A Casual Gamer's review

Sythos

Since I am new I can't rank the game, but I hope this review helps others to decide if they want to try this game or not.  I know that fans and haters of the game alike will probably flame this, but I still wanted others who might be looking at playing to have as unbiased a write-up as I could do.  And no, I do not play WoW, as the child-like graphics annoyed me so much I just couldn't stand it.

First off, for the price it is going for now, I recommend everyone try it.  You can't beat $9.99 for a month trial with full access to content (not like free trial that tend to limit you).

Pros

- the Futuristic Sci-Fi theme is definitely refreshing as compared to the plethora of medieval or before settings

-  the clone feature is fun and allows you to role up alts more quickly, but it also has some cons

- the graphics on the ranged weapon firing and the controls of this system are very good

 - almost no lag on my PC, even with high options, though one or two specific zones do lag a little

 - graphics are much better than I anticipated on the mobs, but not so much on the landscape where they are just kind of ho-hum

 - the troop transports dropping in mobs is great when compared to magically appearing creatures, and it lends to the storyline of the game

 - you can solo fairly well, though like all games groups makes things easier, and they are an absolute must for some missions

CONS

 - if you are not a fan of extremely repetitive gamplay, then this one i not for you.  If you thought EQ, EQ2 or WoW were repetitive, you haven't seen nothing yet.  The only thing I can compare it to is Black Spawn Den in AC, where you run in and kill, kill, kill and more kill, rinse and repeat, for hours on a time just to grind out a level or two. 

 - aforementioned cloning will likely lead to a lack of groups at low levels as the game matures, unless it sees a serious influx of new people.   Some of the lowbie zones are already fairly quiet.

 - base warfare is fun as well, but since it follows a pattern it really loses it's fun after a few attacks/defenses

 - quests are the same old thing .. noting new here.  Not so much a CON as a 'I was hoping for more'.  Not sure why I thought I would get more, since UO wasn't a questing game, but I was still hoping.

 - Classes can be diverse, but the reality is, almost everyone within a given class goes for the same skills.  This is just like all other games I have mentioned previously EXCEPT Ultima Online, so I am not sure why they tout their ability to build unique characters so much.  They actually have less uniqueness to them than building thru AA and/or Talent tress and such in other games.

 

That's a brief run-down on the game.   I hope it helps, but as for my overall opinion, here goes.

Outside of the first day or two when I thought "wow, this shoot and scoot sci-fi is pretty fun", I felt absolutely no real draw to log back in.  I kept plugging away for three months, using the clone feature to try a couple different subclasses.  The classes do become more distinct past 30, and some of these actually made the game enjoyable again for a breif few hours until that newness wore off.  Even so, I tired of the same old same old very quickly.

Overall, I think the game is well polished with few major bugs or issues.  The problem is, there is more to a game than just polish.  I have never minded a game having little bugs or glitches, as long as the depth and content were there.  This game seemed completely lacking in depth, as you do the same old thing as you level up.  No new tricks, and after the first few levels in each class/sub-class, you are basically doing pretty much the same boring thing over and over again for the rest of the levels in that segment.  the same can be said for other games as well, but this is the worst of the bunch.

I am glad I tried the game, but it would have to have some serious changes to make me even want to come back and try it.  Other games had something that always made me want to come back, even if I had been gone for years.  DAoC had RvR.   EQ had AA's and the fights were much less of the hit the same button 5 times feel.  Ultima Online had great character building and a casual gamer could enjoy it more than any other game out there.   LOTRO has the Tolien lore.   CoH/CoV had fun characters and abilities.  Asheron's Call had a great character building system also, so much so that I have gone back to it multiple times despite my not liking PvP which is the main focus of the gamers left.  

I am sure all of you have had things that made you either revisit an old game, or at least got an itch to do so.  All of these games had much less polish and far more bugs than Tabula Rasa, but they had certain things that just kept drawing you back to the game.  I just don't have that feeling with TR in the least.  It's really a sad thing to, as I had really high hopes for it given how much fun I had playing UO back in the day.