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In order to change your weapon or ability mid-combat, the TR developers have relied upon the hot key bar with half of the buttons oriented on weapons and the other half on abilities. Although some players have complained that having the mouse-wheel change the abilities and weapons would have been an interesting option, I tend to disagree because that would have lent itself to inevitable problems with the camera zoom (which is currently allocated to the mouse wheel).

Centering the game around the fight between the Allied Free Sentients (AFS) and a horde of alien races known as the Bane, Tabula Rasa is first and foremost a game about combat. As your own personalized character, you’ll enter the game as a freshly minted recruit, ready to stand between the AFS and the Bane. From the very outset of your character’s life, you’ll find yourself faced off against a host of the formidable Bane and you’ll have to use all of the skills at your disposal to carve your way through the enemy.

Unlike most MMORPGs that center on combat, the developers at NCsoft have included a bit of strategy in their alien encounters. When you’re firing your weapon, the accuracy of your shots is determined by your movement or position on the ground. For instance, if you’re running with your gun in-hand, you’ll shoot much less accurately than you will standing still. Once you stop moving, however, the aliens have a much better chance of hitting you. To mitigate the damage, you could take cover, which gives you some protection from flying laser beams and you’ll be able to aim with more accuracy. It’s never a win-win situation, but you can help out your cause by seeking out cover.

The AFS camps are integral to your success as a soldier.

And there’s certainly an incentive to keep from dying, which is found in the shape of a XP modifier. When you’re out shooting your enemies, the longer you can survive without dying the higher the XP modifier goes up. It’s a great way of actually rewarding players for not dying rather than punishing them.

For those of you that are more RPG oriented out there, you shouldn’t worry about the FPS elements in Tabula Rasa. While there is a bit of aiming involved, you don’t necessarily have to be 100% accurate to be able to kill your enemy. If you’ve played as a ranged combatant in World of Warcraft or any of the other MMOGs, you’ll do just fine in Tabula Rasa.

All of the standard RPG fare is within the game as well: attribute points, collectible gear, class advancement, experience points, killing monsters and more. Crafting, guilds, and trading have all been included in the game as well. The NCsoft developers really haven’t held back when it comes to RPG elements to put in the game. If you can name it, Tabula Rasa probably has it somewhere.

Perhaps the most intriguing system within Tabula Rasa is the ability to clone your character. Rather than force players to replay the game over and over again to reach the higher levels – or access mid-level content – the developers decided to give the players the ability to “clone” their characters. What this does is pretty much give the player a level X character that is a complete blank slate. Thus, if your party needs a healer, a player can go in, make a clone, and pop back into the game with their new level X healer in tow.

The only qualms I encountered in the game were centered on the fact that you do an awful lot of running around for being involved in such a high tech sort of society. As John “Boomjack” Hoskin stated when I asked him what he thought about the game, “I found it strange that a military outfit would require me to run place to place to get orders... why not radio me? And it was curious that I ran around by myself when henchmen or the like would have made perfect sense.” Indeed, it seems strange that our guerrilla warfare would take place as we ran across the surfaces of these planets. Where was my back-up? Or the radio frequency of the local AFS mission givers?

But these were only small complaints in the grand scheme of things. For the most part I ran around the game world simply shooting my enemies, not even looking at my experience bar. As many in the NCsoft department have stated in the past, this is a game about fun.

Stability

Servers in Tabula Rasa were stable enough to allow me to get several levels in just a short amount of time.

For the most part, the servers seemed stable and they’re currently handling the pre-order load very well. Only a few people are complaining about server disconnects or extreme lag, and they’ve been few and far between. Personally I didn’t have any of the errors other folks were describing, but that may be because I typically play during off hours and when the traffic load isn’t the highest. It seems that the developers of MMOGs have finally learned the lessons from the older generations (or the recently released failures) and are no longer releasing a piece of software that sucks your computers RAM faster than Rosie hitting a 7-11 slurpy.  

Sound and Music

Through the din of gunfire and the gurgling of dying Bane, I could almost hear myself think. If you’re looking for a solid sound experience in your MMOG, you really can’t surpass what I’ve heard in Tabula Rasa. Unlike the typical fantasy MMOGs on the market, Tabula Rasa’s sound is all about the big bang – air strikes hitting the ground, laser canons firing, ships lifting off, mini-guns rattling, the crushing of an enemies skull, or some other alien trying to converse with you. All of these are present with Tabula Rasa and make the experience come alive for the player.

The music, while enticing and easy to listen to, isn’t extraordinary. I’ve yet to find an MMOG that matches the same sort of musical experience I’ve heard in games like Final Fantasy or Gears of Wars. But that might be because of the repetitiveness of MMOG music. Whatever the case, the music doesn’t add or detract from my gaming experience.

Graphics

The graphics in Tabula Rasa are well done, but not awe-inspiring like what you might find in the Unreal Engine 3 powered Fury or the Dx10 flavored Age of Conan. However, the graphics fit in very well with the story that the game is trying to tell. Your environments are what you’d expect them to be, from the harsh jungles of an alien world to the fluorescent signs of a human bar, they all stand out in your mind’s eye as places that could exist in this world.

Character models haven’t been scrimped on either; you’ll find a vast selection of options available for your character on the creation screen. All of the character’s that you can create in the game look terrific (although the women are quite busty with no option on bust size – sorry gals), but unfortunately much of your starting clothes will be replaced with the standard RPG “it works better” equipment system. Other than that, you’ll still look pretty bad-ass as your character.

The graphics may not be as good as some UE3 powered games, but they're pretty smoking hot otherwise.

Final Verdict

For MMO gamers, there’s really no reason why you shouldn’t pick up Tabula Rasa. The game runs extremely well, has a brand new combat system and takes place in a world that isn’t strung together with fairies and fur. Instead you get a place full of unfortunate situations and unending combat. On top of that, it’s one of the only new MMOGs that’s scheduled to come out until early 2008. Trying the game for a month will only cost you $49.99.

Concerning the upcoming full review of the game, I anticipate either me or my compatriots will rate the game favorably unless some glaring problem occurs between now and the first update. Without that happening, I expect good things for the future of Tabula Rasa.

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