Q: Face of Mankind, What is it? A:

AeonicStorm

Face of Mankind.  (The following opinions and interpretations come from somebody who played the FoM beta in 2005 as a LED and has been tracking the game's comeback for roughly 6 months and is an active member of the FoM community. Information below may not be factual but merely the interpretation of somebody who has played many MMOs.)

 

Face of Mankind is an MMORPG based in an era of humanity where all hell has broken loose and the cards are about to be placed on the table. The game launched in 2005 but could not handle the work load that it brought on from doing so. So it closed down. Well, recently it has launched up again and this time it has two companies that have its back. And with that, the graphics and gameplay have been re-worked and polished even further while the approach to launching has been made with all their previous mistakes in mind.

 

Face of Mankind is a first person shooter based in a futuristic world. You have roughly half a dozen or more places of interest. Walk the streets of New York or witness the war between the Yakuza and LED in Tokyo.

 

Face of Mankind is the ultimate role play game. The best way to describe it would be to compare it to other MMOs.

 

World of Warcraft : When you first start off you figure out what class you want to be and race and gender from the character creation screen. You start off in that race's starter zone with no quality items or gear and begin killing low level mobs that all look the same and start doing quests that range from: "kill this many pigs" or "talk to this person" or "find this stuff". You level up your character, do the quests, and you can start customizing how your character is by level 11 and start figuring if you want to be a Ice, Fire or Arcane specced Mage. Warrior, Paladin - and all other classes have their own paths.

 

Warhammer : Same as World of Warcraft except you start checking out the different Public Quests (events in particular parts of the zone with specific actions and work like a small dungeon) and you start doing scenarios (much like WoW's battlegrouns)

 

Face of Mankind you create how you wish your character to look and all other necessary character creation aspects and you start off fresh as if you had just gotten out of high school and thrown into the world. You look around and there are no guilds. There are no mundane mold you should follow or some strategy to get max level fast. The first thing you are worried about is which faction to join. Lets take the LED (Law Enforcement Department) for example. They police all the cities, colonies, and other installations. The LED is exactly like the Stormwind Military of World of Warcraft or the Chosens of Chaos in Warhammer - except the LED is ran entirely by people. No NPCs. When you take quests you interact with real people in real positions of power. You do not join a guild. You join a lifestyle.

From joining a crime syndicate to joining a corporation interested in only filling their coffers. From joining mercenaries who hunt down murderers to contract killers who work for the highest bidder.

The guards patrolling each zone are not NPC's 30 levels higher than you. They are real people trained by that organization in combat, conflict resolution, public relations. They are real players trained by other real players on how to speak or act in different situations.

 

You might come across a LED officer in New York patrolling the merchant terminals. A rogue mercenary player comes up and tries to gank some of the civilians there selling and buying at the terminals (civilians are real players too). The police officer calls for backup and anything could happen. The mercenary might give up and get arrested and escorted to jail and pay a fine or the mercenary might open fire on the officer. Boundless scenarios await you in Face of Mankind.

When you die in Face of Mankind you die for good. This is realism here folks. But there's a catch. Much like Eve Online's insurance you can buy better quality clones that retain stats and other things. Your gear is lost, however, so you will always have this sense of excitement and danger wherever you go - as will everyone else. People will act as they would in real life, or as they wish they could. And you can be whoever you wish to be.

Right now the player companies that will be taking over the factions are forming. Face of Mankind is in closed beta and it will not be long before it is in open beta. If you ever wanna be a Yakuza, a Police Officer, a rich corporate executive and so much more you would be wise to start meeting the people who will be running these organizations.

 

 

Sorry for the block of text. But if you have any questions post it in this thread. Any opinions may be added to this thread.