There's a lot of clever writing in Fallen Earth. NPCs will readily acknowledge the brutal, selfish motives behind what they ask you to do, and while at times it will be for the greater good of a community – or at least phrased as such – often it isn't. Life is cheap in the post-apocalyptic world, and everybody knows it.
NPCs will also acknowledge that they're sending you on dangerous missions because you're a clone, and if you die then Lifenet will bring you back and you can try again. Most MMOs shy away from dwelling on their respawn mechanics but Fallen Earth embraces it.
Lifenet – a product of GlobalTech – is an integral part of the setting. It's omnipresent throughout the province, but noone knows how it actually works anymore, and the starter town of Terance shows what happens when people mess around with it.
An attempt to reactivate an old Lifenet bunker and make use of the cloning technology has resulted in hordes of unfinished, flawed clones – zombies in all but name – spilling out of the bunker and massacring most of the town.
It's very well thought out. Without ever spelling it out the story in Terance explains why noone – other than the clones who were already part of the Lifenet system – makes use of this incredible technology. It's simply too dangerous.
Each of the starter towns gives some extra focus to one aspect of the game – be it melee combat, ranged combat, support skills or crafting. In Terance the focus is combat, and there's a couple of locations where the mob density – and respawn rate – means you need to stay alert, and keep moving, to avoid being overrun. One lesson I have learned from past runs is to go melee in the bunker itself, because any time I've went in with guns I've ran out of ammo.
The big house on the hill, on the other hand, is one for pistols. There's not as many mobs – so running out of ammo is less likely – but it's a much tighter space, and facing off against two or three enemies at the same time is normal, so kill speed becomes very important.
Terance is my favourite starter town, with a good atmosphere, interesting story, some challenging encounters and some great writing – especially in the bunker itself when you encounter what's really behind the zombie outbreak. Since it's no longer one of the official start locations I imagine not many new players see it now. Perhaps that's for the best – it's probably the toughest and most unforgiving of all the new player towns – but it's definitely worth taking the long road to get there.
Comments
Post a Comment