Tabula Rasa is set apart from most MMOs. There are no dragons,
orcs,
elves or swords. The UI is negligible, taking up very little of
your monitor's real estate. "The interface is minimal compared to most
massively
multiplayer games. In most games the screen is filled with
information," said Starr Long.
"There are all these little interface elements, all these shortcut bars
of all sizes that you have to look through to see what the game is. We
want you to see the game, so we have minimized the interface down to
more what you would see on a console game."
In general, controlling the game is incredibly simple. The
left-mouse button fires your
weapon. The right-mouse button uses your special powers and mouselook
is always turned on. It took me a minute during my hands-on time to get
used to not holding down the right-mouse button to mouselook, but once
I was over that cerebral hurdle I was immersed. Cycling through weapons
and abilities was as easy as pressing the Q or E keys which are
conveniently located next to the WASD movement keys. "We also wanted to
make the game more action based, more real-time than most MMO games,"
Long said.
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Controlling your character in Tabula Rasa is very
simple.
It was at this point that Paul Sage's maxed out character died
amidst all the action, bringing a chuckle from the viewers and waking
some of the print press in the back of the room.
Make no mistake about it, Tabula Rasa is a role-playing game.
It may
include ranged combat somewhat like a shooter, but this is a
role-playing game through and through. The game has what I call "snap
targeting", much like you might find in a console shooter. As your
targeting reticle slides over an enemy it locks on so the player
doesn't have to keep the enemy in his sights.
Another interesting feature is that the use of cover to
protect your
character is a feasible and often necessary strategy. Crouching behind
sandbags or using concrete blocks as cover not only protects you, but
while crouched you can shoot more accurately. Moving makes it harder to
hit your opponent, but at the same time makes it harder to hit you. Add
this to the MMO staples like acquiring loot, leveling up and getting
new items and you can begin to fathom the blend of genres that the
Tabula Rasa team has mixed.
In most MMOs when you begin the game, before you have played a
single minute, you are asked to make what is the most important
decision in the entire game, the choice of your character class. Tabula
Rasa changes that. Everyone starts off as a recruit at the top of the
character class tree. At level five you make your first class choice of
either Soldier or Specialist. Again at level 10 you make another class
choice. These choices are offered multiple times as you move down the
character class trees. What is unique is that players can 'clone' their
characters. For instance at level five, before you make your class
choice, you simply clone your character. You can come back to that at
any time and take the other class branch to explore that aspect of the
game without starting over from level 1. Clones even share a common
footlocker, so twinking out your lower level characters is a breeze.
Not that I would ever do that of course. *winks*
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Players aren't forced to make game altering decisions
during character creation like in most MMOs.
Unique doesn't even begin to describe the pictographic
language, the Logos, that
Richard Garriott has created for this title. It is a working language
and becomes the basis for your character's abilities. As you collect
and understand more of the symbols you unlock more and more abilities.
"For
instance to use this reinforcements ability you
need to get the symbols for friend, summon and here. Once you have
collected those symbols that ability is unlocked," Long added.
Unlike many MMOs that have rewarded players for not playing by
giving
them accelerated experience when they are rested, Tabula Rasa has taken
a piece of the first-person-shooter and gives the player bonus
experience for longer kill streaks.
Tabula Rasa is a fresh face in a market weary of Orcs and Elves. The
gameplay is so much fun that it was hard to drag Phil, Jeff and I from
the pods when it was time to leave. There are so many innovative little
changes to normal MMO gameplay that I guarantee some will be picked up
and used in other games very soon. Tabula Rasa should be on your "must
play" list when it is released, hopefully this fall.
Ten Ton Hammer is your
unofficial source for Tabula Rasa
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