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Fallen Earth is now Free to Play

Renegen

Arcane
Joined
Jun 5, 2011
Messages
4,062
So the post-apocalyptic MMO Fallen Earth has very recently gone F2P and I decided to give it a shot and have clocked in 10 hours. Is this a worthy substitute for our Fallout MMO wet dreams? Is it worth playing? Find out below.

The first thing that surprised me about the game was that there was actually a story. No, it wasn't about how the world ended, I still don't know given the walls of text, but that you start out as a clone in a cloning facility. You are part of a rare breed that's basically immoral thanks to cloning and this story is good enough to carry a main quest line about restoring the purity of your DNA, explaining death and allows you to start with amnesia. 1 point for effort.

30w7bk0.jpg


On to the gameplay. First the combat, which plays quite differently from most MMOs and a bit like Fallout 3 actually. There is no auto attack here, no reliance on skill cooldowns. It's just you, wasd, and the enemy. You can choose from third person view or first person, close combat or ranged. The combat feels closer to a single player game, and as far as MMOs go, this is a major accomplishment. It goes a long way to making sure the game isn't boring and doesn't feel like an MMO. The battles aren't exactly challenging, but I did manage to die a few times. There is PvP of course, and faction warfare, I've just never tried it. Average combat for single player, but great for an MMO.

2lu4av8.jpg


About the skill system. It is a combination of the Morrowind "practice" system and the Fallout points system with a dash of MMO. There are no classes, just APs that you can spend in one of 4 areas: Attributes, Skills, Mutations and Tradeskill. Attributes are your Strength, Intelligence and Perception and they affect a lot of things, aswell as determing max ranks in the other 3 areas. Skills can be "Rifles", "Armor Use", or "First Aid". Mutations are basically magic, and you have your healing, buffs, de-buffs, DoTs, nuking etc. The Skills and Mutations are drawn from MMO mechanics, First Aid for example provides an ability that heals HP. Tradeskill are the only ones that go up with practice, and they are your crafting skills. To learn new stuff, you must buy books, craft them, or find them. There is complete freedom in how you can build your character, but beware, you have few APs and must really specialize. Do you go pure fighter, pure crafting or something in between?

xlz0cx.jpg


In fact, the economy of the game is heavily dependent on crafting. Besides a few vendor items, everything is acquired through crafting. You can even level up from crafting exclusivelly. The whole economy actually revolves around scavenging parts, and then either selling them or crafting new items. And before you can scavenge, you must explore the wasteland. For those who explore really well, they will find hidden stashes and rare crafting resources. You then note these in your waypoints and jealously guard their location. You want to play the lone wanderer risking his life for rare techs? You got it. This focus on scavenging and crafting produces a game that doesn't feel as grindy as pure fighting. There is a reward for everything you do, and you have total freedom. You can even build structures, besides all the cool items.

1z6qmgj.jpg


Let's finish with the overall graphics and gameworld, because bros know they are the least important for making a good RPG. For the most part, the graphics aren't flashy, and everything looks like shit. But the gameworld, not only huge, actually has a distinct feel to it. Everyone gets a horse early on, after which you can upgrade with a bike, ATV or car, all post-apocalyptic approved. You can also have a dog companion follow you, or as seen in the screenshot, a cockroach. The deformed creatures you meet are original, yet grounded in reality. The towns are realistic. As you may have noticed, each item you equip will look unique on your character. You can do a lot of cool things, like picking people off with your scored rifle while on a horse, or looking like a Mad Max reject. As mentioned, the wasteland is a world in itself. This isn't Fallout, where 90% of your time is spent in a town or a dungeon, you actually have a wasteland. Oh and did I mention no instances?

A quick paragraph on bugs and F2P. I encountered bugs unfortunately, but they are all minor. And playing F2P gives you access to all content IIRC, you just earn less 25% exp, crafting takes 25% longer, and you can craft less in a day.

When you put it all together, this game actually succeeds in being the Fallout MMO and allows you to live whatever post-apoc fantasy you have, all while partially succeeding in not feeling like an asphyxiating MMO. Its mechanics are rooted in old-school MMOs and single player RPGs. In many ways, it has a lot in common with Neocon. You may want to give it a try.

For what it has accomplished, I salute it. 7.5/10 :salute:
 

Angthoron

Arcane
Joined
Jul 13, 2007
Messages
13,056
This is awesome news. I tried Fallen Earth out about a year ago, and while it's kinda klunky and unpolished, it was an interesting enough game. As an F2P, I'm totally going to play that again.
 

Eyeball

Arcane
Joined
Sep 3, 2010
Messages
2,541
I like how you're crafting a moncole in the middle pic there.

Sounds intrigueing, and with it going F2P, there's no excuse not to at least try it out. Downloading.
 

Raapys

Arcane
Joined
Jun 7, 2007
Messages
4,960
Hmm, I played this long ago. Beta I think, because I definitely didn't pay. Was an interesting concept, buggy'ish execution and rather empty at the time. Think I'll check it out again, thanks for the heads up.
 

Renegen

Arcane
Joined
Jun 5, 2011
Messages
4,062
Clockwork Knight said:
Eyeball said:

Anyway, yeah, that sounds pretty cool for a MMO. Got burned out on korean clikaclika ages ago.

By the way, what's the time limit for, in the middle pic? When it ends, the item is successfully crafted?

Yes, that's the time it takes to craft the item. I now have the skill to craft the monocle, but not the items. The glass is quite rare to find, I found some in junked cars, but I should go near a river to get some. The craft timer counts down even if you're offline.
Server is actually down right now :godimsomadtheyremovedthissmiley:

If you want to start near me, choose Mumford.
 

gromit

Arcane
Joined
Jan 31, 2005
Messages
2,771
Location
Gentrification Station
This is pretty clearly the same engine as once ran the excellent (and now defunct) Space Cowboy. That one was pretty good for PvP. Careful (and/or deliberately risky) play worked wonders before they started having to tack things on at the end of the original levelling scheme.

From about level 30 (around where levelling stops being relatively painless) you could really ruin some lvl80 chump's day for leaning on the numbers too hard (and having no clue how to dogfight.)
 

Multi-headed Cow

Guest
I may try this at some point. You make it sound un-shit. Free to play sounds suspiciously reasonable too.
 

flabbyjack

Arcane
Joined
Jul 15, 2004
Messages
2,592
Location
the area around my keyboard
Downloading now, it sounds great from the website. It sounds a lot like Anarchy Online was supposed to be. For $10 you can get a Droid/iPhone app for your phone to use in-game communication. Hawt!

Typo on their main website:
Meee

* Feint: Reduces your target's defenses and effective armor rating for a short time after you fake them out.
 

Dire Roach

Prophet
Joined
Feb 28, 2007
Messages
1,592
Location
Machete-Knight Academy
I tried it and got kinda turned off by its general clunkiness. Movement and combat felt pretty stiff, although I guess that's typical of any MMO, I guess. The UPGRAED NAW!1 button is very annoying as well.

I only played it for a few hours but I sensed that the game revolves way too much around a cycle of gathering and crafting. You spend all your time looking for resource nodes to craft shit with so that you can craft even more shit. Amirite or amirong?

I might give it a second chance later, though. Especially if a Kodex Klan endures and grows strong.
 

Angthoron

Arcane
Joined
Jul 13, 2007
Messages
13,056
Dire Roach said:
I tried it and got kinda turned off by its general clunkiness. Movement and combat felt pretty stiff, although I guess that's typical of any MMO, I guess. The UPGRAED NAW!1 button is very annoying as well.

Is there any way to remove that button? Every time I log in I have to move it offscreen, and it registers it as a click every time... Annoying.

I only played it for a few hours but I sensed that the game revolves way too much around a cycle of gathering and crafting. You spend all your time looking for resource nodes to craft shit with so that you can craft even more shit. Amirite or amirong?

Urite. There was some vendor shopping before, but they seem to have removed it altogether. I suppose maybe there are rare drops, but that's it. It's mainly about crafting. I dunno, I kinda like it, but I wish I knew where the Auction House is. Any idea, bros?
 

Angthoron

Arcane
Joined
Jul 13, 2007
Messages
13,056
Yeah, but it always comes back to the same spot next login. Ah, well.

By the way, is it possible to respec at all? I am not sure I'm making the best possible character choices right now as I've no idea what's the balance between ranged and melee.
 

Renegen

Arcane
Joined
Jun 5, 2011
Messages
4,062
From what I heard, it is possible to pay money to re-spec, or you can also buy some medicine items that re-spec 5 AP at a time, yeah. That's why in my screenshots I have like half of my AP unspent, I don't know yet what to choose. You fortunately have some abilities available until lvl 15 to try out. So far, I put points into strength because it increases carrying weight, intelligence, because it greatly increases scavenge rank, and perception which I use for pistols.

And let's try to get the Codex guild going! or at least build the first brick. Add me to your friends list "Renegen" and I will pass around all of our names, or write them here. I will figure out how guilds are founded, or maybe veterans like Sovard can also take the lead. :)
 

Angthoron

Arcane
Joined
Jul 13, 2007
Messages
13,056
Renegen said:
From what I heard, it is possible to pay money to re-spec, or you can also buy some medicine items that re-spec 5 AP at a time, yeah. That's why in my screenshots I have like half of my AP unspent, I don't know yet what to choose. You fortunately have some abilities available until lvl 15 to try out. So far, I put points into strength because it increases carrying weight, intelligence, because it greatly increases scavenge rank, and perception which I use for pistols.

And let's try to get the Codex guild going! or at least build the first brick. Add me to your friends list "Renegen" and I will pass around all of our names, or write them here. I will figure out how guilds are founded, or maybe veterans like Sovard can also take the lead. :)

Arrite, will do next time I'm on, though I'm not likely going to be a terribly active player.
 

Angthoron

Arcane
Joined
Jul 13, 2007
Messages
13,056
Urgh, how do I add people to the friend list? The interface is sometimes a little unfriendly.
 

mikaelis

Prophet
Patron
Joined
Nov 28, 2008
Messages
1,436
Location
Land of Danes
Codex 2013 Codex 2014
Can you just say fuck off to other players and go play alone (so more like SP game)? Or is it completely uninteresting that way as you are only popamoling in random detached missions?

Never really played any MMO games, but somehow the concept seems not appealing to me, so I was just wondering if you can have fun from something like this playing it SP.
 

Angthoron

Arcane
Joined
Jul 13, 2007
Messages
13,056
mikaelis said:
Can you just say fuck off to other players and go play alone (so more like SP game)? Or is it completely uninteresting that way as you are only popamoling in random detached missions?

Never really played any MMO games, but somehow the concept seems not appealing to me, so I was just wondering if you can have fun from something like this playing it SP.

So far the only thing I had other players for was the auction house. I'm not very far in, but at least so far (L7) seems to be pretty unrelying on others. It's a bit of a pain in the arse to skill up ALL the tradeskills though, and I've heard today that your crafting is limited to 8hr/day on an F2P account, so, auctions are probably a good thing.
 

anus_pounder

Arcane
Joined
Mar 20, 2010
Messages
5,972
Location
Yiffing in Hell
Downloadan right nao.Also what about the other games by these guys ? In particular, I'm looking at the open beta of APB Reloaded. (open beta ? Wasn't the game fully released a year or two ago ?)
 
Self-Ejected

Excidium

P. banal
Joined
Aug 14, 2009
Messages
13,696
Location
Third World
Those games aren't developed by by these guys, Gamerfirst is just a F2P games publisher like nexon or gpotato.

As for the APB open beta: The original game had tanked, they bought it from EA and are re-releasing it as F2P. Kinda shitty game, tho.
 

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