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terryclothI guess I should have expected as much from Richard Garriot.
On a whim, I bought Tabula Rasa, even though I wasn't sure it would run on my computer. Technically, I was in the store to buy a new computer so that I could run new games, but the computers were on sale, so it was *way* too crowded and confusing for me to actually buy on. So instead, I got a new game.
The first impression of Tabula Rasa: "Jesus fucking christ, how long is this going to take to update?"
Second impression: "Okay, it's got character customization on par with Flyff, but it's one of those ones where you wear ugly mismatched armor anyway, so... jesus christ, my computer overheated and crashed on THIS game too?"
Third impression, after turning down the detail enough that my computer didn't crash, and eventually getting through the character select screen: "My god is this game ugly."
Anyway, I've gotten one character up to level 8 in it now, with a clone at level 6, and... it's basically a really, really simplistic version of Everquest or WoW with a science fiction theme. The enemies *do* all fight differently, at least, but there aren't very many types, and they usually infest their own private areas like in Flyff. The exception is the control point raids, where a giant army of them warps in and kills you over and over and over until you choose a different spawn point, then mysteriously gets fought off by friendly forces somehow -- I don't see any way for a player to really affect those battles because you die instantly.
The combat is *not* FPS-like. You can't move and shoot at the same time... I mean, you *can*, but you do like 10% damage, so you shouldn't bother. So instead, you crouch in one place, being very careful not to be anywhere near anything that might conceivably be considered cover (since cover only works in the enemy's favor, no matter which of you has it), wait for the targetting reticle to lock on (it takes a while to 'bead in' on a target), and then hold down (or repeatedly press) the attack button until the enemy dies or you run out of ammo. Or health, I suppose, although usually it's either 'plink plink plink' or 'OMG I just got killed in two hits by something?'
Oh, or you can run into melee and beat people to death with your rifle butt. This is more effective than using pistols or rifles, but the more effective weapons do eclipse it eventually.
Or you can cast magic spells, which is usually pointless because of their really really slow rate of fire, but some enemies are mysteriously immune to weapons of all types, so you have to use spells. Yay.
There's a bunch of 'logos' runes scattered all over for you to find, but I'm not sure what the point of that is since you have to also train the spells as skills. I mean, you also need the runes, but there's a LOT more runes than there are spells. I'm talking something like 20 spells in the game (with a given character getting six) and 200 runes, at about 2 runes to the spell.
There are lots of missions. You get waypoints on your map, but they aren't usually very helpful (sometimes they are) because they're waypoints to the destination only, and not to the hidden pass or cavern entrance you need to actually find to get to them. They've got as much variety as WoW or EQ, at least -- 'kill specific enemy', 'kill X random enemies', 'visit waypoint', 'talk to person', 'escort NPC'. It has the 'accept every random mission everyone gives you and then try to do them all at once' model from WoW or EQ, too, with an aggravating limit on the number of missions you can have outstanding at once.
Anyway, overall the game seems really sloppy and ugly, and the combat is... well, if you could move during combat and that meant anything, maybe it would be fun, but everyone (you and the enemy) is auto-aiming which defeats the purpose. I don't think I like it much, although I'm not quite to the point of uninstalling it since it's only been one day.
On a whim, I bought Tabula Rasa, even though I wasn't sure it would run on my computer. Technically, I was in the store to buy a new computer so that I could run new games, but the computers were on sale, so it was *way* too crowded and confusing for me to actually buy on. So instead, I got a new game.
The first impression of Tabula Rasa: "Jesus fucking christ, how long is this going to take to update?"
Second impression: "Okay, it's got character customization on par with Flyff, but it's one of those ones where you wear ugly mismatched armor anyway, so... jesus christ, my computer overheated and crashed on THIS game too?"
Third impression, after turning down the detail enough that my computer didn't crash, and eventually getting through the character select screen: "My god is this game ugly."
Anyway, I've gotten one character up to level 8 in it now, with a clone at level 6, and... it's basically a really, really simplistic version of Everquest or WoW with a science fiction theme. The enemies *do* all fight differently, at least, but there aren't very many types, and they usually infest their own private areas like in Flyff. The exception is the control point raids, where a giant army of them warps in and kills you over and over and over until you choose a different spawn point, then mysteriously gets fought off by friendly forces somehow -- I don't see any way for a player to really affect those battles because you die instantly.
The combat is *not* FPS-like. You can't move and shoot at the same time... I mean, you *can*, but you do like 10% damage, so you shouldn't bother. So instead, you crouch in one place, being very careful not to be anywhere near anything that might conceivably be considered cover (since cover only works in the enemy's favor, no matter which of you has it), wait for the targetting reticle to lock on (it takes a while to 'bead in' on a target), and then hold down (or repeatedly press) the attack button until the enemy dies or you run out of ammo. Or health, I suppose, although usually it's either 'plink plink plink' or 'OMG I just got killed in two hits by something?'
Oh, or you can run into melee and beat people to death with your rifle butt. This is more effective than using pistols or rifles, but the more effective weapons do eclipse it eventually.
Or you can cast magic spells, which is usually pointless because of their really really slow rate of fire, but some enemies are mysteriously immune to weapons of all types, so you have to use spells. Yay.
There's a bunch of 'logos' runes scattered all over for you to find, but I'm not sure what the point of that is since you have to also train the spells as skills. I mean, you also need the runes, but there's a LOT more runes than there are spells. I'm talking something like 20 spells in the game (with a given character getting six) and 200 runes, at about 2 runes to the spell.
There are lots of missions. You get waypoints on your map, but they aren't usually very helpful (sometimes they are) because they're waypoints to the destination only, and not to the hidden pass or cavern entrance you need to actually find to get to them. They've got as much variety as WoW or EQ, at least -- 'kill specific enemy', 'kill X random enemies', 'visit waypoint', 'talk to person', 'escort NPC'. It has the 'accept every random mission everyone gives you and then try to do them all at once' model from WoW or EQ, too, with an aggravating limit on the number of missions you can have outstanding at once.
Anyway, overall the game seems really sloppy and ugly, and the combat is... well, if you could move during combat and that meant anything, maybe it would be fun, but everyone (you and the enemy) is auto-aiming which defeats the purpose. I don't think I like it much, although I'm not quite to the point of uninstalling it since it's only been one day.
