Tabula Rasa

[SoupyC]

Anyone try this? What did ya think? Sounds fun...

If you're subscribed, got one of those 3-day trial passes? I'd love to try it out before throwing $50 at it. :D

[PoPJaY]

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/editorials/zeropunctuation/2326-Zero-Punctuation-Tabula-Rasa

heres what he has 2 say

[SoupyC]

Oh yeah, but Yahtzee rarely has anything good to say. :D

[Kriv]

ANyone tried this yet?

[Tykwer]

ok, well, i tried it during the beta and i got pretty bored with it and quit, but i dont know if that's because the game was buggy an very incomplete or because it just got old. i do have to agree with nearly everything yahtzee said, except for the go around and kill X amount of Y monsters. they didnt have that quest when i first played, then added it and all it is is an ongoing quest that i dont think you even need to complete, but when you do kill X amount of a certain monster, you get awarded a title that you can throw on your name. you pretty much just ignore that quest and do all the other quests and in so doing, you complete it.

[Vryllyn]

I had two beta keys and it was pretty bad. It was a bit annoying to compete with everyone else to finish quests and some people were killing them to farm. It was pretty bad to me.

[SoupyC]

Good bad or bad bad?

[Vryllyn]

Good bad or bad bad?

Bad bad.

[Prowler130]

Bad bad.

vryl! i havent seen you post in ages!

[Vryllyn]

vryl! i havent seen you post in ages!

I've been lurking a bit.

[SoupyC]

As an update, MMORPG.com has 3-day trials available. You have to sign up for their site, but it's free. I got a trial key from someone of of planettr.com, and I don't know how much has changed since beta (According to Lord British, quite a bit), but I'm having fun. :D

[SoupyC]

So, I've been playing this for about a week now, and here are my impressions:

1. The backstory is COOL. I have a thing for post-apocalyptic/earth-invasion stories, so that may just be my personal bias, but they've done a good job of creating an atmosphere that fits the story well.

2. The world environments are well done, and do a good job of bringing you into the battle. And, instead of mobs just 'appearing' in front of you, you'll be walking along and an enemy drop ship will swoop in and beam a few 'Crusties' (term used for the enemies) down and battle will ensue.

3. It is difficult to tell the difference between friendly NPCs and real players in terms of capabilities. For example, there are Control Points that are constantly being fought for, by one side or the other. When we're defending, you'll get NPCs doing ALL the stuff players can do (around that level) and it makes for a very pitched battle.

4. The skill progression is neat. Instead of picking your class at the start of the game, you start as a recruit and specialize from there. The progression is divided into tiers, further divided into levels. Levels 1-4 you are tier 1 (Recruit) and at level 5, you can choose to go the soldier path, or specialist path. They branch further from there. ALSO, at each tier selection you get to 'clone' your character, so if you don't like the tier you've chosen, you can go the other way.

5. The community is great. Of course general chat is filled with nonsense, but if you ask a question, it gets answered.

6. It is a constant work in progress, like any MMO. The devs have been talking about adding in content with every major patch (ala LOTRO), with talks of battleground-ish PVP and Personal Armored Units. MECHS! (Which are already in the game, just piloted by NPCs)

7. Travel is accomplished via a network of teleporters. You just step onto the platform and select your destination and you're there. Of course you have to have already visited your destination, but its very quick and convenient.

8. You have magic, but it's not magic persay. You tap into this power called LOGOS that allows you to hurl bolts of lightning, run fast, enhance damage and so on. I haven't gotten too far up, so those are the three things I can do, but as you level you can 'pump' abilities to do whatever they do better. For example, one of the skills you start with is called 'Firearms'. As you level, you get skill points (2 per level I believe) that you can spend on skills. So right away you can 'pump' two skills to their first level.

All in all I think its a nice break from the typical formula (most MMOs have been similar in play style since EQ) yet still similar enough to be fairly easy to grasp. Leveling is done at the right speed, and doesn't feel like too much is being pushed on you too fast.

My 2 cents.

Cheers!
Soup

[Kriv]

You are making me want to pick up a copy and give it a try.


I am going to check to see if those 3 day trials are still available.

[SoupyC]

I'd encourage you to! MMORPG.com has free three day trials now. Check it out! I am on the Orion server, surname of Adaweo.

Oh yeah...I can add that to my list:

9. Due to the awesome cloning system, all of your characters share the same surname. When you want to contact someone, you send a tell to their surname, and no matter what character they are on, they get it! Not a gameplay thing, but still a bitchin feature.

[Kriv]

I just loaded up the trial, surname is Kriv.

It seems fun, i hope to get more gametime in this weekend to continue to try it out.