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Earthrise Review: The Official Review - Edit
5.5
| Pros |
 The game tries a different approach to levelling The graphics are pretty The world is expansive |
| Cons |
 Doesn't seem all that sandbox Unoriginal, uninventive, and uninspired Wallows in concepts that are a decade old |
The MMORPG community is a rabid, frenzied bunch. While at heart we are all nice people who would probably adopt a small injured squirrel if the occasion called for such duties, we can’t help opening our mush caves and spewing forth anger. And to be quite honest, we open our mouths with bitter-malice for good cause. When we pay a modest dowry of cash for a brand-new game we expect something that is fresh, innovative, and, most importantly of all, fit for purpose. Alas this is not always the case.
Earthrise is the debut Sci-Fi MMORPG from small indie developer Masthead Studios. Boasting free-form and sandbox gameplay – this online-‘em-up conjures images of Star Wars Galaxies and Anarchy Online, but sadly fails to measure up to the aforementioned in either ambition or design. Where we should be playing a refined and immersive title, we find a hollow, rat race for grind, gear and cash.
Arizona Bay
The world has been ravished by the inevitable race for dwindling natural resources. In a global game of one-upping, governments have unleashed their fury in the form of nuclear missiles and everyone has danced a merry jig into death – except a (un)lucky few. In their infinite futuristic wisdom, brainy scientists have created a DNA database which allows clones of the deceased to be recreated instantly if they happen to be set upon by a gang of mutated, post-apocalyptic bastards. To run alongside this marvellous breakthrough in god-denying, is the struggle between an over oppressive surviving regime and a resistance group: this is where you come in to carve your name into the forehead of the refreshed world.
)
Breaking from the standard formula, Earthrise only offers one playable race, boring Humans, and spits in the face of those other science-fiction formats with their exotic and varied body-forms- get your cloak and hat other bipedal, extraterrestrial races: you are not welcome here. Like many a sandbox, from the start the player is called upon to direct what their initially blank avatar is going to be in-game as the character creation process only calling upon the decisions of the time-honoured Mr.T style and a bushy moustache or too.
Only once entered into the game world, players are able to begin shaping their character in whatever way they see fit. The skill menu is available from the UI and calls forth a frightening amount of choices, and using earned battle points and crafting points, this is where the majority of development comes from. The only problem with this sandbox style approach to class is that nothing new or particularly exciting ever comes from it. The class-barrel has been well and truly scrapped clean over almost four decades of Dungeons and Dragons – Earthrise offers nothing particularly new as the game will only ever call for a Tank, a Healer, a Support, and the ever-green DPS. Allowing players to pick and choose suitable abilities is only really giving the illusion of choice.
)
Of course the tools of the classes in this MMO are distinctively futuristic: instead of traditional blades, hammers, and staves, we have rifles, flame throwers, and mounted gauntlets. This does add a degree of variation but the RPG genre has never comfortably or convincingly integrated modern weapons such as guns. The developers of Earthrise have taken a huge gamble in adding a manually aimed system with these weapons and while it is an amiable attempt, neither the client nor the server performance is adequate enough to pull it off. The game also adds a degree of magical ability in the form of ‘Psonics’ but this is nothing inventive or noteworthy. It should also be mentioned that weapons, and armour, effectively dictate your level so those with the highest damage per second rule the roost. This a slightly more emergent system but slightly fails when someone butchers you, claims your items, and sends you back to square one.
To also go along side the skill/class system (which also encompasses crafting) is the faction system. Like any MMORPG worth its goblin-scented salt, every title in the genre must now include two opposing groups despite its value to the ensemble as a whole – and within Masthead’s title it does seem like a needless addition with the sole purpose of adding PvP. The fun and adventure in the game comes from the sense of an unexplored and remerging world – forcing two pre-existing sides into this segregates a budding player-driven community, and also drives away the notion that said community is building the society and ideologies of the place.
And at heart the faction system within the game simply feels like a tacked-on addition. Aside from small dialogue between two NPCs in the tutorial stages, players will find scarce mention of it until they come across larger settlements which gives the distinct feeling of poor execution. Killing a certain player will shift your alignment and rarely will anyone pick a certain side out of anything other than blind PvP and progressing through the game.
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This is all comes back to an element which reoccurs within Earthrise – nothing is explained well enough. There is a common misconception that sandbox games are some kind of higher spiritual being within MMORPGs, and that they harken’ back to a time when Ultima Online and EverQuest purposely threw players through the school of hard knocks. If anyone played a decade previous they will know that this is wrong; older games didn’t guide or tutor players simply because of the shortcomings of an emerging genre. This notion of allowing players to stumble blindly through a game is not one inherent to the sub-category of 'Sandbox’ but one tagged to it by those who have missed the point of earlier games. The difficulty comes from mastering the elements within, not by poorly explaining the basics. And while there is a welcome page and tutorial, neither are sufficient in explaining a great deal about the mechanics and the tutorial area itself is nothing more than an exercise in what different firearms are on offer.
/first
5.5/10 sounds fair.
The technical issues aside, this game is basically nothing else then a shooter currently. There's no real content besides meaningless PvP and grinding and the game should've been more about skill-builds and tactics instead of equipment.
The crafting is tedious and uninspiring compared to SWG and the economy isn't anywhere as good as EvE's, as everyone can be a decent crafter due to the seperate skill-pools.
It sounded good in the beginning, but the whole thing is setup just wrong in alot of areas to be as good as SWG preNGE or EvE.
The territorial warfare that will be added at some point won't make this game into a better game, as you're still forced to grind on and on to get the basic materials and skillpoints.
It will add a little bit of meaning to PvP tho, but you should ask yourself, if this is enough to turn this game into a gem.
Masthead should implement some kind of safe questing-areas, where killing a neutral player results in you being hunted down by the NPC-guards, like it is done in EvE.
Then they should implement alot of fun PvE-content such as exploration or plain and simple interesting quest-chains that let's you dive into the lore.
Last but not least, they should do away with the material-grind by killing mobs and go with harvestable nodes that can be fought over and force players to decide between being a combatant or an industrial player by reducing the system to a single skillpool.
A mix of EvE Online and SWG is what I would've liked to see, but we were given an SciFi-themed Darkfall instead.
If I would only be interested in meaningless online-shooter then I coud just aswell play Unreal Tournamnet, or if I'd be interested in a more tactical shooter, then I could play CS or TF2 etc.
I'm interested in a playerdriven world however, when I read "sandbox". A world where I have to make decisions and the descisions being somewhat meaningful, like deciding to be a crafter or a fighter, or deciding between territorial warfare or factional warfare or simply doing PvE-content.
There's no decisions to be made in Earthrise tho, and hence it's far from being a sandbox.... there's simply no sand or tools in Earthrise.
Harsh at tiimes but ovetrall i think its fair
Didn't play the game but I agree completely at this last jab at ffa full-loot PvP.
I too have no idea why all those devs believe a sandbox MMO absolutely has to have full-looting? Imo this is THE reason all those "new" (/rolleyes) sandbox games really have no chance at mainstream popularity. (ok EVE, I know I know.. but its insurance mechanic pretty much negates the effect of it).
Yes, you can have a sandbox without full-loot PvP. Why is no one attempting it? I have no idea whatsoever.
And imo, harsh death penalties detract from PvP. However counter-intuitive it might seem games with lower death penalties tend to have more PvP. Just brush up on your game theory and you'll see what I mean. Making a "PvP-centric" game with full-loot PvP is like designing a racing car with a one-speed tractor engine - it's not all about horsepower chum.
In Xsyon, for example, you have ffa full-loot PvP ... but this is actually compatible with the stated fact that it is NOT a PvP game - a point lost on the usual crowd of game-jumping "hardcore PvP-ers" (read "noob gankers" in majority of cases). Quite simply - you stand to loose much more than win in a PvP encounter so you naturally tend to avoid it.. unles you're sure you'll win... which in turn leads to ganking. Please please please! If you're making a "pvp-centric" game DON'T put full-looting in! Trust me on this!
You left out the problem with Turtles and related spawns, and a few things struck me as not quite accurate, but all in all it's a fairly decent review.
For instance, alligators drop organic crafting parts because those are parts of the alligator you cut off.. Minor detail :D. This model of resource gathering is nothing new, and usually works pretty well. The mobs in ER drop stuff that suits what they are, such as metal parts from robots, plastics and synthetics from humanoid armors and so on.
That being said, the game sums up to: Grind turtles (or equivelent), or grind one of the three 2-mat crafting recipes over and over.
Lastly.. I agree.. there's nothing sandbox about this game, in the pure sense of the term. People mistake "skill based class system" for "sandbox" way too much these days.
Haven't played the game, but this was an exellent review!
wow, nail in the coffin anyone?
Sad but true. I find it amusing that some of developers think that today creating a sandbox game means rejecting all of the MMO genre evolution.
a fair review i would say, and 5.5 is just about right
i didn't buy the game at all, but i was in CB for around 2 weeks, so i kinda understand about the review
i feel sorry for MHS, i mean they have the big ambition, but it just wouldn't work the way they want, i hope 1 years from now ER will be there
The score is fair but the review, as usual, is done by someone who can't stand FFA Full Loot PvP and thus instantly hates the game. Earth Rise doesn't even have full loot IT HAS INSURANCE!
The reason why all sandbox games have FULL LOOT is because it makes the game exciting and gives meaning to death. When you die in every themepark game you never care unless its a raid wipe and you wasted hours trying to beat the boss. Furthermore, in full loot games, gear typically doesn't matter as much as it does in Themepark games. You don't spend months grinind out raid bosses to get badass gear, you buy the best gear from players instead and it can be replaced within a few hours/days most of the time.
Also, there is nothing new about Themepark games. All of them go back to EQ. They are all gear grind with RGN.
Very well written review. In particular I like that the author understands that a sandbox MMOG does not equal not having an early tutorial or getting started and there needs to actually be elements in the game that drives you forward to build castles in the sandbox.
Just throwing you out in an empty, soul less 3D engine with some mobs thrown in does not a sandbox make, not a good one anyway. You need lore and possibility for players to actually shape the world. Also I agree that they need to get rid of full loot PvP, it only discourages people from engaging into PvP and makes griefing so more prelavent.
Not zero death penalty, which makes a PvP death pointless, like in WoW and not full loot, something in between would be nice.
Of course, had they done this than a whole wave of people would be shouting "WoW Clone!" ;-)
Lost $49.99 for a dumb fxxk game -.-
sorry I'm a bit agressive, but nothing can settle my madness now because of this game!
"Earthrise offers nothing particularly new as the game will only ever call for a Tank, a Healer, a Support, and the ever-green DPS. Allowing players to pick and choose suitable abilities is only really giving the illusion of choice."
That is just nonsense to say the least! First off all what is a tank in this game? What is a a DPS focused player in this game? Everyone will have a weapon they have maxed out! Everyone will most likely have some buff of debuff ability to support his team (This could be healing or dot or whatever) and people can choice there armour.
Offcourse as someone who focusses on healing you want to have a power armour so you can keep healing. As a melee person you might want to have some speed so you could take the armour that help you with that or actually mix certain armour so that you have a decent sprint and health. Sorry, but I really believe you came to this conclusion way to fast!
" This a slightly more emergent system but slightly fails when someone butchers you, claims your items, and sends you back to square one."
You can insure you items. Beside that tier 2 items are free and will not drop so you never be send back to square one!
"Why you may ask that a crocodile is hoarding materials? Well this is one of the many mysterious that evolve in a post-nuclear world."
Because that is clearly less realisticly then chopping on the same tree and node over and over again untill the game tells you the node is empty for the next 4 hour after with a god will come around and magically fills it up again :P. However with territorial warefar there should be nodes to conquere or use...if they implement that right offcourse.
"To make a chest-piece you must build a frame work, which is a pattern in itself, and then provide 3 organic, 2 synthetic, and 1 metal material-"
Way to easily explained. To create a chest piece you need to create two other elements first and for those you might need some other element created. Getting enough money and crafting points to create a chest-piece is actually time consuming (Maybe even to much of a grind). This system really works best when you work together and is nothing like Lord of the Rings online. Then there is also the fact you might even need to look for crafting station outside of save zones.
"and PvP is nothing more than an annoyance which most players navigate by pressing the teleporting /unstuck or further alt+F4."
There in the process on fixing this. Unstuck bug is already fixed shamefully they have yet to fix alt+f4
Do not get me wrong the 5.5 is really fare enough the game as it is is not to great, but claiming it lack potentiol is saying more about the writer of the review then the game. The game has potentiol. They have a great engine that needs tweaking and have a interesting world. I really hope they can deliver the territorial warfare. Is it a sandbox? Who cares! People including developers themselves need to stop putting there game in a cubicle! I do however have the feeling the writer has not put a lot of time into the game or to the very least simply made some conclusion way to fast.
The game will not resolve around tanks, healers and support classes. There is to much variaty in the game. True people can focus on reducing the damage they take and increasing there health and you will have dedicated healers and people who might focus on support. Everyone however is a DPS'er. Everyone can max out there weapon! The crafting is also more involved then how the writer explains it. True it is still bland, but it not just get X+Y and create the items. Unless you have a lot of time it will be hard for a person to be able to create every item needed to create an top tier chest armour piece, eventually they will, but most crafter will not be able to do that for along time and working together in this aspact will mean you and a groups of friend guilding can make tier 10 armour in weeks where an solo crafter might take months if not years.
Will also note that the last patch did impress me. I have hardly seen such a solid patch! True it has taken them 2 weeks to get out and there are companies they patch more, but this patch has not braken anything and there QA did a good job. I just wonder why they could not properly fix there game before releasing it.
Those who proclaim that full loot PvP "gives meaning to death" never played EQ1 back in the early days.
Die, and lose days, perhaps weeks of effort. And possibly all your gear (your corpse would time out in 1 week real time). So, what happened? People did everything they could to avoid death. You never took risks, because the tiny amount of extra xp killing an even con monster didn't outweigh the much harder and dangerous fight it took to kill it. So you ground low-blues forever, even in groups (as they were faster kills = more xp over time).
The "meaning" of death when you have harsh death penalty is not about skill or hardcoreness... its about wasted time. People hate wasting their time. I don't see anyone "zerg" monster in WoW, even though it's death penalty isn't very harsh. So death has meaning there too.
And of course, if you feel that Game X doesn't have a harsh enough death penalty, you could always:
1) delete all your gear upon death to simulate full loot, thereby returning "meaning" to your death and all the fun it entails!
2) permanently delete your character upon death to simulate perma-death returning "meaning" to your death and all the fun it entails!
But of course, being hypocrites, they won't :D they want everyone to "suffer" equally.... lol.
I had my lesson with Cryptic's Star Trek Online ...I kown how you feel about waisting your money. Now learn from this and dont ever rush into a game on HYPE.
Rule #1) Never Pre-Order unless you have played in the open beta of a game!
Rule#2) Never buy a lifetime subscription before you have played a game!
Rule#3) Always google the game to find out what others think, then make up you mind.
Rule#4) If Cryptic is developing...a game WAIT 5days before buying it ...Just to make sure it has content!
Rule#5) HE WHO HAS GAS ...Travels at the back of the line!
!!
+1
Thank you for attempting to shine the light on the misinformation. The people here will most likely completely ignore what you have said though. They are too busy hopping on the "ffa pvp sandbox fails" bandwagon. I really enjoy how people agree to the review when they haven't even played the game and go off what other people who may or may not have played the game.
With all the misinformation that people keep throwing out there about the game, it's clear they have not played, or have not played long enough/taken the time to find out about the game. As evidenced by everyone thinking there is no insurance mechanic at all.
Doesn't have EvE's economy? Are you kidding? Of course it doesn't. Economies need time to grow before you can even say that. EvE's economy starting out was total crap too. It's had years to grow, it doesn't just happen overnight.
They are just hoping the game fails, so they are saying nearly anything to attempt to help it along. Schadenfreude at it's best I'd say.
Does the game need fleshing out? Indeed it does. Did they release too early? Yes they did. Did they want to? No they didn't. They had to. Money was probrably starting to dry up, and if they released a bit later, they would have to contend majorly with a bunch of hyped up mmo's. So their window for possibly getting people in, and hopefully keep the game afloat so they can finish it was now.
The reviewer is correct, the game in its present state is not engaging.
You can only kite so many mobs with your T2 armour and guns for BP before it becomes an utter bore.
However, that does not mean the game cannot turn out to be a great title, it is possible.
The real question is, will it keep enough subs to get to the point where there is enough to do to make it worthwhile? We wont know the answer to this for 6 months.
Imo the devs should offer everyone that buys the game now at least 3 months of free play, because while it may be worth subbing in the future, I cannot see many people paying monthly subs in its current state.
Did they sell enough boxes to cover costs for 6 months and do they have the skills to turn this game into something special in 6 months time. That is the interesting game thats been played just now, not the one that occurs when you log in.
Excellent review.
Oh well. On to the next MMO. Back to LOTRO till then.
And they want ~70USD (50 EUR) for this game. Lol.
I am so glad I did not read that review before buying the game. Everyone reading this will never buy Earthrise and will never see the truth. Yes, the game has problems, yes the game was released too early, but saying things such as the game has classes or that it is not a sandbox game makes me really sad for that reviewer. Oh and full loot PvP? Didn't you find the insurance button????
How long did he spend in the game and did he actually play that game?
Then don't kite so many mobs with your T2 armour and guns for BP! You do not NEED to be tier 10 in weeks. I spend most of my time exploring the world and found this very fun to do. Yes I am behind on most people in the game, but who cares? Beside that the kitable mobs (Melee creatures in general) have been nerfed pretty hard (BP wise) and harder ranged mobs now give more BP.
Agreeable though that the game lacks content, but kiting mods with your tier 2 armour and guns for BP is not the only thing you can do. You can PvP to get there insurence money or even items you can fight more difficult monster with your tier 2 armour or even with higher tier armour. You could get into crafting or explore the world.
Infact go south-east of the map and you get a preview of how Fallout: Online might look like :P. Really loved that area and shamefully the only area that really give you a post-apoc feeling. Hunt down all the teleporter or go scout for work-station. True you might find these on a map create by the community, but loads of more fun to do it on your own.
You could do various quest and there is even a quest-line that will give you high-tier armour. No this is not a repeatable. There are actually also some storie quest (Unlike what the writer claimed) whitch teach you about the area your in.
Masthead studio's does have the talent to turn this game into something better, just look at the engine with is actually pretty good. True it should have been optimilised before released, but it is pretty good. At least from what we can see as players.
Hm... a question for the author: why post screenshots released by Masthead Studios if you have played the game?
This is a poor review.. I agree the game has had its share of technical problems .. lag. That being said the game is improving.. What exactly did people expect from an indie developer?? A bland game? So what you mean is you played until t2 gear then called it a day? How can FULL LOOT PVP be a bad feature when the game is designed for people who like this?
{Mod edit}
to be honest sure ER has it's share of problems but this review is just written by someone who already wanted to play rift already but had to log in for a few mins in ER to write something smart :P xipher got that point quite right if you ask me
my share:
first the skill and mix and match system IS very deep and IS a main point as items can be insured quite early and you basically will only loot 50% of that insurance + loot someone was farming or the like...basically a very nice approach to combine ffa risk feeling but making it more attractive overall. when you advance and get more and more skills you'll see that this is kinda well thought out...and yes there is healing, taunts (which seem to be viable in pvp also...50% less dmg if the target doesnt focus you).
also the faction system mentioned as bad..well most sandboxes neglect the faction aspect like in games such as daoc, potbs or others of that sort while in ER they seem to try to combine this faction feeling which is VERY important to kind a lot of ppl (just look at a good portion of darkfall players +those that left for that reason :P) on top of that there will come territoral warfare sometime in march...to be seen how this will work.
the crafting also is quite fun. i personally haven't been doing so much "team play crafting" in ages with the whole (small, ~10 ppl) guild helping out each other, spreading out the recouring components on the crafters, grouping up to use the good crafting station in unguarded aereas and the like...real deep, real fun in my opinion.
overall this game sure will take some time to get the needed polish but still there are very good basics there already and the devs seem to be quite responsive and fast with their patches
very nice review , i was in the beta and i cudn't play it longer then a day.
Darkfall is still the number 1 sandbox mmorpg. sandbox developers better wake up and keep up in the sandbox department.
FPS-Open world pvp- full loot.
Thats all its about and you will attract players from counter strike.
Many people depend on ratings from this site MMORP and other gaming sites before buying the game which costs to much as is and half done. Good Job
I agree with the reviewer on most aspects, if a bit harsh. I bought the game because I was looking forward to it for a long time, regardless of what ppl in beta were saying. I played the game for a little while and was bored to tears. A shame really. I wish those who enjoy it well, but I feel like I wasted the money.
Every bit of the character design, environment design live up the promisee, love the poses, how the holstered weapons goes but the functionality isnt there. I tried to enjoy the beta but was busy sending reports more than going through the game.
Great article to read in general.
The cost of this game is why i never even considered buying it... rememibed me of the fail Mortal Online was..
Now on the other hand I just pre-ordered xsyon the other night knowing it was still in an unfinished state but it only came to £25 and i got 2 months free game time when it goes live.. Now even if the game turns out to be balls and fails i dont mind too much as it was only £25 but if i had spent nearly £50 id be a bit annoyed just like i was with MO haha ..
Ill check out Earrise only when i find it on offer some place realyl cheap :)
I stopped reading when the author started babbling about the skill system being nothing but tanks, healing, and DPS.
The game isn't without it's issues and at times the lag makes the game completely unplayable but this is one of the shittiest and most ignorant reviews this website has ever published.
I agree with the rating given to the game in the current state, but I feel the review moved into the region of bashing. I agree ER needs alot of fluff and fleshing out, but alot of those comments were just inaccurate in my opinion,
"This does add a degree of variation but the RPG genre has never comfortably or convincingly integrated modern weapons such as guns."
You guys gave STO 7.5 at launch, that has guns and is a total pile of shite!
"There is nothing on offer here that we haven't seen a thousand times before but done with more inspiration and ambition."
Well I was rather shocked to read that statement even if it is just the reviewers opinion.
" Earthrise offers nothing particularly new as the game will only ever call for a Tank, a Healer, a Support, and the ever-green DPS. Allowing players to pick and choose suitable abilities is only really giving the illusion of choice."
I was truly puzzled by this statement, I doubted if he'd played the game after reading that.
So in short a rating that I agree with but a written review that I find to be ignorant.
you never played a necromancer in EQ1, right?
WOW this is much lower than most games I think on here. Although very much deserved.
Never buy a MMO that has no open beta until long after launch.
No, thats EVE. Darkfall is the #1 fantasy sandbox.
Sadly Darkfall is not really a full sandbox game.. tho it is awesome :)
""Earthrise only offers one playable race, boring Humans, and spits in the face of those other science-fiction formats with their exotic and varied body-forms- get your cloak and hat other bipedal, extraterrestrial races: you are not welcome here""
hehee yea thats why i love Fallen Earth ,gnomes,undeads,orcs,taurens,elfs,fairys etc,thats a blast!
thanks for the pro review,had to stop reading right there.
Clearly this is proof that the staff are not shills for their advertisers as I look at the front page and see this review with a massive Earthrise banner ad behind it. Hopefully some whiners will take notice.
Basically exactly my thoughts when reading the review, agreed with the overall score (which is arbitrary anyway), but had an overwhealming feeling they had played an equally dissapointing but completely different game to the one I had.
If that review was preformed by a user, I'd probably just assume they were a troll and move on.
Breaking from the standard formula, Earthrise only offers one playable race, boring Humans, and spits in the face of those other science-fiction formats with their exotic and varied body-forms- get your cloak and hat other bipedal, extraterrestrial races: you are not welcome here.
I have to wonder what the reviewer expected. This isn't a fantasy title, it's an alternate-reality of Earth. The furthest Earthrise will likely go is introducing playable mutated humans, or some LOTRO-style monster play.
Earthrise offers nothing particularly new as the game will only ever call for a Tank, a Healer, a Support, and the ever-green DPS. Allowing players to pick and choose suitable abilities is only really giving the illusion of choice.
Eventually MMOers are going to have to realize that the holy circle of class types is all that can exist in a balanced game. Allowing mastery of certain stats means keeping other stats pitifully low to balance out, otherwise you just wind up with a population of T-1000 liquid-metal Terminators, who are not only capable of withstanding a rocket to the face, but can dish out mass genocide, heal at an alarmingly high rate, use any type of equipment they come across, and whose most formidable enemy is the easily defeated Arnold-bot.
Of course the tools of the classes in this MMO are distinctively futuristic: instead of traditional blades, hammers, and staves, we have rifles, flame throwers, and mounted gauntlets. This does add a degree of variation but the RPG genre has never comfortably or convincingly integrated modern weapons such as guns.
Futuristic in the sense that the game could be set anywhere from the early 1900's to sometime in the future. Also, guns never being integrated well into RPGs? This is a satirical review, isn't it. I think we've all been punk'd.
The fun and adventure in the game comes from the sense of an unexplored and remerging world – forcing two pre-existing sides into this segregates a budding player-driven community, and also drives away the notion that said community is building the society and ideologies of the place.
Xsyon is all about the community building up society, that doesn't dilute the aspect of tribes hating one another.
Overall, the review could have been consolidated to one page. The good points like the game lacking immersion, server stability, dearth of content, etc, could have been made in a concise manner, without all the filler that just creates the notion that the reviewer was actively seeking things to complain about.
I found this review to be most informative and well written. It perfectly describes the situation of the game and has put the final nail in the coffin of the question to look into this game or not. Very well done! Perhaps in 2 or 4 years time the game (if it still exists) will become polished to a level of interest but I will not hold my breath. I particularly like that the server lag issues was downplayed in this review as it is all i've really heard about this title in terms of cons. So i appreciate learning more about what makes this title poor and not worth a divergence of my pitiable cash resources. I guess i will just have to finish up my present EVE trial and then sub to it for the first time to get my sandbox fix :D
FFA full loot pvp alone was the nail in the coffin for abomination.
MMO shooter games are few. This game would have something to offer in that regard if they ever fixxed the lag. As it stands now, the review is pretty fair, with the exception of the full loot part, which is actually pretty retarded since you only get fully looted if you dont care enough about your gear in order to protect it with insurance.
Also, the skill system in this game is very complex and would have very much to offer the game would just run smoothly. Unfortunately the game doesnt run smoothly, even on the best machines.
This game is essentially still in an early Beta state. It should deffinitely not have been released as a finished product in such a poor state.
holly crap! not even MO got a 5 rating when it came out........really this bad?
Even a few months from now isn't going to change this train wreck of a game. If they pull an S-E and leave the game free 2 play until they do the game justice and make it worthy of paying for like FFIX then just maybe but even then, forced pvp full loot drop doomed the game before it launched. A dinky studio like MH more than likely can't afford exended free to play to fix the failures nor can they probably afford to limit the player base to a small percentage of pvpers.
Casual players make the MMO world progress and always have and always will. EVE has been around so many years that it's had time to improve and realize it needed drastic changes but still it's so very niche that it's still not going to reach the base it could have by being friendly to pure pve fans.
{mod edit}
"We don't like to review games until they have been out for a few months and the writer assigned has had time to run the game through its paces." - Admin of MMORPG.com
"Now I must state that I do not like to judge an MMORPG on its launch..." Adam Tingle in a seperate review
So this article was at the very latest written on the 21st of Feb because it gives mention to an exploit that was patched on the 22nd. This "review" was written half a month into release. Clearly something has changed in regards to this game although I am not sure why?
{mod edit}
Yes it is really that bad.
It is in a much better state than MO was at launch, the skill system is all there and they have already patched in a fix for desync.
This review isn,t that good. How long did the reviewer played ER. Some other peeps tell us that the economics and crafting systeem isn,t good. How can they make such a statement when ER is only 2 weeks out. Did the same peeps also played EVE and SWG on release date(headstart). EVE needed also alot of time and expansions before it became a great game as it is now.
No this game isn,t the same copy crap WOW themepark MMO where you can play the same ranger, mage, priester classes over and over again. No its not Aion, WOW, L2 ,EQ2,Rift, Lord of the Rings, GW, etc etc. No its not a game full with peeps crying for nerf and buffs for the same old boring classes. In ER you make your own story. The crafting,skill and freedom is great. And also Masterhead are planning expansions great for guild warfare.
Yes the game is not optimal yet, but i truly believe this game will be fine after some time. This niche company isn,t Blizzard with all the money. And i,m happy that these niche companies exist.
The concept is great and i,m happy this isn,t some other Themapark MMO WOW clone
Thank you very much for the warning!
Usually reviews for MMOs are done about 3-4 weeks after the original release. Obviously that's more time than an RPG or FPS. If the game isn't full of quality at launch, than what do you expect the review to be? And yes maybe the developer did end up patching it, but from this review it seems as if there are more than just small little problems/glitches. Understandable review.
I have reaed so many negative things about htis game in the forums over the past few weeks and now this.
I almost wanted to give it a try, but there just seams way to much broken about it, to even bother at this point.
Don't be fooled by this review. Yes, Earthrise has problems, but not the type of problems described here. If you want to read the actual game problems, go and check the official forums of the game. At least the information there is given only by people who have bought and played the game, not people who read something or want to troll.
The game is not up par. I am stil enjoying the game, but I will not deny that they should have waited with release. This review however has a lot of things factual wrong or simple opinions based on wrong fact or guesses. Like most people (even the fans) say the 5.5 is correct, but the review is simply not good.
No its just a opinion from a reviewer. He doesn,t like the gameplay. But the review isn,t fair when it comes to gameplay. In my opinion the gamecore is very good and its only a matter of taste. The community is great and hulpfull and not a ganking party like AOC was with that awfull rangers ganking newbies. Also in T2 there is nothing they can use so you can easy PvE in that gear because in that gear you can also defeat highend mobs. Thats the great point of it. Only later on when the war will starts between the guilds then higher gear is a matter. Oh and crafting is very great. But its to early that you can judge how the economics will be after some time. I make my own game. Finding the recouses for crafting stuff is a game itself.
And yes the game has lag, DMZ bug, other bugs, exploiting. glitches etc. So in that case yes a 5.5 is acceptabel but this has nothing to do with the gamecore. But after the first patch i noticed a step forwards.
As example MMORPG rated STO with a 7.4 the most crappy MMORPG i ever saw. Mindless quest, awfull groundcombat, a nonsens crafting system, admiral in just 2 weeks , space combat was hitting the spacebutton as fast as possible and thats it. The most boring stuff i ever saw. And you got awfull instances in STO. Peeps cryed in just one week for more endcontent and quest. And then that awfull C-store. Well in my opinion that game never deserves a 7.4 So this tells us that all reviews are a matter of taste.
This is absolutely sad that I have to write this, but the game is completly worthless, and not worth anyone's money. As someone who has followed this game for several years, stuck through beta and all the bugs that are SO present in this game, I have to warn anyone from buying this game, it is FAR from fun. If you enjoy grinding for hours on end, just to lose it all to a bug, crash, exploit, lag, glitch etc then this is for you. If you like pvp so laggy 90% of wpns can't hit people, and when you do finally earn some loot off a pvp battle, you crash, and log back in only to be shot about 50 times before loading in. Then to get any decent gear you have to spend 20+ hours a week just STACKING your mats in the inventory, thats awesome fun! What little fun actually exists in this game is completly destroyed by the amount of frusteration you will have over simply trying to playing the game. Please save yourself some money and get the next mmo hitting the market, this one won't be done for another 6 months, if it's ever fixed.
Here this is a PvP sandbox dream , thats the truth , unlike the original reviewer I disagree with the statement not enough sand around , cause tons of sand around , too much sand around ...
Just game was not ready for release , now we all can speculate why , but 2011 is a year full of promising mmorpg .
But for Masthead the ideas were right , just they are too stubborn to realise , you are targeting a small group market with the ideas , the small group market just became smaller cause of server issues , lag not good tutorials , buggy combat system .
Its silly when a flamer does more damage , then trying to place control burst , a flamer eats trough npc like crazy .
There approach instead of improving other weapon design is to nerf flamers , this backward thinking .
Is what makes so many bugs , overall while I didn´t buy the game , I could see the good ideas about this project .
But sadly the excution is so poorly done , and developers stuck in there own mindset .
That few good things will come from this . I wouldn´t recommend this game at all .
Unless you really believe in this PvP sandbox dream , then you must be ready to be a martyr for a while .
But thats the only reason I would recommend this product .
What I have seen about Earthrise is that its a pvp game with some pve mixed in. as for the sandbox I did not see it.
Good points there bro!
I think if Earthrise had been released a couple of years ago it might have scored a little better with the mmo gaming community. But, it is really dated in 2011, and proof that nobody actually will pay a sub for a mmo PvP "sandbox" 1st person scifi shooter as they can go to their console for better.
I don't think the problem is time of release and concept. The problem is that the game was released too early and people had too high expectations for it. Beta had to run about 3 more months. I am sure if this game has a second review after a while, the verdict will be much better as long as the devs keep improving the title like they do at the moment.
agree those both posts
Well, the author simply don't like PvP oriented games, but this review was a hate, most of it.
One playable race? Yes, it's happening on the planet Earth. I don't see many other intelligent species around to play with. It is called a LORE! No E.T. ... it is for adifferent game.
"Only once entered into the game world, players are able to begin shaping their character in whatever way they see fit."
Sure they do, that is all about this game, dude. And here comes:
"Earthrise offers nothing particularly new as the game will only ever call for a Tank, a Healer, a Support, and the ever-green DPS."
Excuse me, I'm playing with two types ofweapons - Presicion rifle and a shotgun and I'm going to craft some support and healing devices. So, what is my class in battle? I will tell u - whatever I choose to be, because you can switch weapons and devices in a thick! Though, mastering these skills are a difficult task. Maybe if I have some battlepoints from PvP ...
"The developers of Earthrise have taken a huge gamble in adding a manually aimed system with these weapons and while it is an amiable attempt, neither the client nor the server performance is adequate enough to pull it off."
I personally don't like WoW and other fanasy types of aiming systems. Manually aiming is something I've been looking for.And with the latest server patches, the lag is significally decreased. And no, u can't kite with T2 gear all mobs in the game. The faster and ranged mobs with much higher BR will bust u in a seconds.
"It is a crying shame then that this world is nothing more than a lifeless husk for which mobs to inhabit and players to discover with disappointed eyes. There is nothing to uncover, no stories to tease out, no real reason to question why that landmark is there or why this place has an intense population of overgrown rats."
In fact there is a whole bunch of stories and quests telling you about the world, the factions,their supporters and problems with the mutated wildlife of this futuristic and lack of humanity anti-utopia society.
Crafting is fun, killin mobs is fun (if u know howto hunt them). I only hope that jumping will drain stamina soon.
"The game is simply one-dimensional and in all honesty I see very little potential for anything else."
No,dude, the game is PvP-dimensional (It means ganging, loot, insurance, crafting, economy, tactics, strategy), where the PvE is only a background, telling you the story of the world because YOU (the player) is what making Earthrise alive and worthy. I wanna play with players agains players. Only other players is making a game fun 'cause they are not predictable, they are not mobs and don't have the restrictions of the AI.
So, everyone who really likes the PvP, crafting, player-driven economy, unique approach of character development and the upcoming territorial conquest IS welcome!
I stoped reading at "Earthrise only offers one playable race, boring Humans, and spits in the face of those other science-fiction formats" ... how can anyone think like that ?? {Mod Edit}
Btw I don't play Earthrise ... yet
" Earthrise only offers one playable race, boring Humans, and spits in the face of those other science-fiction formats with their exotic and varied body-forms- get your cloak and hat other bipedal, extraterrestrial races: you are not welcome here."
"The skill menu is available from the UI and calls forth a frightening amount of choices, and using earned battle points and crafting points, this is where the majority of development comes from."
That part of the review... I am just lost of words. Many genre specific mmorpgs do offer "just boring humans" but does that hurt the rating of for example EvE-online? EvE is indeed a Scifi game set far into the future while Earthrise is more of a post apocalyptic game even if it is more Scifi than Fallen Earth.
Mmorpgs with "just boring humans" tend to compensate this with putting more choises in the skill trees instead, and again that didn´t hurt the rating of EvE-online that has many skills and that game hasn´t been downgraded because of that.
I have no plans of buying Earthrise but this review seems very unfair, it surely seems like the wrong reviewer has been picked for this a reviewer that had expected something like a Star Wars mmorpg. Big surprice! It isn´t!
If I remember it correct so was Fallen Earth given low scores at first by mmorpg.com, but that was taken back.
The reviewers here doesn´t like post-apocaplyptic games in general?
"The reviewers here doesn´t like post-apocaplyptic games in general?"
No, I think they are fans of themepark games ... all hail WoW for making mmorpgs like Mario
Yeah Fallen Earth got low scores at first but it actually did a lot of patches and content and got better and they didn't charge $70 for the software. I actually got my Fallen Earth free. ER has no chance of getting better unless MH is willing to make the necessary changes but they won't and ER will fail to reach any real playerbase comparable to a AAA title in part because forced FFAPVP is epic fail by design. RF Online shutdown, APB shutdown, Archlord free to play etc... On it's current path, ER in one year will either be shutdown, free 2 play or just another subpar mmo with an insignificant playerbase and overpriced client software.
ER willbe like EVE's 1st year.
What does it matter if the final score is correct?
I skimmed the review, but at the end of the day 5.5 (poor) is the result and thats what matters.
The final score is actually very generous of mmorpg.com.
Your mistake is thinking that sandbox games are ever intended to be "mainstream".
Howver, I do agree that the PvP aspect of most of these games is not a plus for me. I want sandbox-style options without having to join a large guild and run around in a group just to prevent from getting ganked all the time. PvP also adds to the "grind" of any "sandbox" game, because it's easy to feel forced into leveling fast to keep up with the people out to get you, literally.
;)
If sandbox means a game without any comfort like Map shades for quest areas this is a sandbox game.
I mourn the day I bought this game because of thinking "Hurra, a new SF-MMORPG".
Very poor performance combined with real FPS targeting -> only useful weapons are Shottie, Flamer and Close-Combat arms.
The developers should have played Tabula Rasa, a nice combat system with a mix of direct aiming and locking weapons.
Who in the world designed a separate combat-mode while the mobs are spawning right on you ?
And finally, my "favourite" : You loose all collected items when you die, sure you can insure them, but you will never gain enough money because you have nothing to sell :-(
Crafting is also made near impossible due to this fact.
I still hope for a redesign and relaunch, but I think this game is not even at beta at the current status.
Look at Rift how a new game should start.
Sorry but 5.5 is still to high for me, maybe in the early 90s this was OK, but we are in 2011.
My Rating: 3.0
P.S.: Still hoping for TR relaunched.
I can understand the rateing, but really you can not expect a company like Masthead to have a start as good as a company that has millions to spend and the backing of the biggest media funds out there.
I can if they are charging AAA game prices, that is, if you charge at a AAA game price you better produce a AAA game experience. Or drop the price/wait longer/both otherwise, you end up with a loss.
Why not? A lot of the problems for many of the new "sandbox" games is just oversight on how the systems work. Now, technical issues, yeah I could probably go with the money arguement. I think the biggest reason a lot of "sandbox" mmos are coming out and not doing so well is because they are insistent on making the game free-for-all pvp anywhere, anytime.
Eve was like that too when it came out. But the devs realized that not having some safe areas for people to play in was significantly hurting their subscription count. High subscription count does a few things for a game. First, it does give the devs more money to invest into game improvements, but it also gives players more people to interact with. History has shown that a game with a low population will also drive away new players, creating a downward spiral.
I was involved with EarthRise early on, visiting the web site often and like many others, excited about its potential and providing our personal input years before EarthRise's release. Needless to say we had great hopes for the game but sadly, yet apparently out of necessity, EarthRise was released as a "Not Ready For Prime-Time" game.
The proof is in the pudding. Out less than a month now, EarthRise has one of the lowest posted scores ever when compared to early results of most other major releases, both by the MMORPG staff and by its individual subscribers.
Let's face it -- the business plan of releasing a game before it's ready is a bad idea. Planning to fix major game issues after selling the sizzle thus sucking in and pissing off their player base to get their money up front, then expecting them to pay to play while testing their beta product was never a good WTG (look at Eve On Line, Age of Conan, Vanguard, etc.).
Yes, some of those games lived through it and survived. But today, methinks that players, particularly the mature, die-hard, experienced player base, are much less likely to have any patience (read as ZERO Tolerance) with any MMO product that follows the "Not Ready For Prime-Time" business model and released clearly a long, long way from being finished.
And don't tell me an MMO is an ever-evolving project. There's an undeniable difference between releasing a solid product ready for retail sale and then building on it afterward (such as LotRO) as opposed to pushing an early beta product out the door (AoC, Vanguard). And yes, I was heavily involved in the Alpha and/or early Closed Beta for all three.
As it stands, ER is surely going to go down as one of the worst failures in mmo history, if not, thee worst.
Still waiting for the Jesus patch they promised.
Dark & Light would be the worst but this is down there with it.
What about Tabula Rasa and APB?
Well, ER doesn't even qualify as a AAA title but yet MH charges more for the software than any AAA mmo released which those you mention are.
Nah, Tabula Rasa was actually better than ER and might have done better had they chose to sell it off to another company and potentially make something back from the $100+million they spent on development.
APB had a chance to be pretty freaking awesome. I played the beta and live til it shut down but the RTW really f'ed it up with severe imbalance issues favoring Enforcer and a failed fee concept. Either a flat monthly fee or free2play with a cash shop are the only viable options.
Said it just right...
yea, its pretty awful.
I think ,that the game is good and getting better and better with every patch released !
poor earth rise, was a game that looked appealing to many people that never happened.
Would be nice to see a 6-months review, since the game has improved alot since launch. ;)
APB had 10-15 thousand subscribers when it collapsed, and APB had 130,000 players averaging four hours a day in-game, just Realtime Worlds went bankrupt because the game cost $100 million to produce and the return didn't come at a high enough rate.