Before MMORPGs came on the scene, most online fun came from playing first-person shooters like Unreal Tournament and Tribes.

Thanks to the formidable success of World of Warcraft, gamers are now wasting months of their lives killing, completing quests, increasing XP and skills and going on mass raids to kill uber-bosses.

However, tough economic times mean subscription-based MMOs are now being seriously challenged by free-to-play versions and, following on the popularity of games like Guild Wars, Frogster has just launched another meaty rival in the shape of Runes of War.

Following extensive Beta trials, the game was launched last month with 700,000 registered players. Set in the fantasy world of Taborea, developers Runewaker have effectively synthesized all the finer attributes of the genre and added a few extras to keep the fans hooked.

Right from the start you have a wide range of physical attributes available when you're designing your character and initially you have six classes to choose from: Warrior, Scout, Rogue, Mage, Knight and Priest.

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However, as soon as you attain level 10 you can add a secondary class which you can then switch between. The drawback is that you have to first nominate your secondary class as the primary and then build up your XP from scratch. While you have full access to the complete level-based skill set of your active primary class, you can only simultaneously call on the ‘non-specific' skills of your secondary.

Everything in this game is designed to be welcoming and to get you involved as quickly as possible in the action. So from the beginning you can have your own house (which you can decorate with over 130 items!), which is useful both as a base and to store chests, new outfits and spare weaponry. You can even set up crafting machinery to save you having to queue up in the market place.

Crafting and skill learning is also swiftly encouraged: all six crafts can be learned initially, though you can specialise only in one. The Mini-Map gives you the location of not just enemies, quest-givers and quest-receivers but also raw materials that may be useful to your crafting in future.

With over 1,000 quests prepared for launch day, you will be able to build up your experience points and skill levels in no time and, as the title suggests, runes are used constantly for upgrading and improving your power. There's even an Arcane Transmutor tool that kicks in at level 15 which can be used to raise the tier of a particular rune or to change runes and equipment into other items.

There are currently at least nine regions to explore, plus dungeons (both for parties to take on tougher opposition and in the shape of caves and mines) and a completely separate PvP collection of servers for anyone above level 15.

We experienced no annoying load times between regions and, with loads of health bonuses to be collected and multitudes of unique mounts to be bought or hired, the emphasis is strongly on keeping the action going as seamlessly as possible.

If the future of MMORPGs is indeed going to be free-to-play then Runes of Magic, for all of its WoW mimicry, seems destined to lead the charge with its sophisticated, detailed and immersive gameplay.