Cupcakus Posted January 7, 2003 Share Posted January 7, 2003 I recently got this and Battlefield 1942 from my bud at EA, and had a chance to play them for a few days... and I felt like expressing my thoughts on them. Earth and Beyond: The price is right to pick it up... $20 in store, or $15 for a reg code if you can find someone with discs for you. Both give you a free month of play. The $12.95 a month afterwards however is not recommended in my opinion. I've only been playing it for about 10 days... and while at first I couldn't stop playing it, it has most certainly become tiresome. The game takes place in a troubled MMO universe, set in space. You spend most of your time in 3rd person view behind your ship flying around the galaxy killing things, or trading goods. You can also land in one of the 30 or so space stations and walk around in 3rd person view behind your character. A plethera of emote actions exist for this mode, but it is rare to find anyone in this mode at all, so it comes off as a waste. Every character has 3 experience areas, Combat, Exploration, and Trade. To achieve the maximum level in the game (150) you have to achive level 50 in all three skills. When you start the game you are given a very rudimentary map to work with for each sector. The map is riddled with ? marks, as you explore these marks you make Exploration XP... Exploration XP is beyond easy to get... and ends up being how you spend most of your early life in Earth & Beyond... Most sectors are very dangerous and you will die exploring... but the XP you gain is worth the risk. Combat XP is the hardest skill to get... Unlike other games color coding telling you if you can beat a mob, this game just outright tells you the objects combat level. The problem is that anything less than 8 or 9 levels above you does not give peanuts for XP... so group hunting is a must, and for the non-combat characters (Tradesmen, Explorers) it is hard to find groups to accept you. Trade XP is also easy to obtain, but tedius, and boring... There is nothing to break the tention here... you simply fly to one base, buy goods, fly to another base, sell goods, continue... This never changes... at higher levels (75+) you can run Trade jobs which also give XP, but at an level below 75 the XP given for a job is extremely substandard. Ships and Character's are extremely customisable, and that is a very good aspect. My character has a bar code printed across his forehead.. :-) And my ship has custom made decals on it. You cannot really die in earth and beyond... if you happen to lose all of your sheilds and hull in a battle your ship will be disabled. You have only two options then... Find an Explorer class character to come and jump start your ship, and a Tradesmen character to repair your ship, or get towed to the last base you landed at for a substantial fee. In addition you recieve XP debt. The amount of debt incurred is based on your current level, and all experience gains you make from then on, half is placed againsed your debt and the other half you still recieve. Exploration is the easiest way to work off debt, and for me at least, only takes a few minutes to work off. The game has a small story line running... although it is not apparrent at all, and no other players can help you find the answers. There are no quests at all except for a scripted quest everyone gets at lvl 30, and the training you recieve when you start the game. Newbie training is top notch, but still leaves you clueless when you are set lose on the game afterwards... but it's easier to feel your way through than other games. Grouping is a necessity in a lot of things you do... Combat especially. Grouping in trade runs is a waste due to an experience cap placed on all trade runs the XP bonus given by grouping is pointless, however if you group with a Tradesmen you can sell your goods for 9% more at the end of the run... Almost every item in the game can be player made... and there is no reason to not play with player made items, as they are 100x better... especially weapons. Tradesmen can make just about everything but reactors, including high quality components to make the items. However to make components Tradesmen need raw resources which only Explorers can mine and refine. So to sum it all up and go to bed.... Earth and beyond is very much worth the $20 for a month, but if I can get to level 60 in 10 days or so (Only playing maybe 4 of them) and be utterly bored by now... it's not worth the $12.95 a month. I'd be happy to burn and ship my discs if you just want to go the reg code route... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jjessop Posted January 7, 2003 Share Posted January 7, 2003 I was hoping to hear you talk about Battlefield 1942......what an awesome game! So long as you have a super computer and the skills to tweak it, it runs great, if not, avoid the game. I am totally addicted and it's taking up all my free time jerry Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
badbrad Posted January 7, 2003 Share Posted January 7, 2003 I beta tested that game for a few months, pretty cool, fun and all, but not worth paying server fees after that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cupcakus Posted January 7, 2003 Author Share Posted January 7, 2003 I will do BF1942 tommorrow :-) Too tired now :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raijin Z Posted January 9, 2003 Share Posted January 9, 2003 It took Electronic Arts to make the entire universe boring. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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