I'm going to start with stating the following fact: this dev has made more of a video game than most of us, including me, let alone, an MMORPG. Let's not disillusion ourselves, the game feels more like a tinkering project the dev is using to learn how to code in Unity. Because this is a review of the GAME and not the DEV, I'm going to get my grievances out of the way first:
1. Graphics are reminiscent of late-90s.
2. The music cuts out- ambient music is important to an MMO, to me, even if some people turn it down or off.
3. It's not intuitive. Despite these "tutorial" missions, I had no idea what to do. Not all of the controls are laid out.
4. The text speed is a bit too slow. It would be nice to be able to skip text or force it to all print at once, like with a click.
5. The ambient sounds, such as those of the cow, completely startled me. They are odd, and way too loud.
6. Despite standing still, my computer's GPU (A 12GB RTX 3060), was running at 77% utilization. I suspect this is due to the developer's inexperience, which results in a combination of a bad allocation of resources, as well as having the entire world be generated the entire time (meaning no cut scenes or "rooms") when it is entirely 3D. If you are wondering about the cryptomining/cryptojacking allegations, I will address these in a minute.
Especially with the current standards of MMOs (WoW, Black Desert, Lost Ark, FFXIV, even Runescape and Roblox), gamers who seek out MMOs (and usually play more than one) have expectations way above what is presented here, even if it is just one developer, and not a multi-million dollar company, behind it. Why would we play this, when we have all these other, "better" options, some of which are completely free? The developer is being exceptionally ambitious here, but I think they need to slow down, and take their time. This is not going to be the next Everquest, but I DO believe this is a valuable endeavor for them, regardless if this is a passion hobby, or if they are an aspiring career game developer (or perhaps a game/lore writer?).
Overall, I feel nothing but respect for the developer. Again, while I have some coding experience, and I'd love to make a game, I certainly have never pulled the trigger. I originally found this game, because I am writing an article that features gameplay and reviews of the worst-rated MMOs available on Steam and this was not a mobile port and it was at the bottom of the list of games tagged with "MMORPG" when ranked by ratings.
This guy is consistently pushing out updates for the game. He also constantly updates the social media and website associated with the game. This, in itself, shows a distinct passion and love for this little project. The dev also responds to questions or concerns quite quickly, including those regarding bugs, indicating when they are fixed. This right here, is more than a lot of "bigger" devs or MMOs do.
This game has received mostly negative criticism in reviews and comments, even in a YouTube video, created by a relatively large Gaming YouTuber, with over 447,000 views, 14K likes, and 1100 comments, where it was called the "Worst MMO Ever" and ripped to shreds for all of 31 minutes, and more-so in the comments and, despite this, the developer appears to shrug it off, and keep moving forward. There's no retaliation, and no argument (that I could find), despite some very hurtful words.
Even more, there have been multiple allegations of this game's true purpose being "Cryptojacking", or using the player's computer to mine cryptocurrency. The allegations were based on the fact that the game basically abuses the user's PC (specifically, RAM, CPU, and GPU usage) to an absolutely unheard-of level, especially for such a mediocre game. I actually ended up switching my article's subject matter from "Bad MMOs" to these allegations (it is neither finished, nor published yet), and did my investigation alongside a good friend who works in the cybersecurity industry. I downloaded it onto my PC and played it, and did an extensive look-through.
My findings: This is 100% NOT a cryptojacking operation. And here is how I came to that conclusion:
1. Yes, the game utilized an insane amount of resources from my PC. My GPU utilization was consistently at a solid 77% utilization despite my character standing still, and using an RTX 3060, and it was also using around 6 out of 12 GB of RAM that my GPU had. (CPU utilization was a bit lower, but it's less important since Cryptomining almost always use GPUs or ASICs) This is insane, yes. However, a quick look at where my GPU's power was being allocated (which can be seen easily in Task Manager on Windows computers) showed that nearly all, if not all, of it was being put towards 3D rendering. Only 1-3% was being allocated for Computing, which is really normal. I suspect that it's because the world is completely rendered 100% of the time, and there's a lot of assets to add detail, even if most are "low quality". There's a reason why most games use draw distance or "rooms". This is incredibly taxing on machines!
2. I also kept a log of every process/service that was active while the game was open. After researching what each individual one is and what they do thoroughly, I can conclude none of them were unexpected.
3. Next, with the game open, I ran multiple and various Netstat commands on my computer. For those who don't know, when you run a Netstat command in Command Prompt on your PC, it lists out all of the connections your PC is making. You can get the IP it's pinging, the FDQN (the actual website associated with it), and the application that's making your PC make that connection. The only thing DreamScapes is connecting to is its own website. Even so, I checked every single IP address that was listed, and everything was expected.
4. Also, with the game open, I ran a deep scan on my PC. Nothing of note was found.
5. Lastly, I even checked the game's official website itself, since it was connecting. "Driveby Cryptojacking" is when javascript is added to a website's code where, when someone is connected to that website and only then, your PC mines cryptocurrency for them. However, this method is very much less commonly used than it was, as it is not very efficient, and this method also uses a PC's CPU instead of its GPU. Nonetheless, I combed the website's source code, including its javascript, and found no evidence of Cryptomining code.
As a side note, the hosting for the website and the game are based in the UK, as well as the developer. Not to make assumptions, and this is not a strict requirement, but most cryptojacking originates from Asia and East Europe.
So yeah, dude, keep on!
PC Specs While Playing:
OS: Windows 10
GPU: RTX 3060 12GB
CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600 6-Core Processor 3.60 GHz
RAM: 32GB
