Pardus

If you find yourself at a loose end after the usual shift of visiting your regular web sites, and you fancy a bit of diversion, how about launching into deep space, and roaming around the galaxy, doing some mining or trading, or how about some piracy and fighting against other online players? How about all this, for free? Well, you can do these things and much, much more in Pardus.

Pardus is a free (yes free!), Massive Multiplayer Online Browser Game (MMOBG), which involves space exploration and trading, and could turn out to be a great way for you to while away an hour or so each day online. If you’re really lucky, your work’s firewall might let you in, in which case, your lunch time entertainment problems may be solved.

While the game itself may initially look rather retro graphics-wise, and of course, there is no sound, it is worth persevering with if you like a decent bit of depth to your cosmic role-playing, with a large slab of online community interaction thrown in, and you get an idea of what this game is all about. The first thing to do when you visit the site, is to register – a quick and painless procedure which will have you logged-on in minutes and ready to start the trainer section (this is essential and it is advised to complete it all before venturing out there on your own).

Once you have learned the basics and have been launched into the proper game, you will discover that it is completely open ended, and you are free to follow any number of career paths, join factions, gain wealth and experience points which can be used to enhance the in-game experience by upgrading your ship and it’s equipment, or even buying and running your own farms or space stations (amongst others).

With some MMOBGs, there is the problem that hardcore gamers (who have a lot of time to spend online) can rack up experience and wealth to their advantage over the more casual gamer. This can’t really happen in Pardus, as the game’s creators have come up with a rather clever system which basically rations everyone to more or less the same amount of action points to spend every day. This roughly equates to everyone getting to spend about 30 to 60 minutes a day on the game before running out of action points and having to wait to recharge these points before continuing with their adventures.

Another important feature of this game is the multiplayer aspect, where you can join factions and form alliances, fighting alongside other players, and of course get attacked and robbed by others too! You can also not only chat in the real world forums, but also in-game, where you are encouraged to remain in character of course.

The game is hugely detailed, and is eminently suitable to players who have a lot of patience and are willing to learn the complexities of this, at times, overwhelming game. There are many players who have been playing for years now, and admit themselves that there is still much to do and try out and explore. Pardus will not suit everyone, in fact, it is probably fair to say that it’s a niche game that suits a certain type of online gamer, who is not fussed about fancy graphics and sound, but prefers solid game-play, a friendly and intelligent online community, and highly detailed open architecture game-play.

If you think that may describe yourself, then  it's certainly worth checking out over at http://www.pardus.at/