Reviewed: August 3, 2003
Reviewed by: John Carswell
Publisher
Electronic Arts
Developer
Westwood Studios
Released: September 24, 2002
Genre: MMORPG
Players: Online
ESRB: Teen
8
9
5
8
7.5
System Requirements
Recommended System
If you’re an MMORPG fan whose become bored with killing goblins and is looking for something a little less demanding than EVE Online, EA may very well have what you’re looking for in Earth & Beyond. Set in a future where the human race has begun spreading across the galaxy, E&B lets you carve out a virtual life in the stars. Offering a number of potential career paths, a sprawling universe waiting to be explored, and plenty of eye candy, E&B is sure to please RPG and Space Sim fans alike.
Earth & Beyond is an odd game. Although officially an MMORPG, the game I found was more akin to a single player RPG set in an online universe. Perhaps it’s that in a space setting, other players are usually small blips zipping across your radar. Maybe it’s the lack of any central meeting area, but for whatever reason, I never felt compelled to hunt down others player. Despite or because of this, I enjoyed my time in EA’s new addition to the genre.
If you’re looking to get into an MMORPG for the first time, I couldn’t think of a better game the Earth & Beyond. After installing the software, I was walked through the registration process by E&B’s friendly AI representative. Complete with 3D animation and full voice, she held my hand throughout the entire process and had me up and running in a matter of minutes. Obviously, if you’ve played plenty of online games this is hardly necessary, but someone new the genre will appreciate this extra effort on Westwood’s and EA’s part.
Once logged on, it’s time to create your new online identity. First off, you need to decide on a faction. The Terrans are your basic, middle-of-road faction whose focus is mainly trade; the Jenquai are the tactically weak faction that excels in matters of science and exploration; lastly are the Progen who are the galaxies militaristic heavy-hitters.
Depending on your decision, you will then be given a choice of a ship (each faction offers two) which further decides what skills you will use most effectively. Of course, you’re also given a healthy number of choices concerning the appearance of both your ship and character.
After entering the game world, you’re treated to a tutorial that plays out like a mini-RPG. An engaging story will slowly teach you the ways of E&B’s universe while giving your character its first chances for advancement. The skill system in Earth & Beyond is a unique one and is based around three disciplines: Exploration, Trade, and Combat. After successfully completing any given action, you are rewarding experience in its respective discipline (i.e.: kill and enemy for Combat XP, visit a new area for Exploration XP, etc.) As you gain experience points and level up, you are able to use new equipment that corresponds not only with your level but also with your skill in its discipline (if you’ve focused on combat new weapons will be made available to you, etc.). This system works quite well and holds its own when compared to the best MMORPG’s. My only gripe would be that you are not given access to better ships but instead are forced to upgrade the ship you started with.
E&B’s universe is very sizable with planets, space stations, asteroid belts and various flora and phenomenon scattered about. It’s unfortunate than that navigation can be something of a chore. Since exploration is part of E&B’s experience system, the map of the universe is largely hidden from you. You are able to see areas that you have visited and nearby waypoints (represented by questions marks) but beyond that, you are blind. As you visit these unexplored waypoints, other nearby waypoints are revealed to you and so on. The problem arises when you are given a mission that requires you go to a system you currently do not have mapped, as the path from point “A” to point “B” is often a very crooked one in E&B.
Combat in Earth & Beyond is what you’d expect from an MMORPG, consisting mainly of targeting an enemy and selecting which weapon to fire. There are defensive abilities and “buffs” (some of which affect your entire group) but nothing that I felt separated E&B from its competitors. Earth & Beyond also suffers from some repetitious enemies. Too often the same enemy model is reused and is simply given higher statistics and a different name. This shouldn’t be that large of a problem but by removing visual clues to the strength of an enemy, combat becomes less intuitive. Also, leveling up becomes less of an event when you find yourself fighting what are essentially the same creatures you were killing before. Ultimately, I was never able to get into the combat and it quickly faded into the background of my E&B experience.
Thankfully, Earth & Beyond offers far more than combat. Since my character’s class lent itself to mining, I was quickly out hunting for various minerals. Each asteroid is given a numerical classification hints at its quality and how skilled you’ll need to be to extract its resources. Naturally, the more precious the contents, the more dangerous the area but I enjoyed hunting throughout the systems for quiet asteroid fields where I could mine away in relative safety.
Also in place is a complex manufacturing process that should enthrall gamers who like to build and sell their own wares. To create an object, you need the raw materials, the necessary parts, and the skill. While this may not seem too deep, each step in the process requires varying levels, knowledge and classes which means that players will often have to work to together to manufacture an item. The result is a player-run economy and the potential for teams based entirely around the construction and selling of goods.
As I mentioned earlier, the sense of community in E&B is lacking. In a universe as large as the one E&B offers, it’s not hard at all to go for hours without noticing another player. Even at bases that I would expect to be bustling with activity, I routinely found myself alone. It’s not that there are not other players, but rather that they are too spread out.
For instance, in another Electronic Arts MMORPG, Ultima Online, there are relatively few cities and in those cities are structures that people gather around out of necessity (banks, blacksmiths, etc). Because of this, players are always running into one another and overtime friendships emerge. In E&B, there are so many space stations where players can quickly grab what they need and leave, that the chances for impromptu partnerships are greatly lessened. In its defense, Earth & Beyond offers bars where players can meet and mingle, but again there are far too many of them and since they are not necessary to the gameplay, they are oftentimes devoid of life.
Eschewing the dark and gritty Sci-Fi landscape found in most games, Earth & Beyond sports a bright and colorful appearance, even some punk influences. While I was not able to warm up to this unique vision of the future, E&B is nevertheless pleasing to the eye. With its gorgeous and sprawling space stations, highly detailed character models, a bevy of eye-catching special effects, and gratuitous sue of shimmering metal, E&B should fill everyone’s “eye candy” requirements. The planets are also faithfully recreated with Saturn’s enormous rings humbling the comparatively miniscule, manmade constructs. Oddly enough, the background textures used for distant stars and galaxies were underwhelming and something of a let down.
Earth & Beyond also has a distinct cinematic feel to it with a camera that automatically takes advantage of the game’s graphical highpoints. Whether slipping into a Jump Gate or extracting valuable minerals from an asteroid, the camera will pan around your ship to show off the action and helps keep the player’s interest during E&B’s more quiet moments. Of course, E&B has its share of weak points such as its rather unappealing planet surfaces and monotonous ship design, but these do little to detract from E&B’s overall appeal.
For the most part, E&B’s audio experience is bleak. Weapons fire and launching into hyper speed should be auditory showcases but in E&B are surprisingly uninspired and weak. In fact, all of Earth & Beyond’s sound effects felt hastily slapped together.
It’s always difficult to judge the value of an MMORPG but EA has made it inexpensive to decide for yourself if the $13 monthly fee is worth it. Aside from simply buying the retail box (which can be found dirt-cheap right now), you have a few other very welcome options. Should you have a friend who already owns E&B, simply use their discs for a quick install and purchase a “buddy code” which will give you your own account.
Even more commendable is the option to download the five-day demo (a sizable 1.2 gigabyte file) and—should you enjoy yourself—buy a code from EA for fifteen dollars that will allow you to play just as though you had purchased the retail version. Essentially, if you are remotely interested in what E&B has to offer and have a broadband connection and know someone who owns the game, there is nothing holding you back.
Although it’s unlikely that I’ll be playing Earth & Beyond in the future, it’s hard to turn your nose up at the chance to explore a relatively free-form galaxy. If you’ve enjoyed space sims in the past and don’t mind the simplified combat engine then go for it. With its intuitive controls, attractive graphics, and lofty scope, E&B has a lot to offer the right gamer.