MapleStory is fairly typical of fantasy based MMORPGs. It’s is based around exploring dungeons and battling monsters, while gathering Mesos (money) and experience points as well as items in order to level up. Monsters in MapleStory are never human, which is odd for an MMORPG, instead MapleStory will have you fight the undead, animals, plants, oozes and constructs. The MapleStory world consists of 4 large continents, common to all versions of MapleStory, complete with jungles, planes, mountains, tundra and more. The world is full of towns and cities to explore and interact with other players.  You can play a number of minigames with other players and the chat system is very entertaining considering the amount of expression you can make your character display while talking. MapleStory has a huge number of quests to go on, which centre mainly on overcoming obstacle courses, gathering resources, or defeating monsters and claiming items. When you start MapleStory you customize your character, however you don’t chose a class, instead you are given a beginner job to undertake, while you familiarize yourself with the game. Once you reach level 10 your able to chose your class; Warrior, Pirate, Magician, Thief or Bowman.

Despite having only 2 dimensions, MapleStory has a very engaging graphical style, reminiscent of Saturday morning cartoons. The game world is bright and colorful. MapleStory has an extremely rich 3D backdrop, which changes as you move across the screen. The towns and cities in MapleStory are well defined and memorable. The characters themselves are extremely detailed, and hugely customizable.

MapleStory in game chat.

MapleStory is not without its faults. There is a lot of grind involved in leveling, and at higher levels it can take a good few weeks level up. You should always check the reward for your quest, they can sometimes be pitiful when considering what your tasked to do. The music in MapleStory is good for a while, but it gets repetitive, but luckily there’s a mute button.

Despite its faults, MapleStory is a fun game with charming graphics, you’ll meet decent people, see them talking about the oddest things, and the character you create will really grow on you.