Reacon Posted February 2, 2010 Share Posted February 2, 2010 Here's a little review I cooked up for IGN based on my experiences with the game Global Agenda, which came out today, February 01. I've played this since the very first Closed Beta testing, one of the first thousand, and I expect to play it much in the days to come with release. It has already pulled me off of Team Fortress 2 for more than 2 weeks, which I played addictively until Global Agenda went open beta (and had a full week's schedule of beta). By 2155 AD., war has already consumed most of Earth's inhabitable surface. Due to destruction and radiation, humanity is forced to retreat to the last few untouched corners of the earth. Unfortunately, there are many who wish these last safe havens for themselves.You start out as an agent who is just freed from the Commonwealth, a ruling faction of the post nuclear war setting. Something goes wrong, however, and your rescue team dies in an explosion that simultaneously destroys your stasis chambre. You start with no weapons, and no help. You are forced to learn as you go as you blast and slice your way through security drones and Commonwealth workers to the conveniently placed rescue dropship just 2 skyscrapers away. Along the way you are briefed on how to use your weapons, depending on which class you initially chose. There are 4 classes, Assault, Robotics, Recon, and Medic. Each class has several skill trees, all of which are equally useful for their purpose. Medic, for example, can be combat oriented, although surprisingly they're not at all useless this way. A great arsenal of poisons and different grenades make sure he is never defenseless. The standard heal gun works like that of Team Fortress 2 (a direct beam of healing), although it can be swapped out for one that group heals. Heal grenades are also great for a big cluster team boost. Assault works alot in the way a heavy does in TF2, but it is not limited to a minigun and a sandvich. Explosives are natural with this class and, like every other, assault can easily be offensive or defensively spec'd. Robotics is a bit unique from the classic TF2 Engineer, but withholds many of the basic concepts. You can throw down bots for quick helpers when taking a point, or build a turret for defense. One of the more useful specs are shields, which only your team can shoot through, for excellent cover. Recon is more of a TF2 Scout/Spy/Sniper class. Very effective melee (critical hits from the back), and with a cloak. The Recon is also very mobile and effectively makes use of sniper rifle when spec'd for long ranged. Of course, every one of these classes carry jetpacks which allow for superb mobility and dynamic gameplay, allowing intense fights to take place even on rooftops. Instead of a normal buy-new-weapon-every-level system that normally ends up cheating new players with less money, weapons are managed smartly via "Device points" and unlocked as levels progress. Weapons, jetpacks, and offhand devices are divided into 4 seperate levels, and you may upgrade and downgrade at will, but here's the cache: You only have a certain amount of device points to work with. For example, a level 4 Recon rifle would cost take 4 device points, and if you had nothing else equipped and a total of 16 free device points, it would be 4/16. Now say you upgrade your melee weapon to level 3, and your jetpack to 2. Then it would be 9/16. There is no downside to filling all your device slots, but they do tend to run short, so you can't have all level 4 equipment. Skill trees also add a bit of versatility to each class. Having upgrades like 20% more "power" (your ammo, abilities, jetpack, ect), to 5 seconds more drone time (believe me, 5 seconds is alot) makes for a bit of customization that goes beyond the basic class layouts. The gameplay itself plays much like Team Fortress 2. Teamwork is essential and the classes tend to share the same attributes as that of TF2's. The third person camera works flawlessly, and anyone can easily get used to it. Old classic teambased gametypes like Control Point and Push the Cart reappear here in new life, and no less vigor, while new, creative gametypes like Capture the Mech innovate in the standard. Wall climbing and the animations that go with them are smooth and useful when you run out of jetpack energy. One thing to note is the fact that there are no headshots. Hirez has made a point out of making sure there are no "one hit kills", but you can definitely die in a matter of 1-2 seconds, especially from a Recon. Alliance vs Alliance Conquest mechanics are great for large scale wars, a thing unseen in FPS games since Planetside. Territories start out as Commonwealth (the NPC faction) controlled, and can be attacked by other alliances only during a certain time of day. Territories reset at their own times, and you are forced to retake them from the Commonwealth if you've dominated them unchallenged for a month or so. Defenses among other things are customizable for strategic defensive advantages. Territories bring excellent economic benefits to their holders, as well, mining for natural resources that can be used in crafting and such. The Coop/PvE is -very- fun. The instances work sort of like that of World of Warcraft's (or, really, any MMORPG's), except for the fact that you rely on your skill, instead of a level 80 escort. Various bosses and mini bosses that take thinking to beat, give the coop feature much more substance beyond grinding for economic benefits. Dome cities and social areas are all but functional for their purpose, though they can get slightly laggy with a lot of people. Luckily, these are instanced to keep the population down. They are a very effective social and shop neutral zones. Global Agenda is often unfairly described as an "FPS with a lobby", this is far from the truth, however. Overview: Graphics: 9 - Bland environments mixed with vibrant sprite colours. While bland, it does it in an artistic way. GA has very effective futuristic feel to it. Hirez doesn't leave a single feature of the Unreal 3 untouched in this game. Beautiful shading and light. Look up some videos and screenshots; there is really no way to accurately describe it. Sound: 7.5 - Relatively generic sound effects. Voice acting is not top notch, but not mediocre. Every sound has its purpose, however, and works well with surround. Community: N/A - It would be unfair to rate the community at this time (release day), and in the beta, we rarely got to test Conquest. The concept is amazing, we'll have to wait to see about execution, however. No server community seperation is a huge plus, though. Performance: 8 - Less than usual for an Unreal 3 game, but that is to be expected from an MMO. I got a 45 FPS average with a 4870 1GB, and a Q8200 @ 2.8 GHz. It never dipped below 30 fps, however. And I was running the game on highest possible settings, with x16 AA. Value: 8.5 - The pricing scheme that Hirez cooked up is genius considering Global Agenda's hybrid genre: FPS/MMO. The $49.99 retail copy comes with all the features you'd get from a regular FPS game, plus the economy, and some other great community features that are not seen in a normal FPS. The options "Conquest" package, for $12.99 a month and enables most of the "MMO" aspects of the game, including the Alliance vs Alliance, upgraded voice, and player crafting skills. Network: 10 - The network and overall lag performance of GA is superb. Hirez implemented a system they call the "single shard". As I understand it, it consists of one server location per geographical location (per continent). The playerbases are not seperate, however: Each server location communicates with the others to minimize ping and provide excellent network performance so you never miss a shot. The netcode of this game is simply amazing. I could play with an Australian (I'm American) with just 100ish ping. -Recon415 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mounty Posted February 4, 2010 Share Posted February 4, 2010 Hi there, thanks for posting your review (particularly as I never visit those large gaming networks!). I've had a vague interest in this game since november, but didn't really know much about it until now. TF2 was until recently one of my most favourite FPS ever, so the direct comparison was very interesting! One thing that stood out in your review is the lack of instagib kill shots (something which I detest outside sniper headshots). Another was the 3rd person perspective, which to be honest doesn't appeal to me, but if it works then I'll take your word on it ;) Sounds like it compares well with Starsiege:Tribes too, are all the old classics making a comback!? ;) But, is there a UK server? Or atleast western europe like france or the netherlands. Pings must be an issue atleast after 100ms? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shyatic Posted February 4, 2010 Share Posted February 4, 2010 Having played the beta and bought the game, I'm not upset that I did, but at the same time I can't find any reason to play GA over TF2, especially since the "MMO" part of the game is so distanced from the player that it doesn't seem to matter at all. Sure, you get some neat options but in the end, it's basically just the same game. And I like the graphics in TF2 better and the gameplay is better too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neoauld Posted February 19, 2010 Share Posted February 19, 2010 I started playing this game recently, LOVE IT, more than TF2 for sure. Its sad how unheard of it is Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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