First impression of Tabula Rasa, retail version.
The gist: The community is awful, but if they would drop the emo nonsense then the game would be a much more enjoyable experience.
The long version:
Tabula Rasa, on its own, is not a spectacular game, but it’s also not bad. It’s one of those titles that you can pick up for a half hour to an hour and actually do something, even if that “something” is nothing more than putting down some of the bane.
Logging in to take down some mobs is not quite as boring as it sounds thanks to the Control Points, which are potentially temporary bases that are scattered around the map. This morning was a good example of what these CPs can do for the game.
I quit the game last night with my character parked in what has to be the most heavily contested Control Point on the map: A place called The Landing Zone. This was a fairly silly thing to do and just goes to show how new I am to the game.
- I logged in
- I noticed that the server population was “Low” this morning and I thought of how much more difficult it was going to be to get a group
- Once my character was in the game world I heard weapons fire and thought, “good, I have something to do right away”
- I see the NPCs running back into the base and think that the fight is over…
- …only to see a bane running through the base. A quick glance to the side revealed that the normal blue force field was now red.
This all happened (and was over) pretty quickly. I unholster the chain gun and begin emptying it into the closest bane, but it just wasn’t going to do any good. At least three drop shops came down inside of the base as teams of bane spawned inside, and my little, lone level 11 character couldn’t do anything against the attack force.
One person, one chain gun, and an assault force of bane may be fun, but it’s only fun for about 20 seconds before you’re respawning.
There was a brief moment when I saw some other unlucky player run out and be put down just as quickly. It was a cool but sad animation as his character fell, raised his arm as though he were pleading or trying to block some of the attack, and was promptly covered in a hail of energy and weapons fire. My own character must have been in an equally sad state.
This leads back to the community though, and sadly there’s just nothing good for me to say. I turned on general chat to report that the control point had fallen and I was immediately reminded of why I turned it off in the first place. I honestly can not think of another game in which there are so many people complaining, whining, and/or hurling as many childish insults as is seen in Tabula Rasa’s global general chat. It’s pathetic.
Imagine the Barrens chat from World of Worldcraft and replace every comment with someone complaining about the game, or how another class is so much more powerful, or cursing someone for beating them in a duel. There are no Chuck Norris jokes, there are only self-defeated emos.
I turned the general chat back off pretty quickly, but apparently someone picked up my message because a force of players did show up at the control point. My character died about three times as I tried to pitch in whatever assistance I could in retaking the landing zone, though I admit that at level 11 I may not have been terribly helpful.
General chat aside, it certainly gave me something to do immediately upon logging in this morning.
Even when the control point is not taken by the bane it is still frequently attacked, and defeating an attacker nets you a sort of “defense insignia”. Get enough of those and you can turn them in for some experience and perhaps an item reward.. can’t say that I paid too much attention to the rewards of it, I just picked it up and quickly went back to putting down the ugglies outside of the base.
Grouping in the game requires dealing with the above described emo community and it’s about as enjoyable as it sounds. You’re flat out ignored in local /say, nobody wants to group, and everyone attacks the same mob and hopes to out damage it to get credit.. it’s a real mess.
The only reason that people group in Tabula Rasa is to accomplish a very specific goal. The concept of grouping to adventure together simply does not exist; not that I’ve seen thus far. Once the goal (or goals) is accomplished then the group immediately breaks apart and everyone goes their own way.
That’s disappointing, because I don’t doubt that TR could be a fairly enjoyable game if people would just start treating each other like people. The game itself isn’t bad at all. The worse part about Tabula Rasa, thus far, are the people who populate it.
Edit: Here’s a screen shot from some extra play time today. The bane nearly recaptured the same point, getting so far (not shown in the ss) of taking down the blue forcefield. That was one of the few times of genuine fun, “woohoo more!” moments that I’ve had in TR up to this point.
Note that anti-aliasing is not enabled in the game. It’s not needed at that resolution, but it becomes obvious in a screen shot.
Technorati Tags: Richard Garriot, Tabula Rasa, TR, MMO, MMORPG, MMOFPS
Enjoy the view!
