New free-to-play MMORPG launches on Steam with a 5,915-player peak and solid reviews, but multiple controversies raise red flags

When we first looked at Dreadmyst earlier this week, it was a quiet indie project gearing up for its "first real test" on January 9. At the time, the game was riding a wave of somewhat modest interest, with just over 1,200 followers and a climbing wishlist rank of #326 in activity. We questioned whether the "truly free" promise would hold and how the custom engine would handle real-time concurrent loads. Now that the gates have opened, the game reached an all-time peak of 5,915 players as of writing and has maintained a "Mostly Positive" 74% rating across its first few hundred reviews.

As a refresher, Dreadmyst is an isometric, tab-target MMORPG built on a custom C++/OpenGL engine designed to run on virtually any hardware, including systems without a dedicated graphics card. The game gives you four baseline classes - Paladin, Mage, Ranger, and Cleric - each with their own distinct weapon sets and roles within a traditional "trinity" system of tanks, healers, and DPS. Gameplay is centered on challenging 4-player dungeon runs and small-scale 1v1 or 2v2 PvP arenas, with a major focus on "crisp, responsive controls" rather than action-based aiming. The developer has set up a "non-profit" model, launching the game with no cash shop, no paid content, and no current monetization plans.

However, the "passion project" narrative has been heavily challenged by a series of controversies. A thread on r/MMORPG talks about the complete lack of a Terms of Service (ToS) or Privacy Policy on both the official website and the Steam client. This absence of legal documentation is particularly concerning given that players must register a 3rd-party account to play. Furthermore, the community has linked the developer (Xjum) to "Gummy52," who is known for abruptly shutting down the "Felmyst" World of Warcraft private server in the past. Accusations of botting to curb negative Reddit comments and the alleged theft of skill icons and sound assets from the 2008 MMO Aion have added even more fire to these concerns.

Despite the drama, the technical execution of the game has been surprisingly stable. The build is compact, and the developer has already pushed hotfixes to address day-one server crashes and input bugs. Players who are able to separate the game from the developer's history have praised it as a "16-bit WoW Classic" that feels very mechanically polished for a solo-dev effort. Now, we have to wait and see if Dreadmyst survives its legal and reputational hurdles, or whether it becomes another footnote in MMO history - which will largely depend on if these concerns are addressed in its upcoming January 17 content update. 

View the Steam store page for the game here.