Linkrealms — or LINKrealms, as it is stylized in the game’s logo — bills itself as an “old-school sandbox MMORPG”. And at least based on some of the text blurbs on the game’s website, it certainly does aspire to fit that description:

CRAFT, HUNT, HARVEST, SELL

Gather resources through farming your own fields, raiding dungeons, and mining, then sell them to others or convert them into valuable items using tools and your own skills. Take a player dedicated to cultivating his estates and brewing magical concoctions, and another player who enjoys locating mineral veins, extracting ores and crafting fine armors. When the two meet or use each other’s vendors, there are profits for all!

MIX AND MATCH ANY SKILL SETS

Regardless of your character’s race, you will gain all skills as you use them, and enhance your abilities further by gathering the best tools and equipment. As you become more powerful, you will begin to specialize and develop your own unique mix of talents. Join a guild as swordsman and illusion specialist, or run solo and get rich as farmer or miner with some fire magic on the side. You’ll be able to experiment and change your focus over time, so go for it!

A MAN’S HOME IS HIS CASTLE

The world of Linkrealms is divided into hundreds of realms. Claim yours and use it to build literally anything! Wall off your own fields, raise a guild hall for your friends and training zones for your pets, or just an awesome manor to inspire envy! You’ll also be able to place vendors, set up switches and doors, traps, teleporters – and even monster spawners if you want to get a little more creative.

OPEN DUNGEONS AND SMART CREATURES

The world of Linkrealms is full of events and dungeons that are open for anyone to enter. If you’re a solo thief, think twice before sneaking up on a large raiding party while they fight the boss monster! The most impressive creatures use advanced AI, giving them the sense to avoid danger and work in teams. Your pets share the same technology, can be bred for specific traits and trained in a punish/reward fashion.

PICK A SERVER WITH THE RULES YOU LIKE

Some people like the old-school hardcore PVP rules, while others would rather not be surprised by assassins while using the out-house. Servers can vary not only in rule and skill sets, but may contain very different landscapes and dungeons. Fighting is a skill easily learned, but difficult to master– Especially when other players are involved. There are many battle skills available, and what works against some may fail against others.

Isle Dragon managed to get in on the Linkrealms beta, and so has been testing the game recently. His summary of it offers some reason for optimism:

It’s an isometric mmo so there are naturally a lot of similarities to UO but also to the series. You may notice a moongate, and the spell ingredients that spawn on the ground to be picked up, and your skills increase based on use. There’s also not a lot of handholding once you’re out of the little tutorial room – you’re in a city, directions and navigations are unclear, there are quests of various difficulties available at the very start, and you can go anywhere and attempt anything. And the first dungeons seem to let you solve them in whatever fashion you can devise. I can dig it.

He even provided a few screenshots (one is above) to illustrate:

Linkrealms is a free-to-play title, but the developers seem to be trying to avoid making it pay-to-win:

Create a new account, download the game and play for free – forever. All of the content is available to you with no restrictions. Using the in-game store helps supporting the development team, but nothing a player can purchase is going to make him suddenly powerful or give him an unfair advantage. Linkrealms welcomes all players to the community!

If this seems like the sort of thing that might be of interest to you, you can create an account on the Linkrealms site to (presumably) receive news updates about the game. The developers are also selling Founder Packs, which will grant you access to the beta servers. You might also want to check out the gameplay trailer.