Monkey King Online

Game overview

Monkey King Online is a browser MMORPG developed by R2Games and inspired by the Chinese epic Journey to the West. In the game you play as one of four characters – the Fox, the Bull, Iron Fan or the Monkey King himself – on a sprawling fantasy mission, defeating monsters, leveling up and customizing your character with items you can find, craft or buy. On top of this, you can also choose to team up with other players, join guilds or just battle it out in player-versus-player combat.

The most unique and, for some almost bizarre, aspect of this game is probably the Auto-Path feature, which should really be called Auto-Play. Choose this and the game literally plays itself for you, helping you complete the main story mission, collect items and gold or even just do battle with anyone in range. While it works well, this system may not be for everyone, though it will certainly delight players who have long dreamed of having someone else mine gold and exp for them.

The game has fairly impressive graphics for a browser, but sometimes experience slow performance with backgrounds taking a while to load. However, interesting multiplayer options and fairly complex combat make this title worth playing for fans of the genre.

Full review

Getting Started

Based on the classic Chinese epic, Journey to the West, Monkey King Online draws entirely from Chinese mythology for its characters, setting and even the skills you use to do battle. You begin by choosing one of four characters – the Monkey, the Fox, the Bull or Iron Fan. Unfortunately, the selection screen only gives you a short description for each, so you’ll need to check out the site’s Guide section or forums to find out more about each character’s stats, skills and mounts – the horses that will be your companions throughout the game. This seems like a big oversight for a game that’s all about customizing your character, plus you can’t change character once you’ve started. In the end, I chose Monkey simply because his tagline made me chuckle: “Imprisoned in a rock for 500 years. A bit upset.”

Solo and Multiplayer

After a single menu of story background, your character materializes in a huge room heaving with other players and NPCs. While Journey to the West is a fascinating tale, the story here is clearly just an excuse for a lot of fetch and kill missions. That said, there is plenty of intrigue going on for those willing to invest time in reading the dialogue screens, though the tasks you’ll do to advance the story can get pretty repetitive.

Fortunately, there are a lot of other multiplayer options if you’re not that into the solo mission. You can team up to play the mission with others, join guilds for special guild missions or just attack your fellow players for some good ol’ PvP. The game allows you to easily switch between play modes depending on what you’re interested in - in Peace mode keeps you safe from other players you’re free to focus on the story mission, Guild mode allows you to attack anyone outside your Guild, and so on. There are also unlockable multiplayer scenarios completely outside the story world, like Fief Wars, where guilds work together to hold down certain areas for 30 minutes at a time.

The game that plays itself

Perhaps the most controversial of the game’s functions will be the Auto Path and AFK (away from keyboard) features. These allow you to sit back and let the system play for you through the entire mission if you choose, or even engage other players in PvP.

Auto Path will play the story mission for you, and is automatically activated when you begin the game. Turning it off is easy – you simply double click on an empty patch of ground – but it also turns itself back on automatically whenever a particular task has been completed, which may annoy players who really just want to play for themselves.

AFK, on the other hand, sets your character to attack any killable character nearby, whether monsters or other players. You can customize your AFK settings to tell the game how wide you want the auto attack radius to be and how you’d like to be healed or revived with potions should the battle not go your way. Though its name and the R2 guide suggest AFK mode is meant for players wanting to take a short break, it’s more likely that many will use it to easily mine gold and experience while they prepare for a bigger battle.

Though they may annoy some, it must be said both functions are highly effective – you’ll hardly ever die on Auto Path or AFK, since the game automatically uses potions and your best attacks to keep you alive. If you’re happy to just experience the story without the click frenzy of battle, or if you’re trying to level up your character with minimal effort, these two modes are definitely for you. For everyone else, Auto Path can also be very helpful in telling you where to go, as the minimap doesn’t give you any directions unless you’re already standing right next to the next quest marker.

Game currency

The game has several different currencies – from earnable Gold and Chi for potions and upgrades, to Taels which must be bought and can be used to purchase special items or recharge your Gold, Mana and Chi. Gold is ridiculously easy to earn – as a newbie, I amassed nearly 200,000 after playing for just 10 minutes. Chi, which is earned from some quests, daily rewards or by meditating, takes a little longer. Just these two are enough to get you started, though certain items and locked skills can only be purchased by Taels, giving paying users a real edge at the higher levels.

Combat and customisation

Combat is the central mechanic of the game, and it has quite a bit to offer. Beside your character’s own skills, which can be unlocked and upgraded as you progress, there are also Immortals for you to collect and improve. Once you’ve unlocked an Immortal, you can transform into it during battle, giving you new skills and attributes. You can short key up to three Immortals for some interesting variety in battle, and R2 has promised to regularly add more to the game.

On top of this, you’ll soon receive a slew of items from quests and battles to customize your character with. Further on, you’ll also unlock the ability to enchant or craft special items, though this requires enchanting stones which you only occasionally receive through quests. If you’d like to craft more, you’ll have to purchase the stones using Taels that must be paid for.

A seriously crowded field of play

While the art and graphics of the game look pretty good, playing Monkey King may be visually overwhelming for some. When the game began, it took me a while to even locate myself in the crowd since everyone’s character is the same size and font colours on user titles are all the same. I found the overcrowded play area to be one of the weaknesses of the game – sure, there are plenty of other players to fight or chat with, but it also quickly becomes difficult to tell who is attacking whom. Often, an enemy you’ve defeated will respawn in exactly the same place so it can be attacked by another player on the same quest.

The chaos of the play area isn’t helped by a cluttered user interface, with buttons and data bars all around the screen, and more added as you unlock new features or timed events. This makes relying on the Auto Path and AFK functions a lot more tempting, just to give you a rest from trying to figure out what’s going on in the visual chaos. The clutter may also explain the game’s spotty performance at times – when entering a new area, slow load times can sometimes make the beautiful backdrops and character avatars appear only as pixelated fog for you to run past.

Conclusion

Monkey King excels in its multiplayer content, with various scenarios or co-op options for those who love online interactions. While it’s auto play features may be a little puzzling for more traditional players, there’s no doubt that they work well and offer a clever get-around for the repetitive grind of gold and exp gathering that plagues most MMO titles. While the title offers decent graphics, the game screen and play areas often feel way too cluttered. Still, a recommended MMORPG for fans of multiplayer experiences.

Review summary

1. Getting Started
2. Solo and Multiplayer
3. The game that plays itself
4. Game currency
5. Combat and customisation
6. A seriously crowded field of play
7. Conclusion