Chosen skills cultivate passively as you spend time online (I once left it running overnight and returned to find myself still logged in and cultivating in the morning), you can pay money to gain cultivation points even while offline, or – speediest of all – you can play a Dance Dance Revolution-style minigame with nine other players and cultivate in a group. Here, the focus is on a lore-appropriate system of "cultivation," and the options are pleasingly diverse, even if they unabashedly give paying players an edge that exudes a faint whiff of "pay to win" in a game so focused on PvP combat. A fascinating weapon-based skill system bears more comparison to EVE Online than similar sword-and-glory MMORPGs like World of Warcraft. Age of Wushu's focus on customization lies elsewhere, and it takes working through around two hours of inadequate tutorials before you're fully exposed to its interesting and unconventional avoidance of traditional MMORPG trappings like leveling experience bars and level caps. I found I could comfortably play the entire game without visiting the cash shop, but I could never come to terms with the way those time limits conflicted with Age of Wushu's open-ended "play when you have time" vibe. The catch? This and other pricey cosmetic items (including horses) are rentals which generally only last 15 to 30 days. It's all so immersive that it's tempting to spend a few dollars on some of the beautiful outfits featured on the cash shop, such as an Ezio Auditore-like white-and-red getup, to feel like more of a unique part of it, but its enthusiasm-draining approach to cosmetic items is a turn off. With rattling carriages that zip by on rustic country roads hugging reedy streams, shrines that rise above the trees, responsive NPCs that dodge incoming horses, and city squares bustling with the hawking of players selling their wares in their own shops (along, alas, what seems like every gold spammer in China), few other MMORPGs have done such a stellar job of creating a living world, even if it's occasionally broken by clipping problems. Developer Snail Games went to great lengths to ensure that the environment feels like an authentic but idealized version of Ming-era China, and it's a resounding success.
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