I have been playing MMO's for over a decade now and must admit that I have had more fun in this game than most of the others Ive tried. I prefer PVE with a strong community feel in my games and I think this one delivers it. Heres my breakdown of the games features and what I like/dislike about them;

 Graphics- Not the best I have played but it feels right for the genre its set in. I dont have a top of the line pc(mines almost 3 years old) so cant say if the graphics are better with high end machines. I have also only been in S1(sector one) and I am told the other sectors are diffrent types of landscape.

 Tutorial- At first I was a little confused in it. The game doesnt take your hand and walk you through the basics like most others Ive played. All the info is there for you, you just have to read the help tips and pay attention. One thing about the tutorial though is you are lvl 40 in it and this confuses some people. The lvl is only for the tutorial and after you finish it you go back to being new.

 Starting out- Once you finish with the tutorial you have to pick your starting town. There is no right or wrong town so dont aganize over the choices. Each town has a focus, crafting/melee/pistols/rifles. This doesnt mean you cant learn things from other focus just that the rewards for quests are geared for that kind of focus. You can go through and visit each town and get everything they offer if you want to. Each town also has AP(advancement points) quests that I reccomend you go for. AP are used to increase your stats and skills. You also get one point to each stat everytime you level up. Each level you get Ap as well. Dont worry about mutagenics as you cant learn anything new till S2, but if you are going to want that as your focus remember to save AP for it.  You need to decide what type of combat you want to be and stick with it, once you spend the AP theres no way to undo it.

 Combat- I find that the combat is fast and not what I was use to from other games. You have to actual aim to hit and the mobs will try to move around making it harder to hit them.  I have seen some people complain about the AI and the lack of challenge but I believe they are looking at it the wrong way. Think of S1 as the newbie are. As you move farther north the mobs seem to get more aggresive and thier reactions get better. I have seen rifle npcs drop prone to shoot at me and melee mobs will run around trying to get behind hitting me the whole time. I have also seen animal mobs, IE: wolves and wild dogs, go after my mount instead of me and this makes sense for an animal. As for weapons there are a ton to choose from. You can use a pole with concrete on the end, a 2x4, a utility knife as well as zip guns, pistols and rifles. I personly went with a melee build so havent tried the guns out. One thing I didnt like was that new skills dont load into hot bar( I guess I got use to that from other games lol) when you learn them.  Loot from kills is also a bit diffrent from other games. You dont get cash from them but Npcs will drop food or weapons/ammo and animals drop meat or leather and everything except people can be harvested. Dont look for magic items or weapon upgrades from kills instead you get them from crafting/quest rewards.

 Crafting- Ive never been big on crafting but have embraced this games version. There are tons of nodes( and yes right now there are some issues with some nodes being bugged but over all its not that big a problem) and they respawn fairly quick. You can harvest evrything from plants to animals,insects, mines and even junked cars. I have come across broken tvs, washing machines and even old pcs. You can craft everything if you want to put the time to gather mats and craft. One of the first thing you should look at crafting is a mount, horse is easiest. you can have the mats after an hour or so of playing as all you need are around the starter towns or can be bought at the merchants. One important thing to remember is that once you summon the horse hes here for good. There is no dismissing it to summon later. You can park it in a stable( all towns have one just outside of them). When you die the horse will stay where you left it so run back to it(it shows as a green circle on your minimap) or have the stable tow it back to you for a small fee. And watch where you park it as mobs will attack it( you can heal and revive them so dont panic if it dies). Crafting is done by having the mats on you and then putting them in the crafting que. The que will proceed even when you are running around doing quests/killing things. The que will also continue to go when you are logged out so load it up before you log out. Some things take a long time to craft,IE: atv engine,frames. These you should load up before logging out.

 Quests/storyline- I find the quest to be well thought out if you read them and keep up with the storylines. Most towns will send you on to the next continueing the stories. Some quests are crafting(you do get exp when you craft) and others are kill. Most of the time Ive found there are several quests that overlap(require the same mob killed or collect the same mats) in each town so I suggest you get all the quests then head out. An important thing to remeber is that on kill quests you can help someone not in your group kill something and get credit for killing it also. Pay attention to the non quest giver npcs in towns as they will often have very funny conversations about whats going on in that town. Also keep in mind that if you have multiple gathering quests both will update when you gather but you still need to get enough to fill both quanities.

 Helpfull tips-

When your in a big town with lots of horses parked everywhere you can find yours(all mounts look the same) by running thru them, your is the only one you cant run thru.

When traveling the land keep the map open(m key) and use overhead view. This lets you see farther out than the minimap for nodes. Remember that mobs dont show up on this map so watch mini for enemies.

Load new skills into hot bar when you learn them.

Sector vaults are in most towns but barter are only in a few. Store least used items in barter first.

Use buffs! You will have several that last an hour and a few that are 10 min, keep them up they do make a diffrence!

Craft your own food, this helps by giving you buff items and earning crafting exp.

Craft extra horses( you can have a max of 5 mounts/vehicles) and use them for storage. You will have to pay the stable a small fee to bring them up from the town last stored in but the extra storage space is well worth the nominal fee.

USe the help channel. There is always a GM on and they are very helpfull. I have also found that many players will respond to help questions.

Never pass up curiose debris! These contain either paper or a book. The books are part of a AP quest from Embry. There are a lot of them, 18 diffrent titles( I have 2 mounts full of nothing but them) and you need 2 sets to get all the AP. You have to combine them into sets and some sets require the same books.

tl;dr

That's a bit more than your '2 cents.'

Originally posted by professer

tl;dr

 

That's a bit more than your '2 cents.'

Noob

Originally posted by Arezon

Originally posted by professer

tl;dr

 

That's a bit more than your '2 cents.'

 

Noob

Pshaw, you're calling him a noob and yet you're a traveller.

Nice review! Thanks for the 'find your horse' tip. I'm always feeling a little embaressed when obviously trying to mount other people's horses :)

I got a white Long Distance Runner now luckily, you don't see many of those around in S1.

Originally posted by DarkPony

Nice review! Thanks for the 'find your horse' tip. I'm always feeling a little embaressed when obviously trying to mount other people's horses :)

I got a white Long Distance Runner now luckily, you don't see many of those around in S1.

Ya know that never gets any better. I see a motorcycle or two where I parked I think " oh shit, now I got to deal with the dirty look when I try to jump on someone else's bike " Why do they feel the need to park RIGHT next to you!

LMAO i spent 5 min trying to ride sum1s mount till they came and mounted up i felt the fool

I didn't realize I could have five mounts!  Thanks for the storage tip as I am doing a lot of crafting and really need the space.  I have a horse now but it would be fun to have the atv and motorcycle too.

 Just finished up the quests for the missle silo in highpoint near watchtower. Great dungeon with decent quests( look for 2 quest givers outside the area near a ruined tower). The mobs are 11-14, not counting the big boss. Watch as you pass rooms as the guards will agro from a good distance away. The area around the silo is amazing for salvaging. I spent 30 min running around grabbing nodes and ended up with 60 scrap fastners and a ton of glass and plastic! There are alot of little mobs, IE; cockroaches, scorpions, wild dogs and roaming cogs so watch for your aggro. The mobs are average 8-10lvl. There is a garage outside the silo so you should park your mount there to avoid it getting attacked.

 I didnt note the cords for the area but look east/northeast of watchtower.

Great 2 cents worth ! thanks :)

Very good review, good insight, and some nice tips for newbies to the game.

Originally posted by Terranah

I didn't realize I could have five mounts!  Thanks for the storage tip as I am doing a lot of crafting and really need the space.  I have a horse now but it would be fun to have the atv and motorcycle too.

Heck, I'm a crafter, so I figured I'd make a cargo ATV. Don't even try to make that mistake! Just the research cost me a day. Now I need to researche improved parts, which mean 6-10 times 5-6 hours crafting of different parts.... including lots of scrap glass and some plastic as well (both VERY hard to find), and when I have all those 60-70 ATV/bike parts, I'll need to do improved parts research (again about 5 x 6 hours), and THEN I can start manufacturing the advanced parts - I don't even know what mats I will need for it).

Add to that the insane amount of steel (gears, fasteners etc) that is needed, and even so that I can refine steel from coal/iron, and can make both gears and fasteners from steel - just the scavenging/mining takes a smaller lifetime as weel. Not to mention the desperate searching for glass and plastic.....

One must be completely devoted to be a vehicle manufacturer in this game :D

DB

I am not really big on crafting normally, I did quite a bit on SWG, still do when I play...but this game sounds pretty damn cool so far and love the idea of having to forage to further... hope to see you all in game as soon as I can squeeze more speed outa my download.

 Go to the spot i mentioned outside of Watchtower. Its Highpoint missle silo and there are tons of nodes. I got 60 fastners and lots of glass and plastics as there are tons of ruined cars near the garage and they were respawning faster than i could harvest the area.

Originally posted by renaldare

 Go to the spot i mentioned outside of Watchtower. Its Highpoint missle silo and there are tons of nodes. I got 60 fastners and lots of glass and plastics as there are tons of ruined cars near the garage and they were respawning faster than i could harvest the area.

Thanks for the tip! Heading there anyway, have a few quests there... Cheers :D

DB