I have played Tabula Rasa since Beta and I still feel like I am playing a half finished game. It has a lot of potential to be a unique and exciting game but in the end it just becomes mediocre. It is the type of game you play for a few days non-stop then forget about playing. Essentially this game is a MMOTPS (Massive Multiplayer Online Third Person Shooter) and it is either off or on there is no in between time to socialize.

 

Graphics, the graphics I would give about an 8 or 9. They fit very well for the storyline and stylistically for the game that you are playing. I haven’t really had too many graphics issues but that was because of video card issues not the game.

The game can be enjoyable to play for the first few weeks, however this fades as you get higher in levels. There is a big flaw in this game and whilst the developers might know how to make MMOs they don’t really have a vision on how to make a good MMO. Richard Garriott has been influential in making this game what it is today but it leaves out the key aspect that made his Ultima series and specifically Ultima Online a great game. That is the risk vs. reward, exploration, and community that make up an MMO.

Risk Vs. Reward in this game lacks greatly. You take on these missions that have hardly any risk at all if you know what you are doing and the rewards you get is absolutely non-existent. Ultima Online you were initially allowed to attack other players, loot them, and repeat it. The community would then come together to form units to stop these murderers. This gave a basic morality choice to the game, without the need for quests. Tabula Rasa attempts this by doing quests, but it really has no reputation system or any reason do act morally when making a choice with these quests. This is just one of the system that was not fully thought out in the end. Crafting I would say is also a system that was not thought out, and has no real benefit or reward other than being able to “buff” your weapons. Because players only have backpacks, and foot lockers it means that collecting items, trinkets, prizes, basically trophies is pointless. There are not trophies in this game. If they implemented an apartment system such as Anarchy Online then it would open up the game to more loot, and better items to craft such as furniture.

Exploration in the game is almost non-existent. One of the best things that many MMOs give you the ability to do is to explore. Ultima Online started this where you could travel anywhere in the world, even to some dangerous areas and if you could handle yourself with a sword you could probably run away quick enough. Star Wars Galaxies has an immense opportunity to go out and roam planets exploring. Even World of Warcraft with its zoned system also has the ability to explore if you desired. Tabula Rasa, does not really give you this feeling. You have the ability to explore, but it is also a Zoned system and to the point of being restrictive based on the creatures that are in that zone. Zones themselves are small, and it makes running around them easier. The primary difference Tabula Rasa has from other MMOs, besides being zoned, is that they have Instances of the same zones. So if you are in Instance 1 you could decide there are too many people and move to Instance 2 and hopefully finish your quest. This is a bit ridiculous and I will explain why in the community section. Heavy reliance on portals as at the time of writing this they still have not programmed the vehicles into the game. Exploration can aid in crafting, and the Risk Vs. Reward system by the introduction of resources that would need to be collected for people to create items, weapons, furniture, etc.

 

If you know anything about an MMO it is that it isn’t necessarily the game that is great but the community. Community and a strong social component is probably the biggest thing that an MMO needs. There are a few ways this can be done and I feel Tabula Rasa has failed. After leaving Beta and transitioning to Live I heard that they would not have an Official Forum. This left me as well as almost everyone else I spoke to uneasy and slightly disappointed.  An Official Forum, not only provides a strong social cohesion to the player base but also allows developers to gather adequate feedback on where they need to improve the game. The Development staff have built up a wall around themselves and I feel they are plowing a head with a flawed model in this regard. As far as the game play goes the biggest social component is a Clan. Clans in most games have a number of features however other than the most basic features Tabula Rasa lacks quite a few. Other than Clan chat, and the limited ability to set clan officers there is no other control a clan leader has. There are no clan banks, lockers for storing group equipment, or ability to have a clan insignia. In regards to a statement I made in the exploration section, because Tabula Rasa is a Zoned system people do not get the sense that anyone is playing the game if they load into a sparsely populated zone. By having one massive zone instead of smaller zones and instanced this adds to the benefit of Community. Individuals bored with hunting instead of logging off might actually go to the Tavern and hang out, or congregate around the Auction house. However this is also something Tabula Rasa lacks, a reason to congregate and make friends. There is no “IronForge” of Tabula Rasa really because you can just hop to any other instance and get away from the crowds. No reason to hang out in the Tavern, if they gave you an Experience Buff for hanging out in the Cantina for a number of minutes or dancing that would be at least something. There really is no social aspect to this game, which is the single most critical aspect of a Good MMO. Ultima Online had it (Britain bank), Star Wars Galaxies (Starsider: Corellia, now Tatooine), but Tabula Rasa sorely lacks it. If you’re a role player I would not even bother it is rather difficult with the game play. This is the type of game where you are either in the thick of it, or you’re not playing it.

Instead of being unique they tried to emulate or copy from World of Warcraft. Star Wars Galaxies tried this and failed, and currently I would say Tabula Rasa is also. I feel that essentially sums up my review of Tabula Rasa. This game is currently between a 4.0 and a 6.0 but it has the potential to be an 8.0 or 9.0. It will however be a long time before it reaches that score.

4 comments so far...

Re: Tabula Rasa - Flawed MMO, Lacks creativity, gameplay repeat/copy of other MMOs. I agree with your comments. By Motavar on   4/16/2008 7:04 PM

Re: Tabula Rasa - Flawed MMO, Lacks creativity, gameplay repeat/copy of other MMOs. WoW sucks. And as MMO goes TR is fun. I feel that it would be better if you could play as the Thrax. By Mike on   4/17/2008 9:49 AM

Re: Tabula Rasa - Flawed MMO, Lacks creativity, gameplay repeat/copy of other MMOs. well said. I agree with just about everything you said. You stuck it out a lot longer than I did in TR. Sadly in a "post-WoW" world most games don't foster community. By Teao on   4/28/2008 12:14 PM

Flawed MMO, Lacks creativity, gameplay repeat/copy of other MMOs. well i do agree with a lot of what you say. but i still like playing the game over Wow. I'm not shurr what it is about wow that really yanks on me but it is some thing. you talk about how it has a flawed community. the forms are only part of it. you were talking about no one having any place to hang out? you know why right? there just arn't the numbers to have people just laying around any bicker over the chat. i will say that yes it seems like a small world and wondering around is hard but it's really all i do on the game. i explor the world and see whats all around just randomly. it dose have a lot of things that it can do better, and my self have being with them from bata i can say that it sufferers do manly to havening some types of problems and people saying "huh it's not bad but i hear that wow is better" with that in mind wow is really old and they have bean working on it for quite a while. ok i'll quiet down now thank you James I,N Silvermane By another one of the wack jobs in your guild on   6/2/2008 8:52 PM

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