Is this even a game? I wouldn't think so.

While there is a genre of games known as "Idle" games, it is a question of intent perhaps more so than quality that determines what we classify as an "Idle" game. An idle game is deliberately designed for one to step away from the game to allow it to progress. Games like Idle Champions and Cookie clicker are examples of this. While those games are recognized as games immediately, I had a hard time recognizing Darkmoon Realm as an "Idle" game. On the surface the game presents itself as a simple Warcraft inspired desktop game: Character creation is limited, there's endless resources identified exclusively by appearance, and the game shows several dozen icons and menus that are inaccessible until you reach a given level or buy VIP status. While one could easily claim that Darkmoon Realm was very much supposed to have been an Idle game, I would simply chock its failures up to laziness on an industrial level. When you switch to the "BOT" mode the game still runs in the background, however it brings you to a singular space where you can walk around and control your character. What is in that space? Why a bunch of level locked NPCs that act more like menus of course!

The difference, I find, between Darkmoon Realm and its contemporaries is this: You have absolutely no control over your character or anything they do at any time except to launch boss fights. This "feature" confused me at first. Auto-attacks are common enough in games, however uniformly it is industry standard to Either have set battlefield positions available, or to allow the player to control their positioning. Neither of those options have been implemented into Darkmoon Realm. While I could continue to dissect different complaints and "features" of the game, I will simply list a few "features" that caught my eye.

The classes are man, girl with magic theme, girl with priest theme. Followers obscure your health bar in combat. The game explains next to nothing about its various menu options and currencies until a quest insists you simply push a required button multiple times. I didn't even know what Diamonds were or where they were kept on the screen until I found them on my own. At a certain point an object is added to your inventory and raises the notice flag, but cannot be removed without buying the associated offer.

Ultimately, it will be out of sheer boredom if I do pursue further Bananas from this particular game. There is no soul to it. There is no voice acting aside form the monotone narrator who insists that its your only chance to top off your diamonds when you accidentally glance at the incessant offers to spend money on this game. Clearly the intent is that players are supposed to think the bland male lead is cool, or the bland female leads are hot, and then want to spend money trying to unlock the seemingly fun level locked material. If the game had any compelling narrative, or even cute npc quips and comments, I would be much more invested in this game. Monsters are uniformly big, ugly things that hit hard, with the exception of the Human Assassin dressed as an arch-mage. That I found engaged part of my brain for about 30 seconds as I considered the practicality that the outfit offered. I was not impressed by the possibilities. If the enemies were all as interesting as the Human Assassin I might let the game idle while I nap, then I could start a boss fight just to see what weirdly impractical and ironic outfit the boss is wearing.