Gamenikki
Systems
Screens
Summary
pros
- Huge Worlds
- Massive War Zones
- Multiple Geographical Features
- Cloning System
cons
- No Linux Client
- Buggier than a swamp
- Memory leaks as big as the maps
- Maps that might just be too big
final score
7
The Review
Tabula Rasa
- Number of Players: Massive Multiplayer Online
- Genre: MMO Third Person Shooter
- Developer: Destination Games
- Publisher: NCSoft
- ESRB Rating: Teen
- Online: Yes
- Supports: Windows NT5 / Microsoft Vista
For many of today's gamers the name of Ultima brings fond memories with the multiple single player Ultima titles and the still ongoing Ultima Online title. The lead designer and programmer of the games, Richard Garriot, inserted his avatar, Lord British, into just about every single Ultima Title as a nigh invincible character. Well, it's not Lord British anymore. It's General British. Doff the cap and salute, Richard Garriot is out to transform Massive Mulitplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPG) once more. Welcome to Tabula Rasa, the blank slate.
Tabula Rasa seeks to change how gamers interact with the game itself by changing the focus of typical Player versus Enemy (PvE) combat. In many MMORPG's players spend much of the game focusing on the power and ability bars rather than focusing on the huge beautiful worlds being built around them. Tabula Rasa approaches the problem as a shooter then, bringing the players attention to the targeting reticule on the screen, and thus allowing players to spend more time paying attention to just how good the world is rather than the next power in the attack or defense chain.
The basic premise is that the earth has been assaulted by an alien race called the Bane. Humans who are receptive to the powers of the Eloh, another alien race presumed benevolent, are taken from the Earth to join the fight against the Bane. Earth, itself, is presumed dead. After an extensive boot camp sequence detailing how to play the game players are dumped into an active warzone to fight the Bane. Tabula Rasa attempts to be a campaign based shooter with jobs for snipers, medics, grenadiers, spies, and so on. However, no matter which level path players take, there is guaranteed to be lots of Bane carnage.
However, Tabula Rasa is currently buggier than a swamp in mid-summer. Multiple issues that cropped up at the end of closed beta have still not been addressed. Low, mid, and high level missions are still broken, either by not properly awarding the player or by just failing to complete. Certain classes of enemies (Atta) have extreme health and strength boosts that make playing on their maps a losing proposition, even if a player has armor and weapons 8 or 10 levels above that of the Atta.
The problems of the EMP bombs still have not been addressed. Here's a clip of what we said before.
The bugs continue with the memory handling. All players really need for a decent picture is an Athlon64, a Radeon 9800, and about 1gig of RAM. A Pentium4 @ 3ghz and a Radeon x1800 are enough to drive Tabula Rasa at a high resolution of 1680*1050 with good quality, and still maintain 30 frames per second.
However, with only one gig of RAM in place, Tabula Rasa bounces off the /swaplike a 4 cylinder Daewoo Lacetti bounces off the rev limiter. For those who still use Microsoft Windows on a daily basis, the /swap file is known there as virtual memory. Basically this means that the computer has to pull information from the hard-drive instead of from the memory. The in-game behavior results in Tabula Rasa locking up for 5, 10, or 15 seconds at a time as information is loaded in and out of the hard-drive. Don't think that getting 2gigs or more memory is a permanent solution either. After 4 or 5 hours of play it isn't uncommon to see a system with 2gigs of memory having to dig into the /swap. Systems with 4gigs of RAM are not safe either from the leak.
The memory leak is also worsened depending on the operating system in use. Microsoft Vista (NT6) will run into the memory barrier a lot quicker than Windows NT5, but then again Vista already requires over 1gig of RAM to begin with.
The memory problems get worse with the PlayNC launcher. Now, we dinged NCSoft's Dungeon Runners for using the PlayNC launcher, but didn't actually go into why we did so. The PlayNC Launcher users Microsoft's .NET framework with MSXML. To put this in perspective, that is sort of like making a bacon double cheeseburger by only using the fat from the bacon cuts, and the grease from the burgers. There probably are worse coding techniques or development frameworks to use than .NET and MSXML, but we couldn't name any.
Because Tabula Rasa must launch from the PlayNClauncher players don't have any other option but to use the resource hogging application. However, the Launcher can be safely shut down after the game is launched, which is the general recommendation for players. Thanks to an error during the beta however, it was confirmed that Tabula Rasa itself uses Perl, a much better solution to scripting and coding.
Once players get beyond the performance issues and bugged gameplay Tabula Rasa is hands down one of the best technical games out there. Tabula Rasa allows players to have up to 20 different missions running at one time, so there is always something to do. If a player gets lost, a simple press of the L button brings up the mission log and players can quickly get back up to date on the progress of their quests.
The in-game map indicates mission objectives by radio icons. Mission locations that are above or below the player are fuzzed out and have little arrows pointing up or down to indicate the vertical position of the mission to the player. With it's Map system and mission location Tabula Rasa heavily encourages getting off the roads, over the hills, through the forests, and over the cliffs to find and complete mission objectives.
Which leads up to another problem. Tabula Rasa is almost too big. The maps are not quite as large as Planetside's maps, nor quite as bare. In fact there is a lot of lush vegetation and variable geographical features in Tabula Rasa, such as flowing rivers, crashing waterfalls, swirling vortexes, standing lakes, massive caves, and massive rock formations. This leads into a similar problem that Planetside had if players did not take a vehicle certification. Walking from one end of the map to the other end can easily take 20 minutes. The process is simplified by having various waypoints scattered around the maps that once obtained allow players to warp from one remote location to another. Its a nice idea, and it works well enough, but at the end of day, one has to wonder why there are not any hoverboards or atv's around to hitch a ride on. The world is beautiful yes, but a mile trek is a mile trek, and dying out in the middle of nowhere, then having to go back... well, that gets old really quickly.
However, once players unlock all the waypoints and explore a planet, Tabula Rasa has another feature to make it less painful for subsequent characters the player creates. Tabula Rasa has a cloning system that allows the player to make an exact copy of their existing character, with the skill points reset. Players get a clone token for free at every class point. New classes are chosen at levels 5, 15, and 30, with a maximum level of 50. A player who clones before they choose their new class path at 15 can use the clone to take the other class path. So, for example, the level 5 class of Specialist can become a Sapper or Biotechnician at 15. When talking to a trainer to choose a new path players have the option to log out, create a clone, then log back in and train up. Thus, a player can choose to do both a Sapper and a Biotechnician without having to complete 15 levels of play all over again.
The cloning system is also used to handle re-specification of powers and abilities if a player severely screws up a character build. Players can earn additional clone tokens by completing so called Targets of Opportunity within a combat zone. Basically that means that the player does 95%+ of all the operations possible in the combat zone.
The final ding against Tabula Rasa is that the game only launched with clients for Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Vista. With no date given for a Linux Client it's even harder to recommend this title as a must have. Combined with all of the existing bugs, issues, and performance problems, those interested in Tabula Rasa may want to wait a month or two before plunking down for the title.
That being said, Tabula Rasa shows a lot of promise down the line with an aggressive expansion plan to match the development of NCSoft's now first party title City of Heroes. Considering that many of Destination Games staffs have Cryptic backgrounds (Lord Recluse still has your spare mug Cuppa), that is a good thing. There is also little doubt that the issues will be cleared up in time. In our experience no MMORPG has launched with a flawless client, so a few bugs here and there are forgivable.
For now though, while Tabula Rasa does a lot to separate itself from the competition, it just isn't good enough to separate money from your wallet on a regular basis.
Tabula Rasa seeks to change how gamers interact with the game itself by changing the focus of typical Player versus Enemy (PvE) combat. In many MMORPG's players spend much of the game focusing on the power and ability bars rather than focusing on the huge beautiful worlds being built around them. Tabula Rasa approaches the problem as a shooter then, bringing the players attention to the targeting reticule on the screen, and thus allowing players to spend more time paying attention to just how good the world is rather than the next power in the attack or defense chain.
The basic premise is that the earth has been assaulted by an alien race called the Bane. Humans who are receptive to the powers of the Eloh, another alien race presumed benevolent, are taken from the Earth to join the fight against the Bane. Earth, itself, is presumed dead. After an extensive boot camp sequence detailing how to play the game players are dumped into an active warzone to fight the Bane. Tabula Rasa attempts to be a campaign based shooter with jobs for snipers, medics, grenadiers, spies, and so on. However, no matter which level path players take, there is guaranteed to be lots of Bane carnage.
However, Tabula Rasa is currently buggier than a swamp in mid-summer. Multiple issues that cropped up at the end of closed beta have still not been addressed. Low, mid, and high level missions are still broken, either by not properly awarding the player or by just failing to complete. Certain classes of enemies (Atta) have extreme health and strength boosts that make playing on their maps a losing proposition, even if a player has armor and weapons 8 or 10 levels above that of the Atta.
The problems of the EMP bombs still have not been addressed. Here's a clip of what we said before.
Specifically to my player, I found that EMP bombs had been hit with the "Nerf and Nothing" bat again. A quick explanation, EMP bombs are drop bombs that heavily damage shielded objects and mechanical constructs. Like other weapons they are classed by level. Class IV EMP grenades can be obtained at Lvl 20.
...
In the previous version of Tabula Rasa a class IV EMP Bomb was capable of completely removing the shield on a lvl 23 Strider (big robot). In the version released today? A Class IV EMP bomb barely dropped the shield to 30%, and by the time another bomb could be prepped and dropped, the Strider had already regenerated its shields back up to 100%. This was with an A.F.S. Heavy Mech (big NPC with chainguns) and an A.F.S. Cannon (mounted NPC class cannon) ALSO firing on the Strider.
...
In the previous version of Tabula Rasa a class IV EMP Bomb was capable of completely removing the shield on a lvl 23 Strider (big robot). In the version released today? A Class IV EMP bomb barely dropped the shield to 30%, and by the time another bomb could be prepped and dropped, the Strider had already regenerated its shields back up to 100%. This was with an A.F.S. Heavy Mech (big NPC with chainguns) and an A.F.S. Cannon (mounted NPC class cannon) ALSO firing on the Strider.
The bugs continue with the memory handling. All players really need for a decent picture is an Athlon64, a Radeon 9800, and about 1gig of RAM. A Pentium4 @ 3ghz and a Radeon x1800 are enough to drive Tabula Rasa at a high resolution of 1680*1050 with good quality, and still maintain 30 frames per second.
However, with only one gig of RAM in place, Tabula Rasa bounces off the /swaplike a 4 cylinder Daewoo Lacetti bounces off the rev limiter. For those who still use Microsoft Windows on a daily basis, the /swap file is known there as virtual memory. Basically this means that the computer has to pull information from the hard-drive instead of from the memory. The in-game behavior results in Tabula Rasa locking up for 5, 10, or 15 seconds at a time as information is loaded in and out of the hard-drive. Don't think that getting 2gigs or more memory is a permanent solution either. After 4 or 5 hours of play it isn't uncommon to see a system with 2gigs of memory having to dig into the /swap. Systems with 4gigs of RAM are not safe either from the leak.
The memory leak is also worsened depending on the operating system in use. Microsoft Vista (NT6) will run into the memory barrier a lot quicker than Windows NT5, but then again Vista already requires over 1gig of RAM to begin with.
The memory problems get worse with the PlayNC launcher. Now, we dinged NCSoft's Dungeon Runners for using the PlayNC launcher, but didn't actually go into why we did so. The PlayNC Launcher users Microsoft's .NET framework with MSXML. To put this in perspective, that is sort of like making a bacon double cheeseburger by only using the fat from the bacon cuts, and the grease from the burgers. There probably are worse coding techniques or development frameworks to use than .NET and MSXML, but we couldn't name any.
Because Tabula Rasa must launch from the PlayNClauncher players don't have any other option but to use the resource hogging application. However, the Launcher can be safely shut down after the game is launched, which is the general recommendation for players. Thanks to an error during the beta however, it was confirmed that Tabula Rasa itself uses Perl, a much better solution to scripting and coding.
Once players get beyond the performance issues and bugged gameplay Tabula Rasa is hands down one of the best technical games out there. Tabula Rasa allows players to have up to 20 different missions running at one time, so there is always something to do. If a player gets lost, a simple press of the L button brings up the mission log and players can quickly get back up to date on the progress of their quests.
The in-game map indicates mission objectives by radio icons. Mission locations that are above or below the player are fuzzed out and have little arrows pointing up or down to indicate the vertical position of the mission to the player. With it's Map system and mission location Tabula Rasa heavily encourages getting off the roads, over the hills, through the forests, and over the cliffs to find and complete mission objectives.
Which leads up to another problem. Tabula Rasa is almost too big. The maps are not quite as large as Planetside's maps, nor quite as bare. In fact there is a lot of lush vegetation and variable geographical features in Tabula Rasa, such as flowing rivers, crashing waterfalls, swirling vortexes, standing lakes, massive caves, and massive rock formations. This leads into a similar problem that Planetside had if players did not take a vehicle certification. Walking from one end of the map to the other end can easily take 20 minutes. The process is simplified by having various waypoints scattered around the maps that once obtained allow players to warp from one remote location to another. Its a nice idea, and it works well enough, but at the end of day, one has to wonder why there are not any hoverboards or atv's around to hitch a ride on. The world is beautiful yes, but a mile trek is a mile trek, and dying out in the middle of nowhere, then having to go back... well, that gets old really quickly.
However, once players unlock all the waypoints and explore a planet, Tabula Rasa has another feature to make it less painful for subsequent characters the player creates. Tabula Rasa has a cloning system that allows the player to make an exact copy of their existing character, with the skill points reset. Players get a clone token for free at every class point. New classes are chosen at levels 5, 15, and 30, with a maximum level of 50. A player who clones before they choose their new class path at 15 can use the clone to take the other class path. So, for example, the level 5 class of Specialist can become a Sapper or Biotechnician at 15. When talking to a trainer to choose a new path players have the option to log out, create a clone, then log back in and train up. Thus, a player can choose to do both a Sapper and a Biotechnician without having to complete 15 levels of play all over again.
The cloning system is also used to handle re-specification of powers and abilities if a player severely screws up a character build. Players can earn additional clone tokens by completing so called Targets of Opportunity within a combat zone. Basically that means that the player does 95%+ of all the operations possible in the combat zone.
The final ding against Tabula Rasa is that the game only launched with clients for Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Vista. With no date given for a Linux Client it's even harder to recommend this title as a must have. Combined with all of the existing bugs, issues, and performance problems, those interested in Tabula Rasa may want to wait a month or two before plunking down for the title.
That being said, Tabula Rasa shows a lot of promise down the line with an aggressive expansion plan to match the development of NCSoft's now first party title City of Heroes. Considering that many of Destination Games staffs have Cryptic backgrounds (Lord Recluse still has your spare mug Cuppa), that is a good thing. There is also little doubt that the issues will be cleared up in time. In our experience no MMORPG has launched with a flawless client, so a few bugs here and there are forgivable.
For now though, while Tabula Rasa does a lot to separate itself from the competition, it just isn't good enough to separate money from your wallet on a regular basis.
Written by: Jason Frothingham