Ten Ton Hammer - Taking MMO Gamers to the Next Level!

From here, Lee showed us the various faces, heads, and hair styles that are available in the game, along with changes in skin tone, tattoos, and age. Eye color can also be adjusted along with two sets of piercings. Men and women have several alternate options to choose from: men are allowed to have varying levels of facial hair - stubble and actual growth - and women have varying levels of make-up that they can choose from. Personally, I always love to make the oddest looking character I can, so an old-looking rock star may be the way to go in Fallen Earth - although I doubt that men are allowed to wear eye liner. "There's a vast amount of options you can choose from," Lee stated. You can even go so far as to adjust the amount of body hair you have if you're a man, and belly-button piercings if you're a woman. Body tattoos are also available in the game. "If you want everyone in your guild to have the same tattoo, you can make it happen," Hammock said.  

There will be a vast difference between avatars in Fallen Earth as every piece of clothing has "alternate" options..

Clothes are not one of the expansive customization options, as Fallen Earth is a loot-based game where players can pretty much wear whatever they find or make if they have the right skills. According to Hammock, there are 22 equipment slots where players can equip items. For example, each hand has its own equipment slot, so players can wear two different gloves. Or go Michael Jackson style and only wear one glove. Whatever players want to do is completely feasible. "You have mouth (cigar, rebreather), eye (monocle, googles), jacket (vests, coats), and head (different hats and helmets!) slots to name a few," Hammock said. "And on each slot we've included several different options, like untucking the shirt, unbuttoning the jacket, rolling up the sleeves, and more. The chance that you're going to run into someone that is dressed just like you is VERY unlikely and if it does happen, just readjust your clothing."

With the huge variety of clothes accessible in the game, you'd wonder what it would take to acquire the item that you really want. According to Lee, 95% of the items in the game are going to be craftable, so you won't be hunting down X monsters for days on end to get the one uber piece of loot that it drops. On top of that, having such an incredibly expansive crafting system brings benefits to those gamers interested in crafting as well, and crafters can always use those items that you'd want to drop.

Despite the characters all having similar gear when they start the game, there's a story reason behind it. "In Fallen Earth, you're a clone," Lee said. "And one of the big story motivations in the game is trying to figure out who you're a clone of. Why is this happening?" Thankfully the folks developing Fallen Earth opted to have the players start in a instanced tutorial area where no one "can see how noobish you're acting." During the tutorial you'll fight your way through a few zombie type monsters and generally get your feel for the questing, combat, and general controls of Fallen Earth.

Zombies will be some of your first opponents in the game..

From what I saw, Fallen Earth is going to be more "click intensive" than most other MMOGs on the market. More comparable to games like Oblivion than current MMOGs, Fallen Earth has the character interacting with everything in the world via the mouse. You see a level to pull? Click it! A monster to smash? Click it! While this may be different than most other MMOGs, it seems like a fairly intuitive system.

Even in the earliest levels, it's apparent that Fallen Earth has received quite a bit of polish, even in this pre-testing build of the game. The interiors look extraordinary and really bring life into the world. The character models are also quite well done, but the animations still needed a bit of work. Of course, the developers have all sorts of time to get that accomplished - no one is breaking down their doors to see a finished version of the game.

After running through the tutorial area, we headed to the surface. That also concludes the first section of our Fallen Earth write-up, and in the next article we'll discuss character's gameplay post-tutorial and how you're going to be interacting in the expansive game!

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