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.
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.
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?
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.
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
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.
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.
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?
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.
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