Tabula Rasa – PC – Preview 5

The visit to
the NCsoft headquarters in Austin began with a tour around the general office
area, down the corridors and past the rooms that housed the talented development
team and the rest of the business side of the U.S. side of the company. The
walls were lined with a personal history of Richard Garriott, stemming from the
first game he ever created.

It was a
rich timeline, all leading up to the current project – Tabula Rasa.

Years in
development, the game has changed focus several times. There was the
martial-based adventure, but now the game has moved into a futuristic shooter
setting. In Tabula Rasa humanity has all but been wiped out but an alien race
that is roaming across the galaxy and ravaging the worlds in its path.

Starr Long,
part of the creative genius behind the title, began the conversation about the
game.

“All online
games tend to follow the same mechanics,” he said, “combat is what Richard calls
‘whack-a-mole.’ Players pay more attention to attack icons, not the world.”

Tabula Rasa
is aiming to change that, pun intended. And the hands-on session certain bore
out that. The game was so compelling and entertaining that sometimes timers were
forgotten on missions (don’t worry, you can get the mission again and run it
over to get the credit), and random battles, which are happening all over the
worlds, were joined on the spur of the moment.

“The combat
system has a lot of real-time tactical elements,” Long said. “These factors
affect combat. And the pace of combat is a lot faster.”

Another
statement that was proven in the hands-on portion of the day.

There is a
progression, from boot camp as your characters move across the worlds, in the
ebb and flow of the battles. There are control points that are up for grabs.
Controlling such a point means that certain services will become available to
the player. But not only are the players trying to secure the control points,
but the enemy A.I. will battle back and try to reclaim the control points.

As for the
storytelling …

“I believe
we have some great innovations in storytelling,” Garriott stated. “Most MMOs
abandon story (players don’t feel special or “statistically average”). Instanced
spaces will affect that.” The instanced zones are “very scripted storytelling
events” that will tell “a very detailed story” and “culminate in some grand
event.”

“I think our
story-based activity is superior to most MMOs,” Garriott said.

Players will
face ethical parables as they journey across the world, with the goal being to
have players live with the choices they make. Examples were given and shown, but
no spoilers here, so those will remain under wraps for the time being.

Another
innovative idea that Tabula Rasa will bring to the fore is allowing players to
save their character before they branch into detailing their profession.
Characters saved can be cloned and other profession branches can be explored.
For example, at level 5 you get to select your first career path. You can clone
your character, take the soldier route with the original character and then go
back and take an engineer path with the clone. This will enable players to
explore new profession paths without having to start all over from level one.

Fictionally,
Tabula Rasa is a player-versus-environment game, but there will be a full system
of player-versus-player, which will include dueling, feuding and clan warfare.
And with the story so geared to telling the epic events in instances, each of
the instances can last from 30 minutes to an hour or more. Once an instanced is
completed, you will see the results of that should you revisit that particular
instance. For example, you have gone into a base to destroy a power supply and
you have been successful. The next time you go into that instance, the power
supply (and associated damage) will be as you had left it. But should you team
up with another player and enter the zone on that the other has not yet
accomplished, the zone will be fresh.

The video
presentation is top-notch and the audio is a terrific supporting player, helping
to immerse players into the world. The action is indeed fast-paced.

As for a
death penalty – yes, there will be one but “it may be light; we want you to go
out there and risk it.”

The game’s
money sink will be repairing equipment. While some items will be flagged for
personal use only, there will be a secure trading system built into the game.
And there will be crafting and equipment drops by the mobs. Equipment is
important and “makes a difference between using cover and going Rambo” in the
game.

Each of the
continents, or planetary locations, has its own meta-story and there will be
four main story arcs in the initial release of the game. There will be a “major
feature enhancement” every few months (which will be free), and a major content
release – including new planets – once a year (which will be retailed to game
players).

The
interface was intuitive and even going on a group mission there was never a lack
of challenge.

Tabula Rasa
is ramping up to give shooter MMOs a new face and if the release is anything
like the preview event indicated it might be, then this is certainly going to be
a different but enjoyable MMO.