Tabula Rasa

My wife got me a copy of Tabula Rasa for Christmas, since I like to play just about everything out there. I think the game is pretty fun. I appreciate how actiony it is, and find myself getting into big fights with large groups of enemies just to see how it all pans out.

The game is pretty simple in terms of abilities and weapons, at least from a warrior standpoint. My soldier is set up to use several weapon types, with the shotgun being my personal favorite. Some weapons like the pistol and rifles use a sort of targeting system, where you can draw a bead on your target or kind of shoot in their general direction with varying degrees of hit success. The player that actually aims is going to benefit from hitting more often and with higher damage. It's pretty basic, but it feels good, which is all that matters in a game with guns.

They do have a pseudo magic system using something called "logos". You collect these logos and add them to your tabula, which unlocks knowledge within you to call upon certain abilities. Of course many of these abilities are locked via level or class, but there are quite a few to find, and alot to discover. Some of these logos are hard to find in the game world, and you really have to explore to find them.

Overall, I wouldn't go so far as to say I was blown away by the graphics, but they are pretty, and they do a great job of presenting war torn terrain, and battles in progress. There are times when you can be in your base getting some quests, and the enemy will start bringing in drop ships and attacking the base. You can either run for your life or try to hold them off. If you and the other players fail to defend the base, it becomes unavailable as a revive and quest hub for a period of time. It's in everyone's best interest to defend their base! These attacks are pretty awesome and feel like large scale battles in a way that has really been forgotten by alot of developers. I love the fact that there is a point when so many aliens are swarming in that it feels like Doom or Serious Sam.

In terms of roleplaying, I really didn't see any of that going on. I have yet to group with anyone, but the chat is very active with some interesting people, and they are mature. I think I'll give Tabula Rasa a shot for a while, and see how it goes. I am interested to see how PVP pans out.

If any of you are playing it, I'm on the Orion server, playing as Saavedra as usual.