The world has been decimated by a virus. You are one of the few survivors of the apocalypse fighting to stay alive in a crazy and violent world. That's more or less the premise of the game. The game is set in the Grand Canyon. Interestingly, the "world" was built using topographical maps of the actual Grand Canyon so that the game is more or less geographically accurate.

Next, the game's Lead Designer Lee Hammock told us a little bit about how the character creation process works in Fallen Earth. This part of the game, we are told, is mostly for aesthetics. You don't have to make mechanical decisions (class race, etc. etc.) until you've been in-game for a while.

This isn't a terrible approach to the whole idea of classes, so long as it fits within the game's story. One of the biggest frustrations in making a character in a new MMO is getting in-game, going through your first few levels and realizing that you're just not into the class you've chosen. In most games, the only option is to re-roll and having to repeat those first few levels again.

In terms of selection, there are a fair number of options in the character creation section of the game: gender, faces, heads, hairstyles and colors, facial hair for guys, makeup for women, piercings, tattoos, even chest hair is available. It looks like a pretty decent system. Not the most selection we've ever seen, but enough to set your character apart.

We were told that you don't have a lot of clothing options to start with because the game is loot based, and part of that loot is clothing, and new tings become available fairly quickly. This negates the problem of spending a long time in creation choosing a specific look and outfit only to have to replace it with something better five minutes into your gameplay.

Finally for this section, Hammock told us a little bit about the tutorial. First and foremost, it's a single-player instance that takes place within Hoover Dam. That facility, which managed to continue to provide power even after the apocalypse hit, is in the middle of a revolt when your character, a lab-grown clone, finds him or herself in the middle of it needing to escape.

The tutorial section assumes that players not only haven't played the game before, but that they haven't read a stitch of background or lore surrounding the game. in short, the tutorial is designed to be a full-on introductory experience.

For those of you who don't like to read, or would like to get a look at the gameplay and hear about these features directly from the mouth of the game's Lead Designer:

You can check out more on Fallen Earth by reading these related articles:

• Combat
• Factions, UI and PvP
• Starter Towns and Crafting