Fallen Earth: Early Impressions

Posted on Monday, November 16, 2009
Filed under Fallen Earth, Impressions

I have a lot of thoughts running through my head about Fallen Earth. There are a ton of really good things about the game, and some things that give me reservation about it as well. I certainly haven't played enough to give it a proper review, but I do have things I'd like to say about it, so this will be more of a Thoughts By Topic piece than anything else.

Crafting

I figured I'd start with something about the game that I'm loving. The crafting in FE is interesting and fairly deep. Contrary to what some have said, I do believe (and plan to) you can Craft nearly full time in FE. I say nearly because you will need to collect lots of materials, and many times those materials are in the middle of PvP areas or areas rife with hostile NPCs. Truthfully though, you'll be more of a full-time harvester. Many items can be harvested from nodes, but others will need to be harvested from various creatures. While you're harvesting, you simply queue up a few recipes and craft on the go. Also, you can queue up several recipes to craft while you're off line. You can also take, learn and max every craft (so far, although there may be an end game forced specialization?), so being a crafter means you can honestly make everything for yourself and your friends. Like many other games, some crafts feed others so learning as many crafts as your can is a good idea.

Controls

Now for something I don't like. Strafing should not be astronomically slower than walking in any given direction. That drives me nuts! I understand it on my horse, although it still bugs me there too, but while I'm just walking that should not be the case. The FPS feel of combat, or rather the action title feel for us melee-ers, is good and a great change of pace for the genre. However, where I'm at in the game, most mobs are small ground level critters, so I have to aim down. While in combat mode, aiming down pulls the camera up, which means when I'm done fighting I have to reset the camera to before I can start moving again.

Combat

That said, I do like the combat. It's taken me a minute to get adjusted, but for those that have played Age of Conan, this will feel a bit more intuitive than it will to World of Warcraft vets. You hit shift to go into combat mode, which pulls up a reticule. Aim the reticule and click your mouse buttons to attack. You will still have special attacks linked to your hot bar, but you'll be using those less than in other games and I've found myself selecting those solely by hitting my number buttons.

Age Appropriate

I was going to say the game is mature, but that's such an abstract concept when it comes to games and ratings that I've decided to skip that term. Instead, I'll say the game is very age appropriate for me, a 28 year-old guy. There's cussing, violence, subversive humor, and grittiness, all things that will appeal to, and be appropriate for, an audience of adults. No fluffy bunnies or creatures that are sliced in half with no blood lost. This is a post apocalyptic society, one where the social mores we've come to expect are no longer necessary or wanted.

Feel

Another abstract term, but in this context I mean that the game feels like it came straight from somewhere between 2002-2004. The world is big, there's lots to do, and there is generally no instruction. Also, everything takes time to complete. Every time I'm in game and see that I have to buy books for new skills, and that when I buy them is up to my discretion and not truly level gated, I have a jarring flash back to the things I hated about Final Fantasy XI. How to advance is open, and moving forward in the game is only slightly guided. This as a category is neither a plus or minus for me. Some of it I am not fond of, but it brings enough of the modern standards to the table to balance those out, like a built-in quest helper, leveling outlines, and starter quests that at least teach you enough of the basics to be able to operate in the world.

Graphical Bugs

I generally like the bleak graphics of Sector 1. What I don't like is walls that glitch and flash like a bad horror movie, or the game world flipping from night to day repeatedly like a bratty child playing on a light switch. Or even monster rubber banding. The good news here is that is all stuff that is fixable and doing so will only improve the game.

Community

So far, the community seems great, including players and developer/GMs. There are rarely incidents of getting a "lrn2play nub" tell from someone, the Help channel is genuinely helpful, and I've only once run into a ninja harvester who snagged my node while I was fending off 2 aggressive mobs. That's a far cry better than almost any other game that I've played, with the exception of LOTRO. Also, the player and community driven events do seem like a blast, like the Car Show that was hosted this past weekend in game.

Chaps

I can craft chaps for myself. Sexy leather chaps. And die them different colors. It's just sad it's a low level item, otherwise I would be wearing only chaps for the remainder of my game play. Perhaps I'll host a player run IML in a few months time…


So that's where I'm at right now with Fallen Earth. I'm not yet sold that it's worth a $50 buy-in right now, but I'm certainly interested enough to keep plugging away for a few more days until I can make a decision.