Tabula Rasa Beta Impressions

July 19th, 2007

In the 5 days I’ve been in the Tabula Rasa beta, I’ve tried the game three times. If I’m interpreting the NDA correctly, I can’t say anything about “software, software code, designs, graphics, rules, playing strategies, artwork, visual depictions, plot, theme, setting, characters, characterizations, skills, marketing and promotional plans.” That’s pretty much everything. I think it’s probably okay to talk about things mentioned in the Wikipedia article on the game, although I’m not going to repeat what’s said there just to have something to say.

Instead, I’ll just record some general reactions:

• I am excited that combat itself may demand some player skill. It does feel somewhat more like a first-person shooter or over-the-shoulder shooter. It’s still damn easy, but it’s fun.
• On some of the very early missions, when my character ran with a bunch of NPCs to defend a front from invading aliens, it really felt, for a brief moment, like I was participating in a front-line battle. The odds seemed overwhelming, and even though I didn’t come close to dying it felt like a narrow victory. This was probably the most fun I’ve had so far.
• The missions since then have basically felt the same as any MMORPG, with the normal blend of FedEx, kill-10-rats, and gather-20-widgets quests. Not unfun, but nothing new.
• The cloning system seems clever (save off a copy of your character at any time, so you don’t have to re-level), but it appears there’s no way to respec. Why not just allow players to spawn new characters from any branching in the class tree at any time, cloning retroactively?
• The UI has all the familiar elements, but the default controls are different enough to give gameplay a more action-oriented feel.
• As in other MMOs, everyone basically runs around jumping.

From other MMOs, I’m used to extensive online resources in which other players have figured out optimal specs, written up spoilers for every single mission, and optimized lists of equipment. That simply doesn’t exist yet (and what’s on the playtest boards is speculative and hard to find).  This uncertainty is fun, and I should remember to embrace it in other games (that don’t penalize bad choices too harshly).

So far, I don’t think I’d call Tabula Rasa anything like a “next generation MMORPG.” It is, indeed, the same game with a different coat of paint. Whether that science-fictional coat of paint with the games innovations and tweaks is enough to make it a contender for real market share—and more importantly for my dollars—remains to be seen.

I’ll just have to keep playing to find out.

Entry Filed under: Computer Games, Video Games, Massively Multiplayer