Not sure if this should be here or Online Gaming, still it's a first play impression, so here we go.
Tabula Rasa (Latin for 'clean slate') is the latest effort from Richard Garriott of Ultima fame. It's a futuristic MMORPG which mainly involves the third person shooting of lots of invaders known as the Bane and the local fauna for good measure.
Garriott's 'clean slate' is a self-proclaimed improvement in what he sees as a stagnating MMO 'World of Clones', which he, perhaps rightly, describes as 'Whack-a-Mole' combat where players become obsessed with stats and gear.
Whether he's right or not is yet to be determined.
After a week in beta testing sometime ago I decided to give this one a miss, but since release there have been lots of kind words said about TR, and as Play have the rascal for a meagre ?17.99 including a months subby. I decided to give it another try, and I must say it aint too shabby at all.
Unlike most MMOs nowadays character selection is confined to male or female humans only, soldiers, grunts in the AFS army. Initially all characters start out as recruits and are sent on run-of-the-mill fetch 'n' carry missions designed to ease the player into the controls. At level 5 a skill tree opens up which offers only 2 choices, effectively guns or roses (Soldier or Tech) once you've gone down one path you?re stuck with it. At level 15 your chosen skill tree opens up again, and so on as you progress. On the face of it it's a simple system.
Gameplay involves real-time shooting of real-time guns, and spells, the effect and damage of which is determined by unseen calculations based on the weapon or spell and the user's stats. Damage dealt and taken is also affected by the player's stance, cover and movement. Targeting is sticky and has a generous reticule to boot. Think Phantasy Star Online without the standing still when firing your weapon. In fact there's a lot of PSO in TR, and a lot of Planetside as well, looks like the slate still had some residue left after Garriott's efforts with Mr Sheen.
The world of TR is a constant battlefield where everyone is literally running around shooting things, Bane are dumped into the battlefield by dropships on a regular basis. You will find yourself helping the bloke up ahead as you're passing and likewise someone will jump in and help you should you be in a firefight. Scattered throughout the world (I've only seen a small part) are outposts, AFS and Bane. Players can attack and occupy the enemy bases; likewise they are called upon to defend AFS bases from the assaulting Bane. Kills from these occurrences offer up tokens which can be used to buy gear, reputation points if you will. Is it all sounding a bit familiar yet?
To add a bit of flexibility to the characters' skills Garriott has come up with LOGOS, ancient mystic tokens scattered about the land which can be combined to create or enhance special attacks depending on the combination of LOGO used. As yet my character is not skilled enough to use these, but their inclusion looks promising.
Players can also craft their own gear from ammo to spells to buffs. At this early point I've yet to have actually bothered looking into crafting properly, but it looks like standard fare, get a recipe, get the materials, go to a crafting station and make the bally thing. Heard all this before have you?
Instances are of course included some of which are public, i.e.- anyone can jump in, and some are private. Groups are essential for these and there's some hectic and fun shooting to be had. Yup. Seen these before too.
Graphics are scaleable and will demand a high-end rig to run at full-spec, though to my mind there's not a lot to look at anyway as the landscapes are pretty bland, there's scope for improvement here. Sound also is about adequate, mostly all I hear most of the time is my shotgun's BOOM!!
Voice-chat is in-built, a Godsend for hairy-arsed blokes who use female characters.
The clean slate then, not as blank as the name suggests, but promising none-the-less. The main draw for me is the new fangled real-time shooting and the hectic nature of the gameworld. As I said ?.not too shabby.
Tabula Rasa (Latin for 'clean slate') is the latest effort from Richard Garriott of Ultima fame. It's a futuristic MMORPG which mainly involves the third person shooting of lots of invaders known as the Bane and the local fauna for good measure.
Garriott's 'clean slate' is a self-proclaimed improvement in what he sees as a stagnating MMO 'World of Clones', which he, perhaps rightly, describes as 'Whack-a-Mole' combat where players become obsessed with stats and gear.
Whether he's right or not is yet to be determined.
After a week in beta testing sometime ago I decided to give this one a miss, but since release there have been lots of kind words said about TR, and as Play have the rascal for a meagre ?17.99 including a months subby. I decided to give it another try, and I must say it aint too shabby at all.
Unlike most MMOs nowadays character selection is confined to male or female humans only, soldiers, grunts in the AFS army. Initially all characters start out as recruits and are sent on run-of-the-mill fetch 'n' carry missions designed to ease the player into the controls. At level 5 a skill tree opens up which offers only 2 choices, effectively guns or roses (Soldier or Tech) once you've gone down one path you?re stuck with it. At level 15 your chosen skill tree opens up again, and so on as you progress. On the face of it it's a simple system.
Gameplay involves real-time shooting of real-time guns, and spells, the effect and damage of which is determined by unseen calculations based on the weapon or spell and the user's stats. Damage dealt and taken is also affected by the player's stance, cover and movement. Targeting is sticky and has a generous reticule to boot. Think Phantasy Star Online without the standing still when firing your weapon. In fact there's a lot of PSO in TR, and a lot of Planetside as well, looks like the slate still had some residue left after Garriott's efforts with Mr Sheen.
The world of TR is a constant battlefield where everyone is literally running around shooting things, Bane are dumped into the battlefield by dropships on a regular basis. You will find yourself helping the bloke up ahead as you're passing and likewise someone will jump in and help you should you be in a firefight. Scattered throughout the world (I've only seen a small part) are outposts, AFS and Bane. Players can attack and occupy the enemy bases; likewise they are called upon to defend AFS bases from the assaulting Bane. Kills from these occurrences offer up tokens which can be used to buy gear, reputation points if you will. Is it all sounding a bit familiar yet?
To add a bit of flexibility to the characters' skills Garriott has come up with LOGOS, ancient mystic tokens scattered about the land which can be combined to create or enhance special attacks depending on the combination of LOGO used. As yet my character is not skilled enough to use these, but their inclusion looks promising.
Players can also craft their own gear from ammo to spells to buffs. At this early point I've yet to have actually bothered looking into crafting properly, but it looks like standard fare, get a recipe, get the materials, go to a crafting station and make the bally thing. Heard all this before have you?
Instances are of course included some of which are public, i.e.- anyone can jump in, and some are private. Groups are essential for these and there's some hectic and fun shooting to be had. Yup. Seen these before too.
Graphics are scaleable and will demand a high-end rig to run at full-spec, though to my mind there's not a lot to look at anyway as the landscapes are pretty bland, there's scope for improvement here. Sound also is about adequate, mostly all I hear most of the time is my shotgun's BOOM!!
Voice-chat is in-built, a Godsend for hairy-arsed blokes who use female characters.
The clean slate then, not as blank as the name suggests, but promising none-the-less. The main draw for me is the new fangled real-time shooting and the hectic nature of the gameworld. As I said ?.not too shabby.
), so if anyone can send me an invite (you have to log into your plaync account managment to do so) send me a PM please.
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