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As many of you remember,
I simply panned Earth and Beyond mercilessly. To be completely honest, I was
working completely on emotions as I was slightly disappointed by the 180 degree
turn the game and developers did to me. I failed to take into account that there
are people out there that in-fact didn't follow the game rabidly, which was the
main source of my discontent, and some might actually like it.
Now, without further
ado, the Earth and Beyond review sans emotional outbursts. For those who don't
know (all 10 of you), the Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (MMORPG
for short) has taken the gaming world by storm. From its humble beginnings as
fan-made MUDs, MUSHs, and any other name for text based role playing games, the
online RPG has always has always been a personal favorite. While I have yet to
abandon the rich imaginative flavor of the text based game, I started to
experiment with the new breed of game, the graphical MUD.
My first online
experience with a graphical MUD (for the uninitiated, sort of a MMORPG with
fewer players) was the old Neverwinter Nights, not to be confused with the
BioWare game released not too long ago, that was on America Online back in the
day before they charged an hourly fee to play games. Ahh, the days roleplaying
as Hoo_U in the most holy of guilds, the Knights of the Round Table (KoRT, for
the good of the realms!), I decided that the online RPG was the wave of the
future. Not too long later, my first experience with the MMORPG was created.
Based on one of the greatest single player RPGs of all time, the Ultima series,
Ultima Online (UO for short) promised to include nearly a thousand players at
once as well as an almost unlimited customizability of characters.
While the
customizability of this game was astounding, the basic flaws of the new idea
shone through as there was little purpose, housing was ridiculous (the entire
game was one large urban sprawl), and unrestricted player killing (PKing for
short) ran rampant. I didn't spend much time on the others of the time, like
Meridian59 or The Realm, mainly because I wasn't much into games at the time and
didn't spend much attention to gaming developments, and didn't help that those
others were poorly advertised. The next step into the MMORPG world was EverQuest,
the longest MMORPG I ever spent playing (and to this day, I don't know why). EQ
as veterans call it was a totally reactionary to the problems of UO. Bringing in
classes, races, and a completely PvP-less world (most servers, especially at
start) into a rich 3D world (ugly by today's standards really, even ugly back
then, but a jump none-the-less in that scale game), EQ tried to create a more
community atmosphere than a gritty medieval one.
While this went off
well, and EQ is currently the second most popular worldwide MMORPG behind that
Korean one I forgot the name of, I found it to lack the personal touch and deep
storyline needed to be a true RPG. I also dabbled a bit in Asheron's Call and
Dark Age of Camelot, but those two turned out to be little more than clones of
EQ, Asheron's Call being too big and empty for any fun and DAoC being EQ 1.5 to
me. Of course, I sat there at the time and lamented, "Why does everyone insist
on the swords and sorcery approach? Why can't anyone sit down and take some time
to create some meaningful quests that can't simply be repeated ad infinitum? Why
does friggin' Crushbone keep coming back to life, he's not the black knight from
Monty Python you know!" And, sitting in the dark days of wave after wave of
medieval themed MMORPGs, a beacon of light came through the clouds, beckoning to
me (no, it wasn't Anarchy Online), it was Earth and Beyond.
They promised to
create a world where I didn't have to slaughter legions of enemies just so I
could improve my trade skill. They promised a huge galaxy to explore, tingling
my explorative nature (I saw all of the original EQ weeks before anyone else
pulled the stunt). So, after a full 6 months of BETA testing, as well as what is
essentially the finished product (please note, a full month of the game that I
tried is basically what you pay for, they don't have secret content hiding in
the back room nor will it be radically changed from its release last week), here
are my personal impressions, as well as possibilities of who can enjoy and who
should avoid this game.
Not The Best Lookin
on the Block, But Still Reasonably Nice
Like most MMORPGs, they aren't
cutting edge visuals, and are usually considered one to two years behind the
times. Still, they have gotten to a point where they are not painful to look at,
and in the case of Earth and Beyond, have spurs of absolutely impressive visuals
mixed in with completely lackluster ones. First off, player ship design. These
are the best looking models in the game. Designed by the same guy who did the
ship designs in Star Wars: Episode 2 (please leave comments to self on movie if
you disliked it), they are actually remarkably well done. First, E&B is not a
dark kind of game, more of a light hearted one as if you mixed fantasy with
science fiction. They are smooth, and can be very colorful, and even have a
really nice gloss effect. The only exception here is the Progen Fighter (forgot
their changed name, called them fighters for 5 months, not going to change, I
tells ya) whose ship design is blocky, unimaginative, and just plain ugly. Maybe
that was the intention, but I didn't like them. Next, are enemy/NPC/Station
models.
 While E&B completely revamped the player ship models, the rest of the
game retained their low poly count, blocky feel. Most other models are
unimaginative and poorly constructed. The ever presence of grey and brown as
primary model colors makes things a bit dull. These should have been re-worked
like the ships to improve the visual appeal, but that might have killed some
system performance and lag. Your out of ship avatar, when running about on
stations, are the worst of the bunch. They are more limited than the meager
character palate in EverQuest, are poorly animated and are very blocky. Sectors
(to be read zones to EQ players) are a mixed bag in the visuals. They go from
absolutely stunning, like Saturn, to mundane, like the Asteroid belt, with
middle grounds on the few planetary surfaces in the game.
Sound Rather
Uninspiring
I know I got a lot of flak on this one in my previous attempt,
like there actually being professional voice actors in the credits, but that
doesn't change the fact that the voice-overs are rather poorly done. For
example, the Gatekeeper on Mons Pretoran, a Progen (to be read as a gruff combat
hardened person) has the most blatantly overacted voice imaginable. Imagine a
Mr. T that smoked too much. You got it. Other sounds are a mixed bag here.
Weapon effects and explosions are phenomenal. Unfortunately, the warp sound,
which is by far the sound you will hear the most, is very droning and annoying.
I know it can be turned off, but when it comes down to it, a game with no sound
is worse than a game with bad sound. I also found the station sounds to be
annoying, as they loop a sparse number of advertisements over and over again.
Music was bland (yes, I know, there is 7 hours in the game) and each track
sounded nearly identical to the last.
Decent Variety In Selection, but Not
Practice
There are three races. Terrans, your basic human type, Progens,
genetically engineered tough guys, and the Jenquai, a philosophical race
interested in exploring and communal activities (which makes me wonder why they
still insist on making me pay for stuff). There are also two classes for each
race, with warriors being for each race, traders Terran exclusive, and Progens
and Jenquai with explorers. Where the other three disappeared too is beyond me.
Maybe lack of time or resources to include quest trees for three more
combinations may have posed the problem. Now, that seems like a decent variety,
but in practice is less than other games on the market, and when you actually
get into the game, your differences are only skin (in this case, hull) deep.
The
skill tree seems impressive, and each race/class combination has significant
differences, but within each class itself, the differences vanish. You are
limited to what skills you can get by level, and it is designed such that every
other person of your race/class combo and equivalent level is exactly the same
as you. Barring differences in equipment, which is unfortunately set up to have
a "best" per tier, there is no difference than taking Steve, the level 30 Progen
warrior over Dan, the other level 30 Progen warrior other than whoever has the
more charming personality. This creates a sheep feeling, like you are just one
of the crowd, though I can see a lot of people having no trouble with this as it
creates an unbeatable balance and some people spend their entire lives trying to
be like everyone else.
 Quests Show Effort...Early On
When you first enter
Earth and Beyond, you are given a sort of tutorial. While that is what the first
few missions are, they hardly feel like a basic tutorial. This is how you gain
most of your basic skills, items, as well as game knowledge. I honestly have to
say that the early quests are engrossing and just plain fun. Unfortunately, it
all has to end. After the basic tutorial stuff, quests become monotonous and are
poorly balanced. For example, I was playing as my Jenquai explorer and I was
given a quest to mine these crystals. I needed about 20 blue and white ones to
return to make this key. So, out I go, expecting this to be easy. Nope, this is
my first experience with a camped location.
The game spawns around 8 of these
crystal asteroids at a time, and there are about 30-40 people waiting for them.
Of course, most of the time they give you a color you are NOT looking for, and
thus have to wait. About three of them didn't close, meaning blow up, so that is
another 3 out of the loop leaving a whopping 5. This was a week before launch.
There is also a quest generation computer in various stations that gives you a
task to complete, from cargo hauling to escort service. These are good for a
while, but become monotonous as they are basically the same quest over and over
again with a different name slapped on. So, if you plan on playing beyond 30
(level 30 quest for hull upgrade was good, but again, overly camped), plan on
amusing yourself and don't expect the game to give you more than a couple
interesting nudges.
Three Ways To Gain Exp.
To the credit of Westwood,
this was an impressive idea. While it doesn't remove the concept of a static
rail to travel on, you are given three branches instead of a generic experience
bar. Now, if you want to be an outstanding weapon manufacturer, you no longer
have to go out and kill a ton of stuff. Nope, just practice your trade skills to
gain trade exp and boom, you are able to make some great stuff. My trader
character had a whopping 1 in combat level, but managed to put together some
quality items, just goes to show you Westwood tried to tailor the game to suit
your playstyle. Now for an overview of the three experience types: Combat - This
is pretty much obvious. Blow something to beyond the stars, and this goes up.
This is for your standard hack and slasher. Trade - Any time you make a profit
from station runs or manufacture an item, this improves. Great for the
mercantile player.
Exploration - When you find something new, this improves.
Early on, this experience bar fires up the fastest as you gain a load of
exploration exp just by hitting new waypoints. Unfortunately, getting much past
20 in this bar is a pain because you have basically seen every waypoint in space
and on the planet and any other exploration based skill improving quest garners
very little and you can only mine asteroids for so long before getting angry
about the random combat level 50 monsters. Of course, this style is for the
adventurous type as well as the tow-truck of the galaxy in the form of the
explorer jumpstart skill.
Easy To Understand Controls
Controls are set up
rather well. You have a few options here. First, you have your mouse. With this,
you can click on things in the environment to interact with them. Also, by
holding down the right click, you can also fly in the direction the arrow moves.
This is a smooth method of motion, but it takes a LONG time getting used to. The
second method is the old keyboard version. Arrows move forward, backward, and
turn, while the A and Z buttons pitch you up or down. Chat is simple and
entering and leaving channels is just a pair of mouse clicks away, allowing for
a decent community tool.
Replay Value...Who Is It Good For?
For me,
playing Earth and Beyond was little more than an improved EverQuest with ships
instead of people. The only major difference was the overdrive starting quest
and the three experience bars and ships. But, beyond that, the very basis of the
game is too simplistic for my tastes, especially since I have already burned
myself out on EverQuest two years ago. So, needless to say, I was hardly
enthused about getting more of the same stuff. It is still a game where you
level up, get a new item, level up again to get a new item and repeat until you
max out and are forced to create a new character because you exhausted all there
is to do in the game. Of course, if you are new to the whole MMORPG thing, or
still haven't gotten your fill of the first generation games (I know,
graphically it is in the third, but content is still stuck in first gear), the
you CERTAINLY couldn't make a better choice. I personally had a blast for the
first two weeks and had that impressive tutorial quest continued on to the end,
I would be shouting praises from my rooftop.
Bad Performance
Warning, you
WILL need a good system to get this thing to run right, as well as broadband.
Loading times between sectors is rather ugly, around 2 minutes on my broadband
going into a highly player populated server to 15 seconds to less populated
ones. Sometimes there are so many things on the screen at once, even the
beefiest of machines out there, I know, mine isn't the best, a "lowly" 1.8GHz P4
and GeForce 4 Ti-4200, will stutter and have trouble. Don't even bother playing
this on a dial-up server as I tried that in early BETA and just trying to patch
is impossible, took me TWO HOURS to get a two meg patch downloaded.
Comments
That Don't Have A Category
My first generic comment is on the fact that the
game is no where near finished yet. Most of the planets are just decorations at
the moment. I remember being promised to be able to fly about Earth and into
Jupiter itself, but as of a week before the end of the BETA period, those
sectors were not implemented. Also, I still noticed quite a few bugs (which I
reported with a message stating this isn't ready for release yet) and typos in
basic NPC speech. Another one was the fact that flying around in a ship didn't
give me the urge to go out and socialize. That didn't seem to help many more
since, having given a lot of effort, I was never able to convince anyone to do
anything more than the immediate grouping quandary. The game does give group
bonuses to coax players to socialize, but for some reason (from my vantage point
anyway), it failed miserably. And why does my ship move so slowly?
One of my
biggest beefs with MMORPGs today is travel time. Note, I wouldn't mind a large
world, universe, whatever, if it was populated by a lot of things to look at.
Unfortunately, most of the time (two hours for longer runs, traders have it the
worst) I am greeted by empty black space and the lulling hum of the warp engine,
which actually put me to sleep on one occasion. Had space been populated a bit
more (I know, not realistic, but watching black is boring) or ships sped up, it
wouldn't have been so tedious. You still have to pay $12 a month for it.
Bottom Line
Earth and Beyond is not for everyone. For those new to the whole
MMORPG thing, or those who are still enjoying the concept, this game is a really
good bet for you. Unfortunately, for those seeking content or just burned out
from the whole idea, I advise you to turn away and not give the game a second
thought. Graphics are decent, sounds are overall poor, and the quest system
could use the same effort in the fullest that it received in the first 30
levels. This game had potential, and may live up to it later down the line in
patches and fixes.
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