Rescreatu.com review by Fizzeh

**Fizzeh** · 04-11-2011

Rescreatu is currently owned and operated by Patrick Warner.

Status: Rescreatu is currently open to the public and completely free. Sign-up is very easy and is a great, smooth process for the target audience for which it provides a service. Emphasis on the fact that Rescreatu is a COPPA compliant site is seen when the user is requested to enter their age - this lets their parents know that the site is safe for them. Email verification is prompted once the account is created, discouraging multiple accounts.

Once inside: There are an impressive total of 46 different kinds of pets on Rescreatu - and a total of 16 different colors per pet. Each pet is hatched from an egg which is found on one of the four planets of Rescreatu. (Or for credit shop pets, the eggs purchased in the credit shop, or in the case of the "alien" Uldavi pets, obtained through a quest on-site.) The pets then age per 15 days in 3 stages, "Baby", "Middle" and "Adult." On the site, Middle is aptly termed by the users as the "teen" stage.

Obviously, this provides a massive variety of goals for every user on the site. The simple diversity of pets on the site is incredible - which is an excellent feature considering that the site itself centers around the buying and selling of them. The art, following a few revamps, is wonderfully consistent and follows an easy-on-the-eye cell shaded standard.
Here are a few examples of the style and diversity of color on the site:

Natural Paor

Can also be hatched as...

Please note that this does not show the full variety of colors. In order of rarity from lowest to highest:

Natural < Sepia < Cream < Black < Ginger < Silver < Blonde < Albino

Hey look, I just hatched a sepia Female Ardur! Sweet. Hey, is that an alert? O.O

On-site, the rarer the color of the pet, the more it will sell for when other users are looking to purchase them. The above listed colors however are only half of the picture, as those are the ones that can be hatched from an egg. There are also a variety of less natural colors termed as the "dye kit" colors. This is because these dye kits of various color can be purchased from the shop on-site named the "Black Market". Let's see what happens when one of these is used...

Rose Dye Kit
+

Natural Paor

=

Rose Paor

This is a great feature on the site that users adore, allowing the pets to retain some aspect of reality with hatching, yet introducing a spot of surrealism and imagination - but only on the decision of the user.

5/5

The Dailies: Everyone knows that on a virtual pet site, the more hours a user spends online a day the better - and Rescreatu does not fail to please when it comes to daily activities to complete. Firstly, upon signup a player will be asked to choose between two classes. Rancher, and Merchant. This will dictate what your role in the game will be amongst the community. A rancher has 3 hatches a day and is focused mainly around hatching rare pets, raising them, then selling them on in the rancher shop. (Or collecting them, whichever takes your fancy.) A merchant however has 1 hatch a day, and focuses mainly around buying items and restocking in the merchant shop.

Both ways make a substantial amount of TU, although it is recognized that the rancher way is the slower yet somehow more satisfying way to do it. Don't worry though! If you feel like the path you're on isn't right for you, you have 4 free class changes before you have to purchase a token at the credit shop to change.

There are a bunch of other features that both the classes can take part in too. These include 10 searches of the Atqueen Forest a day (a place where users can dump unwanted pets for others to find), a swim in the Enchanted Springs on Atquati, a chance to take anything from the trash isthmus that another user has dropped, daily training of your pets to boost their stats, a chance to pick a flower from the Atqueen forest, not to mention a chat on the shoutbox and a check of the forums.

The Atqueen forest - fancy a trip to look for some abandoned Creatu?

5/5

Communication: The shoutbox is the social central of the site. Users can either have it on the side of their screen for easy access whilst playing (bonus point!) or they can disable this feature and use the large shoutbox on a page by itself on another tab or in another window. The shoutbox is an auto refreshing feature of the site that provides a valuable method of communication for the members. It is the central for all quick sales, trading, chatting with friends, and the occasional hug/glomp.

Also included are the forums - a well organized and regularly moderated place where users can make more permanent spots for their conversations. Be that advertisements, role playing, rescreatu discussion or something entirely off topic.
Lastly, the rmails. This is a great way for users to communicate privately between each other, and allows for lengthy conversations that would be otherwise difficult to have in the shoutbox. No worries though, if anything goes wrong, there's always that safe Report button!

5/5

Staff: The staff members on Rescreatu are far from the unkind and above-the-rest gods that some petsites make them out to be. The main aim of staff on the site is to improve the experience for the users. Every staff member is clearly marked by a colored username specific to their department - so you know who to go to for your report of user misconduct, and who won't be able to help with that. All of the staff on the site communicate with the members and play normally, allowing the users to put trust in them and treat them like friends.

5/5

Economy: The economy on the site is something that was focused on not too long back. The site has a large amount of pets in it's system, and initially there was an overflow. However, thanks to staff innovation and quick development, Kir was introduced. Kir is a pet quest feature of the site which soaks up the output of the daily hatches and improves the value of all colored pets around the site. This important feature then gives out an even rarer pet that the users can strive to achieve. The items on-site are extremely useful - even those without a use alone are often part of important seasonal recipes, and for the older members there are the collections.

4/5

Events: The site has the real life versions of all the celebrations around the world. Easter, Halloween, Valentine's day, St. Patrick's day, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas. For the larger of these events, creatu available only during that week of the year are released for the users to find, with 48 hours for them to find as many as possible on the planet that they belong to. Not to mention new books, limited edition collectible items and other such novelties for that time of the year. Seasonal events and smaller events provide a fantastic variation on Rescreatu throughout the year.

Halloween? I think so.

5/5

Extra: Rescreatu has a credit shop in which users may spend real money to obtain special items. These items or eggs are rotated in and out constantly with new ones popping up regularly to make things interesting. They provide a great extra for those who donate, but because the items can then be sold on the site, they do not put users who cannot afford to donate at a great disadvantage. Furthermore, Rescreatu provides a fantastic feature that 99% of other sites do not - the ability to buy Credits with the on-site currency, TU. This makes sure that even the most hardcore player that cannot afford to spend real money has the chance to grab the occasional credit shop item for their hard work.
5/5

Personal Opinion: What do I think of Rescreatu? I've been a member of this fantastic website since 2007, that's four years of being completely addicted. (In the best way possible!) I played for around three years and worked hard for my goals, and have had the absolute pleasure of being part of the site's staff team as a Support staff member for the past year. If I had to use one word to describe Rescreatu?

Splendiferous.

95%