Falling Back Down - A Second Look at Fallen Earth

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Posted Thu, Dec 31, 2009 by Medawky

Entire communities abandoned, rampant crime and chaos, skyrocketing death rates from global pandemics…in a warped version of life imitating art, some aspects of Fallen Earth mirrored the real world in 2009. With the world in the midst of a major recession all subscription-based games are finding it harder and harder to compete for a player’s hard earned cash. The team at Icarus studios have been working hard at improving the game with bug fixes, graphics improvements and new content, but has it been enough? At launch Fallen Earth played little better than a closed beta, join Medawky this week as he heads back to the harsh future to take another look at the current state of the game.

Fallen Earth is certainly ambitious in combat designs and one day may dial them in to a completely smooth and intuitive package, but that day has yet to come. Aiming mechanics for ranged weaponry are clunky and lack any sort of fluidity or consistency; some fights go rather smoothly and others leave you scratching your head wondering how they went so wrong. Even melee combat is awkward and probably a victim of other necessary mechanics that factor into the ranged side of the equation. Ultimately, combat here seems to be a victim of an overly ambitious undertaking, but not so much so that it becomes unplayable. Perhaps someday the wrinkles will be completely ironed out and the combat engine will rank up there with the hits instead of the misses.

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