Hello and welcome to my review. I've been looking for a good mud to call home for quite a while. But in essence, I left a paid mud to play this free one. This is an honest review for mudders who are seeking a non biased mud-review.

To begin with, this mud is not for the casual player, simply because it has a HIGH learning curve. Moreover, the game is not easy- far from easy. The only reason i insisted in learning it was because of the fantastic game maps, which i will talk about in a moment. I definitely did not regret it, because every few minutes the detail in this game would captivate me.

The game is based on tolkien world with three sides- The good side, being the humans, hobbits, elves, half-elfs, the bad side- orcs and trolls, and one more side of rogue orcs, on nobody`s side. All the players on one side can only talk to the players on that side, and have no contact with the other side if not in the same room. When you log on to one side and type WHO, you will see a total number of players. At times you may see only 30 people online, but that is the total number of people online at your side. You cannot know how many people are on the other side, although usually its fairly balanced, with about 30 people on light side, and around 20-30 on the dark side. I haven`t an idea of how many play the third side.

It is open PK between the three sides, meaning you kill on sight. However, PKing on the same side can have in game consequences.

The mud has extensive help files, but it's no walkthrough. There is no newbie training area, and after character creation you are literally thrown into the game. The help files explain every useful command, but doesn't tell you exactly what else to do. What it does encourage you to do however is to ask ask ask. Players are very helpful in this game, and about three times people came to me asking if I were new. After responding yes, they would have me follow them to various places, some equipping me with better armor, some giving me gold, and some offering to hunt with me. Players overall were (are) helpful, and not once were any rude on the channels, either to me or to each other. You will see curse words once in a while.

Expanding on the game`s difficulty, when you die, you lose all your items, left on your corpse. If you died to an enemy, they are free to loot your corpse. They are actually free to do anything with your corpse, really. But, the same way, you can have fun with your enemies, like stealing those hard to find equipment after a careful backstab. This may please some people, might scare others, but its good to know that everyone can have a chance at the stronger items (this pleases me). At higher levels however, I`ve heard that the stronger items aren`t hard to get.

Obviously, PK is a heavy part of the game. You can form groups of wizards, warriors and scouts (all PCs of course) and raid the opposing areas, or go solo hunting for an orc (or vice versa, forming teams of orcs and trolls to terrorize unsuspecting players!) Pk happens anytime- I was fishing at one time and suddenly an *orc* comes running into area and leaving just as fast. A moment later, an elf scout and a dwarve darted past the room, following the orc tracks. The whole time my character was there, obliviously fishing.

Remembering the idea that you lose everything on death, there is no banking in this game, meaning you cant store your equipments or treasures anywhere- you cant even work around it, for example storing all your equipment on your horse and leaving your horse at the stables. This, again, adds tothe difficulty of the game.

Moving on, lets talk about the game details. The room descriptions are excellent, and for a world so big, i was surprised to see so many different descriptions. I mean, this world is BIG. It is so big that I mumble on the idea of having to meet a player at another city. All players have movement points, meaning you need to rest up after traveling. So when I travel to other towns, this means having to set up camp quite a few times. Every player also has the need to eat and drink, though there is no death for not eating/drinking. The penalties are simply on your movement points, which take a LONG time to regen when you are dying of hunger. When you are out in the wilderness without food, you will quickly see how much this is a problem. Continuing on with details, you can carry a hunting knife or use your dagger to butcher creatures of the wild, get their skin for selling and their meat for cooking. When in the wilderness, you can cook your meat by setting up camp with the CAMP command, and cooking meat in the fire. To cook the meat however, you also need to have a pan from a shop, oh which you use to place the meat over the fire. You can eat the meat raw, but eating the meat cooked means filling you a lot more. Also, setting up a fire is important for sleeping in the wild, or else you actually start getting sick. You`re character starts sneezing and such, of which in the end affects your combat skills until you recover.

You can buy oil flasks at shops to fill your lanterns in case they burn out when you need them the most (you don’t see a thing without them at night). Basically, you definitely need to prepare yourself before leaving town- You need to have a knife, a cooking pan, and a fishing rod in case you want to fish for food, a lantern, oil flasks etc. Most of the above things can be attached your belt so you can free your hands, and including the lanterns.

More on details, I was surprised when my character was arrested for wandering into a town, of which I was not a citizen, with my weapon drawn. Guards came to me saying I was under arrest, and waited, actually giving me the option if i wanted to follow them to jail, run, or fight. I chose to follow, so I actually followed them through town and was thrown into jail. I was delighted with this feature, although I had to wait a few minutes in real life (in-game day) before being set free. One can be charged for many crimes, of which all adds up to your total sentence.

So after leaving jail, I found a shop of which i was interested in buying some supplies. The shops in the game close at sundown and open early in the morning, and you can actually see the shop owners preparing to open their shops (and close it).

The game has no potions, but bandages, meaning, if you get wounds, they can be bounded up with bandages depending on your skill. Or you can have other PC clerics heal you up. The game has an excellent weather system that affects you in many ways. There is also an aging system that modifies your stats according to how young or old you are.

Moving on, leveling in this game takes quite a while if you are new, although one achieves hero status upon reaching level 20. You can continue leveling up however, achieving legend status at level 27. From then on, it gets VERY slow to level up, although the max limit is 100 I think. The mud is 20 years old now in 2011, and only one or two characters have ever reached that level.

The world is big with many options for exploring. You can find wild horses in the wilderness and immediately ride it. you can also keep them in stables for later use.

Now, the best part of everything- The maps. The game is very big, and dedicated players have created what I find to be the best map for any Mud that I have ever come across. It is a real time mapper that you actually download, and connect through localhost to play mume. I use mushclient to play, and have the mapper open above the client so I see my realtime movements. Players won`t experience a single lag (at least I never did) from the mapper, and the map updates immediately upon movement. The map is exceptionally detailed, with little room icons to display what one might encounter there. You can find it through google, its called Mmapper. Google MUME MMAPPER. It is constantly updated, last time being in April of 2011?

Unfortunately this is not a roleplaying mud, since most player`s goal is to kill the opposing side. If you are looking for a roleplaying mud, this mud may not appeal to you. The game lacks a roleplaying channel and you`ll constantly see conversation of pkers (on the same side) through the NARRATE channel. There are also no clans (if I am not mistaken) for if there were the option, I would definitely be the first to create a roleplaying clan. I happen to like roleplay, and I and a few others insist in that aspect. If you want to roleplay with a small community, then feel free to join me.

Again, if after reading this review you decide to try the game, remember that it is very difficult to learn it. As a newbie, you may die by orcs or trolls ( if you adventure too far, or a group of enemies just happened to show up wherever you are), especially for the reason that they have no idea of knowing that you are a newbie. When we encounter players of the other side we simply see things like *ORC* or *TROLL*, and if you were on the bad side, *HOBBIT*, *HALF-ELF* and *HUMAN*. So, dying constantly and starting from zero may scare many players. The best thing I can recommend, and with good results, is to constantly ask for help via the NARRATE channel. People are friendly and from experience, they are quick to help those that died. Don`t forget to read the abundance of help files that are available too. Good luck on finding your home mud. I`ve found mine!

Hi guys and gals! If you are reading this, then you are considering play MUME. This game is singlehandedly the best MUD i have ever played. The game has a steep learning curve but there are many ways of learning the game quickly and efficiently. The player helpfiles are awesome and very helpful and most of the players are willing to help out. There are the random smart mouths (ME) but ignore the banter and you will find out that they are helpful as well! ;)

MUME is such a wonderful, huge, and amazing world that it is very difficult to explain in just one little box. In my humble opinion you should take the time and play the game and learn the nuances of the magic of MUME. As a long time player and gamer, I avidly stress the fun that MUME will be. If you like strong communities and amazing player interaction, this is the game for you. Peace out for now. Thanks for reading this tiny piece on the world of MUME. See ya on the other end of my blade!

Curt

I played several MUDs before trying MUME. I remember my first impression of MUME was that it's hard. By comparison, most MUDs are relatively easy to learn, level up, and acquire items. And like a lot of people, I initially lost interest and played other MUDs - MUME was too big, too hard, and too complicated. In 2000, with the upcoming Lord of the Rings movies, I decided to give MUME another try. It didn't take long before I was a helpless addict, and the irony is that the very same reasons why I left before are why I got hooked and continue to play today.

It's too big! It's massive, detailed, sprawling...and it's wonderful. I loved the Lord of the Rings and other books (The Hobbit, Silmarillion, etc) and playing MUME has educated me with its exceptional detail and adherence to Tolkien's vision. Minutia of Middle Earth that I hadn't even begun to consider is illustrated in exacting detail throughout the entire MUD. Areas, objects, and characters, both central and peripheral to the story, populate and enrich the game world. Grey Havens, Blue Mountains, Shire, Bree, Fornost, Weathertop, Rivendell, Misty Mountains, Isengard, Tharbad, Lorien, Fangorn, Rohan...and yes of course Moria, are all present and ready to be explored. And MUME continues to grow and add new detail to an already rich environment. I know because I am now one of those people that help make it grow.

Yes it’s still hard! But that's the fun part. Yes, MUME is harder (at the beginning) to play then most MUDs, but it is also much more rewarding. Equipment is difficult to acquire, areas are large and sometimes hard to learn, mobiles are very diverse in both description and purpose. These factors come together to create a very challenging environment. But you learn through others and personal experience, and you start to acquire items and learn what you need to know to overcome obstacles.

It is complicated! But that’s because it’s so elaborate! Think about this - how many games have you played, learned everything there is to know about it, and then become bored and stopped playing? For me, that happens with most games. But MUME is much too complex to learn everything about it. And even if you expertly learn every single detail that there is to learn about MUME, there is the PK factor.

For some it is THE reason to play MUME. PK on MUME is incredibly competitive. And MUME management has done a very good job of maintaining the competitiveness. This doesn't mean that things are balanced. In fact playing the dark races is significantly harder then playing one of the free people races. But don't make the mistake of thinking that darkies are weak. They just have a different set of strengths and weakness. To paraphrase the matrix, if you see *a dreadful Orc* then you do what I do, run! Seriously though, PK adds an extra element of excitement to MUME that very few MUDs have been able to accomplish.

The helpfiles are extensive and detailed. I highly recommend taking the time to read as much as you can. If you need further help, try asking a God or another player. The Gods on MUME are usually very helpful, but will not reveal game secrets and will not directly interfere with gameplay except under extraordinary conditions (bugs, cheating, etc). There are also many helpful players, though at times it may seem that there are few. Like any online game nowadays, MUME is a collection of people and personalities from all over the world. Expect to meet and talk with people you normally would never meet. There is also a fair amount of roleplayers, though roleplaying is not the focus of the MUD.

There are many classes, races and skills to choose from. Obviously certain combinations of these are more powerful than others, but any combination is possible and some players have turned MUME multiclassing into an art form. Traveling and gaining experience in groups is highly encouraged and in fact necessary in some situations. The combat and magic system has the complexity and balance that you would expect of a very mature MUD.

A few things to note before trying MUME: - MUME has a large and active playerbase. I frequently see more that 100 people logged in. But if you are new to MUME, you will not see all these people for many reasons. The main reason is because MUME maintains a very strict race war separation. If you are playing an elf, you will not see any of the darkie players in the who list - and vice versa. In fact there are actually three sides to the war. You also won't see invisible Gods that are logged on. Players can optionally be incognito, and they also will not show up in the who list. And if you're a lowbie, you can't see shrouded (similar to invisible spell) people. There are many reasons why if you type who, you might only see 50 people. But don't be fooled. You won't even know that one single orc is playing until you are suddenly stabbed in the back and die to *a dreadful Orc*! Trust me on this, they are out there. - For reasons similar to what I've written above, MUME may not seem newbie friendly. There are definitely worse MUDs, but MUME has a challenging learning curve that might prove too difficult for some people. There are newbie kits for players of levels 1 through 5, but these are not automatically given out and every once in a while there might not be an active God on to give out the kit. If you are new, just be patient, read the helpfiles, and then look for Rangers or Istari (players marked by the Gods as helpful and honest) who will aid new players. - Reading the Tolkien books is not necessary. The books provide familiarity while adventuring through MUME, but any critical knowledge needed for playing MUME can readily be gained from playing. Of course I highly recommend reading the books, but this has more to do with my opinion of the books themselves, then out of gameplay necessity.

I am thoroughly taken with this game and the people that play it. For me it has become more then just a game - it's a social experience. No I don't take the game too seriously, but I do take the people seriously. I count them among my friends and acquaintances. And if they are playing an opposite side, they are temporarily my enemy.

Briefly about me: I started playing MUME regularly in 2000. I am active as both a player and area builder. Everything I've written above is based purely on my own personal experiences with MUME as both a player and builder. I do not speak for MUME management and nothing I've written above should be construed as such.

Once upon a time I discovered the fair land of Middle Earth. Here, noble elves wearing burnished chainmail and wielding glittering spears fought to the death with the foul creatures of the Dark Lord Sauron. Across hill and dale, from the tallest mountain to the deepest mine echoed shouts of triumph and screams of agony. Great warriors fell, the faint of heart fled, and out of the carnage of battle arose new heroes of all races.

MUME is an immensely varied world in which a player may assume the role of a soldier of the free people or a servant of the Dark Lord Sauron. There are numerous races and classes, with an immense amount of combinations to choose from.

The world itself is massive, stretching from the immortal lands of Valinor in the West to the Forest of Mirkwood in the East to the City of Fornost in the North to the Plains of Rohan in the South. It seems that building activity has picked up recently, with Isengard, Rohan, and Fangorn being recently opened.

While RP is encouraged, MUME is, and hopefully forever will be, a PK-centered MUD. However, despite the fact that most choose at one point or another to join the epic war between the Armies of the West and the forces of Sauron, it is possible to avoid PK altogether.

MUME has a large playerbase from all around the world, with the vast majority being friendly and at least somewhat helpful. As a longtime player, I would encourage anyone willing to have some fun and try something new to give MUME a try - perhaps the Land of Middle Earth can become a home for you!