Thousands upon thousands of years ago, an idea was put into place to create a society of people who live lives, work jobs, and enjoy having different ideas and dreams. Now, the time has come to see how real life fares at this time and place. So, will Real Life live up to great expectations, or will it die a terrible death?

Real Life is a Massively Multiplayer Offline Role Playing Survival title that doesn’t have a gripping story. You could say that the plot deals with society as a whole rising and falling like the beautiful tide, but you play little to no part in it. Unless you’re luckily placed into roles of great significance, you will have no part in what happens. Will you live in the United States of America, a land filled with mind-altering media and dangerous food? Will you end up in North Korea, a terrible place ruled by an evil dictator and ridiculed by the rest of the world? Could you be placed in Israel where there is a harsh desert? The possibilities, although by random luck, are still great and numerous.

The good side to this is that everyone’s experience with Real Life is unique to that person. Not one person will have the same story to tell. Every struggle is unique, even though the tutorial, which varies depending on where you are, is much too long. After that, though, the world is yours to explore, given you have the right amount of currency called money. If you don’t have enough money, your options are very limited. It is almost as if certain things are behind a paywall or obligatory time limit that varies for some people. For example, in order to experience alcohol, I had to wait until I was 21 before being able to participate. It seems completely shoveled in and unnecessary.

The presentation, on the other hand, is phenomenal. The universal engines that Real Life runs on is nearly flawless. Immersion in Real Life is complete and secure. The soundtrack is nice and diverse and the visuals are something to look at. Although I would like to see some of the artists off of the musical list, the fact that these artists are also people in Real Life is still intriguing in itself. However, it does have its hiccups in its time. Early on, there were multiple discontinuities that people would proclaim as “miracles” that had to be fixed with multiple patches like the Photography patch, the major Media patch and the Internet patch. Even today, several things, such as snow on sunny spring days or planes going missing without a trace, still occur, so these rough areas have not been fully addressed.

Gameplay, however, can be a real let-down. Some of the mechanics like rejuvenating health are slow in development and takes the fun down a notch. While there are places like hospitals and restaurants to help people along their way, they still require money; especially the food. While this could be good in some cases, this is not one of those cases. The work minigames that Real Life provides are just not fun enough to keep the money aspect enjoyable, although the choices in this game are amazing. More of the mechanics, like most of the muscle controls, require time to perfect, especially in the walking tutorials. Some of the side activities, like working out, do help in that regard, but aren’t always easy to handle.

Also, there is the potential problem with the existence of only one known offline server, Earth. With over 7 billion people in Real Life sharing the same world, Earth will seem too crowded for some people and would probably crash the server before too long. However, new servers are being discovered and adjustments to the current one are being made continuously, which is nice.

 

Verdict: 7.5 out of 10

Real Life is a satisfying experience, even though the random aspect of it and constant need for money is annoying. The stories people have to tell after spending time in real life are unique and most of the time engaging. Because of the large open world and the amount of different events in it, it is worth it to engage in Real Life. With choices galore and improvements being made constantly, I would recommend Real Life to be a long lasting experience that everyone should know.

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Shawn Richards is actually a chemist goddess named Persephone who loves cats. Follow her highness on Twitter or Facebook.