Ok,
Fallen Earth has been out now for several months, and I must be honest. The first footage/info about this game that I saw, I wasn't very impressed. I liked the concept of surviving/thriving in a post-apocalyptic environment. So after listening to the Massively.com podcast, I thought I'd give it a shot. So the first thing I did, was see if they offer a trial for the game. And they do.
Currently there is a 10-Day Trial period for the game. I know a lot of people feel like 10 days may not be enough time to get a feel for whether or not you like a game. This is a hot topic amongst MMO players and the MMO companies who make the games. So my experience will be for this 10-Day trial. The trial is free and does not require a credit card to get started. Once the trial runs out, you can opt to upgrade from a Trial account to a full player account. Checkout:
http://www.fallenearth.com/node/328
After downloading the client (which weighs in a little over 500MB's), you run the client installer which takes only a moment to setup the game client/patcher. From here, the client will download about 3GB's worth of game data for the game's setup (which is pretty common these days for about any MMO). Once the client has the game patched and setup you will be prompted to configure the game's options (mostly just the graphics setup, which the client can 'auto' configure in just a second).
Once you are setup, you're ready to go. First, you setup your character's appearance. Pretty quick and easy and streamlined. The options aren't that heavy here, mostly allowing one of a handful of haircuts, tattoos, and skin colors. Then off to the opening area. The opening area was pretty cool in my opinion. You start out as lvl 40 and fresh out of your life pod. Your character is a clone in
Fallen Earth. Which is a welcome change from fighting as a warrior, mage, or healer class elf or dwarf. Diversity is a good thing.
You are given instructions to checkout a computer terminal to activate your life pod and then you need to rescue the lady who is talking to you. On the way through Hoover Dam (which has acted like as an underground bunker) you have to fight your way through the resistance using an axe, a rifle, and eventually you get to drop a boss with a grenade launcher. All of which I thoroughly enjoyed. After the boss has been killed you have to try an disarm a bomb that threatens to kill everyone in the damn. But there isn't time due to armed forces heading your way determined to stop you.
So in a moment of heroic reality, you have to jump onto the ATV which the bomb is strapped to, and drive it out of Hoover Dam. This was a fun sequence as well, as you weave your way through tunnels avoiding underground mutants and resistance fighters, you eventually get blown to crap by the bomb which you are carrying. You are then treated to a cut scene during your clone's 'regeneration'. When you respawn you are in the first settelement. The first real mission you get is to club 3 lizards using the Smash 1 ability.
Unfortunately, I had to log off at that point. But this was about 45 minutes to an hour of playtime. So far, I'm pretty impressed, especially since the game's developers built this game from ground up. The created everything from the sound effects to the game's graphical engine. Kudos to Icarus Studios.
I definitely look forward to checking out more of the game during the duration of my trial period.
Techie on Facebook
Techie on Google+