Earth and Beyond Review

Experience is gained in a variety of manners. Each character has three main experience categories - Combat, Exploration, and Trade, with these three levels combining to form your total level. Advancing each of these individual levels gets you access to new skills, enhancing your existing skills, or gets you hull upgrades which make your ship look more and more uber-sexay. The levels top out at 50 each, meaning the maximum level any one character can attain is 150. If you run afoul of a monster that's a bit bigger than you are, and get pounded into space dust, you get an XP Debt. Basically, from then on, 50% of the experience you accrue will go to pay off that debt. You will still get XP, just at a 50% reduced rate until the debt is paid. Also, that debt is reduced by 20% per hour while you're offline, so if you get killed then log off, the debt will be gone by the next morning. So there is a penalty for dying, but it's just not a debilitating one.

What a cheerful bunch.

Create your very own groovy character.

The game takes into account that Warrior class characters will have difficulty getting Trade experience, or that Explorer class characters aren't as hardy in battle, so it puts an emphasis on creating up to 6-man groups for experience sharing. As a group is formed and gets larger, they are granted an experience point bonus, which can grow up to 200% (the total of which is then divided to the members of the group). Of course, simply killing monsters together can be monotonous as well, so the game puts further benefits on staying in a group by sharing not only combat experience, but exploration and trade experience as well. Example: A group contains 1 or more Explorers, who find a patch of mineable asteroids. The warriors safeguard the Explorers from a band of attacking pirates, and the Explorers share the Combat experience without firing a shot. Once the Explorers complete mining the asteroids, the Warriors get Exploration experience without the ability to mine anything. Another example is a Warrior accompanying a Trader on a trade run. If the Warrior has never been to that part of space before, he gets Exploration points. The Trader, who makes these runs all the time, gets additional Exploration points for showing the Warrior a new part of space. So the entire group shares in the successes of everyone, making grouping an essential part of the game.

Keeping track of the group can also be a hassle, which is why the game also offers group formations - the group leader can initiate a formation, and the members lock themselves in place. From then on, the group leader controls their movement - they warp together, they fly together, they fight (and sometimes die) together. The members of the group can concentrate on identifying and attacking targets with long-range weapons (such as missiles), while making sure everyone is outfitted with enhancements (such as shields, defensive and attack bonuses) and field repairs (damaged equipment, hulls, etc.) Warping in formation is one of the many visual treats of this game.

Finding a group can be a pain, too. To answer this problem, the game has an integrated guild system, as well. Create a group, give it a name, pay some money and your groupmates become your guildmates. The guild can grow as large as you want it to, and each guild is ranked by a variety of determining factors - A percentage of each guild member's experience points go toward the guild (the character still gets full points, the guild just gains XP along with you), and as the guild members level, so does the guild. Also, the player gets his Guild name displayed underneath his name out in space. I was a part of The Fenix Alliance on Andromeda, (the second largest guild in any sector - see the screenshots for a group photo of some of the members...yes, I planned having the girls on each side of me...heheh) and this made for easy coordination for trade runs, war parties or anything else that needed doing. The guild's progress can be tracked at any of the Intergalactic Net kiosks in many of the larger station's pub sections.

And how about them visual treats, eh? This game is gorgeous. I thought it looked good 6 months ago when I saw it for the first time, but it has gone through a complete visual evolution since then, and is even more captivating than I had anticipated. The avatars, with their near-unlimited level of customization, the ships (which reflect the varying stars' light differently in every sector), the planets have differing landscapes (yes, there are some planets you can land on), every skill has a visual output, the weapons fire is varied and fun to watch, organic creatures bleed into space...should I go on? I can, you know. The graphics are vibrant, the models are nicely done, well animated, and you can look at them all day without getting tired. (I speak from personal experience here.)

The sounds, on the other hand, are just good. Not as excellent as the graphics, but they match well with the action on the screen. Some of the in-game NPC's have spoken lines, but not many. Those that do, which include Megan - the in-flight tutorial hologram, are well done, but with the amount of NPC's in the game, the audio is pretty much take-it-or-leave-it. I could play with the sound on or off, and it makes little difference to me.

The game has a lot going for it, but there are a number of things that are still lacking. First and foremost is warp times. Warping takes FOREVER, especially on long journeys. And when you're on a journey that is basically warp, jump, warp, jump, rinse and repeat, it gets old. Fast. Sure, there are upgradeable engines and devices which enhance warp speed, but 80% of the ships out there don't have them - and it takes a considerable amount of time to get the experience and money necessary to buy and use them. Secondly, the combat is just okay. Sure, there are lots of bad guys to fight, but once you get comfortable at a decent combat level, it ultimately boils down to Buff, Find a mob, Turn your weapons on, and Wait. Yay. There are some fights that get downright hairy (Pirates), but the bulk of low-level combat is uninspired. And I say that because once you hit 30th level (in any of the 3 categories), there's a huge gap between that and 50th level, which means a lot of mindless repeated activity for an ultimately small gain. Being part of a group mitigates that, to an extent, but it gets lonely at the top. Next is planet travel. If you think warping is slow, planet travel is a hundred times worse. There is no warping (or warp equivalent) on a planet's surface, and going to the various waypoints is slower than molasses running uphill in January. I did speak with one of the developers on this, and they were considering adding an afterburner feature for planetary travel, but its still in development. Lastly, is the bane of online games everywhere - lag. The game lags in high-traffic areas, like the trading floors of large space stations, or the nav lanes of the central systems. When there's a large amount of players or mobs, the framerate takes a noticeable hit. But all of these negatives are a small annoyance when compared to the grand scope and highly addictive gameplay that E&B offers with more to come in the future.

Fortunately, as this is an MMORPG, it means it is a living entity. The developers are still hammering out the few odd bugs that are still present in the engine, as well as adding plot content - in the form of new characters, new aliens, and (eventually) the 3 missing classes, and some form of PvP combat. (Currently, there is none.)

So, to go back to my ranting again for a bit, this is the first game I would even consider paying to continue to play. The developers of E&B have lovingly crafted a world that I would gladly call home - an entire galaxy of worlds filled with wonder and discovery around every corner, station and nav point. A feast for the eyes and mind, Earth & Beyond is both an excellent game and a perfect example of what an MMORPG should be.

Can I get my fix now?