I decided to give this MUD a try because of its high ranking here on the site. I've played a few other MUDs, I may not always stick with them, but I like trying them out. So after playing on Merentha for about a week and getting a general feel of how things go, I thought I'd submit a review. My general feelings are mixed. As with anything, there are good and bad points, but I get the impression that you just have to deal with some things to have this be a good game.
Some good things first. The class/race system is interesting. You pick a race when you create your character, but don't choose a class immediately. You enter the game without one and can reach up to level 5 before you must choose a class. Each class also has a number of subclasses for you to choose from, sort of specialists in a particular area of the larger class. I think that's pretty neat. Another interesting thing is that certain races and subclasses require you to complete quests before you can join them. I have no idea of exactly how that works, but it's certainly another interesting aspect of the game. There are also a list of quests that you can do whenever you want. You can read a brief description of them and get a suggested level from your class hall. Having a set of quests available on demand is a plus. Likewise there are deeds that you can do and get rewarded for. These just sort of pop up during the game. Figure them out and you get a reward for doing a good deed. I like these, too, but see below for negatives. I was told that mortals can reach up to level 99 which is a larger maximum level than other MUDs I've been on. Skills and stats can be increased by training them, spending experience points on them, which is another plus. There appear to be a number of different "worlds" to explore, at least some of which are connected by balloon rides. I haven't been playing long enough to check them all out, but it's neat that they're there. It supports aliases right in the game, no need for some client program to store them for you. I find that helpful since I'm sometimes on a straight telnet connection. Generally the other players are helpful and I usually get my questions answered, so I haven't had many problems in that regard.
Now some of the problems I've found. The help files are not complete. There are a number of commands that exist in the game but have no corresponding help file. This not only leaves you without a good description of exactly what the command does/is used for, but you're left to guess the proper syntax for the command on your own. Well, guess or ask people and hope they'll be helpful. The help files that do exist appear to be pretty good, but all the commands should have help files. Whatever parser-type system the game uses is apparently old or something because verbs that you'd expect to be synonyms or at least get responses from often don't work. Sometimes you end up playing "guess the verb" to figure out how to do something and I personally can't stand that. Also it's hard to tell if you're really in a "guess the verb" situation or if you simply can't do what you're trying to do. This kind of older interface to the game I find a bit of a problem, but it's not an unsurmountable difficulty. For those of you who like to multi-play, this wouldn't be a great choice. You can have multiple characters, but they can't be online at the same time and they can't interact in specified ways. They all have to be distinct, separate characters. I generally don't multiplay so it's not a problem for me, but I thought I'd mention it.
The biggest thing I have problems with is that this MUD is *very* strict on the topic of quest/deed information and keeping it secret. Not only are you not allowed to give out such information if you have it, but the rules say you're not even allowed to ask for quest/deed information. OK, quests are listed so you know what they are and you can tell what you can't ask about. But deeds are just there in the world. How you're supposed to know something is a deed and you can't ask about it before you've solved it to actually *know* it's a deed is beyond me. And you get varying replies from people if you happen to ask about something that is a deed -- sometimes it's a polite refusal to give information, sometimes you get "I don't know" type replies, and sometimes you get shushed or yelled at for asking. Apparently some people get upset if you just mention stuff that's deed related without even knowing that's what you're doing. I've gotten shushed a few times for that (which I have to admit is a clue that I'm on to something). I should mention that if you can find someone else that hasn't solved the quest/deed, you can work on it together, but asking on public channels in order to find someone seems to be frowned upon. Overall, keeping quest and deed info secret is OK, but people should at least be polite about it and not everyone is. The rules should be a little more relaxed about asking for information, too -- if you can't tell something's a deed to begin with, how can you know not to ask about it? (People tell you then you're supposed to shut up is one response I got when I asked essentially that question.)
So there you have my thoughts and opinions from the short time I've been playing Merentha. Overall it seems like a pretty good game if you can get over the parser/syntax problems and the high degree of secrecy regarding deeds and quests. Sometimes those problems get in my way though and prevent me from truly enjoying the game. But as with anything, if you're interested, give it a shot yourself and make your own opinion.
