Trends come and go, genres wax and wane, but MMORPG with earning features? They are always relevant. Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games (MMORPGs) give people an opportunity to connect with others in a fictional world where they can just have fun and escape reality for just a little while. Can Mir4 be one of the classic heavy hitters of the genre? Or will it disappoint?

DEVELOPMENT HISTORY

Mir4 is an MMORPG game that takes heavy inspiration from the original “The Legend of MIR” released in 2004 on PC. This project’s game inspiration has been popular in parts of Asia. Although the gameplay of Mir4 is very similar to “The Legend of MIR” there are major graphical differences between the two because Mir4 is powered by Unreal Engine.

Mir4 is from a South Korean-based developer, Wemade. Launching on Steam and mobile devices  in 2021 for 170 countries and 12 languages. Ranking first on numerous app stores’ most downloaded lists and as of 2022, the player base of Mir4 is still stable.

GAMEPLAY SUMMARY

Mir4 is an MMORPG set in an East Asian-inspired world. The story is simple enough to understand. It starts in ancient time where the player is a disciple of a great master guarding the princess. Unfortunately, the princess is kidnapped and this is where the journey begins.

You can choose from 5 different classes. Afterwards, there will be some cinematics before you are free to enjoy and explore the open world. The player can choose to follow the storyline to avoid unwanted death from early game since death gives debuffs like decreased stats for a certain period of time or reduced experience points. Other than that, there are also game modes the players may choose from: Boss Raids, Clan Expeditions, and Castle Sieges to name a few.

Game gear is also important in the game and so is crafting. After crafting the best gear, the players can now engage in combat with monsters or other players. The combat is semi-automatic where you can just one tap to start hitting a 3-combination attack. It will automatically utilize a skill after a combo if you don’t tap any skills. It seems as though it’s heavy on the auto-play side of things.

EARNING POTENTIAL

Players may earn cryptocurrency by participating in Mir4's blockchain-based system. Players in Mir4 mine Darksteel, by actually "mining" it in dungeons or clearing quests within the game. Darksteel may be converted into “DRACO”, the utility token, through the process known as smelting. Players can “smelt” Darksteel into DRACO at a ratio of 100,000 Darksteel to 1 DRACO, plus a small fee paid in Darksteel. The utility of DRACO includes allowing the players to purchase in-game assets outside the game.

OVERALL IMPRESSION

Mir4 has had a number of downloads since its release. The game lets you mint your character as an NFT and what I like is that Mir4 excels in the character customization aspect because there is so much you can modify.  The character creation screen looks polished. There is good music, sound effects and voice acting. I really have no complaints in this area, it’s just that when mining for Darksteel, the pickaxe against the rock makes weird grunting sounds which comes off as suggestive sounding, seeming out of place.

By this time you believe that Mir4 will be fun. Wait until you start playing. Well, there is not much playing since you just need to be present with it. Mir4 can accommodate you as long as you are a conscious entity. Mir4 is completely auto-play. Completing quests needs only a couple clicks here and there, you don’t really need to control anything. 

Even though Mir4 offers an open world, there is actually nothing to do within it. No reason to explore or fight the enemies. Yes, it’s large but it feels empty and void of content. Then aside from autopilot, there is also an auto-pathing. You can try to manually do things but the game would default you back to autopilot. Moreover, Mir4 bombards you with new unlocks, new shouts, new skills, new orbs, new pets, new slots until you find the pace relentless. It’s like watching an MMORPG that’s overheating. Sure you can meditate at some spot in the game for something like energy, but notifications will remind you to spend and you’ll notice the chat is completely unmoderated where anyone can say anything. Being greeted by Mr. RealMoneyTrader_24 or similar with their WhatsApp number offering garbled offers to sell crypto.  

FINAL THOUGHTS

I have a certain soft spot in my heart for MMORPGs with Asian aesthetics like this where I expect myself to be able to play it, but Mir4 didn’t provide me the opportunity to do so. I didn’t like the game very much and I’m thinking that this mobile game was just brought over to PC for the company to earn more. But still, we are not all the same and you may find the auto-play feature appealing since you wouldn’t be staring at your screen all day for you to play it. So it all comes down to personal preference whether you’ll dive into this game or splash out on something else.