by Cody “Micajah” Bye
“Hold the line!” I hear my groupmate scream as the
Bane come pouring out of their space ships. “We
can’t let them take the control point!” He ducks
for cover as another member of the Bane incursion force begins firing
at him, throwing chunks of shrapnel into the air. I shoulder my rifle
and take aim, firing away without hesitation. These are our enemies,
the creatures that destroyed our home – Earth – and
it’s time for a bit of vengeance.
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style="font-style: italic;">The gameplay in
Tabula Rasa is a unique blend of FPS and RPG elements.
One alien after another falls to our onslaught, my bulkier friend is
spinning his mini-gun in psychotic circles as he’s firing off
rounds. I drop to my knees and plant a bullet square in one of their
ugly domes. He falls to the ground, half his skull blown away.
Payback’s a bitch.
As the remaining aliens swiftly meet their doom, I lean back in my
computer chair and smile with satisfaction. It’s about 4 p.m.
on the day after the server’s went live for pre-order
recipients, and I’m desperately trying to gather the
motivation to pull myself away from the game to give an accurate
portrayal of my first impressions of Richard Garriott’s
style="font-style: italic;">Tabula Rasa. With
the game only a few hours old, it would be inappropriate for the Ten
Ton Hammer team to try and put together a point-by-point run down of
the latest NCsoft release, so we’re putting aside the bullet
points for another day. For now we’ll stick with the gut
feelings and the emotions evoked by Garriott’s newest project.
Storyline and World
And you’ll have provocative responses aplenty on your first
leap into Garriott’s new gaming environment. Devised and
created by the legend himself, Tabula
Rasa focuses on the battle between the Allied Free
Sentients (AFS) and the notorious, blood-thirsty Bane. Your cause
– the Allied Free Sentients – are trying to drive
the Bane back from various worlds through force of arms. The Bane
really don’t respond to any other forms of diplomacy, so a
gun is the best way to get at them.
When you first drop down into the world of
style="font-style: italic;">Tabula Rasa, you
can almost feel the military presence in the air. High ranking officers
bark orders at you as you progress through the first few missions.
Continuing along in the game, you’ll find yourself being
drawn further into alien landscapes and find secret store rooms of vast
along knowledge (the Logos). Any missions you under take may eventually
end up causing you to make a moral decision: Do you let a prisoner
starve because he is a Bane? Or do you show him mercy and risk
endangering the population of the outpost?
Adventuring throughout world, I could see Richard Garriott’s
creative footprints all over this game. He’s conjured a
terrific story of passion and determination. It was like a blast to the
past, where the Ultima games once captivated my interest, now Tabula
Rasa was holding me enthralled.
Gameplay and Interface
Tabula Rasa’s
gameplay is an almost eclectic mix of first person shooter (FPS) combat
andthe standard nuances that have become the
“traditional” way of doing things in the MMORPG
industry. Rather than featuring a combat system that relies on the
“hit-a-button-and-wait” sensibilities of
yesteryear, Tabula Rasa’s
developers have managed to find a way to merge the intense action of an
FPS game while still allowing for problems with lag, dropped packets,
and disconnected servers. There are guns aplenty in Tabula Rasa, and
you’ll find no end of enjoyment in this new interface.
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style="font-style: italic;">Storytelling is
Richard Garriott's forte and you can tell TR is his game.
Despite having many RPG elements (which are explained further along in
this section), you’ll initially find that the controls of
style="font-style: italic;">Tabula Rasa
function very similarly to that of a first person shooter. Initially,
you’ll find that your view will be in a mouse-look mode,
allowing you to aim your cross hairs at any opponent that may stumble
into your path. Rather than always firing where the targeting reticule
is located, Tabula Rasa features a “sticky”
targeting system that allows a character to aim at a character in a
general area. If your crosshairs pass over an enemy it
“sticks” to that individual and allows you to pound
away at the being without having to be pixel-precise with your aiming.
Your left-mouse button fires your weapon – it can be held
down for long bursts with your gun – while the right mouse
button activates (or deactivates) whatever abilities you have selected.
However, with the press of a button you can go into the
“inventory mode” that allows you to adjust
character statistics, move equipment, and designate weapons and
abilities. All of your information will be available on this screen,
but as soon as you switch back to your “targeting
mode” all of those extra pop-up displays will fall away. The
clean cut look of the heads-up display in the targeting mode is just
what this sort of game calls for. While you’re shooting your
enemies, you don’t want to be hindered by abhorrent amounts
of buttons and options. For new players, switching modes may seem a bit
tricky at first, but you’ll get the hang of it within the
initial tutorial.
To read the latest guides, news, and features you can visit our Tabula Rasa Game Page.
