Played on:
Windows
2GB DDR-400 RAM
GeForce 8800GT
Windows XP
It's been a long time since Ultima Online was released - over a decade, in fact - and now the Lord British himself, Richard Garriott, has finished up his second MMORPG. Of course, it wasn't just him working on it, as his team at Destination Games and publisher NCSoft put massive efforts into this new sci-fi game, Tabula Rasa, in the years it's been in development. But in the age of World of Warcraft and its army of millions of dedicated subscribers, can this fledgling MMO carve its own niche in the market?
The answer is yes, but it won't be a huge niche. The sci-fi theme, with its guns and aliens, certainly seems like it would be a major change from the medieval fantasy stuff we've been seeing in the genre for so long. Instead of bows, there are shotguns and sniper rifles. Substituting for spells are special sci-fi powers given to humans by an extinct alien race. Medics replace priests, soldiers replace warriors, you get the idea. The point is that while Tabula Rasa tries to reinvent the MMO, it winds up playing just a little too similarly to every other game out there.
Mobs moving around on their own
Sure, there are a few innovations here, like the ability for monsters to actually move around, spawn in at various places, and even fight your friendly NPCs to take over some of the stations scattered throughout the alien planets where you will fight. The first time you experience this, probably somewhere around level 6 or so, it's really cool and you will start wondering if this game really did live up to all of its hype. You won't be pressing any auto-attack keys here, either, as Tabula Rasa has you fire your guns just like an action game. Unfortunately, this is not really an action game and instead plays like a hybrid between RPG and action, as you can hardly dodge incoming enemy shots and your own shots are usually fired in a large "cone" - you don't need precision aiming - and damage is calculated, RPG-style, with hit, miss, and damage ratings and percentages.
Leveling up is fairly easy in Tabula Rasa, at least at first, and the missions you go on will take you to instanced versions of outdoor zones with other players, and also to private instances which resemble dungeons in other games. Many are outdoors, which at least gives you a more open feel, but the dynamic battlefields seen in the regular zones are missing here. Much of the game revolves around finishing quests, though, and most of them are the standard fare of killing 10 of this, collecting 15 of these, or finding this Logos tablet (more on that later). Overall, the quests are generally pretty good and have only the odd bug here and there, but you will probably find that most of the innovation in Tabula Rasa lies elsewhere.
The arsenal
Your weapon choices range from pistols to shotguns to rifles and a few other things in between, and the damage types you can get will vary along with the amount of damage (with a higher level being required for higher damage weapons, of course). Your armor also adds protection from these same damage types, like Physical, Sonic, Laser, and the like, and much like in many MMOs, you'll be replacing and buying gear as you level up. While Tabula Rasa does give you a very large inventory, you do have to constantly buy things like medkits and ammo for your guns, many of which use different types of ammo. This means returning to town often, as ammo isn't cheap and early on you'll often have to sell all the junk you picked up just so you can feed ammo into your guns. Getting around is often easy enough with the ability to teleport between installations instantly, but you'll have to get there on foot the first time.
The guns themselves do have a lot of unique uses, and learning how to use them best is one of the more rewarding parts of Tabula Rasa. Unfortunately, most of that depth is kind of squandered since you're not using these tactics against the AI's own tactics because the enemies are just plain dumb. Instead, you're learning how to use guns best against different monster types or groupings of them, rather than swapping out to counter their own attack plans. And grouping up with other players doesn't really seem to fix this behavior, unfortunately. With the dynamic battlefields holding so much promise, it is frustrating to see the same old MMO monster behavior at the low level once you engage.
