In a not-so-distant future... In a familiar universe... Earth... Is no more!

Caught in an interplanetary ancient war that wages for eons, the Human home planet is destroyed by the ruthless Bane, an evil race of aliens.

But how did this happen?

Our leaders knew about the alien existence for a long time, but the information was kept as a top secret. When the sudden invasion of the Bane came, wormhole portals that were built by an ancient race even before Humans ever existed were revealed to a select few. These few thousands were receptive for the power of Logos. Eloh, the ancient race that built the portals are now teaching the receptives how to harness the Logos into devastating mind power abilities, thus giving us a fighting chance!

You are one of the receptives, and once you fled through the portal to a strange new world, your battle begins for the survival! Your survival, Humanity's survival!

The Story Thus Far

The Eloh were the most advanced race in the universe, and they've created the Logo signs language. Logos gave unimaginable powers to those who could use them. They've decided they should teach the primitive races their ways. The Bane was the first to receive training. But why use the knowledge for good, when one can always use it... for evil!? The Bane decided to take over the universe, and the Eloh seemed the only ones who can stand in their way. The war was long and devastating for both sides, but the Eloh eventually won.

After the war, while some Eloh still believed teaching lower races is the way, an aggressive faction called the Neph didn't share these peaceful ideas. The Neph rallied the Thrax, ex-Bane soldiers to do their dirty work.

With Earth destroyed, the only option left is to fight! Who knows, maybe you can change the fate of your kind... You and Sarah Morrison? :)

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Welcome to the Second Generation of MMORPGs

The first thing you will notice in Tabula Rasa is... probably the title: Richard Garriott's Tabula Rasa. If not, I strongly advise that you should, as Mr. Richard Garriott aka Lord British aka General British is one of the founding fathers of the MMORPG genre. With titles like Ultima and Ultima Online, he revolutionized the gaming world. And if he promises this is the first game of the second generation of MMORPGs, well then... it better be!

But what makes Tabula Rasa a second generation MMORPG? Well certain key elements like monster AI, first-person shooter elements, character class tree, cloning system or dynamic battlefield.

Let's talk about each a little bit more in detail:

Instead of the regular set patrolling routes and respawns, monsters, or in this case aliens have a more sophisticated AI, and know when to fight together, when to attack, and when to run. Yes! Finally those damned orcs, beasts or undead have been replaced by aliens; and not a moment too soon, the market was getting crowded by World of Warcraft clones! Plus, I am a big Sci-Fi fan and never liked fantasy universe *that much*. Either way, I may still call them monsters, or mobs, but you know what I mean ;)

Of course, they don't have the AI of some fancy new first person shooters or strategy games, but they are smarter than average enemies, which means less repetition, more improvisation and always more fun!

This also brings us to the brand sparkling new dynamic battlefield .In a conflict of these proportions, it is only logical that battles are fought and won or lost every day. The battle front is pushed back and forward as the fight progresses, and control points are always captured or lost by a side or the other. That is without any player intervention. So, in a sense, it's a living breathing world on its own, but players can alter the conflict in their favor. Even if you have quests in a certain base, you won't be able to go in because it may be occupied by the alien invaders! What to do... what to do??! The only thing right to do! Help AFS forces win it back!

Oh, by the way, I forgot to tell you: you are part of the AFS (Allied Free Sentients), an alliance of sentient beings who fight against Bane oppression. Good to know!

Instead of picking a role from the beginning of the game and getting stuck with it till the end (or until you create a new character), Tabula Rasa introduces the Character Cloning System (TM). Everyone starts as a Recruit with some basic abilities, like pistols, firearms and rifle training, the lightning ability and some general skills. At level 5, 15 and 30 you can specialize further in a certain tree. When you reach the required level, you are given one cloning credit. If you clone your character at the right time before going further down the tree, you can use your clone to choose a different specialization, on a different tree. Items can be exchanged between characters using your personal locker. This way you don't have to level up a new class from scratch, and some feats are common to more than one specialization. For example, every Specialist has some healing one way or another.

Here is a table with all the classes in the game, so you can have a better picture of how things go:

Let's see what each class does:

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The Recruit is the basic soldier, and while you are a recruit you can consider yourself still in Tutorial Mode. After level 5 the fun really begins! Don't forget, this also means everyone knows how to shoot a pistol, rifle or shotgun etc., how to use armor and the powerful Lightning ability. As a starting tip, you can never go wrong if you put 3 points into guns, and it's also ok to add points to Lightning.

The Soldier is the first path towards a pure damage dealer class. As a soldier you learn to use the heavy reflective armor, the powerful chainguns, and have damage enhancing abilities like Rage. Combined with a chaingun, Rage can be a lethal skill, so you can safely train for it.

The Specialist has enhanced healing abilities but he gives up some of the damage. The hazmat body armor absorbs poisons, incendiary or virulent attacks better than soldier's reflective armor, and you can learn how to use leech guns to drain life out of your enemies and raise yours.

The Commando uses close range heavy damage weapons and can equip the graviton armor, making him a heavy hitter.

The Ranger uses range (obviously) and stealth to his advantage. He can go almost unseen with his stealth armor, and can call in airstrikes.

The Biotechnician can dispel virulent, psychic and biological attacks, and is the first class that can use a healing power.

The Sapper is trained to use heavy mech armor and polarity guns. He can disarm or reconfigure enemy devices and defence towers, and he can master mechanics and robotics.

The Grenadier uses propellant guns (or flamethrowers) to cause big damage and keep enemies away. His signature ability is concussive wave, an area of effect spell with a knockback effect.

The Guardian, while a damage dealer as well, focuses on defensive logo powers. He can use staff weapons, causing very high melee damage, and his signature ability is shield wave, an area of effect spell that bubbles all allies around and protects them.

The Spy uses stealth and the signature ability invisibility wave to conceive him from enemies. His training in blades makes him a very high melee damage dealer.

The Sniper is trained in the use of torqueshell rifles, and specializes in taking out enemy forces from distance. Crit wave is the sniper's signature ability, increasing his chance to critically hit enemies.

The Exobiologist can use corpse explosion on dead targets to cause damage. He can also clone himself and knows a lot about alien anatomy. Reanimation Wave brings back allies to life on the battlefield.

The Medic can cause insanity among enemy ranks; can become immune to certain types of damage; can leech health and give it to all party members back; his signature ability is regeneration wave.

The Demolitionist is a master of damaging multiple targets at once. He can use controlled fission and explosive nanites to enhance their damage, and their signature ability is explosive wave.

The Engineer can set turrets and traps and has his own Mech pet. He can create temporary wormhole portals to transport himself or allies to different zones of the galaxy. His signature ability is base wave, which increases everyone's armor and armor regeneration.

General Thoughts and a Conclusion

As in many other MMORPGs I wasn't impressed at all by Tabula Rasa in the beginning, but it slowly grew on me and I can safely say that if you are open minded and give it a chance you won't be disappointed. I still dislike the low-res textures they found for the ground in most areas, and the fact that Anti-Aliasing doesn't work, no matter how hard you try to enable it. It does *something* but polygons still have rough edges, and let's not mention 2D bitmaps. And what's that big bitmap "forest" that you can't pass through all about, come on! Animations don't seem to fit well with the environment, and music is dull. However, music grows on you in time...

Tip: If you have a decent video card and a good system you can try to do the trick I did: create a custom profile for Tabula Rasa in your video card control panel, and set everything to max quality. It helps a bit.

The ethical parables bring the much needed diversity through some quests and even if they don't have that big of an impact on the actual game action, they are a nice addition. Maybe in the future there will be an expansion pack where players could influence the actual future progress of the game. Who knows?

The shooter aspect keeps your adrenaline pumping and despite the fact that you won't be able to eat much while playing because of this, it's a great step forward against boredom and repetition. Besides, you can still drink...

While the graphics could be a lot better, I find the "spell" (abilities) effects and the way enemies die excellent! You feel the power every time you use an ability or shoot any kind of weapon!

Much could be said about Tabula Rasa, both good and bad things. It suffers from the early launch problems like minor lag for some players, and some bugged instances/quests. But because we're talking about NCsoft, a company with experience in MMOs, the problems are minor, and being fixed as we speak. They are also working on further skill balance, possible further high end content and most important: an auction house! Yes, the biggest issue at start: no place to trade!

With the lack of an auction house, the crafting upgrades are either too expensive or not worth creating.

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We will see in time if Tabula Rasa will be able to provide enough content to keep veteran players in the game or not, but meanwhile it's worth a shot!

Gameplay: 81

While it still suffers from early problems like minor bugs and lag, and the huge absence of an auction house, no doubt those will be solved in time. With the innovations that it brings you could consider it a "second generation MMORPG", but one of the first games in the second generation, if you know what I mean.

Graphics: 70

The worst aspect of the game, probably cause by the long development cycle. Anti-aliasing doesn't work, and there are a lot of low resolution textures and 2D bitmaps. Some animations are choppy. Still, "spell" effects look great.

Multiplayer: 87

Very dynamic multiplayer experience, but we will see in the near future if it will keep players interested and if the PvP is enough... Tabula Rasa has world PvP. Assuming your Clan declares war against another Clan, you will be able to fight your enemy Clan members anywhere in the world.

Sound: 74

Music grew on me from "not much" to "it's cool". Sounds are enough to satisfy your hunger for battle, without anything being too extra-ordinary. No special support for EAX or anything else of that matter.

Hardware: 80

The game works on most computers, even if the monsters have more unpredictable moves due to their AI and come in great numbers. It could be why the graphics had to be lowered. Since it doesn't use anything special, it should work ok, and it does. All it requires is a decent internet connection and of course your precious time.