General Discussion

MMORPG.com Community Manager Laura Genender gives us her first impressions of Richard Garriott's Tabula Rasa, the upcoming MMORPG that melds an FPS feel with RPG mechanics.

Since my last look at Richard Garriot's Tabula Rasa, the Studio Visit and Hands On in June, I've been playing Tabula Rasa and watching the changes as we get closer to release. This Sci-fi MMO by NCSoft displays a ton of innovation, from premise to gameplay - but does it have the "addiction" factor to keep players involved?

Classes and Crafting

In Tabula Rasa, all players start as "recruits." At level 5 you choose whether to follow the Soldier or the Specialist branch - Soldiers are damage dealers and tanks, while Specialists stick to support roles. From there you can further specialize as a Commando, Ranger, Sapper, Biotechnician, and more - see the full list here.

Sticking with my long standing tradition of playing the healer-role, I went with a Specialist class. While I never actually grouped with other players, having healing and armor repair tools at my disposal was priceless - not to mention the use of Cipher Tools, to unlock crates in the field for free loot. In fact, I'd say that the specialist perks far outweigh the soldier in day to day solo play. I could run just about anywhere by spamming myself with the heal tool - unbalanced, much?

Read the whole preview here.

nice review. that pretty much nails down what  i felt. its fun when ur playing, but no addiction factor. nothing really pushing u to want to log in. Its an okay SCIFI MMO but not really impressive. I agree if your already in another MMO dont come over. at least not yet. :P

and as far as the opportunity quests, i finished the  kill 200 thrax and 40 miasma lol. i got a thrax hunter title. felt so cheated lol. whoopty dooO!! snoooozeee

For the most part I tend to agree with your assessment there just isn't something to draw me back to the game.

I do however disagree with you about the voiceovers, I think in execution they were done poorly but the idea and the potential they can add to the game are fantastic.  In other words I'd have rated the voice overs as neutral, neither good nor bad about the game.

The game has a lot of good points, but it lacks the spark to make a truly great game, part of it I think  is the rudimentary crafting, I'm sorry but most people I discuss the issue with in WOW hate its crafting system.  Designers really need to add something into these games beyond what most games are offering perhaps not quite as far as EVE online but something close I bet would add a lot of depth to any game.

If anything this game just doesn't seem to have any depth, and I think many poeple are recognizing that fact.

Although I think you are generous or just extremely polite in your review,  I think you pretty much covered the basics well.  The game is enjoyable, but definitely lacks immersion, crafting, and pvp.  IMO, to those reading this review, if you are a big Scifi fan that likes fast-action combat games, try it out, if you are not, or are hyper-critical of mmorpgs (like many members of these forums) don't even continue reading any further and go elsewhere, your ignorance will be bliss.

This is  BETA review not RETAIL remember that

if they really amp up the bane vs. afs control points war, maybe add some zones for PVP all about controlling these points between different factions...

It'd go far.

month or two after release when they get the balance fixed and difficulty squared away....

who knows? could end up a great game. I know I won't be buying it at launch, and will wait for a free trial

I played in Beta and wasn't that impressed, so hopefully they have done some good work since then and will continue to improve the game

I for one do not enjoy extravagant, so-called "deep" crafting systems.  I like the CoH method -- find the recipe, collect the parts, boom, you're done.  Spending hours and hours clicking a stupid interface to produce one stupid widget does not make me love a game.

As for the addiction factor ... CoH had the same problem right after its release.  But when they added badges, everything changed.  Most badges don't even do anything, but I still do my best to collect them!  Sounds like the TR folks have already started heading that direction with these opportunity missions.  I think their system may need a little refinement, though.  The rifle reward sounds like a horrible letdown.  What they need is a way for other players to easily see what you've accomplished.  Do they have that?

Non-level-based achievements 4tw!