Ever since I fell for Fallen Earth and have gone into some sort of blogger version of a shark feeding frenzy about it, I keep seeing the same comment come up over and over (these are actual quotes):
- “Stop it! no more talk about FE! you’re going to make me buy it and get addicted!”
- “Syp just keeps making me want to play Fallen Earth even after I tell him to stop. He’s mean like that.”
- “The more you post about it the more my will to play it increases. Gah!”
- “Stop tempting me with Mel Gibson!”
- “Gah… You have to stop blogging about Fallen Earth! Every new post makes me come that much closer to buying it, and I don’t have the time or money for a new MMO!”
And I hear ya, frustrated readers! There’s nothing worse than having too much on your plate while someone comes up to you and offers you a mouth-watering steak (or for you vegetarians, a chunk of cud) when you have no room left. So, as always, I am here to help, which is why I’m going to give you every reason I can honestly think of why you shouldn’t get this awesome, addicting, immersive, cheeky MMO:
Like Its Frontier Setting, Fallen Earth’s Stability Is Rough And Wild
As I write this, the FE servers have borked pretty hard — players in game are reporting people and nodes and chat disappearing, and I can’t log on at all. At least once a week (typically Sunday evening), the servers just become too cluttered with whatever that it goes belly-up.
It’s not smooth sailing when it comes to the hardware here. Small rollbacks (think, 20 minutes) sometimes occur. Nodes get really bugged, requiring a complete server reset to correct. Crashes, lag, framerate — these are facts of life right now for the game. Sure, it’s getting better with every patch, and sure, I haven’t had too many problems with it myself. But it’s there, and it’s a little jagged.
The Economy Is A Foggy Crystal Ball
As Chris says, nobody really knows how the economy is going to work in the game, because everyone can craft everything, and I’ve yet to see anything that binds to a character, which means items can be reused over and over again without sucking them out of the economy. It’s an issue, and it’s probably something that’s going to gather more and more complaints until Icarus Studios deals with it head-on.
End Game? Who Knows!
I get asked a lot about the end game, which is pretty silly considering that I’m just level 13 out of 45, and still dithering around in the first large sector. But as far as I can tell, there’s no definite answer on just what constitutes the “end game” of FE. It could be PvP, in part, to capture the special PvP towns for unique vendors and quest givers. It could be leveling up within your faction and getting your capstone skills. It could be an endless pursuit of wealth and gear. And Icarus could be releasing more sectors soon to keep the leveling treadmill running. But nobody can tell you for sure.
It’s Complex
Yeah, this is a big draw to the game, but let’s face it — nobody likes feeling stupid and clueless, and that’s exactly what Fallen Earth does to you in the first day or so. It’s a huge world, there’s craploads of menus, and you are basically dumped out into the open with no direction to speak of. Icarus has said that they’re working on an improved new player experience, but that’s not here right now.
You Can Gimp Yourself
The dark side of being able to customize a classless character is that, in the wrong or ignorant hands, you could be working at cross purposes and make a character that’s good at nothing. Right now, FE’s advancement points (AP) are permanently stuck in place once you use them (again, this might change in the future with limited respecs), meaning that if you think it’s a good idea to spread your points around to all three weapon skills at first, and then discover that you really should only focus on one, you’re a bit screwed. Reroll or live with it!
Greed Rules The Wild, Wild West
As with many small game communities, Fallen Earth has a tight-knit feel and a higher-than-average maturity level. Then again, the game encourages you to look out for yourself above all else — to get that resource node first, to cap those quest mobs first, and so on. The result of this means that even the nicest person might start to resort to kill and node stealing, shoving other players out of the way to advance their player more.
As With All MMOs, It Will Be Much Improved If You Wait A Year Or So
So there. Does that help?
Bio Break 
Alright. I’ll wait a year and then try it. 🙂
Right now, I want Fallout 3 Game of the Year Edition badly, as a replacement for Fallen Earth. 🙂
So its like WOW when it first came out. 🙂
Yes, thank you!
Reminds me of the Pirates of the Burning Sea launch. I love the idea, and I believe Flying Labs has done wonderful things with the game. However, when the battles all come down to spinning in a circle waiting on cooldowns, I moved on.
Level 13? Curse you! I’m only lvl 12 and all the way back in Boneclaw because I missed that huge hole with the town inside of it the first time around.
What worries me the most is that we might all be getting a little high off that new MMO smell. Sure, Fallen Earth feels new and different and open-ended, but that’s because we’re pioneers on a new apocalyptic frontier. I’m pretty sure the first WoW players also had this same feeling.
Once this game has been player-documented to death and the magic of exploring the Grand Canyon has faded, you have nothing left but the “end-game”, which still remains unclear.
Then again, I might be looking at this the wrong way. Perhaps the “end-game” is what we make of it. Levels don’t have too much importance here, anyway.
I’ll throw out another criticism – it feels very single-player-ish, from the self-sufficient crafting model to the way the economy works (non-degrading items, crafted items selling for less than the materials used to create them) to the mob difficulty (which might change as I head closer to S2). Group play definitely exists, but I haven’t found a need to do so yet. Maybe self-sufficiency is what the devs are going for.
Speaking of mob difficulty, I did get my face handed to me by trying to go Rambo-style into a Blade Dancer den east of Boneclaw. Lvl 9 melees AND ranged mobs, oh my!
Bah! Too late Syp, I am downloading it at home as I work today. I will be a fresh young baby faced noob in the wastelands of FE.
Please try to leave some nodes for the noob …
Too bad, I am still going to get the game!
“Does that help?” Haha, not really. 😉 Much of the stuff you mention is what attracts me to it. I like having a world that’s more rough around the edges than most modern MMOs and has a fairly steep learning curve.
The only part I don’t like hearing about is actual stability issues.
I do hope the end-game is PvP. If it is, then I’m even more interested.
Great post, Syp. 😉
Great points Syp. Thanks for addressing them.
Things that “sound” like they would be good ideas to add:
1) Player created cities – This would allow people to work together, creating an atmosphere of working as a team. It would bring in the MMO feel to the game.
2) Major city added in next expansion/patch – Nothing more striking than seeing something well known destroyed. The RE3 movie did Vegas and I am Legend did NYC, but there are more places one could visit. If they really wanted to break into a new place, New Orleans would be a great start. I guess the point is that they would need to find a place where they could be able to create a new atmosphere.
Just some ideas.
ninefingers
It’s too late. I’m addicted. My wife has left me, my kids hate me, I lost my job and my house. I am currently living in the bushes of my old neighbors yard in a box, stealing his power and wireless access … but I got FE!
(Joke by the way. Everything except the addiction,)
Yay! Quoted again!
I think I may have managed to convince myself to wait for a free trial or until one of my current MMOs loses its appeal.
We’ll see what comes first, or for that matter, how long my resolve holds out 😛
@Sord
At least you don’t have chip farmers camping the roads like hitchhikers, stealing all the wrecked car nodes and taking our precious scrap fasteners 🙂
Gotta love the pingback comment that only shows up when Syp is saying something NEGATIVE about Fallen Earth 😛
The economy’s state prevents my interest from piquing. I did some research on their forums and it looks like there is no hope for the economy without huge changes, and those huge changes might simply ruin the economy further.
Without a need to replace items, the economy is going to be bloated with excess supply, lowering prices below where it would be reasonable to see newly created goods. Everyone will end up making equipment for themselves because selling is unprofitable. This alone basically dooms the economy.
Well I’m sold Syp.
I bought Aion on a drunk and lonely night last week only to find that I was bored to death after only a few days playing. Linear progression, mindless grinding, no sense of exploration. I felt like a sucker for paying the $60.
Your posts on FE intrigued me, even though I generally ignore “niche” MMOs like FE and EVE for fear of being shown up as the feckless casual I am, but I decided “what the hell” and got FE this morning.
After 2 hours of playing I’ve sworn a solemn vow never to play a themepark MMO again.
FE is very daunting at the beginning but once you get the hang of it you realise just how open and complex this game is! Love it so far, despite the technical issues.
@evizaer
My interaction with the “economy” consists of selling materials I’m not interested in (mostly cooking-related) and skillbooks I already know, and buying materials when I want to get a crafting quest out of the way and I’m only missing 2 or 3 pieces.
I also have no desire to buy anything from the auction house. As it is, I scavenge enough materials to get by – most of my tradeskills are in the mid 40’s (out of 60), with the exception of the harvesting-related ones (maxed, of course) and Mutagenics (because the price of scrap injectors makes me sad), and I’m in no rush to max them because I want to get all the free skill books before I start spending my own money on them. And as mentioned before, there isn’t much demand for crafted stuff.
@Stengah
I also had the itch to buy Aion. In fact, I was tempted to pre-order so I could get the Guild Wars cross-over item 🙂
FE does not have any kind of end game, none, absolute nothing!
Yes you can capture pvp towns but if the did not change if after the beta, it has no big impact if you do it so or not.
You don’t have access to “special” npc that you really want nor are supernodes that important because you will find enough excellent nodes outside of the pvp areas.
You can reroll, make a alt. If you wanna compare this to CO you can run at last 3 chars to the current max. lvl without doing the same stuff over again.
This includes multiple choices e.g. run a
melee[faction:lightbeares/vista]+telekinesis+sonic
from South Burb->Odenville->Needle Eye->Old Kingsman->Coppermine->Mowbray->Pinkston
and then make another one with
pistol[faction:tech/enforcers]+thermal&group tactics
and run him from Zanesville->Oilville->Embry->Pass Chris->Watchtower->Spider Hill
and you would still have options.
The said the would add every few month a new sector. So the chances are there if you don’t lvl to fast that you will simple have a another zone to explore and to lvl up.
But will this enough for ya. I don’t know. For myself the answer was no, simple because I have seen a little to much in beta and hate some design decision like uh use of more then alt to farm nodes and make enough munition so that my main char would not run out of ammo……
The economic issue is something I made peace with because I figure it’s something they can’t ignore. The thread about it on their forums is something like 30 pages long with people expressing their concerns and Icarus has been great with patching in fixes. Here’s hoping. For now though, I’ve decided to do my best to craft everything for myself. Crafting in the game is complex and fun all by itself, so *even if* people wind up selling things cheaper, I think I’d be selling myself short by not trying everything out for myself.
The endgame is something that’s a little concerning but I rarely make it all the way to the end in any game (I hop around too much) so I plan on waiting a while until I invest too much into it.
Good post!
you know.. technically, you can look at all those things as positives if you look at it correctly (except for the bugs) 😉
maybe we don’t want to be handheld when gaming and like complexity instead of simplicity 😉
@Sord
A noob ey…? I have a lovely little patch of nodes I could sell you. Normally this would go at 500 chips, but since your new and likely to be preyed upon by other, less generous and caring folk, I’ll give you the special deal of only 100 chips. That’s an absolute steal I tells ya!
Far too late already hopelessly addicted, as well as some pretty hardcore raiding in LOTRO (watcher here we come).
Cya all in games.
Too late! Too late! You have ensnared me in the Fallen Earth web, and for all it’s cracks and weak points, it’s been worth my purchase already, and probably going to be worth at least a few months at the rate Icarus is improving it.
I so wanted to like this game, I really did. But I was so unimpressed with it its cronic. I am one of those cretins that really liked Fallout 3, one of my fave games of the last decade. FE seemed to be an excuse for a crafting game. The combat is just horrendous and I found myself bored stiff in FE. it pained me when I realised FE was just not up to snuff.
Still waiting for a decent post-apocalyptic MMORPG.
I bought it. And managed to download the installer in 10 mins.
Sadly i’m yet to play as the patcher states 19 days to patch.
Managed to get the half gig installer in 12 minutes. YEt the 4G worth of path will take 19 days.
I persevered and left it on over night . hoping that it would speed up. But the patcher freezes. after 200 1-3K files. it stopped. and that’s where it stayed for the rest of the evening.
Eager to start but given i cannot get the game to function. I CANNOT START!
Sadly i feel this may actually result in my first ever MMO complaint and rage issues. I managed with Age of conan and it’s buggy start.. but this is actively not allowing me to play ..
*SIGH*
I’ve said it over and over again: If you want to pay for a fun beta, play it, but don’t expect too much. The game is buggy and it’s by no means new or revolutionary. This boat has sailed with WoW and Neocron… because it’s basically nothing more more than a mix of those two in a setting that barely resembles Fallout.
There’s no sense of imminent danger or doom. There’s no AI to speak of and there’s just quest grinding until you reach 45, where you can start exploiting the hell out of the game. Which seems to be the current most-fun-todo end-game part. So brace yourself, for it is nothing special.
“you are basically dumped out into the open”
What the hell are you talking about?
After the(incredibly boring conan style) tutorial i go out and the usual NPC with his exclamation mark is there, and he has usual WoW style errands to do… so i do all the quests in the map, i gain levels, spend the usual points for the usual skills, and he even addresses me to another town.
Fallen Earth babysits the game.
AS USUAL.
I have 2 accounts on SWG….. guess i can loose one for a while and try this. Kinda soaunds right for me anyways.
Uh, legitimate and honest answers but definitly nothing that would make me not want to play.
Why would someone focus on 3 weapon skills and not 1? Stupid. I get it though, some people with lack of experience in this kind of game would probably try and get a little of every skill, they never played UO, I understand.
Right now, there isn’t much out there in the MMO world that is different from every other one aside from Atlantica Online and only because it is the only turn-based MMO.
I think what it comes down to, at least for me, is the atmosphere and feeling of the game, and in the case of FE, post-apocalyptic it fits perfectly.
I liked Tablua Rasa, despite it’s grind and repetiveness until they made it slower-paced(ie gave everything more armor/hp) which I fealt ruined it. What does this paragraph have to do with the rest of what I am saying? Games you like will turn into games you hate, games you hate will always be games you hate.
Conclusion, pick one MMO, and play it on a minimum basis and stick to non-MMOs.
The End.
Most of Syp’s “points” are just silly and misleading (especially the Greed section; “shoving players out of the way”, which is not possible; and if you hit a mission mob even once you get mission credit for the kill). FE is a game leaning toward mature experienced players who don’t need a lot of hand-holding; it lets you feel the way you would naturally in a post-apoc world – alittle lost and bewildered at first, with lots to learn. And the learning part can be a lot of fun, it gets you immersed in the game world. Obviously you’ll enjoy it far more if you’re a fan of the post-apoc genre. And even if not, there’s some really nice innovations here that will be copied by other MMO’s.
[…]and I’ve yet to see anything that binds to a character, which means items can be reused over and over again without sucking them out of the economy.
—
Just wanted to say most things above level 20-ish “attune” to you when equipped so once you use it, most things at higher level either become salvage or chips when you’re done with ’em.
I do thoroughly enjoy this game. I started with a buddy of mine (ex-WoW, DAoC, SB, list goes on and on) and we were thrilled to find it giving us the same experience that DAoC did 8 years ago. Placed in this super random spot, no direction to go, and not much to battle with. It’s like go get it done.
In Terance, there is this old cave that contains quite a few lower level quests (like 1-5 level). We entered at level 2 and wow we struggled. That probably killed us 10-15 times each and by the end we were shaking our fists at the damn cave thinking “UGH DAMN CAVE!!” But that was the great part. Frustrating at first but when we recalled the days of DAoC there were a lot of places like that. We remember those days with the thought of “Ahh, the good ol’ days!” It’s the same experience we got in FE. It feels like we actually accomplished something even at a lower level.
Just my two cents. Plus, the game doesn’t have teenagers SCORE! 🙂
Uhm…yeah.
You go ahead and think that Syp’s review of FE is accurate.
If Tab>Target and button-mashing is your thing, there is a wonderfully easy MMO called World of Warcraft. You press buttons, you kill dragons, you has t3h ub3r l00tZ — til the next patch comes out.
Or if you prefer an anime-style grind-fest, try Aion, where you get spammed in-game by currency farmers more often than a real-life Telemarketer with an auto-dialer.
If you want to be challenged, intrigued, and ultimately, infatuated with a game that will leave you crying “YEAH BABY, YEAH!!” at the end of the day, try Fallen Earth.
well, i ve been playing Fe for around a month now, and i have to say its one of the best games, let alone mmo s, ive ever played. the atmosphere, the maturity level, the carefully balanced mixture between crafting and hardcore pvp, everything about this game has had me hooked. so you ll excuse me if i find your reasons completely unreasonable. and from the sound of it, sounds like u really do like this game too, am i right? 🙂
Yea I love WoW its the best game ever. This is eactly why you shouldent play any other game, WoW is the best MMO ever. Everything elce is crap1!
This is totally inaccurate now. Everything about FE has changed. Update or delete this,