MMO Weekly: Pokin' Around Global Agenda

09 Feb 2010 at 00:00:00 by Jeff Hollis

I've been incredibly busy lately, so there's been virtually no time for gaming, much less logging into any MMO and playing for a few hours.  It just ain't happenin'. I did, however, manage to get a little time with Global Agenda this past weekend – finally! - and had a good time.  In part, this was because I was able to log in for about 25 minutes per session, before either 1) the kid, or 2) the wife, or 3) both of them started yelling for me.  Then I'd have to log off, find out what they wanted, do it, and then try to log back on again. 

This basically ensured that I did nothing of any consequence whatsoever in GA.  In fact, I ran the tutorial, made a few characters, jumped into the non-stop PvP fight that is the virtual reality simulator in my native domed city (damn, that thing is fun), and then ran a few missions.  I thought I would end up frustrated with this log in, do something quick, and then log out dealio but, much to my surprise, I actually found myself having fun.  As a result of this VERY haphazard way of playing, I formed a few impressions of Global Agenda, and I thought I'd share them with you.

Mind you, this isn't IncGamers' official review of GA; far from it.  These are just the impressions of a noob, who just got started with this game.  However, I've played a very significant number of MMOs, and quite a few sci-fi MMOs over the years, and this game seems, so far, to be rather noteworthy.  A few thoughts:

Interface:  Global Agenda is, more than anything else, a first person shooter.  They didn't get all crazy with the concept (yeah, I'm looking at you, Tabula Rasa)  – the game is an FPS through and through.  You move with your WASD keys, you look and shoot with your mouse.  Simple.  It's a great interface, and Hi-Rez Studios didn't see any need to change it.  Smart move.

Suffice to say, within about 3 minutes of logging in, I knew what to do.  Throw a grenade?  I'll bet that's the number 4 key  (since there's a number 4 on my hotbar, and it's got a grenade icon on it), and....boom!  Grenade gets thrown.  Equip my Uber Axe of Sci-Fi Slicing?  Well, that's under #1 on my hotbar and...oh, hey, sorry, did I chop your head off?  Raise my personal shield against ranged attacks?  Hmmm...that looks like I should press #5, and ….nyah nyah, you can't shoot me.

No other sci-fi MMO has done this in my memory, with the exception of Hellgate: Whateveritscallednow.  Keeping this game an FPS, and not some sort of weird hybrid,  is a very, very smart design decision.

Ammunition:  Every single sci-fi MMO I can think of makes you purchase and carry ammunition, and I've never ever met anyone that enjoys that concept.  In fact, the trend in FPS games today is to have ammunition that simply “recharges” itself over time.  No, it doesn't make any sense that when you throw your three hand grenades, 3 more appear on your belt after a 2 minute cooldown has passed.  But  gameplay is significantly improved by this, even if realism has to be sacrificed a bit. 

This situation is greatly exacerbated in an MMO because of the simple fact that, in MMO games, you collect and carry lots of weapons, armor, and other whatnot.  In an older MMO that comes to mind, I had about 4 guns on my person, and had to keep switching them out because I was running out of rounds.  I'd fire my mini-gun, run out of mini-gun bullets, switch to my scattergun for a while until I collected mini-gun bullets from my slain enemies, and use the mini-gun again for a while.....you get the idea.  Not fun. 

GA dispenses with this whole, crappy mechanic, and instead you have an energy pool that powers your jet pack, your various guns, and some other futuristic doohickeys.  No ammo required, and the pool recharges fairly quickly.  Nice design decision.

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