Top 10 Best MMOs of 2015

Ah, MMOs. There’s no timesink quite like them, is there? 2014 wasn’t too hot a year for the genre, with heavy-hitters like Elder Scrolls Online failing to draw in MMO fans and newcomers alike and many promising-looking titles never being released outside of Asia. 2015, however, is looking much better, with both games that refine and improve on familiar concepts and ones that do completely new, off-the-wall things.

2015 sees everything from Minecraft-likes to old school oriented MMORPGs that'll be sure to keep you sated once you're done with Warlords of Draenor or wish to play something other than World of Warcraft.  

Whatever sort of MMO you’re looking for, you’ll probably find at least one you’ll want to play on this list. Feel like we left something out? Tell us in the comments!

Everquest Next

One of the grandpappies of the MMOs of today, the original Everquest helped popularize the genre alongside Ultima Online and introduced a lot of things that are common in MMOs today. Now, after nearly sixteen years, a sequel and a whopping twenty-one expansions, the series is looking to tread new ground with Everquest Next. 

Calling Next an ”ambitious” game would be selling it short. According to the developers, players will be able to mix and match classes and change the world in a number of different ways, as enviroments are fully destructible, choices players make having lasting consequences and players being able to make their own content. 

If it works well and lives up to the lofty promises, Everquest Next could be an incredible game and possibly the next step for MMORPGs. Here’s hoping it works out.

Everquest Next has no release date yet, but here’s hoping we get our hands on it in 2015.

Oort Online

Oort Online seems really similar to Minecraft. There, I said it. Players explore a blocky voxel world, building and crafting stuff while battling blocky monsters. However, that does not stop it from looking very fun to play.

While seemingly sticking quite closely to the Minecraft formula, Oort Online looks like it’s doing just enough to stand out with fun ways to get around like grappling hooks, a player-driven economy, the ability to claim land for yourself and the ability to travel between different worlds.

Oort Online is currently in early access, and the finished version will be released sometime in 2015.

 

Wander

In just about every MMO there tend to be a small amount of people who play it as pacifists – hell, one WoW player got to level 90 without killing a single thing – but what if there was an MMO where everyone did it? 

Wander just so happens to be that, because there’s no combat in it at all. Instead of killing X amount of creatures to get the Magical Doodad of Someone-Or-Other, players are encouraged to work together with other players to explore a beautiful rainforest and piece by piece uncover the plot. Also you can be griffins and huge, Groot-esque living trees.

Wander looks absolutely gorgeus, and a 100% pacifistic multiplayer game with a focus on exploration sounds like a breath of fresh air. We don’t know much more about Wander, but we can’t wait to try it out when it hits PC and PS4 sometime in 2015.

 

Black Desert Online

Chances are you’ve already seen South Korean MMO Black Desert before. More specifically you might’ve seen its absurdly advanced character creator, which internet denizens have used to recreate several celebrities because if a game has a character creator people always use it to make either celebrities or penises. Look past that, however, and you’ll see a game that is looking both really fun and really promising.

The combat looks incredibly entertaining and very different from what you usually see in MMOs, resembling an action game far more than an RPG, and there’s some interesting features like parkour, housing, mounted combat, castle sieges and (possibly the greatest feature) random dragon attacks.

Black Desert is currently in the process of getting localized for the west on the PC (PS4 and Xbox One are apparently on the way), so here’s hoping it makes it in time so we can try it out sometime in 2015.

 

Dreadnought

Be it in Star Trek, Star Wars or even Gundam, most sci-fi fans have probably imagined themselves in the captain’s char of a huge spaceship at some point or another, and Yager is looking to cater to that fantasy. Dreadnought is a free-to-play competitive ”armada-based” multiplayer game, putting players in control of massive, incredibly well-armed battleships duking it out in large-scale fights. 

The gameplay looks quite different from most other free-to-play shooters out there, and the prospect of massive fleet battles is intriguing indeed.

Dreadnought is out on PC in 2015.

 

Planetside 2

First Everquest Next and now this? Man, SOE’s on a roll right now!

In the far-flung future, three factions fight for control over the planet of Auraxis. There’s the authoritarian Terran Republic, the rebelling New Conglomerate and the alien-like Vanu Sovereignty, each with their own looks, weapons, vehicles and reasons for wanting to control the planet.

While Planetside 2 is gameplay-wise quite an ordinary shooter, it is a very good one and what elevates it above other games of its ilk is its massive map size and huge amount of players.

Thousands upon thousands of people facing off against each other at the same time and in the same match sounds like the stuff of dreams, but SOE’s made it a reality. It’s truly awe-inspiring to witness and be part of large conflicts in Planetside 2, with legions of soldiers fighting on the ground, tanks rolling over the hills and aircraft dogfighting up above. 

After having been out on the PC for a good while now the game is finally hitting the PS4 sometime in 2015, and like many other free-to-play games on the console Playstation Plus is thankfully not required to play it online. In other words, there’s no reason not to try it out if you own a PS4.

 

Skyforge

In the free-to-play sci-fi fantasy MMORPG Skyforge, players work to become gods. Like, actual, literal gods. That’s a pretty lofty goal right there. This is accomplished by the usual honing of skills and defeating bad guys, but also in some slightly less conventional ways like gaining followers and helping them out. After all, what’s a god without believers?

The combat is considerably more action game-like than the combat in most MMORPGs, with mouse button-based combos aplenty and incredibly smooth animations. With fifteen playable classes at launch that can be switched between seemingly at any time, level-free progression and huge-scale invasion events where players will have to team up in order to fight off massive armies, Skyforge is looking like a ton of fun. 

It’s out on PC sometime in 2015, with some components apparently available on smartphones and tablets.

 

Warhammer 40K - Eternal Crusade

Warhammer fans are probably foaming at the mouth over this game, but even those not interested in the series should take notice. Eternal Crusade is an MMORPG third-person shooter, set in a persistent (and open) online world based on the 40K universe. Massive armies of Orks, Space Marines, Chaos Space Marines and Eldars will do battle for control of a planet, outfitted with tons of different weapons, suits of armor and vehicles pulled straight from 40K lore and led by player-controlled faction leaders. 

While the game is only in early development right now, there’s a ton of promise here and the developers seem quite passionate and knowledgable about both the project and the subject matter. This game almost seems a little too good to be true, so here’s hoping it isn’t.

Warhammer 40K - Eternal Crusade is coming to PC in late 2015, with next-gen console ports on the way.

 

Tom Clancy’s The Division

We haven’t seen much of this game yet, which is a real shame. In the near future, a disease released on Black Friday has decimated the entire US in just five days and a military unit called The Division is established to combat the threat. As agents of The Division, players will have to work together and explore a devastated open-world New York in order to combat threats and retake the city.

It looks pretty incredible graphics-wise, thanks to the new Snowdrop engine, and the concept is really intriguing. With an interesting setting, tons of guns, futuristic gear and gadgets, the ability to both team up with and fight other players, Ubisoft’s combination of an MMO and a third-person shooter is looking really promising and we hope to see more of it soon.

Tom Clancy’s The Division is coming to PC, PS4 and Xbox One in 2015, with a tablet component also on the way.

 

Life is Feudal: Your Own

A lot of MMORPGs tend to be very traditional and samey, with constant grinding for gear slightly better than what you already have and endless skill bars and whatnot. Life Is Feudal: Your Own, however, is looking to do things a little differently. After all, a realistic medieval MMO with physics-based combat and a heavy focus on crafting, survival and co-operation isn’t something you see everyday. 

Tunnels and moats can be dug through the completely alterable terrain, castles and towns can be built and defended against attacking players, concoctions can be brewed via alchemy (with different recipes and combinations for every player), there’s a lot of interesting stuff to do to say the least. 

These kinds of games are brilliant when it comes to emergent gameplay and creating memorable stories, and there’s already loads of them – from absurdity like people digging tunnels into castles to steal pants to pleasantries like small communities forming and helping each other out.

Life is Feudal: Your Own is currently in early access on Steam, and the full version will be released sometime in 2015.