On the whole I definitely tend to agree with many of the points you covered in your review (which was well written by the way -- nice to see an honest review where you can tell the writer spent quality time with the game in the midst of all the uproar over the ethics of fair reviews vs. advertising dollars at any rate
)
The game does have an extremely solid core. The more I've played it the more apparent some of the key points Mr. Garriott discussed in interviews over the past 6+ months have become... though to some degree it still seems they're there in essence rather than solid practice as of yet.
The exclusion of vehicular combat does seem like a missed opportunity. In fact the last time I was playing it struck me that the game would have been a perfect place to absorb some elements from Auto Assault - then again I was also one of those Eve players who kept wanting to land on one of the various planets and explore it rather than watch my ship warp directly through the center of it.
The combat still strikes me as insta-fun yet has it's elements of frustration all at once. Someone brought up in chat that it makes little sense that Specialists can use standard weapons exactly as effectively as Soldiers yet can heal and repair shields to boot, which I somewhat agree with as an example. The other combat frustrations for me are A) if your shield drops, more often than not you're dead - your red health bar is basically just a few second buffer for you to start deciding which med station to rez at, and B) Though I'm not a fan of it in any game, condition loss on items in TR is just a killer PIA for me so far. Unless I'm constantly running back to repair my items it seems my weapons want to insta-jam, and I suddenly have less than half the armor benefits I should. I do understand the need for gold sinks in games, but having to purchase ammo and assorted items to fuel your logos abilities is already a major coin sink - the constant need to pay for repairs just feels like a kick in the head after a while playing.
Even with the minor issues I've had while playing the game is still exceedingly fun. Nothing ever feels static, and the part of me that enjoys exploration has really been pleased with the environments so far. I do wish the earlier areas (Wilderness and Divide) had a bit more of an alien fell to them - they still feel like I'm fighting in the initial invasion on Earth rather than a different planet - but even then they're still beautifully done. Definitely a game worth experiencing on a PC that can handle max settings as far as the visuals are concerned.
Editland says:
The other thing I was going to mention was that your comments about the Logos in general are spot on. A few of the shrines have these elaborate little chambers surrounding them, but the majority just seem plopped down randomly which is a bit how the whole system feels. It's another of those really amazing ideas I'd hoped would be fleshed out a bit more, at least beyond simply providing a bit of extra quest xp and adding a minor time-sink you need to play through to use your handful of abilities.
Ten Ton Hammer's Review of Richard Garriott's Tabula Rasa
Linear Mode
