Tabula Rasa Reviews
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However, never fear RPG fans, there is still an in-depth story and enough hidden dice rolling to make sure that this is most definitely an MMORPG, not an online FPS. Every single shot you fire is determined by some internal dice throwing to ensure that your stats play an important role within the game, not just your reactions. TR does however also take into account whether you're crouching or not and whether you're targeting an armoured part of your opponent or an exposed area, adding a significant strategic element to the combat within the game that isn't really seen elsewhere. We also come to possibly the most innovative feature that Tabula Rasa offers, the cloning system which is linked into the skill tree system often common in MMORPGs. Once you hit level 5 with your first character you are then given a 'clone token' meaning that you can create a sibling to your main character who has all the unallocated skill points you would have picked up along the way to level 5. You can then choose entirely different skill sets and class as your other 'identical' character. Essentially this means that once you reach level 5 you can simply recreate yourself a number of times and then develop each character to become a different class. It's a great system as it allows you to experiment much more easily and then settle on a specific class. Initially at level 5 you can only choose from becoming a Soldier (a general warrior class) or a Specialist (a general support class), it then expands later into a further 4: Commando, Ranger, Sapper and Technician. Then later on at level 30, into 8 classes: Grenadier, Guardian, Sniper, Spy, Demolitionist, Engineer, Medic and Exobiologist. Each of these classes offer a wide range of different abilities and advantages and disadvantages, ensuring that regardless of which class you choose you will have a different experience each time. It's a great new twist on the concept of MMORPG classes and is extremely well designed by NCSoft.Game Almighty also likes it, giving it an 8.
As always, to reach these advanced levels, you need experience, and how do we gain that? Through quests and grinding of course! Yes unfortunately, Tabula Rasa does still offer quests and grinding much like all the other MMOs, and in this case you will quite often be forced to work together rather than go solo. This in itself offers considerable benefits and pitfalls, it means the game is a lot more sociable but can make a quick 10 minute play of the game difficult at times. The quests themselves are fairly typical, there are many quests that involve you having to fetch items, kill people, deliver messages; typical MMO fodder. But luckily there is the odd bit of inspiration with some quests giving you a moral choice, whereby you can choose to help one person but not another within the same quest. This doesn't strictly affect a lot in the game but it is quite nice to be a bad guy for a few minutes and start having NPCs talk about you behind your back. A nice small touch that is often only usually apparent in single player games like Oblivion, rather than MMOs. Tabula Rasa does often try to build a storyline around its persistent world, though I can't help but wonder just how many players will pay attention to the story. For the most part people seem to go to single player games for a storyline, MMOs to interact with real people. Forced events such as the checkpoints (the capture the flag-like incidents mentioned earlier) can get irritating after a while when you were just planning on going back to your base for five minutes in between quests.
This is definitely a game that can be learned by even the least experienced of MMORPG players. Rather than a simple tutorial that can be read or glossed over at will, basic functions of the game are explained in a long-ish first quest which covers such things as the hotkey for your backpack, how to speak to characters, and how to attack supply crates. That's right, I said supply crates. You have to practice on something, right? Those who have had any experience with other PC games will most likely know all of these commands and will find this quest a little unnecessary. However, this is a handy feature for beginners of the game who may miss the help and tutorial sections. It just would have been nicer for this to be an optional quest rather than mandatory for all players. I also found that a little bit of fiddling with the hotkeys was necessary to get the viewpoints and such in line with what I was used to having ready for me with other games, but this wasn't a terribly big deal. A little customization is usually a good idea with any game in order to make the game play go as seamlessly as possible in conjunction with your particular style.
Quest-wise, I found this game to be much like others of this type. You acquire a quest and complete it in order to move up in the game. Decent items are available as quest rewards, though it might take a little studying up on what the key features of the items are, as it can get a little too detailed in the specs otherwise. Explore the lands and kill the bad guys. Grinding plays an important part in becoming more powerful, as it usually does. Popular MMORPG standbys of voluntary Player-vs-Player mode where you can challenge other characters and an economy system that allows for in-game crafting and selling of items to generate income are options that allow for a solid, well-rounded game. Visually the settings are lushly realistic even when they are stark rocky outcroppings, and unlike some of the other MMORPGs available, this one is vividly realistic in nature. The characters are a little rougher in quality, but on the whole the game is a pleasure to play for the elegant graphics it offers. Other key features offered in the game are a character cloning system which allows you to explore different character classes using the same character build and an integrated voice chat system which comes in handy for communicating on the battlefield.
