Realm of the Mad God is an unforgiving and fast paced MMORPG in beautiful 8-bit fashion. Wild Shadow Studios strikes gold with Mad God’s simplistic yet addictive gameplay, although the game is not entirely accessible.
Mad God can have up to 85 players in a world (explain) at any given time. There are no quests in the traditional sense, but the game prompts you to kill certain enemies and grants an experience bonus. There are no skills to master as in typical MMOs; your abilities are tied to loot. To get a better attack, you simply need to equip a better sword, and the same goes for your special ability. Each class’ ability is tied to an object; for example, an Archer has a quiver. Different quivers have different stats for the special ability. This streamlines the game for casual players.

Another nifty practice is the party system, or lack thereof. There are no formal parties in Mad God, just gamers who happen to be in proximity to one another. Anyone in proximity to other players receives experience for the creatures killed in the area, no matter who killed them. You can teleport to any other player on the map, making finding a group easier than ever. You can also teleport back to the safe zone, the Nexus. This is useful because you only have one life and once you’re dead, it’s back to level one. No need to worry though, because leveling up comes quickly, and death is occasionally welcomed. New classes are unlocked after achieving certain levels with other classes.

Combat in Mad God is fast paced and slightly shallow. All attacks are projectiles, so dodging is the key to staying alive. Fast reflexes are needed to maneuver between projectiles in order to avoid dying, much like side-scroller shoot-em-ups. The starting class, Wizard, has a long range attack so it is possible when playing with other people to stay back and let them take the damage. Some enemies have attacks so powerful that they kill nearly instantly. This usually only happens while fighting the gods, and not in general questing.
The controls require both the mouse and keyboard, dual-stick-shooter style. You move with the WASD keys, and aim with the mouse. While there is an auto fire feature which keeps the projectiles flying, there is no auto aim, making it hard to play one handed. With the exception of aiming, everything can be remapped to your liking, including hot keys for items.
On the visual side, Mad God offers large text, and there is nothing solely dependent on color. When selecting new items, the item stats will appear red if the item is worse or green if it is better, but you can also just compare the numbers. Unusable items have a red shaded-in portrait box instead of the usual gray, but there is no green box to confuse it with. There are some items, however, that do rely on color. Magic potions are purple while health potions are red, but scrolling the mouse over them says their names. During combat, damage points appear over the head of enemies and players, red for damage and green for healing, but damage will always be preceded by a negative sign.

The minimap on the other hand presents a problem. Enemies are red and players are yellow, but in a forest or grass area, but map is green. This can render the minimap useless in many sections. This does not render the game unplayable though. Avoiding those locations entirely is hard, but it is easy to play through them without the minimap. The minimap gives advanced warning of enemy crowds, but you will often see the enemies’ projectiles before they appear on screen and if things get really bad you can always retreat to the Nexus.
Another problem on the default setting is that the camera angle is at a forty-five degree angle, but the minimap is straight, making it hard to determine where enemies are in relation to you. This is easily alleviated by simply changing the camera angle to zero in the settings, but the settings can only be changed from the Nexus.

At a Glance:

Mobility: The dual stick RPG requires both mouse and keyboard. It also requires fast reflexes while fighting gods to avoid projectiles. Other than aiming (which is done with the mouse), everything can be remapped. Recommended score: 5/10

Hearing: The game is completely playable without sound, and no important queues are missed. The game only has ambient sound. Recommended score: 10/10

Vision: Large text, however color blind gamers may have trouble with the minimap. Enemies might not be detectable on the minimap. Other things like damage, healing, and weapon statistics use color but do not rely on it. For example whenever someone takes damage it is red, although a negative sign appears in front of the number. Health potions are red while magic potions are purple. Recommended score: 7/10

Overall: With the incredible price of free, Realm of the Mad God is certainly worth a try for gamers with visual or auditory impairments. It is not as in depth as most MMOs, but the quick leveling system and streamlined gameplay creates a unique 8-bit experience.