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Tibia

Tibia is an open-ended 2D fantasy MMORPG originally released back in 1997. Despite its age, Tibia remains incredibly popular, with over 15,000 users online during peak hours. The game has a very strong emphasis on PvP, making it one of the most hardcore MMORPGs.

Publisher: Cipsoft
Playerbase: High
Type: MMORPG
Release Date: January 7, 1997 (NA)
PvP: Open PvP
Pros: +Hardcore PvP elements. +Over 20 years of updates.
Cons: -Dated graphics. -Tons of botters. -Subscription required for some content. -Steep learning curve.

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Overview

Tibia Overview

Tibia is an old school MMORPG created in the days of yore when bandwidth was a major consideration. While it has been outpaced by more modern MMORPGs and their development, Tibia’s 45 degree camera angle and old school graphics will definitely ring a bell of nostalgia. If you’re a fan of pixelated indie games, you’ll find something in here for you. Despite its age, Tibia still remains quite popular both in the US and internationally. The game regularly boasts over 15,000 players online at any given time. Like RuneScape, Tibia has managed to keep its core audience interested in the game.

Tibia Key Features:

  • Hardcore PvP – choose to play on the Hardcore PvP servers, and test your skills in a penalty-free PvP world.
  • Easily Accessible because Tibia requires a very low bandwidth, players from all places can easily jump in.
  • Loyal Playerbase a large and active community that drives the game, keeping Tibia exciting and alive.
  • On Your Own – there is no hand-holding, as Tibia leaves players on their own to explore and forge their own path.
  • Tried and True with over fifteen years under its belt, Tibia not only boasts a large amount of content and updates, but also the appeal of being a classic.

Tibia Screenshots

Tibia Featured Video

Tibia - Official Trailer

Classes

Tibia Classes

Classes, which are called vocations, follow the traditional RPG lines. Note that you have to reach Level 8 before you’re allowed to choose one.

  • Knight – they specialize in melee combat with all sorts of weapons and armor. They specialize in physical skills and can carry the most gear/loot in the game.
  • Paladin – they specialize in long-distance combat with weapons like Bows, Crossbows, Stars and Spears. They have a balanced skillset of physical and magical abilities.
  • Sorcerer master of offensive magic. They focus on dealing as much damage as possible to their opponents with a wide variety of spells. They have the least physical strength in the game.
  • Druid they are masters of healing and nature. A largely supportive vocation, but with access to some powerful spells like Icicle and Avalanche.

Full Review

Tibia Review

By Albert Bassili

Tibia was released in January 1997 by CipSoft and is part of the first generation of MMORPGs (think Meridian 59, Ultima Online, and Lineage). As such, Tibia has all the staples of what one would consider a typical MMORPG: monster killing, treasure hunting, and questing/exploration. Furthermore, Tibia currently spans across 77 servers - 38 in London and 39 in the United States. However, given its low bandwidth requirement, and the fact that it now has a web-based option, joining in from anywhere shouldn’t be too much of a problem.

First Steps

The player starts off in an area called Dawnport, what is essentially the rookie or newbie area of the game. Here, a player can test the four vocations before making a decision. The tutorial is a bit on the short side, meaning that players will have to play for a while before learning everything. That being said though, the point-and-click and the WASD movement styles shouldn’t be too hard to get used to. The angle of the camera sometimes makes crashing into walls an issue if a player isn't paying attention. Aside from that, there’s the typical toolbar to cast spells and take actions, as well as the chat, which is the primary way to interact with NPCs. There’s buttons littered all over the interface, but these aren’t very important at the beginning. Finally, there’s very little customization at the start. Players mostly just equip whatever items are lying around.

After about an hour’s worth of killing deer, rats, trolls, and goblins, Level 8 will have arrived and a vocational choice has to be made. Once that is done, players are released into the Tibia world at large and can chose one of the many cities in the world as a new home base.

Out and About

Tibia mainly focuses on player exploration, and therefore doesn’t hold the player’s hand much. It doesn’t tell players what to do or where to go, and there’s almost complete control over how it can be played. Hints don’t come often, and players are mostly left on their own to figure out how to do things. Even more so, compared to other MMOs, Tibia isn’t very forgiving. Death comes often at the beginning and may be a bit disheartening at first, but becomes a defining feature as the game is played. If you die one too many times, you get booted back to the rookie island and have to essentially restart. This is one of the reasons that the player base has been around for over a decade, even though there are newer and more technologically advanced MMOs. The hardcore element in Tibia simply doesn't exist in newer games.

Death is accompanied by a loss of experience, skills, and most sadly, the backpack. Players lose anything they stored in the backpack. Even gold isn’t immune, since players have to carry it in the backpack like any other item. Fortunately though, when a player dies, all the items remain at the location of death. This is assuming that the items haven’t been looted by other players.

Guilds also play a large role in the game, since Tibia is driven by the players and the communities they create. In the long run, guilds offer a great benefit to players, enhancing their wealth and helping them along their path. Unfortunately, the creation of the guild is relegated to players with Premium accounts.

Combat and Player Killing

Combat isn’t very dazzling in Tibia, with a simple click to auto-attack format. Players can equip the standard range of melee and ranged weapons such as bows, spears and swords. The player also has the choice of setting the combat stance to either Defensive, Offensive, or balanced.

In addition to this, there’s magic, which all vocations can cast to some degree. Magic comes in the form of spells and ruins which need to be acquired, and are consumed upon use. There’s also elemental magic spells and ruins in addition to the elementally neutral ones, but they don’t play any larger part than a traditional combat system.

PvP in Tibia is based on the server players choose with three options to pick from: (1) Optional PvP, where players can only attack other players during guild wars; (2) Open PvP, where player combat is available but overly aggressive players are marked with a skull that gives some debuffs; and (3) Hardcore PvP, which is completely free PvP without any penalties.

Premium

Premium content actually plays a large part in Tibia for any form of long-term gaming. While thankfully not pay-to-win, Tibia’s Premium is more about pay for convenience. This includes things like being able to ride special mounts and faster ways to travel, renting houses, premium quests and areas, offline training, and many more features.

While a player could play Tibia completely without any form of Premium, in the long run, it tends to help a great deal. This shouldn’t be a put-off though, since the fun of playing Tibia is the challenge. Premium merely removes part of this challenge and honestly takes away from the enjoyable aspects of the game.

Final Verdict – Good

Tibia holds a special place in the heart of the older MMO gaming generations and hardcore players. It represents one of the oldest and most accessible (connection-wise) MMOs. Unfortunately, the incredibly steep learning curve and unforgiving nature might make most modern MMO gamers shy away. That being said though, if you enjoy rogue-like games, then the punishing quality and community-driven style of this game should be right up your alley.

Videos

Tibia Videos

Tibia Hunting • Deepling em Gray Island

System Requirements

Tibia System Requirements

Minimum Requirements:

Operating System: Windows XP or newer. Linux Compatible
CPU: Any 500 MHz CPU or better
Video Card: Any GPU that supports at least DirectX 5.0
RAM: 128 MB
Hard Disk Space: 100 MB

Recommended Requirements:

Operating System: Windows XP or newer. Linux Compatible
CPU: Any 900 MHz CPU or better
Video Card: Any GPU that supports at least DirectX 5.0
RAM: 256 MB
Hard Disk Space: 100 MB

Tibia is an incredibly old game. It was originally released in 1997, so if you have a functional PC, odds are you'll be able to play Tibia just fine. If you're having issues running the game, try to launch it with administrator privileges and compatibility mode set to Windows XP SP3. An unofficial client for the game allows it to be Mac Compatible. Simply search for the Tibia for Mac client if interested.

Music

Tibia Music & Soundtrack

Tibia has no in-game music.

Additional Information

Tibia Additional Information

Developer: CipSoft
Head Designer(s): Ulrich Schlott (Aka Durin), Guido Lübke, and Stephan Payer
Other Platforms: Adobe Flash, Windows, Linux, and an Unofficial Mac Client

Foreign Release(s):

The current version of Tibia published on Cipsoft's official website is the global version of the game. There are no IP Resitrctions in place for Tibia.

Development History / Background:

Tibia was one of the first MMORPGs to ever reach widespread popularity. The game launched in January 1997, a full 9 months before the critically acclaimed Ultima Online. Like Runescape, Tibia is technically "free-to-play," but players need to pony up a monthly subscription to get full access to the game. Like Ultima Online, Tibia launched as a hardcore, unforgiving MMORPG. Dying meant item loss and open world PvP meant constant lingering danger. Tibia was developed by the German company, CipSoft, originally known as CIP Productions. The name refers to Cip-Pools program, which provided financial aid to programmers in German universities. Tibia was one of the first graphical interface multi-user dungeon-style games (GIMUD) as the first public test server launched on January 7, 1997. The original Tibia world at launch was only 160 tiles by 160 tiles. Despite the game's age, Tibia still thrives today with thousands of persistent users online at any given time. There's also a thriving community of players across various Tibia private servers as well.