free-to-play open beta. The game started development back in 2007 and hasn’t pushed out a patch since 2010 (but a new patch supposedly is on the way).
MMO blog Inventory Full gave this title a try and had this to say: “The whole game has the sweetly idiosyncratic sense of being someone’s passion project. It wasn’t much of a surprise, digging into the depths of the web page, to find that, like Project Gorgon, Auteria is the result of the hard work of a real-life couple, Thomas and Elke.”
Finally, you may have actually heard of Antaria Online, which is a terrifically cute MMO that’s been working its way through early access for a while (and only costs a buck). The team frequently patches this game, and a January 27th update added Gallant armor, the Chef’s Guild, and food.
