Tabula Rasa - More MMO Playing

So, after several months of tinkering with Sword of the New World, I decided to finally take the plunge into Richard Garriot's Tabula Rasa. I don't really like to write full-on reviews of MMOs, so I'll just do my usual list of likes and dislikes. After having spent almost 30 hours in the game, I'm actually feeling very positive about the experience, so here goes....



Likes:

1. Combat that is actually a little more than target-lock, hit number keys, rinse and repeat. I like the fact that cover, range and direction are implemented into the combat system. This provides a very action-like experience. Some of the larger battles I faced in instances such as Devil's Den or Torcastra Prison were actually exciting.

2. Solo play seems like a viable option in this game, at least at this point for my level 25 Ranger. While it's fun to run some instances with a squad, sometime I just want to jump in, play for a bit and be out and not have to deal with managing people or looking for a group. With most of the other MMORPG's that I've played, I felt pushed into grouping with others if I wanted to continue to see new content which doesn't seem to be the case with Tabula Rasa.

3. Theme. Sci-Fi trumps Fantasy any day of the week in my book. That's part of the reason I was so attracted to EVE Online. Hopefully Tabula Rasa's gameplay won't betray me in the same way.

4. Character Tree, rather than a set class. I'm not sure why I like this so much, but it really feels like a good incentive to continue to level my character if I know an entirely new class expereience is waiting for me in a few levels. However, the stretch from level 15 to 30 is a long one indeed.

Dislikes:

1. Bland World. While the setting and story seem to depend on this, the world seems to be very bland with a lot of the same structures popping up around the place and the world looking very similar all-around. This seems to be an issue in the instances as well.

2. Low variety of enemies. This is actually a problem inherent to the RPG genre (electronic variety at least), but I must mention it. I don't know how many times I've fought a member of the Thrax Infantry that was only different in the last area by name and stats.

3. Finding a squad is not that easy. Locating a squad seems to be a little iffy at times. It seems most people don't use the advertising system, but rather just advertise in the General chat window. Not a big deal, but still something that could be better.

So, there are my current impressions of Tabula Rasa. Hopefully this will be the MMO that can maintain my interest for a longer period of time than the others, either due to gameplay or time issues.

Alone In The Dark - Inventory System Gone Bad

So this weekend, I decided to finally pick up the new Alone In The Dark game for Xbox 360. I was intrigued by the preview videos as it appeared the game was doing some interesting things with the inventory system as well as the way the character interacted with the environment. It has probably not been since I first played Fatal Frame for the PS2 that I truly seen a somewhat different approach to the survival horror genre. I was not surprised, however, that after playing the game lived up to the negative press it was receiving.
There are two points regarding this game that I thought were detrimental to its fun factor: the inventory system and an overly clunky attempt at immersion. In this article, I only wish to talk about the inventory system as I think it is rare that I even notice an inventory system, much less find one that throws the game for me.
In Alone In The Dark, the inventory is represented by pockets inside the player character's jacket. When it is accessed, the player actually opens up his jacket and peers down at his body to reveal the items stashed away. The inventory system provided is limited space with stacking, real-time and gameplay blocking. This basically means we only have so much space to store things of differing types, any attempt at access does not stop the game and the game screen is completely obstructed by the inventory system when activated. Normally this would not be an issue if the implementation was sound, however, what we have next is a combination of:

1. An awkward inventory access system - On the Xbox 360 the inventory is accessed via the control pad. Within the inventory, items are individually selected either by rotating the thumbstick to slide through the items or individually with the control pad. In essence, this means that the player must take their thumb off of the control stick in order to fiddle with their items and since the game screen is blocked by the inventory when active this essentially means the player must come to a stop to poke around in their inventory. This is a not a fun situation to be in during some of the combat heavy scenes. To be fair, there are "hotkeys" into certain inventory items and combinations of items, but these are selected via a combination of the control pad and one of the four face buttons. Not much better really.

2. An overabundance of items as well as the ability to combine items into yet more items - There are a lot of items in this game. A knife, a lighter, a gun, ammo, various types of bottles (empty, water, brandy), tape, bandages, first-aid spray, and mosquito spray all make of the types of items that can be placed in the player's inventory. Along with these base items, some can be combined into sticky bombs, Molotov cocktails, fire bullets (pouring liquor onto bullets??!), etc. Combining items again was awkward by first selecting one item and then selecting the other and pressing X. Once again, there was an awkward "hotkeys" that was the same as above to instantly create combinations.

So in essence, I spent the vast majority of my time in the game dying due to fumbling with items in my inventory. So how could this have been better? Well, I think for starters just pausing the game when inventory was accessed would have saved a lot of headaches. It may be that the inventory was meant to induce a sense of anxiety in the player as they were involved in certain high-adrenaline scenes, but I don't think any player finds it fun to lose to a system that is bogged down in awkward controls and a rigid attempt at realism. While I applaud the designers for at least thinking in a different direction, my experience was not positive of the way it was implemented in the game.