Aug
20
Fallen Earth – Possible Diamond
I’m sick as a dog right now. The only thing worse than a winter cold is a summer cold. Oy…
/sniffle
Anyway, let me try and get something coherent for you all to read with your morning coffee. Fallen Earth. I’ve been playing the beta for about 3-4 days and I honestly don’t know what to think. My first thought is “Eve in the Wastelands”…because that’s how I feel about this game. It is a very different take on MMOs…especially when it comes to crafting and equipment that your character uses. Everything is crafted. Your weapons…your armor…everything. The crafting itself seems to be a real-time system a la Eve as well in that you start a crafting task and a countdown/progress bar is displayed telling you how many minutes/seconds…days(?) it will take to complete the task. Interesting and highly involving due to the fact that you have to scrounge for the components to make anything. The crafting will be this games main draw for most players…even for players who consider themselves “non-crafters”.
Graphics are serviceable but not spectacular and that will turn off the typical “flash in the pan” gamer. Performance is my main concern right now because on my machine I’m getting a consistent 5-10 fps. This machine can handle Fallout 3 at a solid 30+ fps, so I have no idea what is going on with Fallen Earth…but something is wrong in that department.
This game will not be a mainstream hit by any stretch of the imagination simply because it does things too differently. The way it just “puts you out there” will make most MMO gamer’s heads explode…and that is a shame because there is something to this game. Perhaps, in a year or so that will change but this game’s popularity will grow with word of mouth from the grass roots of gaming. It will probably end up in the same category as Eve once was, i.e. a small, dedicated audience who have a potential to steadily grow the title. Which is all good because my sense from talking to the developers a year ago is that they are not looking for insane numbers here.
I have to admit though, when I did see this game at AGC/GDC last year, I kind of just nodded my head and smiled, thinking, “ummmmm…yeah…right guys. Good luck with that.” After having played it I’m going to say that my first impression was incorrect. This game has huge potential to get some legs given the right conditions…I’m just not sure that the right conditions will ever come given the track that MMO gaming is going on.
In the end, I recommend trying this game out, but with a word of caution that this could go either way. Performance is the main issue. Also know that you may not like this game if you are not into games that stray from the expected formula and are “hard to get” out of the box. Hands down though, this beta was head and shoulders above the Champions experience.
D out.
