DOMO Review

by Chris Scarbrough, Onrpg writer

Dream Of Mirror is a free to play MMO that takes place in a world alternate to our own. Developed by Softstar, leading brand of Chinese video games industry. The game takes place in trmthternate reality known to be inside of the “Kunlun Mirror.” Exceeding numbers over the 400,000 mark in Taiwan alone, I decided to see exactly why this game is so popular.

Storyline
The main storyline is quite good from the very start. While unique, it manages to still maintain the usual RPG storyline feel that we all know and love. You'll start of in a beginner area with no idea what's going on. The beginner areas offer things such as beginner quests, whermtrsic things will be explained. From here, you can level up a little to support yourself in the upcoming adventures.

You'll learn all about the main storyline from the twelve Mirror Kings, rulers of the world in which DOMO takes place. While not physically able to help, they will often guide you often through the main storyline along with the help of other key NPCs. Once you've completed the beginning quests of the game, then storyline will begin to take off. You'll be given the option of pursuing freedom and peace between humans and monsters, or to uphold the law in all it's glory. Depending on what path you take, certain things throughout the game will change. Giving this game a wide array of possibilities when it comes to storyline options.

Sadly, the storyline can be a little confusing at t, and the directions on what to do extremely unclear. That's the only bad part about it.

Gameplay
Conside that the game itself requires one to have -a lot- of friends to enjoy, you'll need to actively be social and be out and about trying to find yourself a guild and buddies to do things with after about level 25. If you're not a social person, chances are DOMO is not for you.

In most MMO that are quest oriented the game will quickly wear your will to play down by repeatedly sending you out of your way to do things that really aren't very relevant to anything in the main storyline itself, much less assist you in building a bond with the characters involved to make you interested. In DOMO, many of the quests available attempt to tell a story about the people ined, regardless of how silly or senseless the story may be.

That having been said, the game as a whole doesn't revolve very well around the main storyline. I found myself in many situations where I questioned if what I was doing was rent to anything or if was just something placed there to waste time.

For progression, it's basically do quests and level up enough so you don't die miserably whilst trying to do something. As far as actually completing the quests goes's your typical deliver X item to John Doe, or take a bunch of your buddies, go out and kill a monster and return to X with its drops.
Combat is boring and shallow because it consists of clicking the monster and havat it with whatever weapon you have equipped. There’s not really much depth to it.

Customization
DOMO uses a system where leveling up nets yoints to use to power up your characters. Once your character is created, the possibilities are endless. Leveling up will net you 3 Stat Points that you can use to power yourself up, and 3 Skill Points that you can use to raise your Job Abilities.

Aside from powering up, theres a Job system, after a certain level, you can choose from onethirteen professions. Since you can and probably will choose all professions in the end, the amount of customization available for your character is enormous. Always a plus.

On top of ALL that, there’s a relationship system that can give you special abilities and attacks. I wouldn't go preteg to like someone just for an ability or attack, though.

Sadly, whatever race you end icking, it's a purely cosmetic choice. No matter what you pick, your stats, skills and class choices will be the same.

Interface
I felis was one of the more simplistic areas of the game. Sticking to the usage of hot keys or macros to use your frequently cast spells, commands and items.

Seeing as your Hot Keys only support F1-12, you'll find yourself in a situation w you simply can't put all of your necessities at the press of a button eventually.

The menus are located at the bottom left side of the screen, you can hide them or choose to display them for quick access when you might need to change one of your hot key macon the fly.
The ca itself is the only -big- problem I had with this game. Due to a camera that doesn't like to move with the characters themselves, and having to use the mouse to change camera angle or view, it was hard to navigate in smaller or enclosed areas, such as caves, dungeons or even shops within the towns.

Communication
The main problem most MMORPG have is that they design their communication systems poorly, making it too complicated or adding too many features that just aren't needed at all. Thankfully this game, for the most part, has it together. My only pem was I found myself typing when I was trying to move around the maps. Other than that, everything is organized and easy to understand. Thought bubbles for communication between NPCs and PCs, and a chat log for PCs to communicate with other PCs was the route taken in this game.

Aside from your basic text your character can express emotion bubbles depending on the situations they're in. Incredibly comical most of the time, you'll be seeing things from sweat bubbles with snide remarks,confused swirling marks when your character doesn't understand what's going on.

Graphics
The everpopular Anime graphics are implemented yet again in this game – And it's done quite well! The environment is lush and the characters are smooth. Best of all, lag is minimal, even with multiple objects or people on screen. Even if you're having lag, the game has the option to turn off PC models.

Music
DOMO unfortunately, doesn't thrive in the music department. What few music tracks it have are incbly annoying at times. I muted my sound after about thirty minutes, mainly because none of the music is constantly playing. It would catch me enjoying the silence, surprise me, and make me want to rip my hair out

Extra Game Features
Pets! In DOMO, players are given the chance to raise their own pets from an egg. From the Pet Menu you can set it to give your pet, 25%, 50%, 75%, or 100% of the exp you would otherwise obtain, be it solo or in a party. Right clicking your pet will give you one of six options, Attack, Alert, Follow, Special Skill, Stay, and Recycle. To find out what these commands do, and the different possibilities with a pet, yl have to play for yourself!

Seeing as the possibilities foret are almost endless, it's hard to find two pets that are the same. Since pets are a fundamental part of the game, you'll find yourself leveling and having fun with your pet often.

Pros
- Good storyline
- Good graphics
- Good communication interface
- Original, easy to use menus and hot keys
- In-depth character customization
- In-depth pet raising system

Cons
- Game doesn't revolve around the main storyline very well
- Annoying camera
- Annoying music
- Mediocre combat system

Personal recommendationIn DOMO's cathe good outweighs the bad, easily. If you aren't playing another MMO right now and are looking for one, try this out.