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Review from the first 2 days
ericbelser
Member Posts: 783
Okay, first off bear in mind this is based on the experiences of two accounts on different comps since the beta went public. (Mine and my wifes). In that two days, top characters are level 10 and a whole lot of exploration was done.
Installation and technical things: The results here were wildly divergent between two very similar machines. I was able to install, patch and run with no problems whatsoever. My wife however, began experiencing lock ups, ctds and bluescreens almost immediately. It seems the game has some very specific problems with particular graphics cards, drivers and installations. After a whole lot of fiddling, all of her problems seem to be gone as of today.
Stability: Aside from the GFX issues mentioned, the game is very stable. Far better than many I have played in open betas or at launch. Yes, there are still occasional spots where you can get stuck or fall through the world and yep, there are occasional inventory/que display issues...but they seem to be pretty rare and minor. The game is definately "playable".
Lag and Latency are clearly their main problem and will be a significant one if they cannot get a firm handle on it. Rubberbanding breaks the combat system badly.
Graphics: The style is great, they did a fine job of the post-armageddon ruins motif. With that said, the overal graphics quality is severely dated, easily comparable to games 3-5yrs ago or more. Also the characters are just fugly, blocky/chunky gorillas really. Now, I don't particularly mind as gfx aren't the main selling point, but it is an issue for some.
UI: The default UI and controls will irk a lot of people, fortunately they can be fixed to something tolerable for nearly anyone with a bit of remapping and tweaking.
Gameplay: The psuedo-fps targettting is a bit annoying to get used to, but mostly works fairly well. Combat lacks a lot of "flare", fairly simple animations and not a lot of flash. The pace is fairly quick, but slower than many current games. Downtime is present, minor but notable between fights. AI is fairly dumb, but no worse than the majority of games out there. Mob strength and ease of fight isn't as easy to gauge as in most MMOs.(edit: and thankfully the bunnyhopping idiocy of many FPSs doesn't seem to work here)
World: The world is huge and fairly well populated - not the wastelands of emptiness that say AO was at launch. Travel is slow and I love it! Being someplace has meaning when you can't be on the other side of the world in 10 seconds. Mounts and vehicles work well and will reduce travel times greatly for the impatient.
Class/Level system: The classless system with levels and skill points works well. Many builds are possible and viable, although a lot of basic skills will be common across many builds. At least up to the parts I played, I did not see any horribly gimped or grossly overpowerd configurations.
Crafting: This is easily the best part of the game for those who love it. Any complaints about build times are buried by being able to start a job and log off or go adventure while it runs. Given that you have to scavenge for parts, you can often have a batch of whatever running while you are out gathering for the next run.
Help/Tutorial functions: These are present, although a bit lacking in places just because some things are fairly non-intuitively designed or displayed.
Question/Mission system: pretty much MMO standard, nothing astounding but no worse than EQ2/LotRO/WoW.
PvP is restricted to certain areas and frankly I haven't seen a whole lot of it going on yet.
Summary: It's playable. If you like the genre it might have some legs as a niche game. It has minor technical issues that will either be forgotten if the team is any good or which will drag it down noticably in the long run if they botch them. It's in far better shape for launch than several other games that have survived.
Comments
A nice first impressions. If I may ask have you had any updates in the last few days and if so were they sizeable?
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The person who is certain, and who claims divine warrant for his certainty, belongs now to the infancy of our species.
They pushed back launch date to work on graphical improvements and performance issues, so yeh if you like the game but left cause of that might wanna check it out.
I have a few doubts about this game being a FPS. I've installed and played the game yesterday for about 2-3 hours and was somewhat dissapointed.
Fallen Earth made a FPS game but combined it with many things found in WoW and games like it. First of as an FPS player i like to pvp a lot and as far as pvp i have seen none yet. As was said, the controls of your character are very annoying during pve play. A lot of things don't add up either. Why have a level up system when shooting a weapon requires pulling a trigger? I would have prefered having a majority to 100% of the game be based around pvp and abandon pve. The other thing is that the word "quest" keeps coming up in 90% or more MMO games and frankly it makes no sense in this game. If you're out to save citizens as it comes up in the beginning map, why not call it a rescue mission? Or if you're going to hunt/kill something why not refer to it as an assassination? "Quest" is honostly the most overused word in almost all MMOs. The graphics aren't too bad and the open world is very nice however the crafting system in my opinion isn't really for a FPS game. An FPS game is supposed to be about skill rather than having the best item. Like other games it seems to me that Fallen Earth is a combination of WoW and games like it with an FPS game. I've had no problem installing this game, but from what i've heard on a different thread many of the given out beta keys were the same on two different sites causing people to not be able to use the key they have gotten.
I've have already uninstalled Fallen Earth and will probably not be playing it. If anyone wants to try the beta send me a message and I will give you my login and password for the game.
Seeing that FE is not a FPS game but a MMORPG with FPS elements I say they did their job right according to X11........
Well there haven't been any big patches recently, if that's what you were asking.
It's *NOT* an FPS and if that is what you were looking for then just go elsewhere because you will be disappointed, badly so. It uses some very basic elements of FPS-play in the combat system and that's about it.
The biggest problem remains lag and rubberbanding. Functioning anywheres there is a mass of people gets harder and harder and PvP en masse is virtually impossible. Quite simply, if they don't improve this it will be a major problem, enough to drive off lots of otherwise happy people.
I have to say that was a VERY good review.I have no idea how this game plays,i have not played it,but from your review i got a VERY good idea...good job.
Couple things, i love crafting,but i do NOT like anything remotely close to the "EVE" approach of learning or making things while you are out doing other things.Far i am concerned,if you are crafting something,you should be crafting,it should not be automated,that would lose me right away,i would not play that for one minute.Another game that did something similar was RF with it's mining,you could go to bed and your still mining,bah.
I like the way the OP pointed out REMAPPING,so many times,i mean HUNDREDS of times ,i have seen people complain about UI's because they are not EXACTLY like "WOW",yet there is ways to customize the UI in many ways,they are just too lazy too look.Besides that,you nor ANY game,needs to have it's UI EXACTLY what you are used to,as long as the design is playable and not overly cumbersome,i am fine with it.
Anyhoot,that was a good ,believable review,"for once",not often can i say this
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
I just wanted to update:
On the technical side, lag has gotten better in nearly all cases but still remains the major technical hurdle to enjoying the game. The specific targetting reticule mechanics in combat make it much more of an issue than if might be otherwise, combat becomes virtually impossible when the mobs jump around and rubberband due to lag.
Meanwhile, despite trying everything under the sun and then some, the crashes continue on my wife's PC and on another slightly older backup machine we have tried. Nothing suggested by people on their forums or support has resolved the issue. Obviously this is a huge problem for them as well, there will be screams of outrage on launch day if a significant number of platforms which meet their minimum specs easily simply cannot run the game in a stable fashion.
As I have continued to level up, some problems and concerns have troubled me:
New area, same old junk: harvesting is getting old fast. The same models, reused with a new higher level tag and just massive amounts of components needed for crafting and quests.
Guns kind of pointless: My character is not particularly optimized for melee, in fact he is predominantly a crafter...yet I have discovered that guns (and ranged weapons in general) seem to offer little advantage beyond their use in "pulling" mobs. It takes 3-5 shots with a high damage ranged weapon to kill an average even level mob...this pretty much means they get to pound on you a bit even if you start at range. Ammo costs money and/or resources. Yet even my weakling can armor up and beat the same critters to death just as easily with a good club or sword and not spend any money doing so.
New town, same quests: As in most MMOs, quest chasing is the way to level faster and get some goodies along the way...but they are really really starting to feel repetitive...the same kill 10 xx, find yy's corpse or go scavenge some junk. A few have surprised me with some twists or new aspects, but overall it's getting to be a bit of a chore.
General commentary: I'm a post-apoc junky, I grew up on this stuff. I played and ran Gamma World games, loved MadMax and the ilk....yet there is something lacking in Fallen Earth and I cannot quickly place it.
Perhaps it's an inability to identify with any of the factions (which just seem a bit trite and stereotypical)? Perhaps its the "hoky-ness" of the whole Lifenet cloning thing? (I mean really, world has collapsed but you're still immortal because the cloning network still works?) Perhaps it's just an inability to relate to the environment? (I've never been to the SW except flying over it and personally just hate deserts)
Whatever it is, Fallen Earth is just failing to "click" with me, despite my wanting to like it.
Good review.
I dabbled a bit in the Fallen Earth beta and here is my 2c.
It has an amazing starting zone (When you drive the bomb away in the ATV). I really liked the FPS style targeting system, never got a rifle but I believe playing with a scope would be very fun. The enemy AI actually surprised me, a coyote (?) would jump from side to side while attacking me to make it harder to aim making a stun pretty essential.
I thoroughly enjoyed the start but, idk if the quests got repetitive/boring or the bland apocalyptic landscape got to me (Some people might like it, I don't), FE lost my attention fairly fast.
As a post-apocalyptic junkie, I was more than a little disappointed by my experiences (so far) with the Fallen Earth beta. The concept itself has merit and some good strong points, but the implementation is clunky and a bit too generic for my tastes.
NPC dialog and storyline have been thought out, but just seem to be lifeless, dry and predictable. The basic premise of the situation is actually rather clever - you have to love the way they have handled the whole "respawn when dead" thing using the cloning premise, it's far better than many MMOs in that immersion respect.
Gameplay is stuttered and stiff. It's not pure FPS, it's not pure RPG, it's a hybrid that just doesn't seem to gel. The movement does not seem fluid (but I've been spoiled by 5 years of City of Heroes, I guess). The targeting system is hard to get used to, but does provide a bit of decent FPS feel when you get the hang of it. From what I can see, the FPS aiming is one part, but damage is governed by stats (correct me if I'm wrong there, just my impression of what I'm seeing). In this respect, the gameplay is a little more immersive than many MMOs because it is partially skill oriented, less "target and activate a skill" based. I'm just thinking, this might give some additional realism too, since you have the chance of friendly fire and collateral damage - I've never actually tested that, might have to tonight, does anyone know if it's possible to hit friendlies?
I have to say, one thing they did pretty well (for my tastes) was the weapon/equipment implementation. I love that you can click on a weapon you have equipped, and holster it or draw it, and your other weapons are stashed away in specific points on your person. Always had a secret hate for other MMOs (and games in general) where you could have a seemingly endless variety of weapons that just magically appeared whenever you called them up. At least with Fallen Earth, your axe and rifle are slung across your back, your pistol is at your thigh, your knife is on your belt... All visible, all clickable to activate, very clever way to allow weapon selection without requiring extra key maps or inventory manipulation.
So far, the vehicular travel is bland and unimpressive. It's far too arcadey and toned down, if you are going to put things like ATVs into a game, make them behave at least a little like they should. Of course, my last post-apocalyptic MMO was Auto Assault, so when it comes to vehicle integration in an MMO setting, I'm a little spoiled I think. After just the beginning tutorial mission, I was a bit disillusioned with the transportation part of the game, which was one thing I was really looking forward to. Maybe it'll get better as time goes on, but right now it's actually a low point for my tastes.
Now for the big strength, which is crafting. One thing that I loved in Auto Assault was the crafting, and Fallen Earth's system beats it. From what I can see, you can essentially craft just about anything in the game world, given the right raw materials, time, and skills. The scavenging of materials is similar to Auto Assault, where you had to get components together to build everything from guns to complete vehicle chassis. I think if anything would draw me in and keep me with FE, the crafting component might be it. It's obviously an integrated part of the game, not something slapped on later (like the City of Heroes crafting). As the game matures, it will be interesting to see if there is a genesis in the methods and crafting sub-culture of the game community.
So, as any of you who survived this long through my post may gather, Fallen Earth is a bittersweet experience for me. Some good points and strong features, but in general it falls a little flat for me. Not sure I'd pay money to play it, I can't see myself drawn to it for long (other than crafting). Hopefully there are still some tweaks and adjustments that might smooth out the experience, I'll keep checking it out until launch. But as far as I can see, it's almost like the game tries to do too many things, and ends up lackluster with only a few bright spots.
Sig? I don't need no stinking sig!
With the Beta ending shortly, I felt the urge to post my final thoughts on the game here.
Lag, latency and server side performance has steadily gotten better over the past week. They have definately been doing some optimizations and tweaks to try and solve the problems...but they haven't completely succeded. Client stability has also been greatly improved, the infrequent frontend crashes are now even more rare...but again not totally gone.
Their issues with specific graphics cards (nvidia 8500 and 8800s to name a couple) and some other specific hardware conflicts that they have been unable to fix., continue. We've done every possible tweak, optimization, cooling set up, driver upgrades/downgrades and reinstalls possible and yet my wife's computer still cannot stay stable running the game for more 30minutes or so tops. (Mind you this same PC runs LotRO, WAR, AoC and others just fine for hours on end) Judging by the forums, others continue to have issues as well.
I've continued to play and craft, making it to level 15 and at least seeing parts of Sector 2. The gameplay does get more challenging eventually, as mobs start using ranged weapons and hitting harder...scoped rifles work fine
Combat is still pretty dull though, no spiffy animations...just sight in, spam 2-3 headshots and loot in most cases.
The pace of crafting and gear upgrades seems to have slowed enough that I am not broke finally..although about the crafting system I have to express some serious doubts. There is enough cross-craft dependency that you will likely have to keep up 2-3 side crafts to support whatever main one you do...at a minimum. Otherwise the price of buying subcomponents will crush any economy or profit in the items you make. This gets to be a real drag, as the required multi-discipline harvesting is down right boring.
There is a nice variety of quests, the stories are "better than average" as is the overall questing system...yeah still far too many kill XXX quests and delivery runs, but enough others that have real thought and an option or surprise or two lurking.
PvP...umm yeah it's here someplace I am sure....didn't see anyone the times I tripped over a pvp enabled area, didn't seem to be much reason to stay there either.
So...where does that leave me?
Conflicted is the answer....I *want* to like this game soo badly....but as a collective whole it's just leaving me feeling "meh". It has the potential to be a *great* sandbox game, but the story/world framework provided just isn't that compelling. Now the true sandboxistas will say "sure the pve story may be boring, just make up your own"...or something similar...but why bother?
None of the six factions are that special....unless you want to buy into the bland stereotype of say the "techies" vs the "treehuggers", who cares? No one is evil, bad or even really distasteful....so with seriously "optional" PvP that doesn't seem to have much point,,,how are there going to be enough PvPers to flesh out even TWO factions, let alone the SIX the game has?
On top of that, the game seems to lack a lot of the tools for a good sandbox...no player housing, limited customization at best (no crafter id tags on produced items), no player run shops...etc....
So, I'm on the fence. I think it will be mostly playable at launch (although people with the aforementioned hardware conflicts are going to scream bloody murder when it doesn't work) but I am not sure I am going to pick it up afterall. I'm certainly not going to pre-order. I might hang back a few months, see how the population shapes up and if they add any more desirable content before I leap in.
Fair second review though I'm surprised you didn't work in a derogatory Obama reference, lol.
But seriously, fair review. Some of the things like player housing the devs have said are a high priority on their list so hopefully we will see them within the first year. The issues with certain graphics cards, which seem to be mostly of nVidia make, aren't across the board. Some folks have them, some don't (I have a 9600 GT 512mb and rarely experience issues that stop game-play). As far as the cross crafting dependency I can see where it may be a slight issue for those that solo and don't make any friends whatsoever. If you know 2-3 other people, then you shouldn't have an issue getting what you need.
Quests are what they are just like in every other MMO out there. I can't apologize for that, heh. PvP is an area I'm hoping to see the game grow with respect to meaningful reasons to engage in it (we keep talking about adding 0.0 EvE-like sectors down the road). As far as the making up your own story, that will become increasingly easy to facilitate when more systems (Player housing, controllable land space (hopefully)) come into play. As to the why? Because it's fun. I understand it may not float certain folk's boats, but the answer to "why" is that it's fun. Most people are more vested in something they create/help create than something that they have no real say in.
As I've said before, if anything Icarus have a really good foundation of a game concept wise laid out. It'll be interesting to what it grow and from a personal standpoint, listening to how they talk about nurturing it, I'm very interested. For those on the fence, I'd say it's certainly worth keeping an eye on for the first year to see where they take it and if you find it more appealing.
"Many nights, my friend... Many nights I've put a blade to your throat while you were sleeping. Glad I never killed you, Steve. You're alright..."
Chavez y Chavez
I have the same attitude. Traditionally alot of the best gameplay features in MMOs didn't make it in until post-release. Examples that come to mind are SWG mounts/player cities and WoW battlegrounds. Got some pretty good devs in FE, so I think we can expect some pretty good things.
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MMOs Retired From: Earth and Beyond, Project Entropia, There, A Tale in the Desert, Star Wars Galaxies, World of Warcraft, Eve Online, City of Heroes/Villains.
MMOs Currently (worth) Playing: None.
MMO hopefuls: Age of Conan.
I had to choose between this game and Aion and went for Aion for now but I will watch this game closely for the next few months.
I like all of the core features and concepts and I hope devs have enough subs to continue developing this cool game.
It needs at least one additional year of development but if they introduce player housing and fun PVP that has a meaning and make sense then I`ll drop 50 bucks for it the second this happens.
Graphics are non-issue for me and I hope devs spend their resources on game play instead of eye candy in the next 6 months.
I care about your gaming 'problems' and teenage anxieties, just not today.