Field Report: Tabula Rasa

2) Engaging Combat

Tabula Rasa's combat system is where the game does the best job of differentiating itself from the competition. It plays much more like a shooter than it does a traditional cooldown-cycle-bonanza (though to be fair there is a bit of that going on as well). Combat is as simple as aiming at an enemy and clicking the left mouse button to shoot at them. You'll do more damage if you crouch, and you'll take less damage if you're behind cover when your target decides to fire back.

FPS conventions are heavily embedded in the game's mechanics. One example of this is the ability to cycle through your weapons with by hitting the 'Q' key, or select a specific one with the corresponding number key. You use your right mouse button to activate special abilities, called Logos (read: magic) which, depending on your class, can do anything from knock back enemies that have inconveniently charged your position, or infect your target with a flesh-corroding blight.

3) Addictive Pacing

One of the things that keep me playing a good MMO is frequently-dispensed rewards. Tabula Rasa is doing a great job of this. Enemies drop useable loot fairly commonly, and when they don't, they drop plenty of valuable junk, trade skill items, and one-use crafting recipes. There are a bunch of neat control points scattered across the maps, and the incentive for helping the good guys hold on to them is quite compelling--when under AFS control, they serve as quest hubs, shopping areas, and waypoints for easy travel. You also get tokens for killing off the waves that assault them, which you can trade in for decent rewards.

One of the more novel features is the Targets of Opportunity. Think of them as an on-going set of achievements that you work on the whole time you're in a zone. The laundry lists are fairly large, comprised of small objectives that require you to kill a certain number of native fauna (read: alien invaders and their servants) and visit local points of interest. You fulfill these objectives as a byproduct of your regular questing.

Despite how hyped I may seem about the game, I'm fully aware that I'm still in the honeymoon period with Tabula Rasa. It's easy to love an MMO when it's new and fresh--particularly one as well-wrought as this one--but ultimately, if one runs out of things to do in the late game, then all the fun had during the leveling process might as well be moot. We'll see how it shakes down in the end.

Comments [0]

post a comment

Post a Comment