Amazon.com: Richard Garriott's Tabula Rasa: PC: Video Games

31 Reviews

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(4)

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3.4 out of 5 stars (31 customer reviews)

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18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Evolving the Genre, November 30, 2007

By	M. Mayne "Nerd, Gamer, & Obsessionist" (Baltimore, MD) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Fun:4.0 out of 5 stars

Tabula Rasa brings some new style to the MMORPG - a genre that has gotten a bit stale over the last few years. Rather than the usual TAB-target, hit buttons 1, 2, 3, 4 to excecute abilities, TR combines FPS gameplay with an RPG world, appealing to a wider variety of gamers.

Gameplay: Character movement and control are very good; the UI and controls are highly customizable to your own preferences. If you're an FPS player, the gameplay will be very familiar. If you're an MMORPG player, it is easy to adapt to. Monster AI is more intelligent than the typical "it runs at you and hits you until you kill it" type that many of us are used to, and the game has a good variety of different things to kill that all attack in different ways.

Graphics & Performance : If you put TR on the highest graphic settings, its beautiful. But even on 'normal' to low settings it looks as good as anything else out there. There is sometimes a bit of slowdown at 'control points' when there are hundreds of things assaulting a base, but you have a lot of control over your graphics settings so usually this can be dealt with. It also is worth mentioning that since release, the servers have had very little to no downtime, no serious crashes, no rollbacks, no crisis of any sort - basically to say, it had an incredibly smooth launch.

Functionality - There's still a bit that's broken, though its very quickly being ironed out in patches. GMs respond quickly to deal with any issues involving broken quests/etc. But the number of these issues is still 'low' for a game of this magnitude this soon after its release.

Uniqueness - The storyline and the world of TR is something that really hasn't been seen before in an MMORPG. You have the whole 'military' aspect, pushing back an invasion of hostile aliens, yet at the same time you have the mysterious technology of an ancient civilization card being played. Its an interesting Mix, and often times quests will make you choose one path or another, and it -does- make a difference. There's a combination of open world and instancing, but even the 'open' zones have a few (large-scale) instances which helps reduce lag / camping of quest mobs / etc. Some bases are control points that are periodically attacked/invaded and you can earn rewards assaulting / defending these control points.

So essentially, you have more to do than simply kill things and level up. There's a fairly involving progressive storyline in quests, optional quests that open up a bit more lore, there's good old fashioned "burn fight kill" with a combat system that gives bonuses for continual kills, and then there's assault/defense of bases in each zone.

Soloability & Skill: I would say 90% of the content can be done solo. Not necessarily efficiently, but it can be done. The different classes are unique enough that each brings something to a group, and the instance quests are going to be considerably easier in a group, but one thing that sets TR apart from most games is that the skill of the player, rather than a system of complex mathematics, determines what you can/can't do. You know the routine : Monster hits you for X points because its stats vs. your stats determined this. But with the FPS style of play (manual evasive action!) you have a lot more freedom to excel.

You also have stat points as well as skill points that you may freely distribute without restriction, which is also a happy, fresh memory of older-style MMORPGs, where you could actually have a 'build' instead of being exactly like everyone else.

Eye Candy : Weapons make satisfying glowy effects, there's a full array of armor paint to customize your look as well as styles, movies upon entering several instances, and the different zones/planets are breathtaking.

Overall / Value : TR has the typical MMORPG price structure. Buy the box & pay 15$/month. If you're the kind of person that plays subscription games, this one's better than most of those that are out there now simply because of its larger scope of activities, & customization. I say its easily worth the price.

PVP : PVP is by duel or clan war ONLY. A lot of people are upset about this, but casual gamers will rejoice to know that they are not going to have their questing and experiencing of the game spoiled by some bored kid who decides to kill them just because he can. Its a nice change. Though it is possible that at some point a PVP server will be opened if there is enough demand. If you play these games to kill other players, then you can skip this one, at least for now.

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27 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An MMO With a Difference, November 6, 2007

By	Randy Gibson - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars

When it comes to online gaming, typical MMORPGs become somewhat indistinguishable. Richard Garriott, the creator of Tabula Rasa, was the mind behind the first online graphic RPG, Ultima Online. The folks at EverQuest were the ones who mada online RPG's truly massive and Blizzard polished the concept to a mass market appeal with World of Warcraft. But throughout that evolution, the general feel and mechanics behind gameplay barely changed. In the development of Tabula Rasa, Garriott aimed to create something new. The idea was to find a middle ground behind the grind-level treadmill of an MMORPG and the twitch-gaming slaughterfest of a shooter like Unreal Tournament. In a lot of ways, Tabula Rasa succeeds at this marvelously. Whether or not it will find enough mass market appeal to keep a profitable audience remains to be seen. Having played in the beta and now for a week following launch, I can definitely make comparisons between TR and its MMO predecessors. Tabula Rasa is different on a number of levels. The game mechanic requires targeting and careful choice of weapons. You can't blindly use the same tactics in fight after fight and you certainly can't face in the general direction of your target and just punch buttons. The class distinctions will definitely force the player to adapt playstyle to the best capabilities of the character type. But more than any other MMO I've played, Tabula Rasa really comes alive when you form a group of in-game players. Group tactics rely heavily on synergies in weapon choices, player class, and chosen skills. While a single player working solo can have a lot of fun and success, working in tandem with other players with distinct skills and tactics is much more rewarding than the traditional MMO archetype of tank-healer-DPS. The artificial intelligence in Tabula Rasa is the best I've seen in MMOs. Groups of enemies routinely disperse to attempt to flank players. Remote outposts occasionally face determined assualts from waves of enemy soldiers and those assaults often succeed, forcing players to mount a counterattack to take back the bases. This dynamic landscape and creative use of AI definitely set TR apart from WoW, Star Wars Galaxies and all their predecessors. If you're getting tired of set-piece raids of EQ2 or WoW content and are looking for challenges that are faster paced and more unpredictable, Tabula Rasa may be exactly what you seek.

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23 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars It's nice to see changes in the MMO world, November 8, 2007

By	R. Pyles "RMP" (Dallas, TX, U.S.A) - See all my reviews

Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars

An update to my previous review.

Well ive run the game up to lvl 32, gotten my final class( Sniper and i have a Spy clone ).

My previous review I was in the early stages of the game. I've spent quite a few more hours playing and my enthusiasm has waned quite a bit. I've accually canceled my subscription and will be moving on to something else( probly Age of Conan when it comes out ).

I'll explain - 1 BUGS - Once i got past the 1st few zones you start to see lots of bugs, zone bugs, chat bugs, quest bugs and interface bugs. The game at this stage feels like I'm in an early beta. They should have waited another year before releasing this game. 2 no mail or auction system, although an auction system should be out very soon in an update. 3 when i hit 30 and started playing as a sniper, the game lost all its fun and im not the type of person who will reroll even with a cloned 30spy and run the same quests over agian. Theres no alternate zones to bring up new caracters, you have to run the same zones. ( I realize this is a personal choice some ppl will have no problem at all with this. 4 There's no way to reset your skill points as you grow and learn more about your caracter, you can clone them if you have a clone credit but getting those is quite an ordeal. 5 The Tabula Rasa website has no official forum which makes me think these developers have no interest in there community.

All that being said, the game still has a fantastic combat system but i feel this game has been doomed because someone ( developers or corporation? ) Didn't want to take the time to get things working smoothly before the release.

end of update.

I've been playing since launch day( i didn't play the beta ). My impressions of the game are mixed but im overall enjoying the game.

In my opinion the best part of the game is its revolutionary targeting system, no more auto aim here. you acually have to aim yourself. each target has a circular reticulator that provides you with information on the damage youll be producing, the closer to the center the higher the damage output. It also provides you with info on how vulnerable you are and how much of a damage reduction you'll see if your hit. Being partially hidden reduces the damage you take under fire. So the feature is nothing short of brilliant and fresh in the MMO world. I only hope i see more of this in future games.

Another great aspect of the game is the pace, much faster pace than any other MMO i've experienced. My next favorite thing are the instances. I'm only lvl18 so we'll see what higher levels present, again very fast paced, but the best part is the intelligence and realism of the fight huge mobs come charging at you from great distances, they dodge and sidestep and flank like no other. The experience is not unlike a rollercoater at an amusment park you cant stop riding.

The graphics are good, especially you toon models.

Now, what i don't like!

1st i miss loot based instances like in WoW. These are all quest based, you do get your rewards but mostly from quests. The quest based instances actually work for this type of game. But i always liked that feeling after downing a hard boss and someone getting a good roll and a good reward. It's a fun part of the game.

2nd the chat system in TR annoys me it needs to be much more extensive and capable in providing info about other players and what the wearing and using etc...

that's it, overall i would reccomend this to anyone who enjoys MMO's and might be looking for something new.