Originally posted by kuyzat

 

Originally posted by Zorvan

Originally posted by kuyzat

You NEVER grouped!? and you call that a serious review?!

Have you played the game? That is a serious review, in that aspect at least. 90% of the players solo. The game is sadly setup in a way that grouping is not needed, required, or in most cases, wanted. One more reason Auto Assault II (previously known as Tabula Rasa) will fail with everyone but the Halo/Counterstrkie crowd. And even most of them will be turned off by it's pathetic attempt at emulating a FPS environment.

Plz forgive my outburst. I was drunk and frustrated with having no MMO to play that I really enjoy. Ill delete that post. Anyway, I was considering buying TR but if there is no grouping, Im not interested.

 

It the AI bots that appear in groups only

What you get after you finish the wilderness of opportunity quests is the very cool "Master of Wilderness" which very few people have.

The only thing that slows the game down for me is that fact that i have to manage 4-8 characters. It gets tiring after a while.

Originally posted by herennow

 

Originally posted by Itanius

 

Originally posted by MMO_Fan

Fair enough.

It is extremely interesting for me to monitor how TR is promoted and marketed and how that process uses sites like this one to achieve their goals :P

 

Why wouldn't MMORPG companies use MMORPG.com as a marketing tool? That is the entire purpose of this site; its purpose isn't just for the forums and the all-too-common trash talk that (mostly) fills them.

I don't see a problem with devs using this site to get their ideas out. once that isn't all they do and forget to dev the game... as seems to have happened over at vanguard. It kinda makes sense that they are reading forums they do not control if they are genuinely concerned with developing a game people might want to play.  I come to this site for information and comment. That means encouraging devs to use this as a forum to explain what they are working on . What's the point of criticising people for not communicating and then denying them a voice? doesn't mean you have to agree with them though...

 

I'm relieved to hear cuppajo say the bubbles are in, be nice to be reassured they have fixed the /e personalised emote and swimming anim while he's at it. Yeah, this game's not perfect but it has a new take (it does not play like the NGE as somebody erroneously posted. love or  loathe the hybrid; at least you can hit things and not fire away at nothing due to lag as people complained about in the NGE).

However they'd better get the pvp in some time soon if it is to work properly as a shooter.  I mean, you have a gun, a nice big one firing rockets and everything. And you have to ask somebody nicely if they'll let you shoot them with it?? Flagged zones, attackable bases, instanced CTF- i don't care but patch something in asap.

Swimming animations ARE in :)

The thing that annoyed me about this preview was the fact that Specialists are being called overpowered . That isn't the case, yes they can instant heal, but if they do so they can't do damage, which means they cant stop incoming damage.. And that's a pretty big thing in Tabula Rasa.. Commando's can stop damage from being taken before they need to heal at all.

Furthermore i believe the thing that makes you not want to go back in is mainly due to the fact you arn't a part of a community. If you have friends around that you do things with and hang out with you'r constantly drawn back in.. That's the reason you'r drawn back into most MMO's so it's not too odd you arn't drawn back into a beta.

I find this game to be an interesting sidetrack, but can't say that I have any hopes for long-term play.  Yes, combat is fast-paced, but also completely rudimentary.  Auto-targeting and only 2 buttons used in combat makes it feel like a console.  Instead of just hitting the left mouse button repeatedly, I'd like to see an actual variety of gun attacks (guess I'm thinking old-school SWG, I miss my head shot, leg shot, rapid fire, etc.).  It's spam combat at it's most basic.  And yes, lack of necessary grouping makes it feel lonely.  I'm lvl 21, only grouped once, have soloed all instances I've had available.  I do enjoy some aspects of game, and like I said it's been a nice sidetrack from the standard fare, but not sure how long I'll stick around.

Originally posted by Darkz0r

Originally posted by Stradden

 

Originally posted by fiontar

I largely agree with the preview, except that I think it's too generous towards the game.

One thing I have to really question is the comment that the game has "tons of innovation". I'm wondering what innovation the reviewer was talking about? The game is hyped as innovative, but aside from the hybrid combat system that ultimately satisfies neither RPGers nor FPSers I didn't find anything innovative about the game. Repeating hype with no real basis is not a good way to start with an objective review.

The game is a huge disappointment. It would be disappointing in any event, but it's made even more so knowing the money and time (six years) that went into it and the fact that Richard Garriott is behind it. What a wast of time, money and talent.

 

 

I just wanted to point out that since we haven't seen a combat system similar to Tabula Rasa's ever before in a AAA MMORPG, it is indeed innovative.

Now, I'm not saying that it's a good innovation, I haven't played TR enough yet to make a personal decision one way or the other, but something doesn't have to be good in order to be innovative. Just different, which TR is.

 

Actually, from a business point of view, innovative is something that is new but is commercially viable and it works.
 If something is new but it dies out, it's not considered and innovation, because actually it did not 'innovate'.

But still, the combat is indeed a bit different. I still think the game will be a flop though. Actually I think its perfectly reasonable to compare it to D&D on how well it wil do.

About your definition of innovation, one detail (clarification rather): it's the market's preception that dictates how new it is :) Hence if company A formulated the original idea before company B did, but company A's product reaches the market after that of company B, company A didn't innovate.
Ok enough about theories, to me as it stands right now TR has potential, but it seems we've all been fooled by Richard Garriott's promises and his past achievements. Not as revolutionary as it sounded, a few evolutionary features.

And I find the "Richard Garriott's Tabula Rasa" naming convention used left and right pretty creepy...
"- Dude it's Richard Garriott!!
- Yeah right, though pretty much everything is just shoot-kill-rinse-repeat
- But it's Richard Garriott man, RICHARD MOTHAFOOKIN' GARRIOTT!!!"

This game might find a public, though I'll just keep an eye on it. Not enough stuff that makes me want to play it for now. And I've grown reluctant to play games that use the old "box + $15 a month" business model.

Awww, talk about adding water to my cornflakes. I had some hope that Tabula Rosa would be the game I would play right oout of the box. Looks like I may have to sit the launch out and wait for improvements.

Appreciate the review. Thanks.

I would really like to see these reviews be, more review and less advertisements. I mean way to gloss of the bad stuff. Its like going to a job and being asked what's the quailty you least like about yourself? And saying, Oh that I can never give less than one-hundred percent.

How about that you get only 3 clones? That is the only respec option in the game. Most games offer more. Calling it cloning doesn't make it special. How about you can't respec your skill points? The only way to respec your skill and stat points, is by not spending them, cloning, dumping them in stuff to see if you like those skills and if you don't... Scrap that character and use the clone. Of course if you do that, you won't be able to use the clone to try out different classes. Oh and what happens when a skill gets 'balanced' and you don't want to use it anymore?

Really way to go and just blow by all that and make limited repecs seems like a good thing. How much are you being paid by NCsoft?, because you should be cashing their checks.

How about the idea that its the same game at 40 as it is at 5? Even the foes are the same with just different paint jobs?

How about that there is no reason to level past 30? 30 is your last tier after that you have nothing to look forward to, since there is no end game to speak of and crappy prp.

How about you only have 3 levels to look forward to. Does no one else think this in insane? Most games you are getting new skills every couple of levels, skills which very often change your game play. That happens 3 times in this game. 3 times you get a ding. You aren't even spending skill points at new levels because you only get 1 point and you are saving your skill points until you hit a tier.

How about stat points do next to nothing?

How about crafting just is the same as in other games, its pointless and useless?

How about you get an autoattack and that is pretty much it. Its a one button game with limited specials. WoW you got bars all over after you got some level under you. Here? Your luckly to need a 5 slot bar.

How about limited UI control?

Originally posted by kokopuff

This is  BETA review not RETAIL remember that

That argument is flawed. Yes its beta but most people are not griping about bugs. It's the game play, the fact that all you do is run around and shoot the ENTIRE time. There really is very little content. So unless they plan to push release back a couple years to revamp the actual game play mechanics, "This is beta" is just spouting bullshit.

You know, last month I actually bought the pre-beta box for TR, and due to the type of posts on this particular forum have yet to install it.  I suppose it's too late now, huh?

Originally posted by alyndale

You know, last month I actually bought the pre-beta box for TR, and due to the type of posts on this particular forum have yet to install it.  I suppose it's too late now, huh?

I wouldn't worry about these guys that post here to much, all they do is bash games, TR is fine, still working out the bugs but fine non the less. it's not WoW or EQ1 or 2 so get over it, I like the game I pre-ordered and I'll be playing at launch. And yes I wont be the only one there.

I've been playing the beta for a few days now.  It's alright.  I enjoy the combat.  But as others have said it's a bit shallow and doesn't really give the player any reason to stick around and get into it.  Definitely for the casual gamer.

Oh, and it's stupidly easy.

I am rather surprised, the way Richard talked about this game, I thought it would be something special.  In reality it is rather mundane.

Sadly, there really isn't an addiction feature in the game..

Take WoW for instance (no, I am using it as an example, not promoting it) - as you gain in level, you get stronger, better spells that move you up into other areas...

In TR, that doesn't really happen.. the skills you get are not very unique, it's mainly a geared- relate games and I don't feel any sense of progress.. not to mentioned the area is sooo repeatitive, it's almost painful..

I am sure others will love it and all.. but for me, I will be looking somewhere else..

Originally posted by kefkah

Awww, talk about adding water to my cornflakes. I had some hope that Tabula Rosa would be the game I would play right oout of the box. Looks like I may have to sit the launch out and wait for improvements.

Appreciate the review. Thanks.

I'm doing the same after reading this preview. 

I highly doubt the game will change so drastically once it is out of beta that the preview will go from 'ok' to 'you've got to play this game'.  The game is supposed to come out in a couple weeks and it is going to add 'spectacular content and game mechanics' within in a month when it couldn't do it in years of development?  I don't think so.  The people using the 'in Beta' argument need another diversionary tactic.

I've been waiting for this game for months but after the reviews and playing in the beta for a short time, it has not really captured my imagination.  I will be waiting for a month or two now before I make a decision.  I hope Gods & Heroes does not suffer the same fate.  I need a new MMO(CoH is getting long in the tooth).

And yes...thank you for the review.

Originally posted by eris0023

My big issue with the combat is the lack of visceral feel you get from a shooter and the lack of tactical choice making feel you get from a standard mmo.

What really burnt me out as odd as it sounds was making the decision on whether to click fire 45243905724395782439857 times to kill one bane or to just hold the button down. Both of these options really break the immersion, how many shotgun blasts to the face can an enemy take after i have shot them 4 times with my rifle, 3 times with the pistol all while closing the distance.

So really its the Hit Points of the npc's that bother me and break the fun/immersion of the game.

This game is fun because if forces you to think or you have the experience the guy above did. There are times to run in with a shotgun, other times to snipe them or even chaingun them. No matter what, stuff your level should go down fast if you are using the right weapons and switching damage types once you get through sheilds. Use armor piercing guns when possible. I have a AP rifle that does more damage to armored stuff than a regular rifle that has twice the base damage.

This game is way more complex and deep than most people give it credit for. You just need to play for more than 5 hours to "get it". Like any game you need to learn to play or your experience will suck.

-Viz

If the game is as good as you say then it will show up in the reviews so it won't be a problem waiting.  I haven't seen such reviews and my own playing experience didn't reveal appealing gameplay.   I really hope this MMO has great gameplay but sorry, I'm going to wait until it's out a month or two and wait for some solid feedback before 'wasting' my money.  Glad you are enjoying it though.

The preview has all correct observation, but one point isnt valued enough: I just still cant see what will keep people longer. Its all fun and nice to rush and fight, but how many weeks can you do this before it feels VERY repetitive? Thats what I really wonder.

When I fought for Restuss in SWG (PVP), we knew no side could hold it forever, so it was a bit TR in miniature. But you can come back, because you can go to a cantina, socialize, relax, RP, do a low paced quests and THEN come back refreshed to the war. I so lack this counter-point to the hasty, rushing war. Where is the civilization we fight for when all the world is one big battlefield? Sorry to ask such a mundane question, but what are we fighting for, after all? I just do see it.