First Impressions: Fallen Earth

I’ve played Warcraft since it launched on November 23, 2004. Five years is a long time to play anything, even an MMORPG. But, you can read all about my gaming career in the Ironshef’s Bio, so I won’t go into it here. Suffice it to say, as my birthday rolled around this year, I decided that it was time to turn my attention to something new.

Since I’ve been pining for a sandbox MMO since SWG, Fallen Earth from NC-based Icarus Studios felt like the logical decision. Now, I’ve always been more of a fantasy aficionado, but having played (and thoroughly enjoyed) Gamma World when I was younger I’ve carried a soft spot in my heart for the post-apocalyptic theme. The thought of wasting a mutated chicken with weapons made from scavenged junk really appeals to me. So, here I am. A few hours in and ready to write about my first impressions of Fallen Earth.

Fallen Earth Character Creation

Character creation is pretty basic. Despite the fact that the game’s Wikipedia page offers the following:

Fallen Earth promises to have extensive character customization with customizable features including: clothing, facial features, skin tones, hairstyles and colors, age, body and facial hair, piercings, body art (tattoos), and makeup.

- Wikipedia

As advertised, you get some interesting options like tattoos, piercings and face paint, but I’d trade all of that crap for the ability to adjust my actual physique. Gimme the option to broaden my shoulders or fatten my gut. Hell, get really creative and let me add a prosthetic leg. As it stands, from a distance I’m going to look just like every other Tom, Dick and Harry running around the Fallen Earth wastelands. You do have the ability to change how much body hair you have…but I don’t know, that just seems kinda odd. Having played several MMOs and plenty of single-player console and PC-based RPGs, character creation is something that I definitely look forward to. I wasn’t jumping out of my chair with Fallen Earth’s character creation process. It certainly didn’t have me gunnin’ for a refund, though, like I did with the original Everquest.

Fallen Earth Tutorial

Logging into the game with a new character deposits you in the Fallen Earth tutorial. This is optional, which is nice. Mandatory “getting acquainted” situations are lame. I’m definitely looking at you Conan.

Of course, in this case, I opted to walkthrough the tutorial the first time around. I had no clue what to expect since I’d intentionally avoided a bunch of reading leading up to my experience. I was looking for an unadulterated first impression of Fallen Earth and this opening tutorial was part of it.

It’s tough early on to determine the direction they are going. Are they shooting for realism, gameplay or a comfortable balance. There are definitely a few solid examples in the realism camp. What stood out first, naturally, were the visuals. The color palette is genuine with enough vibrant splashes to keep it interesting. If you are coming to Fallen Earth from Warcraft this will definitely be a shock to the system. Personally, I never had a problem with the artistic approach that Blizzard took with WoW, especially since it stayed true to the visual theme of the RTS series. But FE is a refreshing change. The next dose came when I jumped off a platform and was punched square in the nose with reality. There is no maneuverability mid-air. Know where you need to land before you leave your feet and don’t try spinning, turning or anything else fancy, ’cause it ain’t happenin’. Minor, but notable. It’s early, so I’m sure I’ll see other examples of this as I play through.

Your weapon set-up certainly feels like a mark for gameplay. Having the capacity to carry two pistols (strapped to your legs), two one-handed melee weapons (fixed to your belt), a two-handed ranged weapon (slung over your right shoulder) and a two-handed melee weapon (slung over your left shoulder) might be realistic for trained soldiers…and I stress might. But, for every clone off the street, I just don’t know about realistic. Helluva nice twist for gameplay, though. Being able to cycle through a variety of weapon options on the fly is nice. It should be noted that this gameplay convenience is tempered by the real time it takes to cycle through weapons and the reload time for your ranged weapons. True to the FPS side of this hybrid. Being able to let loose with dual handguns and then switch over to a fireman’s axe was very satisfying, though.

So I’m level 40 and wasting chumps in this tutorial. I’ve got an assault rifle in my hands, body armor and I’m not taking shit from no one. I’m busting through doors, jumping off ledges and laying waste to groups of enemies. All in all, I’m feeling pretty good about myself. I save some good guys, drop a boss and get on this little bike to drive a bomb out of the Hoover Dam and save a bunch more folks. Yeah, less awsomeness on that one. I failed. Big explosion. White lights. Sucks for me. At this point I get some of the backstory and an understanding of how the game justifies death and resurrection. Pretty cool in my mind. I like the whole concept of being a clone and basically being reconstituted at a LifeNet facility every time I die. Kudos, Icarus Studios. Nice story design.

To Good to Be True?

Here’s what I don’t like. When I come back I’m level 1 and I don’t have jack squat. Well, that is not entirely true. You get all geared up with zip guns and a crossbow, knife, lead pipe and a 2by4. You’ve also got all of the starter crafting kits and some buff food. Cool. Sort of. Problem is, none of these things are close to an assault rifle or body armor. Listen, I didn’t expect to enter the game at level 40 with a pack full of phat lewtz (yeah, I just said that) and I do think it is an interesting approach to give me a nibble of the nastiness I’ll be capable of when I do get to level 40…but…it’s moderately painful to be kickin’ major ass and then be reduced to some schlub who has trouble duking it out with a young canyon lizard (the level 2 variety, people…I completely owned the level 1s). Feel me? Anyway, it’s just sour grapes, really and I won’t bitch about it much because at least I have an idea now of what I am aspiring to.

Getting over my initial disappointment, I scooped up some newbie quests and ventured out into Zanesville. I had the choice to start at any of Fallen Earth’s starting locations, which was cool. I decided that I’d focus on killing things and picked the location that was geared toward pistols and rifles. We’ll see how it goes from there since I haven’t gotten much farther than standing around in the post-tutorial starting area. A few things that are definitely on my agenda are figuring out the crafting system, the use-based skills and PvP. As I get into it, I’ll be back here bringing my insights to you.

Bottom line, this game is cool. Cool enough to keep me logged in. So, enough writing for now. I gotta go. Gotta go pound the snot outta some prairie chickens!

Join the forum discussion on this post - (1) Posts

blog comments powered by Disqus