Customer Reviews

Earth & Beyond

5 star:		(48)
4 star:		(19)
3 star:		(19)
2 star:		(18)
1 star:		(12)

 

 

EA Games decided to close out the game on Setpember 22, 2004 so it can no longer be played. Please keep this in mind when purchasing this game.

I've been playing for about 1 month in beta. Overall this game's worth the money.

PROS:

- HUGE game environment with nearly limitless replay value. You will not find yourself lacking things to do.
- This is NOT an arcade game. Combat is essentially a timed test of your ability to manage your ships resources. Exploration is fun, and you won't lack interesting sites to visit (like the Science Exhibit (Zoo) of space monsters.
- Interacting with other players is fun. You can form groups to do missions together, make friends, or even join a guild. In fact, it is the potential enjoyment one can get from this community that makes this game stand out.
- Graphics! Wow! and the sound is good too. The advertisements in the stations are an example of the realism. Nine out of Ten Progen Warriors agree.
- The story line, while I haven't paid much attention to it, is there. Apparently there's some bad aliens (they killed me once) lurking about as a result of the Progen activating some ancient relic.
- You will spend a lot of time playing this game.

CONS

- This is NOT an arcade game. Your desire, if you have it, for arcade combat will not be satisfied.
- Travel is very time-consuming. During some trips I have time to get up and clean the kitchen while traveling.
- Trade is so-so, but a great way to make money for upgrades to your ships systems. The thing that holds trade back from becoming fun is that becoming rich in the game doesn't do as much for you as becoming wealthy in real life. Also, there doesn't seem to be an overall shortage in credits, meaning players who trade to build in-game wealth can't even use it to purchase services from players who simply enjoy blasting stuff.
- Dealing with real-live players is also time consuming. Imagine trying to build a relationship with your neighbor, but with the only means of communication a series of one-line messages. Use travel time to catch up with your buds.
- Lag. I imagine this will get better as more servers are brought online. But, it stinks having your mouse locked up, leaving you helpless, while the games NPCs are blasting away at you.
- You will spend too much time playing this game.

It looks like people either love it or hate it, with very little in-between! Well, here's another "I love it" review, but first let me respond to some of my fellow reviewers.

It looks like a person's playing style has a big impact on whether or not they'll enjoy Earth & Beyond. For example, some people would want a lot of options when it comes to space combat. This game has a few combat choices, but contrary to the opinion of one reviewer there _are_ combat tactics. You can cloak and decloak. You can teleport yourself, your enemies or your friends. You can jumpstart friends that have been damaged. It's more than just warp in, attack, and hope you win.

Myself, I really enjoy the exploration aspect of the game. The NPC personalities are very well done -- they're as good as the ones in Wing Commander or the Ultima series. Most of the quests may be FedEx style, but is there really much else that you can have in space? However, if Westwood would craft a greater variety of quests, there would be a lot more draw to the game, IMHO. I think this is in the works, given the sightings of unknown aliens and the alien capture of one notable NPC. If I were to compare this to a novel, I'd say give Westwood a chance to get past the prologue, for goodness' sake! There's a lot of potential here.

Now to the other reviewer beefs. Some reviewers have complained about how long it takes to get anywhere. Well, there are races that have much slower engines than others. If you want to do a lot of traveling, choose a different race. One reviewer claimed that E&B was just Everquest in space. I beg to differ! I personally can't stand EverQuest, but I enjoy E&B very much. EverQuest takes forever to get to the point where it's actually fun to play whereas E&B is fun immediately, and getting from place to place in EverQuest takes MUCH longer than in E&B. Quests in EverQuest are harder to find and they don't seem quite as satisfying. (I do enjoy the greater variety of classes, monsters, weapons and environments in EverQuest, though.) Maybe E&B could use some more play-balancing to make things a little more fun, but the game is very enjoyable as-is.

In conclusion, if you like the idea of a MMORPG in a space environment, and if you'd enjoy the "flavor" that the NPCs and the storyline-relevant quests give to the game (a-la Wing Commander or the Ultima series), by all means buy it. However, if you're looking for a space sim or are anxious for lots more content right away, you might be wise to take your $$ elsewhere.

I beta tested it for close to a month. I found myself playing it non stop. When I wasn't out at work or sleeping I was playing this game. The graphics are incredible, Has an endless amount of entertainment. I've heard that EA has a 4 year story already made out for the game. Giving this game long life, instead of playing it a month and being done with it. There are 150 levels! for your character. Every 20 levels or so you get a new position in whatever field you choose to be. There are 6 different characters you can be (that I know of EA might add more). Each character has there own special skills and places to test these skills out. You can compelety customize your character from hair color, to eye color, to facial features, sunglasses, ear pieces, skin color, clothing color, etc.. You can customize your ship make a custom color scheme or pick on of the already made ones, you can put logos or not, you can change the wing shape and the hull design. There are so many things you can do with this game and so many more things coming out for it. this game has an endless amount of oppurtunity. 5 STARS!!!

Fortunate enough to have been invited into the first wave of beta testers, I have watched Earth & Beyond's development unfold from the rough early beginnings to the awesome product already in active open beta.

The development of this game has been wonderful to witness. The back story promises to be magnificent in scope, depth, and complexity. Exploring and discovery alone should engross the player beyond what has been seen in gaming before as the three races of Humanity struggle with an enigmatic power from Beyond. Yet exploration is only a third of the games' design.

The graphics are supurb, the music tastefully artful, and the complexity and depth of the game's design shows the consequence of the years it has been in development.

If you are a serious gamer who enjoys a good sci-fi theme this one is for you: see you among the stars!

Westwood Studios was purchased by EA Games and they decided to close out this game on Setpember 22, 2004. I suppose if you wanted it as a keepsake of a fun game, then the price is worth it. There was never a single player mode, so it is non-playable as sold here.

I played this game for 2 months and it had periods of severe lag even though I am on a T1. It's rather pointless to begin playing this game now; as with EverQuest and UO, the people who have been playing this since the beginning are ridiculously powerful. Takes ages to gain levels in this, and with little reward at each consecutive level.

Worst part of all: I attempted to cancel my account before I was automatically billed, but their web site was down. I called them up and they said they would cancel it, but the next day I logged into my online banking account only to find that they had billed me again. They refused to refund me, saying it was "against their policy." What did I miss here? They had a web site failure, then I called them up and they failed to do what I told them to do. Then they billed me again. Oh yeah, and there are only a small handfull of people at tech support (often times only 1), and they have HEAVY accents that make it nearly impossible to comprehend what they are saying. Just a little personal opinion of mine.. if you are serving a group of people with whom you do not share a common language, you should not be in the customer service center.

After reading some of the reviews, I couldn't help but put my two cents worth in. Since being selected as a beta tester, I have been glued to my computer when I wasn't working or sleeping. The game offers all kinds of challanges and you have to use your head once in a while to advance. Some of the problems or complaints about the game have been addressed but people that were testing the game needed to be reminded that it was a beta, not the full release. I imagine as time goes by that the game will steadily improve and new challanges will be added. Lots of stuff to see and do as it is now.

I beta tested, I played, I tested some more, spoke out on the message boards along with 100's of others saying it was not ready. Then to keep my FF account bought the game. They tweaked, messed with and took away, yet I stayed. Now months down the line I have not played in weeks and it does nothing more then add to the endless amount of [junk] that comes out of EA as of late. The idea to the game, the thought of the game and what the game is are very different. If you enjoy grouping, if you like to be FORCED into having to play with others then you have yourself something you might get into. Solo play is really not what this game is about, so it does take away from the "RPG" side of it. The lag is VERY bad. I ran off cable and DSL, both systems with different rates of speed still can not handle the lag that the servers are under. Persona and ship creation are good, but the bugs, the camping and the other mindless problems with this game, which should have been released months later then what it was put this game into the discount bin. Don't pay to play this junk. Other games are comming out that will hopefully add to what this game SHOULD have been. Check out E&B message boards, look for yourself at what people talk about before you buy this.

When I tried the demo I was overawed with the promise of the game. After all what's not to like?! Massive space systems and sectors beautifully depicted and ranging from the sublime to the most disturbing. The promise of engaging space "Monsters or Beasts" (aka MOBS) in battle, after acquiring sufficient combat skill level. The promise of discovering and using greater weapons and ammunition that will make exploration and confrontation a total blast (pardon the pun)! The promise of teaming up to do battle as a group and kicking some NPC... [butt]. That's the promise, now let me tell you what you actually get.

I played the demo nonstop for hours and subscribed. EA got that part right at least! Unfortunately for EA, the majority of us aren't fools. In order to get us to subscribe there has to be constant challenges for the player and last but not least it has to be fun!

You can't succeed at this on a steady diet of the same old thing. You lose interest. It takes hours to achieve an increase in skill level and you achieve it by doing the same thing over and over and over and over... you get the picture. Plus, this concept of Guilds sounded appealing at first, when in reality it takes the form of little more than cliques and when you join you do nothing together as group. In essence I was asked to join and nothing "groupwise" has happened since. I had the impression that guild members would pitch in and form "fronts" against common enemies (hyuk, hyuk, hyuk!).

A few guilds have been around for awhile and every once and again you'll see a group formation with just a few people actually doing battle (what is that?!). The chat room makes me wonder if anyone is actually playing the game?! So the tedium takes it toll. EA just doesn't deliver on the new and unexpected as often as they should. This game is just okay but really could be better if they took the various factions and teamed them up against each other in more political and dangerous ways. Where's their plot creativity team at? Stuck at skill level one is my guess?