My brief specs:
Intel 3 ghz P4 with HT (no dual or quad core). 2 gig RAM and 8800GTS playing at 1680x1050 max settings. 64k ISDN Dialup.
Brief summary of differences between other MMORPGS and TR:
Dynamic world vs static world. Mobs get beamed in by dropships, randomly. Bases get attacked and controlled by mobs. Be warned attack waves on bases are HUGE, a swarm of aliens, all different kinds.
FPS mix with MMORPGS control elements. Shoot things, move around, no standing still and hitting ability buttons till the mob drops.
Fast looting by running over corpses, no slow right click looting.
Basic crafting, no need to spend hours building up crafting.
No camping, no farming, no need for tons of cash, no need to farm to buy anything.
Missions are similar to quest system, more xp is made from missions than grinding mobs.
No "tagging" of mobs, you get XP based on the amount of damage you did. Mobs needed for quests can be killed by 2 non partied players and they BOTH will get quest credit and loot.
Fast action, lots of surprises, difficult to "pull" single mobs, lots come.
Cover actually mitigates damage. Crouching behind a rock drops the damage you take. Mobs are intelligent, they use cover too.
FPS mix with MMORPG game mechanics, crouching makes you target faster and do more damage and you take less damage. Running around makes you get hit less as mobs cant target you easily.
Detailed Review:
Been playing the game for most of the weekend so here are my views from the point of someone on a really low bandwidth experience (64k ISDN). I will also be comparing it to other MMORPGS I have played over
the years and as such I will be using terms and referring to MMORPG conventions a lot. I will also be doing it in linear fasion describing my game experience to the level 16 that my character is now.
Installation was fast, patching was ok (fortunately I had the patch files already). Into the game! (finally). Character customisation was pretty easy, less than CoH, more than WoW, about the same as GW and
LOTRO. Doesnt really matter though, since helmets and clothing changes your looks totally. So in the end its just your gender and height that has any real value.
Into the tutorial! From the start you notice that the interface is NOT the one you are used to from any MMORPG ever, it is a mixture of FPS and MMORPG elements so it takes some getting used to. The tutorial
is an instance and you are flying it solo. The chat channel is full of people, it is a very busy time one week into launch and there is a HUGE player population. Took me a little time to find the setting to
see the ping and FPS. Once I found it (this information was very important to me) I was surprised and worried at the same time. Surprised that at MAXIMUM graphics setting I was smoothing along at 30+ FPS
with no jerkiness, worried because my ping was going 400 - 90 000!
Well on we go.
Hitting things: soon you realise that this is a shooting game, with guns, you would think that was obvious ;-) It is very different to ALL the other MMORPGS I have played in the WAY that you shoot and hit
things. In all the other games, you target something (usually with TAB) then hit buttons to do things to the monster you have targetted, till it is dead. Pretty simple. In TR it is slightly different. You
move your reticule over your target, wait until you have a "bead" on it then press your left mouse button and shoot it. You will then shoot using the weapon you have selected in your weapon tray. If this
weapon is a shotgun, you "spray" everything near what you are pointing at. You can also run around and shoot at what is in your target reticule. No more standing still and hitting ability buttons till it
drops. You also have abilities which you can use as well, using either the right mouse button or the keyboard number that it is on. SO far already, a much more action orientated game, very refreshing! The
first baddy is dead! You get XP and wonder where the loot is! Here I have to pause and laugh a bit at myself. As per every other game I have played, I dutifully walked up to the corpse, and right clicked on
it to loot its random goodness. A window popped up with a loot all button, so far the same as always. While inspecting my well earned loot, I was suddenly the target of incoming fire. Sighing in irratation I
exited out from the loot screen to take care of the Bane alien that dared interrupt my looting. Soon I realised that this is insane, I tried shift right click to loot faster, no good.
I then asked the ever helpful New Player channel what I could do and soon found out that just WALKING over a dead corpse loots all of it! Now that is AWESOME!.
So into the big wide nasty world I go. The first thing you will notice is that "questing" or "missions" as its known in TR is very familliar at first. Go and kill x and come back to the mission giver, nothing new there. So out you go into the open spaces around the little camp you landed in using a wormhole (yes travel is FAST and instant). Kill stuff, loot. While doing this which was pretty familliar as all the other games I was hit by what was different. While peacefully jogging over a little hill covered in alien shrubbery a dropship zoomed overhead, "wow that looks cool, adds to the FEEL of the game", I thought to myself. Suddenly a red beam speared the ground and deposited 4 aliens toting guns. These then immediately started to shoot at me! Yes, you get it right, GONE are the static pops and spawns of "mobs" that you get so used to in other games. Now the mobs pop at random, they get beamed in and dont just "appear" and they have a mission. The next ship I saw flying overhead I ran the other way and watched. The aliens beamed down and immediately started loping off in formation toward the little "town" base that I just came from. I ran after them at a discreet distance and watched in amazement as they
started shooting at the guards! Other players joined in the fire fight and killed the small incursion.
Even from the start you realise that TR is a dynamic game and very different to all the others you have played. Later on you come across contested bases known as "CPs" where you get quests etc from. These
actually get overrun by aliens and taken over! So DONT log out at one of these, you might come back the next day and find it occupied and swarming with aliens!
One thing I did notice that was of great concern is that my ping skyrocketed as soon as there was more than 5 or so others in my immediate vicinity. The ping climbs and drops all the time as the world shifts around you. This made me worried because if the game was unplayable at my low bandwidth then I was going to give it up. I did notice, however, that when the ping hit about 2k or so then the response to my frantic pressing of my left button got too delayed to be playable. Fortunately, this happens when there are many other people about and they can do all the precise killing. The problem persisted with others too, it wasnt just me, which made me feel better since I was probably the ONLY one at such a low connection there.
So far the game is still playable at my ping. I wouldnt get involved in large scale PVP though, that would be a bad idea.
Levelling! During levelling you get 3 points to add to stats and you have 3 stats, pretty easy. You will also notice that you cant really gimp your character with wrong choices with stats, since they are not all that important, they just make small changes to the character.
Skills: with levelling you get 3 points to spend in skills. Each skill has 5 levels, each level costs the points of the level to go up. So to go from firearms 2 to 3 you need 3 points. The game does skills/abilities differently to others in the levelling curve: levels 1 - 5 (takes 10 minutes) you are a recruit and have access to recruit skills such as firearms, sprint, lightning (mystical power). Levels 5 - 15 you get to choose your career path, specialist or soldier. The soldier has gun skills to spend points on, the specialist has repair skills to spend points in. So you see that it is very different to other games in that each level set you get to change the way you play the game. 15 - 30 you specialise even more, 30 - 50 you are playing at the top of your career path with new skills.
The other amazing thing is that you can clone your character at those levels! This means that you can return to that career choice and play on from there! No need to create a new character and slog it through again to make another choice, you can start your character at 5, 15 or 30, or depending where you made your clone. TIP: dont clone at 5, it takes you 10 minutes to play through 1 - 5. Instead clone just BEFORE you hit 15. You will see why.
So, in the end perspective: TR is a wonderfully different game with lots of fast action, fun elements which dont slow the game down at all. A very welcome change after over 10 years of basically the same thing over and over in every game.
Awesome stuff.
Intel 3 ghz P4 with HT (no dual or quad core). 2 gig RAM and 8800GTS playing at 1680x1050 max settings. 64k ISDN Dialup.
Brief summary of differences between other MMORPGS and TR:
Dynamic world vs static world. Mobs get beamed in by dropships, randomly. Bases get attacked and controlled by mobs. Be warned attack waves on bases are HUGE, a swarm of aliens, all different kinds.
FPS mix with MMORPGS control elements. Shoot things, move around, no standing still and hitting ability buttons till the mob drops.
Fast looting by running over corpses, no slow right click looting.
Basic crafting, no need to spend hours building up crafting.
No camping, no farming, no need for tons of cash, no need to farm to buy anything.
Missions are similar to quest system, more xp is made from missions than grinding mobs.
No "tagging" of mobs, you get XP based on the amount of damage you did. Mobs needed for quests can be killed by 2 non partied players and they BOTH will get quest credit and loot.
Fast action, lots of surprises, difficult to "pull" single mobs, lots come.
Cover actually mitigates damage. Crouching behind a rock drops the damage you take. Mobs are intelligent, they use cover too.
FPS mix with MMORPG game mechanics, crouching makes you target faster and do more damage and you take less damage. Running around makes you get hit less as mobs cant target you easily.
Detailed Review:
Been playing the game for most of the weekend so here are my views from the point of someone on a really low bandwidth experience (64k ISDN). I will also be comparing it to other MMORPGS I have played over
the years and as such I will be using terms and referring to MMORPG conventions a lot. I will also be doing it in linear fasion describing my game experience to the level 16 that my character is now.
Installation was fast, patching was ok (fortunately I had the patch files already). Into the game! (finally). Character customisation was pretty easy, less than CoH, more than WoW, about the same as GW and
LOTRO. Doesnt really matter though, since helmets and clothing changes your looks totally. So in the end its just your gender and height that has any real value.
Into the tutorial! From the start you notice that the interface is NOT the one you are used to from any MMORPG ever, it is a mixture of FPS and MMORPG elements so it takes some getting used to. The tutorial
is an instance and you are flying it solo. The chat channel is full of people, it is a very busy time one week into launch and there is a HUGE player population. Took me a little time to find the setting to
see the ping and FPS. Once I found it (this information was very important to me) I was surprised and worried at the same time. Surprised that at MAXIMUM graphics setting I was smoothing along at 30+ FPS
with no jerkiness, worried because my ping was going 400 - 90 000!
Well on we go.
Hitting things: soon you realise that this is a shooting game, with guns, you would think that was obvious ;-) It is very different to ALL the other MMORPGS I have played in the WAY that you shoot and hit
things. In all the other games, you target something (usually with TAB) then hit buttons to do things to the monster you have targetted, till it is dead. Pretty simple. In TR it is slightly different. You
move your reticule over your target, wait until you have a "bead" on it then press your left mouse button and shoot it. You will then shoot using the weapon you have selected in your weapon tray. If this
weapon is a shotgun, you "spray" everything near what you are pointing at. You can also run around and shoot at what is in your target reticule. No more standing still and hitting ability buttons till it
drops. You also have abilities which you can use as well, using either the right mouse button or the keyboard number that it is on. SO far already, a much more action orientated game, very refreshing! The
first baddy is dead! You get XP and wonder where the loot is! Here I have to pause and laugh a bit at myself. As per every other game I have played, I dutifully walked up to the corpse, and right clicked on
it to loot its random goodness. A window popped up with a loot all button, so far the same as always. While inspecting my well earned loot, I was suddenly the target of incoming fire. Sighing in irratation I
exited out from the loot screen to take care of the Bane alien that dared interrupt my looting. Soon I realised that this is insane, I tried shift right click to loot faster, no good.
I then asked the ever helpful New Player channel what I could do and soon found out that just WALKING over a dead corpse loots all of it! Now that is AWESOME!.
So into the big wide nasty world I go. The first thing you will notice is that "questing" or "missions" as its known in TR is very familliar at first. Go and kill x and come back to the mission giver, nothing new there. So out you go into the open spaces around the little camp you landed in using a wormhole (yes travel is FAST and instant). Kill stuff, loot. While doing this which was pretty familliar as all the other games I was hit by what was different. While peacefully jogging over a little hill covered in alien shrubbery a dropship zoomed overhead, "wow that looks cool, adds to the FEEL of the game", I thought to myself. Suddenly a red beam speared the ground and deposited 4 aliens toting guns. These then immediately started to shoot at me! Yes, you get it right, GONE are the static pops and spawns of "mobs" that you get so used to in other games. Now the mobs pop at random, they get beamed in and dont just "appear" and they have a mission. The next ship I saw flying overhead I ran the other way and watched. The aliens beamed down and immediately started loping off in formation toward the little "town" base that I just came from. I ran after them at a discreet distance and watched in amazement as they
started shooting at the guards! Other players joined in the fire fight and killed the small incursion.
Even from the start you realise that TR is a dynamic game and very different to all the others you have played. Later on you come across contested bases known as "CPs" where you get quests etc from. These
actually get overrun by aliens and taken over! So DONT log out at one of these, you might come back the next day and find it occupied and swarming with aliens!
One thing I did notice that was of great concern is that my ping skyrocketed as soon as there was more than 5 or so others in my immediate vicinity. The ping climbs and drops all the time as the world shifts around you. This made me worried because if the game was unplayable at my low bandwidth then I was going to give it up. I did notice, however, that when the ping hit about 2k or so then the response to my frantic pressing of my left button got too delayed to be playable. Fortunately, this happens when there are many other people about and they can do all the precise killing. The problem persisted with others too, it wasnt just me, which made me feel better since I was probably the ONLY one at such a low connection there.
So far the game is still playable at my ping. I wouldnt get involved in large scale PVP though, that would be a bad idea.
Levelling! During levelling you get 3 points to add to stats and you have 3 stats, pretty easy. You will also notice that you cant really gimp your character with wrong choices with stats, since they are not all that important, they just make small changes to the character.
Skills: with levelling you get 3 points to spend in skills. Each skill has 5 levels, each level costs the points of the level to go up. So to go from firearms 2 to 3 you need 3 points. The game does skills/abilities differently to others in the levelling curve: levels 1 - 5 (takes 10 minutes) you are a recruit and have access to recruit skills such as firearms, sprint, lightning (mystical power). Levels 5 - 15 you get to choose your career path, specialist or soldier. The soldier has gun skills to spend points on, the specialist has repair skills to spend points in. So you see that it is very different to other games in that each level set you get to change the way you play the game. 15 - 30 you specialise even more, 30 - 50 you are playing at the top of your career path with new skills.
The other amazing thing is that you can clone your character at those levels! This means that you can return to that career choice and play on from there! No need to create a new character and slog it through again to make another choice, you can start your character at 5, 15 or 30, or depending where you made your clone. TIP: dont clone at 5, it takes you 10 minutes to play through 1 - 5. Instead clone just BEFORE you hit 15. You will see why.
So, in the end perspective: TR is a wonderfully different game with lots of fast action, fun elements which dont slow the game down at all. A very welcome change after over 10 years of basically the same thing over and over in every game.
Awesome stuff.
this is good! I can't imagine trying to shoot with 1k ping! 
especially the fact that you have 64k make's me glad as I have it too and we are realy sqeezed for online games, mostly MMO's & Source bassed games like CSS/DODS & TF2!
