When comparing Realm of the Mad God vs Town of Salem, the Slant community recommends Town of Salem for most people. In the question“What are the best browser-based multiplayer games?” Town of Salem is ranked 2nd while Realm of the Mad God is ranked 3rd. The most important reason people chose Town of Salem is:
The main aspect of the game is that you never know if anyone is lying to you at any particular time. This also goes for the player as well, as you can lie to anyone anytime. Which makes for quite the guessing game that asks of the player to use their deduction skills. When doing this with large groups and especially groups of friends this can make for a fun time trying to figure out who is doing what in the game.
Specs
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Pros
Pro Fast-paced combat
With a spell and a weapon equipped you aim and shoot at enemies and dodge their incoming projectiles. Sounds simple, but it is not when you have over 100 different missiles coming at you.
This is the essence of Realm of the Mad God (RotMG). You are supposed to evade enemy attacks and strike back yourself to countless numbers of enemies. Just as when you feel that you have beaten the last enemy, another one starts firing at you. All of this comes varied as different enemies, have different attack patterns, projectile speeds and intricacies to them.
Pro Easy to learn, hard to master
The game is built with 8-bit retro style in mind. Such design choices made the game feel and look simplistic, and not overwhelming right from the start.
The game is simple to pick up with a helpful tutorial aiding you at the beginning of the game. A few minutes in you will find yourself accustomed to controls, interface and the abilities of your character.
If you play for a while, you will encounter more dangerous enemies that will force you to flee and to face them once again until you are able to fight against them properly.
Pro Huge fights
Realm of the Mad God features massive fights that occur between players and Oryx's minions. Some of the most exciting and terrifying enemies are not beatable alone and it requires co-operation between the players. As a result, you will see yourself teaming up with other 85+ strangers and trying to beat the boss.
Pro Permadeath
Permadeath is what adds spice to this game that makes it what it is. If you die, you lose your beloved character and all the items you had with you. You start over again.
This is what draws you in to play more as you want to get back where you were.
Pro Variety
The game offers multiple settings, hundreds of different items and monsters. Over a dozen of different classes with different powers, abilities, perks and playstyles are available to try out.
Pro Fun bluffing based gameplay
The main aspect of the game is that you never know if anyone is lying to you at any particular time. This also goes for the player as well, as you can lie to anyone anytime. Which makes for quite the guessing game that asks of the player to use their deduction skills. When doing this with large groups and especially groups of friends this can make for a fun time trying to figure out who is doing what in the game.
Pro The game keeps you playing, it's actually original
You can't find a game where you are this involved with other players anywhere else on the internet.
Pro Dedicated player base
Tons of people are playing Town of Salem and its different game modes, so you won't have a problem finding people to play with.
Pro Diverse gameplay
There are so many different game modes and roles to add.
Cons
Con Pay-2-Win
The game uses "Coins" as a currency to purchase both cosmetic and fundamental items to the gameplay. Coins cannot be earned and are only obtained through real-world money. Although you can grind your way to all of the items without paying, it will be harder and will take longer than paying a few bucks for one of the best items in the game.
This can be felt when you have to pay to not run out of vault space (permanent storage for your items) or have another character slot without sacrificing your initial character. Moreover, in the Nexus (game's town safe area) you can buy one of the strongest items in the game.
A prime example of this would be maximizing pet skills which help you in combat. It takes months taking skills to the maximum level, if you are not willing to spend any money. On the other hand, if you pay a significant amount of money, it will take you less than a day.
Con Sometimes lags
There are various issues that can cause lag within the game. For some tips in dealing with it you can read here.
Con Glitches back to the main screen
During massive brawls, where there are a lot of enemies and other players, the game starts lagging and glitching. Worst case scenario, the players are sent back to the login screens.
Con Repetitive
In order to take your character's skills to the highest levels or obtain strongest items in the game, it will require grinding. Grinding means doing the same thing over and over again to gain something of value. This is where repetition comes in.
Usually, this is felt when players are trying to make their characters strong enough to compete with end-game content (strongest bosses). This requires maximizing the skills and obtaining items which sometimes could take a while. For instance, the chances of getting one of the strongest bows in the game "Doom Bow" is 1%.
Con A lot of renegades
There are players that like going on their own and killing innocent people without any clue or strategy.
Con Gamethrowing
Sometimes, players act against their goals to win. For example, a member of the Mafia may end up purposefully revealing the whole Mafia. At that point the game is practically over. Luckily, you can report people who are gamethrowing within the game itself.
Con Uses Adobe Flash
Most browsers are starting to deprecate Flash as a plugin, (unless you have a browser like Google Chrome, which uses its own fork of Flash) you won't be able to play this game without having to purchase it on Steam.
Con High learning curve
It may be best to read up on this game and familiarize oneself to the rules and mechanics as well as common abbreviations. One particular aspect to learn about would be the 29 different roles found in the game, as you may be any one of them at the beginning of a game.