FamilyAC Roleplayers; Earth and Beyond

Beta Phase: Closed Beta (EA Personnel only. Public Beta TBA beginning of Summer)

Release Date: Fourth Quarter, 2001.

Game Genre: MMOG (Space Simulation)

POI: Space equivalent of MMORPG's (Character Creation, Levels, Skills etc.), Personified Space Craft, Continually expanding Universe and Storyline, Many unique approaches to this Genre.

Earth and Beyond

Vegas-based developer Westwood Studios are widely known for their success in the Strategy-War genre and particularly famous for the Command & Conquer series which includes Red Alert 1 and 2 amongst others. What is less well known is that they have been working on the sly for the past four years on the Earth and Beyond project, which is set to fit quite snugly into the market niche which is sorely in need of persistant-universe space strategy simulation type games. The intergalactic uber-publishers, Electronic Arts (who's history goes back even further than their publishing of The Bard's Tale trilogy, nearly two decades ago), have taken the game under their publishing wing and will also be hosting the servers for play. So jump aboard my rickety ol' spacecraft if you will, and follow me on a guided tour of the Earth and Beyond universe in the hopes of learning more about this new frontier.

When Worlds Collide

A civil war devastated Earth about 100 years ago, and it is now the 23rd century. Those remaining humans have split into factions; the Terrans (Traders), the Progens (Explorers) and the Jenquai (Fighters), all living under an uneasy truce. Okay, it's not the most original storyline to begin a game with, but there is hope yet. The game will have a continually changing storyline which progresses depending on the actions of each server's inhabitants (much like Asheron's Call). This is surely the better choice to go along with, rather than concentrating on a pre-history which about 12% will even check through from beginning to end. You could argue that if you wanted to enjoy a good story, then find a local library, but the proof is in the pudding and Earth and Beyond is an MMOG where the joy is found through playing the actual game.

Let's start by looking at one of the things which make Earth and Beyond such a fine prospect for success. After choosing yourself a race, you can choose an area to specialise in, which may well mean you are a Terran (Trader) with a specialty in Exploration, giving you a good taste of both worlds. Along with these nine combinations, you get to learn new skills as you progress through the game. This may require many things in the process, one of which might be for you to explore uncharted planets and physically take your craft to the planet's surface and search around, for which you could find an 'Old-Master' who can teach you new skills.

As you progress in the game, a marvelous feature is continually taking place. Your ship can be, for all intents and purposes, considered as your character. As you gain upgrades to your ship, so too does it change in appearance. This may range from anything through your engines' jets being a certain colour and texture, to representations on your ship which show great feats you've accomplished. In fact, ships varies so much from player to player that you can recognise them at a glance with little difficulty at all.

That may very well sound like a recipe for disaster in terms of lag.. surely loading in all those details will hog your bandwidth? Sure, but no more than any other MMOG, and with a universe as large and diverse as this where space stations are in high numbers and camping areas aren't really an issue, players will rarely congregate around one particular area, unless for special events, alliance reasons and large battles or wars.

The Truth Is Out There

Alien contact is something which will be an integral part of the game, though the extremity of this has yet to be revealed. From what hasw been released so far, it seems likely that alien contact will range from interactable species which you can trade or fight with, through to storyline-triggered aliens and those who become discovered as players explore the ever expanding universe.

This leads onto another interesting features.. Let's say you are exploring an uncharted area of space and you go down to a planet's surface. You might well be looking for resources in the planet which you can trade or build with. Perhaps you are looking for an alien race to trade with. Either way, the point is you might well discover a crashsite of a spacecraft from some long extinct race. On closer inspection you could find technology onboard which can be used on your own ship. Great! grab it and take it back to your laboratories and have them come up with new weapons and what-nots which you can then produce and sell or hand out to your friends in your alliance.

Your Mission, Should You Choose To Accept It

Earth and Beyond features a mission/quest engine which creates objectives for you to accomplish with rewards ranging from cold hard cash through to unique items and upgrades with which you can bolster both your ship and your reputation. These mission choices are always based around your skills, abilities and track-record, so they will always be challenging but rarely too easy or impossible. Also talking of missions being relative to your abilities, so are all items and upgrades for your ship. That is to say if you have just started playing the game you're not going to be able to use guns which have more firepower than your average king-sized Battleship. This prevents players giving their newbie friends all the best equipment to start out with, so it all has to be earned the good ol' fashioned way. Blood n' sweat :) or some nice trading and exploration, of course.

Please make sure you're seated for this.. but items do degrade with time and use. The collective gasps which I can hear are unfounded though, because on average an item will take no less than a good few months to become unusable, and that's without due care and repair. A truely magnificent artifact which you take very good care of could possibly last your entire career, though as you gain levels you'll likely no longer need that item anyway, in favour of something new and more powerful, so it all squares out in the end. Currently it's worth pointing out that there's a level 50 cap in place (personally I can't stand level caps), but you can bet your wooden leg that it'll be raised in time.

Avast, For I Have Been Smited!

Death in Earth and Beyond isn't too bad really. Upon having your ship smacked down, you will be towed to the nearest space-base and set up for repairs, which you can pay outright or pay back by doing a few tasks. If you find you cannot afford the repairs, your ship will recieve minimal repairs so it is functional, followed by the chance to pay through doing a small task or two. The details on this subject are still limited (like most subject areas, which Westwood have been teasingly tight-lipped about), but it seems a fair system and you never lose any items or upgrades.

Also for those who are concerned about PK'ers, 20% of the universe will be zones where PvP combat can take place alongside the normal run of events in the game, while the other 80% are purely non-PvP. There's never an ideal way to approach PVP and non-PVP, as everyone wants something different, but they will see how the testers respond to this and may decide to make a server which allows complete PvP in that universe and then removing the 20% PvP zones from the normal servers.. who knows at this point, it's something which will very likely be changed during the course of beta.

Smooth Sailing

The in-game graphics are very good for a space game. The attention to detail is excellent with planets and space stations looking very smart up close, especially when skimming close. Earth and Beyond does have some peculiar minimum requirements though, as games go. Let's finish by taking a look at them. They should be compatible with most computers though, but game performance may be hindered in some areas. (The engine does utilise Direct X 8 features, in case you were wondering).

Minimum System Requirements