Fallen Earth: Civilization, rebuilt
To jump off of yesterday’s post about the attraction of civilized life in LOTRO, I’m finding myself thinking a lot about the rebirth of civilization that you’re witness to in Fallen Earth.
For those who haven’t played the game, your character (and every player character) is a semi-immortal clone who happens to “die” some time around the end of the world, only to be brought back years later after civilization is being stitched back together. I think the clone angle is genius, in some respects, because it not only explains how you can keep returning from death, but it serves to set you apart in the eyes of the regular Joes and Janes that populate the world. I still feel my lips quirk up in a smile when an NPC voiceover asks me if death hurts or says witsfully that it must be nice to have that advantage.
Sector one, the only sector I’ve really explored in the game, has a wonderful 28-days-later feel to the place. It’s not just barren visually (being in the Grand Canyon and all) but barren in a widespread civilized sense. Each of the towns are isolated from each other, some rebuilt on top of the ruins of whatever was there before the apocalypse. Factions and governments and law enforcement are reshaped and reestablished, but the world is significantly changed than what we — as players — know our world to be now. Lots has been forgotten. Lots has been reinterpreted over time. And the place looks like it’s two rolls of duct tape short of falling apart at the seams.
Personally, I love exploring this setting. It’s both familiar and alien enough for me to get my bearings and to keep an eye out for weirdness. Walking around the towns, you see how each community is trying to revive civilization — some through mundane acts of farming, some via questionable genetic experiments. There’s love, jealousy, betrayal, friendships, bear attacks, and enough grizzled voices to populate the entire Mad Max series.
To me, the story of Fallen Earth is the rebuilding of civilization, and how I am a part of that effort, even on a very small scale of crafting familiar items for myself, building a tent, and helping to play doctor to those who need it. You’re reminded that this isn’t just all a giant paintball arena, but a place where virtual folks live, kids have toys, food is sometimes more important than bullets, and the lives of many are still at stake.
- Posted in: Fallen Earth
And another important difference in Fallen Earth compared to most other MMOs is that you are not the hero. You are just another soul trying to survive. There is no real goal other than to survive. It is a liberating feeling I am not on some rat race. On the other hand it does make it sometimes hard to log in a play just for an hour. I play it foremost to feel immersed into the world. So I have set myself as impossible goal to learn as much as possible about Lifenet so that one day I will be able to switch it off and finally truly die.
I have to say, the post-apocalyptic setting is my favorite. Fallout 3, Fallout New Vegas, the upcoming Rage, Fallen Earth (at least the beta) and all games that I look forward to with rabid interest simply because I am fascinated with the idea of “what if we had to start from scratch?”
The setting really is pure genius, and would make a great backdrop for novels. I wouldn’t necessarily slap the “hey this is a book based on a video game” tag on it, but rather build it on its own. The Faction background, the story of the Fall, itself – really good stuff.