One of my main goals of this blog, is of course, to share with you all my gaming experiences. 'Currently Playing' will most likely be the main way I do this. In these blogs, I'll give a bit of a review on a game that I'm playing now, along with tips, tricks, or links to resources for the game. So let's get down to business shall we?
FALLEN EARTH
For my first 'Currently Playing' I'll be giving you all a look into Free to Play MMO, named Fallen Earth. It's currently being run by GamersFirst, and can be found on Steam as well, which is how I came across it.
Fallen Earth is an MMO set in a post-apocolyptic future, somewhere in Arizona near the Grand Canyon. You play as a clone, revived from a cloning facility, and freed from the facility for reasons beyond your immediate knowledge. You quickly learn how being a clone grants you, in a round-about way, immortality. You can imagine how useful that is in a nuked out world, and gives a good twist on the normal death and respawn from other MMO's. The world is full of crazed mutants, bandits, ticked off wildlife, and even the majority of your 'friendly' NPC's are out for themself in one way or another.
The gameplay itself is a mixture of a FPS (first person shooter), and your more traditional RPG. Basically, combat does require you to aim. There's melee, ranged, and psionic powers, which all require proper aiming. The fun part about this, is that you can land head shots, which gain you a decent damage boost. The bad part is, if you suck at aiming, you can blow through a lot of ammo, or die rather fast. Objects will provide cover too, so you can use the terrain to your advantage in a fight. If you happen to have played Neocron, you'll have a good idea how this mechanic works.
Character creation allows for the normal changes, hair, eyes etc., plus some. You'll have several tattoos, scars, and peircings to choose from. A big difference is that there is no Classes in Fallen Earth. As you play, you gain Ability Points, which can be spent in any way across many different skills and abilities. You can be a pistol wielding, car crafting, healer, if you want. Or you can bash heads with melee, then switch to a rifle for those long distance kills. It's all up to you, of course, some builds work better than others.
The main storyline follows the company which created you Life Net, and a rival supercomputer named Tetrax. Of course every town you come across has it's own mini-story line, and quests branch off to explore those as well. A lot of the storylines are cliche, and almost expected, but Fallen Earth pulls them off pretty well anyway. There's not a lot of suprises with the quests, as they're your basic mix of kill quests, fetch, defense, and escort quests.
There is, of course, Pvp in Fallen Earth, and it comes in 3 basic forms. There's Blood Sports, which act like your normal battlefield, 2 teams face off, he who kills best, wins. There's open world Pvp for anyone brave enough to trot around with their Pvp flag on. And there's Territory Pvp, areas which 6 different factions fight for control over. This can get quite interesting considering things will actually get a bit political. Certain factions may agree to temporary alliances, or get vindictive towards one another, which can lead to a lot of different dynamics.
If you enjoy crafting, you will most likely really enjoy Fallen Earth. There is virtually no 'loot' to be had from killing creatures in Fallen Earth. Anything you do tend to pick up, is either food, or crafting ingredients for items. Yep, that's right, you won't be grinding bosses to get some uber loot, you'll be crafting it or buying it from the auction house. The system itself is expansive, and you can craft anything from closet rods (a weapon), to Mad Max style cars. Any materials you don't get while killing critters, can be harvested from junk piles, ore, plants, etc.
The graphics are effective, as well as the sounds. They are adjustable, and on the highest settings, the world actually looks very good. It's easy to get immeresed in your surroundings. Just wait until you catch a sunset, they did a good job of capturing a real Arizona sunset.
Pros:
-The Community: Fallen Earth has a Help Channel, which the community actively participates in, and helps new players, and old alike, with questions. There are GM's which monitor the usage of the different channels, and will mute or ban players from certain channels if they misuse them. In general, the community here is one of the best I've played with.
-Immersion: I believe the FPS style of Fallen Earth, along with their attention to some often overlooked details really helps you become immersed in the game. You're not just targetting a critter and hitting hotkeys, you're aiming and dodging and fighting for your life. One good example, is that your mounts, or vehichles, must be stored in a garage or stable. You can't just slap them in your backpack and go, if you leave it outside of a cave, you'll have to come back to it when you leave (or get it towed later.) While that may sound like a pain, it's actually something I've come to appreciate.
-Crafting: A bit complex, but the crafting system is one of the most expansive I've seen. There's a TON of weapons and armor, and you can even 'train' horses. If you put your time into it, you can craft nearly every item in the game. There are even towns which the players help create, grow, and defend with crafting. You can dye some clothing, and vehicles as well.
-Pay To Play: Fallen Earth's pay to play system is much more forgiving than most. They have been running a special, which for a 5 dollar purchase, removed nearly all your restrictions. Regardless, even without that purchase, the game feels fully playable. There are some restrictions which may become a problem at higher levels, but for 5 bucks, most people can afford to get rid of them.
-Combat: It's refreshing for a new spin on the normal RPG. It gets you more involved, and you can have some very tense combat moments. There's a good sense of accomplishment when you manage to dive deep into a 'dungeon', survive, and get out all in one peice. They managed to mix the FPS with RPG elements pretty well.
-Character Growth: Although there are several accepted builds which are considered to be most effective, it's possible to grow your character in hundreds of different ways. The only limit is that you get 1960 AP to spend over your characters lifetime.
Cons:
-Learning Curve: The mixture of FPS, and RPG seems to throw a lot of people off. It took me a couple straight days of playing to get used to the controls, and get the general sense of how things work. There is a tutorial, but sadly it seems most people skip it, and even if you do it, you'll have a lot of questions. Good thing there's a good Help Channel!
-Crafting Time: Crafted items take TIME to make as well as the components. While this is more true to real life, it can suck to have to wait 4 hours just to make 1 part of a vehicle, knowing that there are several more to go. This can be somewhat avoided by the fact that you can continue crafting while you're offline, but only up to 8 hours worth of time if you havn't spent the 5 dollars.
Wrap Up:
So far, I'm really enjoying Fallen Earth. I've spent hours exploring the Arizona wastelands, just becoming immersed in the world. The combat is refreshing, and I've got to admit, I enjoy beating down bandits, like Mad Max on steriods. The world seems properly populated, with NPC's and PC's alike. I've yet to reach the higher levels, which hold my only concern. It seems that Pvp is definately the endgame focus. There are some events to keep you occupied, but unless you are a huge Pvp fan, there may be a lack of endgame content at the moment.
All in all, I'd recommend to try Fallen Earth. Even if you're not a FPS fan, give it a try.
Once you get accustomed to the gameplay, it's one of the most unique, and rewarding MMO experiences out there at the moment. It's easy to get lost in Fallen Earth... (there's triple meaning in that o.O)
A Few Links to Explore:
No comments:
Post a Comment