Product Description

A massively multiplayer game by former Ultima designers Richard Garriott and Starr Long.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #12188 in Video Games
• Brand: NC Soft
• Model: FG-XP-TR1CE-032
• Released on: 2007-11-02
• ESRB Rating: Teen
• Platforms: Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 98, Windows 2000, Windows Me

Features

• From the plaync website: Players who purchase the Limited Collector's Edition box also receive a briefing from Richard Garriott's alter-ego in the game, General British, classified maps,
• an Allied Free Sentients (AFS) field guide, Tabula Rasa dog tags, an AFS challenge coin and a special edition poster. The Limited Collector’s Edition also includes one month of
• free game play and a "Making of Tabula Rasa" DVD. (source: http://www.plaync.com/us/news/2007/08/ncsoft_reveals_2.html)

Customer Reviews

Leaving WoW in a wormhole!!!
I have to say after leaving WoW(Two year subscriber)to play the Alpha through to launch of Tabula Rasa, and I'm damn happy I did. This MMO is how Sci-Fi is done, and the boredom of the traditional grind in an MMO is just not there. The adrenaline of running across an ACTIVE battlefield is amazing, and get this they have ACTIVE EVENTS also. Not just static and stagnant NPCs, monsters, and missions. I am very pleased that General British has finally brought some fresh and cool to the MMO arena.

Do yourself a favor and give it a taste and make sure you get the Collectors Set for teh goodies. It was worth every damn penny. Remember to run fast, stay low, wear armor, and if it isn't shoulder-mounted it's not big enough. ;)

See you on the battlefield soldier!!!

Almost Perfect for a clean slate...
Where to start, well this game is by far one of the most unique MMO's ever... Being a veteran gamer (Everquest, World of Warcraft, and City of Heroes to name a few) this game takes a very fresh and innovative approach to massively multiplayer online games...

The collector's edition is a must if you're a player who feels you want to have everything with extra mustard... Comes with a letter from General British, nice little touch, packaging is fantastic, and gives you a sense of military sci-fi attitude of this game. Also included a coin, dogtags, nice full color field manual, and some cardboard maps. In game you get a neat little robot pet, and a fancy emote that you can show off with.

Now on to the actual game itself, first and foremost this isn't a lowest denominator game such as World of Warcraft where it's designed for the most casual gamer to play. Not trying to sound smarmy to all you WoW players but this game isn't as user friendly... but I feel this is a huge positive... let me explain, the controls is a cross between Halo and WoW... you running around fighting first person shooter style while being in a real time Massively multiplayer online role-playing game.

People who feel challenged by the controls of WoW will feel at sea in this game, but if you are a person who enjoys first person shooters and also RPGs (or either or) you will love this game. On the surface you have an action sci-fi universe with some serious layers of story. Your are on a mission to save humanity by fighting this evil alien race called the Bane. Meanwhile your learning about an ancient alien race called the Eloh who are an answer to threat, the Bane.

On to the negative. There is some serious learning curves if you are not a serious a gamer, but that can be ok, if this genre is your thing, you will enjoy the tutorial, and will come out knowing the basics. The game went live with a few minor set backs, such as no "auction house"... Developers have made it clear that this is in the works in the near future, also crafting in this game is very counter intuitive. There is nothing in the game as, a tutorial to show or introduce how this works... It's actually not very complicated butt, with not actually explanation I know personally I had to go to a third party website to find how to craft things.

Hence my rating of 4 stars, minus these few things which I feel confident they address in later updates, this game would have gotten 5 stars from me.

can potentially be great someday
Be careful, look at what other players are saying about the game before you buy.

You may be interested in the fan board at vnboards.[...]. Here you will find a mix of player comments but even the rosiest assessments include statements about the game not yet being finished.

On the positive side there is a lot to like and there is fun to be had right out of the gate. Some of the quests are clever, the classes are interesting, and the environment is exciting. They introduce some evolutionary steps such as being able to clone your character so you don't have to repeat as much content in order to try another class. They also don't force you to make any character breaking decisions before you know better. There are more things to like than I have mentioned you should try the game and see for yourself.

On the down side as some players are remarking the game is shallow, there isn't much content. Some say there is only enough to keep a person interested for one or two months. My personal experience was the same, it was fun for 1 month but not enough there to keep the game interesting after that.

There are plenty of bugs though none that will stop you from playing there are some that will interrupt your progress towards goals. One quest may lead to others so when you can't complete one you don't get to the others, nor the rewards. It can be frustrating to work on a quest for some time searching for an answer or something you may have overlooked but only later find this is not one you can complete because it is bugged. The bugs unfortunately put enough doubt in your mind you might give up on clever quests that aren't bugged just because you eventually come to suspect it.

Worse the support for the game is lacking. If you petition your problem and it is a "known bug" they may not respond to you at all. The way you can find if it is a known bug is to read pages of patch notes.

Crafting is very weak, three is no housing or any way for you to make a lasting mark on the world. This is not a PvP centric game, people seeking PvP will likely not find what they want here.

Bottom line, if you have some tolerance and patience, you will have a lot of fun for a month or two. After that you can let your subscription lapse and wait for fixes and additional content. This game can potentially be great someday.