Jul 30
Tabula Rasa Beta Journal – First Impressions
The NDA on Tabula Rasa has been lowered for press-folks when it comes to impressions. I can’t share screens or specifics on missions, but I can give you an earful on the overall experience. As always, I want to preface this with a note that this is a game still in Beta. Lots of things can change before launch, and I’m just one guy with a very particular slant on Massive gaming. Your Mileage May Vary.
In short: Tabula Rasa is a fun, fluid, and un-samey take on the Massive genre. There are a ton of familiar signposts for the Massive gamer, but they’re couched in ways that are going to feel just different ‘enough’ that people are going to take notice. As I mentioned in the VW podcast over the weekend, I have reservations about this title’s impact on the industry as a whole. I’m particularly concerned about the game from a business standpoint. Just the same, the short time I’ve had with this title has convinced me there are going to be a lot of people who will really enjoy this.
Read on for the immediate highlights and concerns brought about by a week’s worth of playing Tabula Rasa.
The first thing you’re going to notice when you start playing Tabula Rasa is how different it ‘feels’ as you move around the world. TR is more of an action game than anything else, and you can feel it in the game’s DNA. I think it’s more fun to move around than even (say) Planetside, which sticks you in a fairly slowish FPS movement format. In TR your standard run moves pretty quickly, and you pick up a speed boost power not long after you start the game. Gravity on the first planet is a little less than earth normal, too, so when you jump you have a little bit of hang time. I’m not sure if this is intentional, but I really hope they leave it in. These elements give the game an almost 3rd-person platformer feel, but without the annoying platforming bits. You feel very in-control of your movement, to a degree I’ve almost never seen in another MMOG. City of Heroes is probably the only other game where movement is so effortless; running around as an orc or something feels like sherman tank in comparison.
This action-y feel is taken the full distance in combat. Click the mouse, pull the trigger. One click, one shot. It sounds like FPS action, but because your stats are what is actually governing your to-hit chance (and ‘aiming’ is fairly generous), it’s like an FPS for folks who don’t like FPSes. I can actually see this bringing together some gaming couples who split on the FPS issue. There’s no need for pixel-perfect precision, but it’s still a satisfying experience for folks who are veteran FPS players. Vet FPS players are also really going to like the ‘feel’ of the weapons. So far I’ve only tried a handful of guns, but they all get the sound, reload (you reload!), and taste spot on. Even the pea-shooter starting pistol feels great the first time you play. When you first pop into the starting area it’s still a novel experience to cap off a few shots, and as a result that gun feels like a tank in your hands. Plus, you ditch it fairly quickly for a rifle.
The stuff you actually kill is mostly the big bad guys in the game: the Bane. I can see their designs getting old in the long run (more on that below), but at first brush they’re actually really nice to look at. They squirt and holler, bound and leap, and generally act like jerks to humans. They’re great enemies, seemingly implacable as they appear in the red glow of their drop-ships. They come in squads of three in the lower levels, but larger groups with more varied opponents begin to assault you as you move up. Whether in big or small groups, Destination has done a great job of ‘putting you in a warzone’. Constantly shifting lines, surprise attacks and counter-attacks, and imminent danger are all a part of the game from single digits. One of my favorite bits are the finishing moves they let you do. “F” is the action button as well as melee, and if a red skull appears over a damaged foe you can take that as your cue to finish them off. Bane in particular explode with pop of energy, and it always nets you extra experience.
As you gain in xp and levels, you’ll be presented with class choices. Yet another awesome feature: cloning. It’s essentially as save game state. You pick a new first name (same last name) for your character, and they are frozen at the attribute/skill level of your clone’s parent. When you start playing the clone you assign your stats, grab some money from the shared inventory, and off you go. I started the game going for a healing-type character, but found that a little boring in the solo-heavy lower levels. A low level clone meant I didn’t have to start a new character to try out the solider profession; I just picked a different path with him. And there, I fell in love.
Soldiers, you see, are equipped with machineguns. Machine gunnery in TR is fan-freaking-tastic. Instead of one click/one shot, one click rips off about 10 rounds. Hold down the mouse for rat-a-tat-tat action. The first time you crest a rise, site down on a Bane and hold down the mouse button, you’re going to get this giant smile on your face. You can watch gleefully as your opponent’s health bar just dissolves before you; it’s a truly sublime experience. The problem there is that machineguns just eat ammo. Every bullet costs 2 credits at the quartermaster. Money is fairly easy to come by, but by the same token you rip through ammo really quickly while adventuring. From overhearing comments from veteran players later in the game, this becomes a more serious issue when you’re taking on bosses and the like. Not using machineguns is an obvious way to get around this, but … so much fun! This seems more like a minor tweak, though, that should be solvable at or after launch.
That does, however, bring us to concerns. I have a couple of minor ones, and one big one. The small fry:
Questing - Feels pretty rote most of the time. Despite the setting, early levels consist of “go find X”, or “whack 10 foozles”, or the ever-popular “whack foozles until you find 10 grognards”. The Garriot influence is obvious, because the story being told in between these things (and I do read it) is actually pretty interesting. The Bane are a danger to not only us but the indigenous peoples of a number of worlds. The tribes have unique culture, there are conflicts within the military, and everyone wonders what the hell is up with the Bane themselves. Lots of people are going to click right past that stuff, of course, which is a shame. They also have done only a so-so job of breadcrumbing me from quest area to quest area. This is something that could be fixed quickly with a few inserted fillers; what’s less easy to fix is a lack of a sense at low levels of what the main thrust of the plot is. From day one as a dwarf in WoW you know the score: Troggs are bad. In CoH, you meet the baddies that will be your nemesis for half the game within 30 minutes. In TR, we know the Bane are bad, but there’s not a lot of explanation of what’s going on other than “We’re in a war, go shoot stuff!”
Graphics/UI - Probably the thing that will change the most between now and launch, the game still feels a little unpolished. It looks … okay, but there are several MMOGs that have been out for a while which impress me more than this title does. Part of it, I think, is the war motif. If you’ve played through one sci-fi version of WWII, you’ve played through them all. Baddie design is great; the bane and local fauna are creepy and well-animated; it’s just the environments that need a bit of tweaking. I’m told later areas really pick up in this regard, thrusting you into more and more alien landscapes. UI is relatedly clunky. Actual combat couldn’t be simpler. Assign powers and weapons to two hotbars. Only two can be active at a given time. Click left for weapon, right for ability, swap as needed. That works great. The UI for quests, inventory, etc, etc, feels decidedly cookie-cutter, though. In fact, I could swear it feels exactly like the UI for a half-dozen other games. It wouldn’t take a lot of polish to make this feel better, and it’s a very subjective thing. Still … I noticed it.
Setting - I freaking love sci-fi. It was so nice to sink into a “not-poncy elves” world. The problem is that while TR isn’t crazy bard with flying unicorns like it was back in the day, it’s pretty far from the norm for MMOG players. I knew that this was a war-torn environment with lots of sci-fi goodness, but it wasn’t until I started playing that I realized how different this game is from what people are used to. I have a heavy-hearted fear that MMOGamers are going to be put off by the lack of common touchstones. TR goes beyond Anarchy Online and SWG; this game feels more like Starship Troopers than anything else. Lots of gamers feel like virtual worlds are their second ‘homes’; how easy will it be to settle into ‘home’ when it’s a battlefield?
My big observation is completely subjective, again, and I should point out that I’m neither an economist nor a marketing guy. That said: Tabula Rasa doesn’t feel like a $14.99 a month game. Certainly on top of the vast field of games coming out this year, TR is just not the kind of game that I’d be willing to plunk down primo change for. It’s fun, it’s action-y, there’s all sorts of stuff to do, and in squads it’s a hoot and a half. All that said, it just doesn’t have the depth of an EverQuest 2, a WoW, an SWG, or even a CoH. This is a fun, fast-action game that you play a bunch at launch and then jump into when the mood takes you or extra content gets added. My fervent hope is that NCSoft does the “I don’t care how you pay us, just pay us” approach, and offers some options for folks wanting to get in on TR. Given the gameplay, I think that an hourly rate would be something even U.S. customers would be willing to give a go. Put a bunch of hours in the box with the game when it first arrives, and when those run out charge us a dime for ever additional hour. Or something like that. Let us prepurchase hours ala cellphones. Make it F2P, with loads of for-pay options.
NCSoft, I’m begging you: please don’t saddle this game with a $14.99 monthly. I’ve played a ton of MMOGs, and this game just doesn’t have the standing room at launch to support that kind of weight. Maybe later, when you’ve had the chance to add a ton of content. When the free month that comes with the box ends, you’re going to find more than half of your userbase evaporating with the sunrise. Don’t make this another Auto Assault, or a Shadowrun FPS: find the right price to sell us access to this game while not doing ‘the same old thing.
What this game has really convinced me is that NCSoft needs a version of SOE’s station access. They have a large enough library now, and I’m already launching all my NCSoft games from a common application. Let me pay for CoH/Lineage II/TR/Dungeon Runners/etc with one monthly fee. Or even better give us options on that! :)
I want to back up and say that these financial concerns really don’t detract from the play experience. The first time you hop into TR is a lot of fun, and at least the first month after launch is going to see a lot of happy Garriot fans. I’m still having lots of fun playing, so expect so see more refined specifics in the future.
51 comments51 Comments so far
I won’t violate the NDA except to say I completely agree with you on all points. The thing I really wish is that they drop you in the Starship Troopers mode sooner (you know the area I’m talking about methinks). There isn’t enough “world” here, and it doesn’t feel like the sort of game someone named “RG” would make. But dumping people into a better Starship Troopers experience than that crappy movie could deliver could score them big points for those seeking more than scantily-clad female Elves.
Well. That’s disappointing, for me. I haven’t been waiting with baited breath for this game, but I have been looking forward to it, and more and more it sounds like I probably won’t be getting into it much…
I’ll still give it a go, but I’m somewhat pessimistic.
Does cloning reduce the grind (as RG claims)? I say NO – explaining my reasoning would break the NDA. If it’s attributes you want to change then adopt WoW’s method (talents).
In the mid-to-high levels, some archetypes definitely need to group and that means the game needs a good player population. Will enough people want to play it? Will everyone just go soldier since it’s more fun?
I was wondering why there wasn’t much hype about TR yet, and this seems to show why. Maybe I’m reading too much into your article, but it seems TR is a bit “lite†in this regard (disappointing considering RG is supposed to be so story focused).
I hope they’ve held some stuff back from the beta that beta players haven’t been seeing, cause I was really looking forward to playing it but “killgrind†just won’t cut it for me any more :(
When the hell are developers going to realise that “Content is King†in MMO’s? It’s not just about killing stuff, people want more than that…
On alt’ing mostly :) Based even just on the public info, Clones let you save level, class and Skills chosen. But you can’t just go from anything to anything based on the tier’d nature of the class structure.
Nice post. People who read this need to also take the time to actually try the game out as well. Just because someone think the game “isn’t worth $15 a month”. Doesn’t mean it is the review for you. I personally think that most of the MMOs out there don’t deserve a dime as they are crappy MMOs but good games. I will definitely wait to try the game myself WAY before I take someones word on it. I might go in there a little more cautious now but I will never not play a game because someone doesn’t like it.
While that has made me a bit more cautious of TR (I loved Auto Assault for the first 2 weeks as well) I am hoping that the instanced missions and cloning (lots of alts) will give it enough depth to keep me interested long enough for them to release another planet or two.
One thing I still haven’t seen any comment on is the Holy Trinity (Tank, Healer and DPS) and how it relates/is implemented in TR. I guess it’s kinda hard to know the answer to that until you have been high level for a while though. It’s just that coming from WoW where the Holy Trinity is everything, and with tanks or healers being unless outside a group, I am hoping that TR will not conform to the most tired, annoying, and down right stupid tradition of MMOs over the last 10 years: NPCs with 1,000,000,000,000 HP, while players only have 1,000 and do 100 DPS.
I’m not sure what you are/aren’t allowed to say but if you could answer the following questions it would, well, stop me wondering at least.
1. Does TR have Tanks? Is there a guy whose job it is to take it up the rear end for the team?
2. Can medics do decent damage? Do they actually get to fire their weapon a lot in groups/instances, or are they just on full time heal patrol? (Couldn’t really tell from the preview video, as she was level 50 and killing level 20s)
3. Can a group of X players consisting of any combination of classes to do anything in the game approximately equally as well as another group of X players consisting of a different mix of classes?
Great Review! Keep us informed as much as the lawyers will allow!
The game has as much “to do”, if not more, than City of Heroes did at launch. If memory serves, that game didn’t even have token PvP at launch…an “arena” was patched in shortly after. It certainly didnt have crafting like TR, dynamic battlefields with Co-op Base control mechanics, and the quality of combat TR has…but it was fun, like TR. That game is on…what…issue 10 now?
Bottom line, no game comes out of the door with as much content as players want. But you can add as much content and ancillary gameplay to a fun core game as you want. You *cant* patch in fun or better combat on top of a core game thats a dog.
I’ll happily be paying a subscription for this game, if only to help keep the features coming in a MMO thats actually *fun* to play.
The subscription price should be less than $10/month – the lower the better. If the game doesn’t get a healthy subscriber population it won’t be worth playing. NCSoft needs to learn from their mistakes (Auto Assault), but considering the fact that they bullied Net Devil, I doubt it.
On the issue of NetDevil. I feel bad for those guys. They were geniunely nice people. I was sitting at the table with them during NCSoft E3 after party in ‘06. They were drinking and smiling. Even while they were enjoying themselves, they were talking about how they could make their game better for players. They knew the problem with AutoAssault was marketing. I talked about it a coupla times with a bunch of the NetDevil guys during the show. They were telling me about how they wanted to use the Mad Max IP rights but whoever owns them wanted a fortune. RG gave some speech I didn’t pay attention to at the party.. RG’s speech looked good but there were some girls from the Mutator band that looked better so my attention was.. off..
Terrific article. I notice you didn’t discuss the character system. Is that not permitted yet? Or did you have nothing to say?
Also, do you think that pricing a game like this below the “standard” automatically disqualifies it from being a top MMO when people assume that at, say, $9.99, it can’t possibly be as “good” as the pricier games?
Anyway, thanks for writing this. I’m in the beta, too, but still restricted by the NDA. It’s great to see someone discussing it.
–Alec
Quite the contrary on the 9.99 pricing, in my book. I’m not the kind of person though who equates price with quality.
If I saw an MMO come out that had a lower than the norm pricing structure, I’d be inclined to try it out at least, because of the potential that I could be getting the same amount of entertainment from a game for cheaper than the others.
Also, 9.99 is easier to convince people of, especially those who may have another MMO sub and want to try having 2 subs.
There are more benefits I think to that structure, than just going with the market trend.
I don’t personally understand how anyone cares if it’s 9.99, 19.99, or 49.99 a month. A huge chunk of the market is made of guys like me with a lot of free time and disposable income. 14.99??? I laugh at that… you can’t even see a movie for that anymore, so if I get at least 2 hours a month entertainment, I break even vs the value I get from a movie…
I typically get 80 – 160 hours of entertainment monthly from my MMO’s… if TR can do that for me… I’m there… if not… bye bye… but don’t care if it’s 5 bucks or 50 bucks a month.
If this game is $14.99/month to play, I won’t buy it. If it’s less, or if NCSoft finally offers an all-access pass similar to SOE, then I will.
Without breaking my NDA, I agree with the points in the article.
To answer the question posted previously, the ‘holy trinity’ does not seem to be in TR(at low-ish levels anyway). However, it’s obviously being rebalanced with each beta patch – so who knows how it’ll end up.
I think the general tester-opinion is against uber-specialised tank/DPS/healer classes – so I hope it doesn’t fall into that trap. Obviously some classes will be better at tanking or healing than others.
If you look at the (published on the website) class-tier structure, you’ll see that the intent is to add abilities at each class choice. Everyone keeps their access to their lower tier class skills and those skills should remain usefull throughout the game.
I don’t think I can say any more without breaking my NDA.
I’m on the fence with this one. I’ve done most of the MMORPGs and FPS titles worth playing, from UO and Neocron to WOW, CoH and Planetside etc etc. Interested in TR mainly because it’s from Garriott, and because a FPS-ish SciFi MMORPG could be fun. But depth of gameplay is important. If I’m just going to be another drone in a world where the choice is questing over and over and more of the same with new weaps and prettier armor over time, who cares? I am looking for replay value – either the kind of replay value you get from a multiplayer FPS like 2142 or ET where you hone skill against other players and get some twitch satisfaction, or replay value like we had in UO where every player had a place in the world and gameplay offered huge variation. This doesn’t sound like a game where I can spend hours hanging around town showing off my unique-ish glowy staff, I’m not going to build a castle or attend a wedding. So what? I can chase down quests and play some twitch combat? Then wouldn’t I be better off with 2142, quakewars, or hellgate? What is my place in this world? Very concerned that in the long run Garriott, for all I revere about him, has created “more of the same.”
What is going to kill it for me is the ammo thing. Playing it today, at low levels you just run out of ammo if you want to try the fun stuff out…….
Ok,
I was super excited about this MMOFPSRPG to be released, but after reading the reviewers article it saddens me a bit.
Now im personally taking these certain criteria into account:
1. Is the article writer a true gamer? (In my opinon you will play many games with many subscribtions fees at once. I currently pay for 3 MMO subscribtions with some of them having multiple account’s)
2. He said he only played it for a week, that is not much time in my honest opinon. (He never seen 75% of the content, skills, class’s, items…
3. What makes this guy an expert on videogames, is there some sort of degree? What about his personal biases?
4. Last but least what is his biggest accomplishment’s in his most successful MMO glory days? In WoW has he raided Black Temple, I know I currently am. In DAoC is his guild one of the leaders in PVP? I know mine is.
The list goes on for myself and I plan on playing this game regardless the trival dollars. I have seen all the gameplay footage I need and I beleive RG has built a wonderful foundation and now all he has to do is add story’s and content over time. I will take all my toons to max level in this game before making any comments of like or dislike.
I don’t feel anyone can play a character for a week and even experience a game in any depth. The one thing I laughed the most at was the fact you complained about bullets and pricing…you obviously haven’t played MMO’s to any degree. They all have money sinks. Currently it cost me 100-200G in WoW to even play my character or raid for the evening.
Just some food for thought.
If this game is a game like WoW, where u have to pay 10-15$ each month, than i wont buy it. The most games like this where u have to pay for wont be played much. Like Guild Wars is –>*FREE*.
I recently played Vanguard SOH, mostly because i knew it would be somewhat like everquest and it certainly was. So much that the game offered no challenge. Now ive gone into my FTP gamer mode and I’ve realized I’m sick and tired of the whole fantasy rpg bit. So I found anarchy online and i truly loved it, and normally i hate sci-fi. I didnt make it long after the newbie island then i started not liking anarchy it because the shear volume of confusing content was to much. I cant stand that much specialization. The big thing i liked about anarchy was that i would get those sudden blips in my head saying ohh I wanna play some anarchy. I haven’t had that since everquest. Where no matter how much the game pissed you off recently, you would still want to come back in a few hours after cooling off.
There just something so satisfyingly fun about shooting at something with a high powered rifle and getting experience. Not to mention its easier to give guns more realistic damage. Im tired of having to take my eyes off the center screen to see if my ability has recharged so i can use it again. TR seems to have solved that. I could probally go on and on. Basically im really have high hopes for TR. I dont think i can stand another mmorpg if this one is a failure for me to.
Looking at everything to do with this game, it seems that there isn’t much hype about it going about. When I first learned of this game, I was all excited about it because of its originality but looking into it deeper it doesn’t seem like its got that much pep in it. In my opinion, feels like an actual game of Starship Troopers than just something else thats new (not abusing the NDA agreement, its just a statement.) Looking at how this will turn out, it will end up just like CoX (City of Heroes and City of Villains) by means of everything that was promised will never come true, same game content all the way throughout the game with no real end game content but issues to “continue†on with the story that will be sidetracked with useless updates that don’t mean jack, and the moto “You give me money to play! I don’t care how much it is but you just give it to me!†My mistake was that I played CoX for 2 and a half years and regret it fully especially the fact that I dished out money each month to play it. If I can get the money back, I’d purchase different games. On my end, I’m the kind of player looking around at stuff that if it looks good I’m going to play it but without the monthly fees…..one reason why I stayed on CoX for so long is because of friends but now since I moved on, I hope they too wake up and move on some day.
Back on topic…
If Tabula Rasa was free-to-play like most MMO’s should be, there would be more customers than you can possibly imagine. Take Guild Wars for a very good example. 4 million accounts under Guild Wars name alone because of the free-to-play environment on there. It has end game content, offers many things to players like “so-so weekend†thru this to that date, a very very VERY strong storyline that is interesting to follow through (including the side stories that mean nothing), ability to change the build(s) of your characters at will, character progress with rewards that are never left out, things tend to change along the way even when you played it twice or three times through, and player development by means of knowing the environment with strategy and careful planning to lure the enemies away from other groups that roam freely without any programmed given paths. Now compare this to what Tabula Rasa is offering….something that will be better than CoH but you get a gun with possible lower monthly fees with a development team that may actually listen now and then maybe, environments that will change constantly but will change back to the way it was before if no one keeps an eye on it (cursed game resets), experience for kills but if you die you lose it buddy so go back to the last save point and try to earn it again ya newb, cloning to offer players to change their characters when they don’t want their permanent builds making it sound that meaning you have to go through all that content again just to catch up where you were last in the storyline, and if you pay me you might just get something special along with your monthly fee. See a comparison? If you don’t see a comparison then obviously you have not played online games.
If the developers of Tabula Rasa look around and realize what the players (the consumer) are after then maybe they(the seller/developer) will get better at making games. People from the big game companies realize this and go head-to-head with each other, thats how they get the head count and popularity because they are the ones who actually give a damn about the player. Be like the makers of Diablo II and Guild Wars, they are the kind of people that give a damn about the player’s well being instead of their wallet.
On my end, I’m just one of those pissed off players getting their two cents in that point out facts to where game developers should pull their head out of their ass and wisen up to what their fans and future fans really want…and this is directed to every game developer out there. Only thing I want to pay to play is some game at the arcade center that cost 25-75 cents to play like how it was in the old days…..like how it was 8 years ago.
A monthly fee will ruin a gamer’s glee.
Sounds 50/50 to me whether this game will pull me in. Having started in EQ and played most major fantasy MMOs in between Vanguard (which I play now, warts and all) I am too ready for a new genre of game.
Only problem is, this does’nt sound like it will do the trick, for me the complexity of AO is brilliant. It is just too chaotic which annoys me but other than that the immersion and variety is brilliant. It just needs to look as good as VG, and be as immersive as EQ was with that real risk-factor, not predictably pathed mobs, easy single pulls that take no talent while pulling donw a 4-hour dungeon one or two mobs at a time :/
If it has that real immersive complexity that makes sci-fi so attractive while retaining a theme/story that would pull in players by the millions.
I will watch with interest, like other posters have said, it is not an un-fixable problem, but focus is required.
Subscription means nothing to me either, people pay for something if it is worth it. Access via game cards etc would help younger players or those without credit cards I guess.
The NDA having been lifted, and having beta tested TR for the past three months, I can tell you that it is being rushed out the gate early, in an unfinished state, with a number of unaddressed fatal flaws
skill tree is a joke,
crafting functionally useless,
the chat system ludicrous
clan functionality lacking
UI clunky and non-customizable
little high-level content,
no endgame
none of the high-level skills have even made it into the game yet, let alone been play-tested and balanced,
the current xp/kill/loot mechanic promotes kill-stealing, spawn camping, and general frustration,
cloning is broken,
there is no way of completely respeccing a character short of a total re-roll
the graphic requirement demands an SLi rig if you want to get 30fps@high detail levels
the 45$ box and 15$ monthly fees are unjustified for what is essentially a beta product
in short, it’s a fanboi’s wonderland.
the best thing that could happen to this game is for the release date to be pushed back 6 months and the devs given the time to fix what is wrong with the game, rather than push it out the door in 5 weeks to what will be an underwhelming reception and, utlimately, the same fate as Auto Assault
unless things change dramatically with the 2 patches coming between now and live, I can’t see much hope for this game lasting a year, it’s simply not worth the money in its current state, nor can it compete with all the other MMOG’s that are in the pipeline (let alone the dx10 fps games coming in the next few months [yes, I know - not a fair comparison, but TR is competing for the same dollar that these other games are])
My tuppence, your mileage may vary
I had such high hopes for this game since Richard Garriott’s name is plastered all over it and I still dream about Ultima 7 once in a while, but when I finally got in the game it was just another World of Warcraft in the Future with Guns.
I don’t like world of warcraft. It took me until level 47 to really hammer home that I don’t like level grinders. I was really hoping that aiming would make some kind of a difference in this game. I’m good at aiming, I enjoy aiming. If autoaim is an option, I turn it off. This game is nothing BUT autoaim. I would like to be able to probe the enemy, try to target weak points, not just throw down dice all day. The fact that it pretends to be a shooter is just a tease that cheapens things further.
Sorry T.R.! This isn’t passing the test for me!
Note, if you enjoy level grinders, you’re in luck! T.R. is a level grinder! in the future! with guns! Kind of!
Also, I played this on a friend’s machine so I didn’t agree to any NDA. nyah nyah.
Might be a dumb question because I think I know the answer but I have to ask.
Can this game be played in 3rd person mode? Or is it only fps style? Thanks
QUOTE: “If this game is a game like WoW, where u have to pay 10-15$ each month, than i wont buy it. The most games like this where u have to pay for wont be played much. Like Guild Wars is –>*FREE*.” /END QUOTE
Don’t be ignorant. Guild wars is not free at all. They release expansions every 5-6 months that equal the cost of a monthly sub and charge you for that expansion at full 50 dollar price tag and most people pay it becuase they hate not seeing new things offered to them.
Back on topic, the NDA is over. I am currently playing the beta and coming from a deep UO background all they way up until end-game WOW content today I can tell you this game, so far, is going to flop. I’m very sad to say it but its true. I love you Garriot, for what you’ve done for gaming, but you’ve let NCSoft get their grubby hands all over this game and it doesn’t feel like “your” work anymore.
Zoe – it is only 3rd person, no first person despite its FPS-clothing.
It took me a long while to get comfortable with the gameplay/UI. Once I did I was able to enjoy it a lot more…
but I fear that early stage would turn a lot of people off.
There are nice little touches here and there that show Garriot’s influence, even a computer running Alkabeth int he Corman camp…
I was frustrated initially wiith this game, and were it not for it being free (beta) I probably would have dropped it. Now, I enjoy it quite a bit. I can’t speak for later content, not even 15 yet.
I do enjoy it as a change of pace. The world has much to offer, but somehow… it feels less solid than wow, if that makes any sense. And the color palettes still seem drab and washed out, maybe that ’s appropriate for the theme, but it takes a while to learn to appreciate some of the touches and beauty of it.
Everyone says starship troopers, but it clearly feels more stargate to me.
played beta for 2 days, uninstalled. coming from long list of MMOs that starts with UO. As other people said, Game feels like Auto Assault or EnB. Some interesting ideas with poor execution. And it will not survive. It looks not bad, it feels not bad, it plays not bad, but far from perfect.
As for gameplay… How many more MMOs they have to release to make people realize that completing meaningful game objectives is much more fun then gaining levels. And for a moment, while playing wicked tutorial they have i actualy thought they made it like that… That illusion was over as soon as tutorial was over though. Hell, I did not even notice that i leveled 2 times by the time i finished tutorial missions. It was so much fun. A bit too easy, but fun. I am still waiting for game that will have no grind, where they will have enough content to give you something to do as opposite to make you run chasing yard trash rats of progressive strength all day long.
Ignore the naysayers in these comments and try it out yourself, I for one have been playing it with friends for nearly a month now and loving every minute of it, even with the many bugs it has had, but they are slowly being squished and more content and fixes added.
Including in this latest patch UI tweaks so chat is more customizable etc. So far my only gripe with the game is the system spec required to play it is way over what is stated, but this is mainly down to a mem-leak in the beta and hopefully this will be fixed soon.
I have been playing mmorpgs for 10 years now (UO,daoc,Shadowbane,Eve,Ryzom,Roma Victor but NOT WOW – I couldnt bring myself to :p ) so have had quite a bit of experience with them and as mmorpgs go this is the most polished BETA I have played, and pretty comparible to many launched mmorpgs in theyre early days (wow excluded as they had millions of $$ to throw at it).
The cloning system is great and does remove the boredom of redoing all the lower levels again once youve cloned at a particular branch ie 15/30 you can start your alt down the difrent branch (effectively respecing his training points). Pvp has duels, squad duels and clan wars. When clans are made they are set pvp/pvm at creation and pvp guilds can challenge each other to wars which can go on anywhere.
New Higher level content has already been announced such as Mechs to drive at lvl 40+, npc squadmembers to control for those who want to solo but nneed to do group stuff, Higher end Raid type encounters and new PVP where guilds can claim Control Points.
I’m a graphics junkie and an FPS player. But I am an MMO novice. I gave EQ and WOW a try but they bored me. So I am wandering around TR shooting up the place, with no idea how to work the system or even to get enough money to buy new ammo. Of course all of you MMO pros are running around doing “pro stuff” and I get no help on game play.
So I am a potential new customer for MMO through TR. But I won’t pay because I am too MMO-stupid to figure out how to make the game work right. Where is the MMO for stupid people like me?
I think Baal has nailed the faults with this game pretty well. I played WoW for over 2 years and enjoyed it most of the time, though the level grind could get tiring. In going from that to TR, the lack of customization to the UI leaves it feeling clunky. One of the great features of WoW is the level of options on the UI and the fact that there are a ton of useful 3rd party addons to craft the UI to what works best for you. I doubt this is going to happen with TR. Of course it could be said that the WoW UI needed to be customizable because you have so many freakin’ buttons to deal with. I dumped WoW because it was taking over my life and when BC came out I did not want to do the level grind again….so I opted for something more intense like BF2 where I could get in and get out at my convenience and not really have to grind level like most other MMPORG’s.
I am eagerly awaiting the release of CoD4 which I think is a worthy successor to BF2 and 2142.
Like others here, I agree that it is likely that TR is going to be a flash in the pan and will not have the staying power of WoW. Wow was essentially the fourth installment in an already successful Warcraft line, so the user base was already there and the game had a familiar feel and theme from the beginning. TR has no such base to pull from and I think with all the upcoming releases, there are better options than this competing for my entertainment dollar. Cool concept, poor execution.
I have been playing in the beta and like the game but there is one thing that is going to make it so I do buy the game and that is a monthly fee. Why don’t more MMORPG’s follow the Guild Wars formula where there is no monthly fee but you can buy more expansions and other stuff for a price?
i`m kinda new to most of these type of games played city of heroes and villians, guild wars but WoW was the game i played the most and for a long (to damn long)
anyway what finally got me of the game was the endless grind, grind to 70 (now) soon to be 80, grind rep and the endless grind of instances for gear you couldn`t get away from it also the fact that you`ve got to have a tank and healer in every group was just bloody annoying trying to get them half the time what i would like to know is how much of that would i have to put up with if i bought this game?
I also gotta stop reading these kind of posts i`d like to judge for myself and its a bit unfair to write this game off before they`ve had a chance to do anything with it.(easier if there wasn`t a monthly fee but if it brings new content i can live with it) to be honest i`m sick to death of seeing elfs and dwarves thx to WoW i`m been put off anything with an elve,dwarf or some kid like charater :D .Great involved story a must ofc and i told this has it
Agree with Baal on all points. Played for about a month and I can tell you it’s not going to be worth $45 PLUS $15 a month. NO CHANCE.
I saw a LOT of people in the general chat in game ragging on WoW while playing a game that doesn’t have 1/10th the depth of WoW. TR is nice from the standpoint of being able to solo more. WoW can be a pain in that to access any of the really high end stuff you MUST group, and that’s not always practical. Also, TR is fun if you just like to shoot stuff a LOT (although real aiming would be nice). Other than that, TR is no comparison. It doesn’t have the world depth, the character development, etc. that WoW has, and the price is going to be the same? No thanks.
Maybe I’ll check back in a few months when it’s more stable (every patch rebooted my system or required me to completely reinstall to play), has skill development that doesn’t make me want to rip my hair out, and scenery that doesn’t look mostly the same no matter where you are (or rely to heavily on caves…I HATE caves..).
Its a horrible game imho, Richard Garrott has a vision, its just the insane bastard has his head down the toilet bowl checking out his own waste and so has shit in his eyes. Sorry if the language offends but just because he made UO doesn’t mean people should treat him like a genius and swallow the craptastic dribble he seems to be creating now. I played it during closed beta and they kept repeating they would add extra content before release, and they didn’t. The game consists of a repetitive grind which is equal to that of a free to play Korean grind fest, except for the fact a Korean grind fest actually has more than 10 re-skinned models every 10 levels, for 10levels. You get to level 50 and the only changes you see are Blue Thrax, Grey Thrax, Green~ish blue Thrax, Red Thrax and Yellow Thrax. Oh, and just in case that isn’t enough variety they also change the bugs colours from sand, to yellow, to pink and red. Hmm, lets see… what else…. oh yea, the weapons basically don’t change either, all Physical guns look the same at every upgrade, same with fire, ice, sonic etc etc. I don’t know why it took them so long to develop this game, it would of taken a single person in Korea about 2months to bang this one out.
The game had potential, it starts out with potential, then it repeats the first 15minutes of gameplay up until end game, and once you reach end game what do they want you to do? Grind on some more mobs but this time for fun, mmmmkay. They might as well just of said “You play this game till 50 then quit because we couldn’t think of a reason to keep you playing”. Its a pay 2 play massively single player online role play grinding game, in which you have to role play that the game is actually worth paying $12 a month for.
Richard Garriott probably had his developers communicating with tree’s or something for the past 3years.
Seriously, if you are looking for a new game you guys should look into http://www.burningsea.com/page/home
Its being published by SOE, and using their servers BUT they have no control other than having to agree its ready for launch, both Flying Labs and SOE have to say ok its good before it can go out the door in order to avoid another Vanguard:SOH. Flying Labs is self funded and are not in any debt, they only went to SOE because they didn’t have the experience with marketing and publishing and the contract they’ve agreed on means all future development will not be ruined by SOE.
[...] MMOG Nation has a spiffy write-up re: TR-beta with some good commentary from other beta players. Seems like the $15 monthly is a [...]
You know what everyone, I really don’t care if it costs money. The game sounds cool and it looks fun, and hey, I’ll try anything. So all you idiots who are complaining about it sucking before you try it, give it a shot. And a little advice, if you dont like this game, play world of warcraft. It couldnt be any more different…
[...] beta impressions post of Richard Garriott’s game is still one of the more popular posts here on the site. [...]
I echo the author’s sentiments that this game is simply not worth $14.99 a month. Beyond the games lack of depth, it simply does not offer significant value for the most important aspect of what an online game should offer which is community and team interaction. There is not only no incentive to team for the early stages of the game and much of the latter part as well, there are actual disincentives to teaming. For any who have played MMORPGs one knows that one of the disadvantages to teaming is having to form a decent balanced one. In Tabula Rasa team members do not get team based xp gains. It remains based on damage which puts support roles like healing, crowd control, and buffing and debuffing at a disadvantage and discourages professions to fulfill their team roles optimally as they must focus on damage output to assure they will get xp. This is one of the most apparent flaws to team mechanics in the game but it is not the only one. When taken in the aggregate the team mechanic shortfalls and the ability to solo much of the content results in a large platform with players running around pretty much approaching much of the game the way one would in a offline game. It’s basically counterproductive to team for much of the game. Why pay a subscription fee at all let alone a $14.99 one for what amounts to a minor add on feature to an offline game posing as an MMORPG? Unless they do a serious revamp on team mechanics or more reasonable pricing options for subscription I don’t see a long term future with this game.
Well, I try games out thoroughly and I will say a few things about Tabula Rasa. First, positively, I absolutely love the invasions of the CP forts. I spoke to a dev about this and complimented him on it. His reply was that they were going to be taken OUT of the game, but Garriot insisted they stay in. This was the only time I was having fun in this game.
Also, this game would be 100% saved and develop at least a SOLID SMALL fanbase if the aiming was ACTUALLY AIMING. Why the hell would you make something FPS-LIKE, just make it a damned FPS and everyone will dig you for it. Planetside is STILL the only mmofps out there, and they STILL have a solid fanbase because of it…ffs that game is so repetitive, Tabula Rasa could have 1-upd it and they would be sitting pretty.
Unfortunately this game is exactly like every other MMO, but with a different theme. It makes you THINK it is new and different, but it is yet another conglomeration of existing mmo parts with target-seeking projectiles and crappy geodata that lets you shoot and be shot through solid objects. I played the beta, liked it until I figured out what was going on. No way I’d play this game.
[...] MMOG Nationwas given permission to break the NDA to post a review back in July, and though more than a month has passed, it remains the most complete review I have seen thus far. [...]
This game is well worth the cash, and well worth the monthly, no question. I have played this for 3 months in beta all the way to max level and played it in the WORST, most broken conditions. This game has come a LONG WAY FROM WHAT IT WAS IN BETA.
There is a ton of things to do and the game really, really takes off at level 30 and the fun is immense. This game, despite what trolls will try to tell you, is absolutely 100% kick ass.
I agree with the original post. I saw this game at E3 3 years ago, and have looked forward to it. I am very disapointed with the result. I have a lvl 15 soldier, and can’t find a reason to log back on. It is not the monthly cost, it is the value of my time. This game appears to have no reason to play beyond the first half hour. Is there something at the higher levels that I am missing that is worth my time to build up my character? There is also nothing persistant about this game. I see no future economy, because the crafting lacks any skill base. Find a single use receipe and have x schards does not make a crafting system.
Knock, you don’t have to be a multiple – mmo subscribing black temple raiding top PvP’er to be a “real gamer”. That’s just taking it to the extreme, and is fairly unpalatable to a lot of people. Go outside!
“If this game is a game like WoW, where u have to pay 10-15$ each month, than i wont buy it. The most games like this where u have to pay for wont be played much. Like Guild Wars is –>*FREE*.”
To you my friend, That statement is VERY VERY incorrect. Most games that are PLAYED are P2P, And FYI GW is a p.o.s..
Anywho..
This game is astonishing, I love it. Its deff a breath of fresh air from WoW..
Not to mention its just released..That by itself makes it even better, You idiots saying it has no content makes it a failure, Have you seen W.o.W in beta and early release? It sucked dick! But they added more into it now it has 9million users..
And who needs to worry about end game content atm? Shtfu and level.
[...] but I know the exact date of when TR became a luke-warm hit…it was July 30th, 2007 when Michael published probably the first press beta impression of Tabula Rasa. As always, an excellent, and honest [...]
very interesting, but I don’t agree with you
Idetrorce
I loved guildwars, because it had little computer people that anyone could take in their party and smash things up, so If there were no people around – you could still have fun.
If TR has something like that, it would completely reinforce the how many people will play aspect where people are worried about teams. A downside to that would be that there would need to be a maximum amount of people in your party, which I think would be hard to do in an FPS.
Great Article, huge fan of NCSOFT, and I’m hoping this’ll be good. Right now I have a — well — I just think that a mmo shooter would be great.
well after reading ppl rewies and opinion i can tell u i played the game its realy not worth monthly payments no to be more specifick its not fit to be p2p in first place what i disliked the most is people they ignore u most of the time instead of answering i played for 3 days and noticed that content started repeating doing same quest just with diferent mobs and lots of grinding whats more its not mmofps it mmorpg
since no matter how u trying u can kill only one mob at the time except with aoe weapons or skills mmofps is suppose to allow u spear u dmg in diferente location.What they shold have done was take out lock on add diferent dmg for spot u hit like head arms legs so u cold do critical hits on ur own.Game is dying and if this keeps up its future is same as AA sry for my english and all o ye i nearly forgot i say its more fiting to be f2p because u can add huge amount of items in to internet shop premium acc and many more
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