Ghost Online is a fast paced 2D Side-scrolling fantasy MMORPG currently being published in North America by Netgame. The game plays much like it’s competitors, but unfortunately that’s about it, as the game has very few unique features. The game is still a worthy alternative to the other side scrolling MMORPGs and is well worth checking out.

Publisher: Netgame
Playerbase: Medium
Graphics: Medium Quality
Type: MMORPG
EXP Rate: Medium
PvP: Arena / Event only
Filesize: 1625 MB

Pros: +Unique graphic style. +Plenty of playable classes and job promotions. +Helpful tutorial. +Great background music. +Good interface.

Cons: -Repetitive combat. -Text is blurry and hard to read. -Limited PvP options.

• Overview
• Full Review
• Screenshots
• Videos
• Links
• System Requirements

Overview

Ghost Online Overview

Ghost Online is an interesting 2D Side-scrolling MMORPG by Netgame. It seems that the side-scrolling MMORPG genre is really starting to take off, as more and more publishers are launching their own side scrolling titles. I’m not going to sugar coat it. Ghost Online looks virtually identical to Maplestory, so it loses points on innovation, but the game does have its own two legs to stand on and is well worth checking out. Players start their adventure in the game’s world as a classless peasants and can advance to one of the game’s four job advancements at level 10.  The game’s four first job advancements are:

Warrior - Warriors are the generic ‘fighter’ class in Ghost Online. They have high defense and can deal a moderate amount of damage in melee combat. The drawback to playing a warrior is that they do not have many ranged attacks and can’t deal as much damage as the game’s other classes.
Assassin - Assassin’s are the most agile and stealthiest class in Ghost Online. They have incredibly high attack power, but weak defense. They can use both ranged and melee weapons as they are skilled with both throwing stars and claw weapons.
Magician – Magicians are the generic offensive spell casting class in Ghost Online. They are capable of dealing large amounts of damage from a distance with their powerful spells, but they have the lowest hit points of all the classes. They are capable
Champion - Champions are hybrids of Warriors and Assassins. They can deal more damage than a warrior in melee range, but have less defensive capabilities.

Ghost Online Screenshots

Ghost Online Featured Video

Full Review

Ghost Online Review

By, Omer Altay

The one thing I see online every time I look up information about Ghost Online is an ongoing debate about which game came out first, Maplestory or Ghost Online. Now, I’m not exactly sure which came out first, but from everything that I’ve read and seen, MapleStory was released before Ghost Online. I’m not sure what the big deal is, but apparently a lot of people are taking a side and fighting over it. I personally feel that it makes no difference, as a lot of games copy each other, and that’s normal. In fact one of the things I really like about Ghost Online is that it used the same graphic style as Maplestory and even improved it a bit. Ghost Online was also one of the first 2D Side scrolling games to directly compete with Maplestory, so in that regard, it’s original.  I’d also like to point out that Ghost Online only came to the United States in the last year or so, as it was previously only available in English on the Malaysian servers. Needless to say, but the Netgame servers for the game have significantly less lag for players in the United States.

First Impressions
When I first created my character and entered the game world, I was presented with a rather creative tutorial, as while the game was teaching me the basics, it was also introducing the game’s story. Now, I don’t think I need to really mention this, as most of you can probably already guess, the game’s story doesn’t really make much sense, as these free MMORPGs don’t tend to put a lot of effort into quality translations. The premise of the game’s story though is that an old legendary fighter ate some plant that made him young again, and that young man is you.

All players start their journey in Ghost Online as classless peasants and can advance to their first real class upon reaching level 10. The game’s four starting classes are Warrior, Assassin, Magician and Champion. Upon actually entering the game I quickly found my way out of town and began grinding. The game’s experience rate is a bit faster than that of its competitors, as reaching level 10 will only take an hour or two depending on how you play the game. I actually found moving around and the overall feel of the game to be extremely fluid and responsive. On top of that, the game’s interface is top notch. The only thing that really turned me off from the game was that it has absolutely no background music, which is a shame, as listening to some background tracks would be a good distraction from the game’s grind oriented game play. I really don’t mind grinding too much if the game I’m playing has catchy music. I was never expecting Sword of the New World like epic music, but the fact that the game has no background music is disappointing.

Core Gameplay
Ghost Online’s core gameplay is similar to that of every other 2D side scrolling game, in that movement and combat is almost identical. Players start with three points into every one of the game’s four attributes; STR, DEX, PHY and INT and gain four additional attribute points each level. In addition, each level rewards players with two skill points. Skill points aren’t too important early on, as peasants only have access to the game’s most basic skills until they reach level 10 and advance to their first job. The game’s four starting skills are Sprint, Wind Jump, Meditation and Wind Blast. One thing that I actually really liked about Ghost Online is that the game has some useful starting skills. Skills like Sprint are incredibly important and should be maxed out right away, as they increase your characters movement speed. This skill alone makes moving around in Ghost Online incredibly fast, which is a huge improvement over Maplestory’s incredibly slow movement and gameplay, at least in my opinion. The game’s questing system is fairly simple and effective. Players find every quest that’s currently available to them in their quest log and also keep track of quests they’re working on in the same area. Generally everything from moving around to combat in Ghost Online is incredibly fluid and smooth.

Small Community
Perhaps my single biggest complaint about Ghost Online is that the game has a fairly small playerbase. I made my character on the game’s most populated server, which seems almost deserted. The one thing that I don’t understand is why on earth Netgame would create four servers for a game that has a small playerbase. It just doesn’t make sense. The game should just consolidate all the servers into one big one, so the game feels like it at least has a community. This really isn’t as big of an issue for those strictly playing the game with friends, but for everyone else a small community can easily be a ‘deal breaker’. One of the reasons I loved LaTale (another 2D side-scroller) so much, is that the game had a large population. Maybe it’s just me, but I enjoy seeing other newbies alongside me grinding away struggling to reach the next job advancement. It just feels disheartening to see many of the starting areas completely empty, and unfortunately that’s how it is with Ghost Online

PvP Options
Aside from grinding and completing quests, the number of features available in Ghost Online is extremely limited. Luckily, the game does have some PvP options. Upon completing a special question players can select one of the game’s two factions, Order and Chaos. Players from both factions can participate in faction vs faction PvP events. Also, once a week on Sundays, players can participate in the game’s ‘Castle Siege’, which is a massive 30 vs 30 PvP event.

Final Verdict – Good
Although Ghost Online doesn’t have as many nearly as many features as its competitors, it’s still a solid game. If you’ve already played MapleStory and LaTale and are looking for similar games, then Ghost Online is certainly worth the download, otherwise I would recommend LaTale or MapleStory over this game.