The new Steam MMORPG is free-to-play, but there's a catch

Sword of Justice is a new cross-platform MMORPG that's currently free on Steam for all users, but it's had a rough start, with almost half of its reviews so far being negative. Sword of Justice was one of the most anticipated releases on Steam for fans of the genre, mainly because it promised to be one of the few MMORPGs without any pay-to-win mechanisms.

Many MMO fans were excited Sword of Justice after its closed beta received positive feedback before its global launch. Several content creators who joined the test praised its visuals and noted that the game is F2P friendly, with few or no balance-affecting microtransactions. However, now that the game is live, hundreds of Steam users are criticizing it for other reasons.

Sword of Justice Steam reviews don't look good

Developed and published by ZhuRong Studio, Sword of Justice launched on Steam on November 5th, with global servers opening on November 7th. Since then, the latest free-to-play MMO has received over a thousand reviews, with roughly 49% being negative. While most players seem to agree that the game looks good and shows potential, many are disappointed by a few key issues. For example, some reviewers claim this Sword of Justice is a mobile game poorly optimized for PC, while others argue that the timed activities hurt the progression system. Unfortunately, these are not the only problems Sword of Justice currently facing PC.

One Steam user wrote: “It's only the mobile version Justice online ported to PC and renamed.” Things don't look much better on mobile. Sword of JusticeThe Android version on Google Play has an average user score of 2.9, while its App Store rating is 3.9. Developer ZhuRong Studio has yet to comment on the game's declining reception across platforms, especially on Steam, where negative reviews may soon outnumber positive ones.

Sure, not all reviews Sword of Justice are unfavorable. Fans of the Chinese MMORPG praise its breathtaking visuals and large open-world map, which they consider impressive for a free-to-play game on Steam. Many also note that developers ZhuRong Studio have successfully kept the gameplay friendly to casual players, creating what they call a rewarding grind rather than a stressful experience driven by the fear of missing out.

According to the team behind the game Sword of Justice it surpassed 40 million downloads across Asia and racked up millions of pre-registrations in the West before its global launch. This shows that Sword of Justice already reached a large audience. However, the question remains whether ZhuRong Studio can recover from the current wave of negative reviews and maintain its player base with future updates, or if the game will soon be relegated to the forgotten MMOs.