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

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.

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*

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.

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