Been playing it a decent amount this week. I am only up to lvl 10ish, and only past my first class choice/clone point so I am not too far into the midgame or end game by any means.
Thoughts:
It
is fun. You literally can start a character and be defending a base within 30 mins. It took me a little more time because I wanted to get my keys and n52 all set up, but you literally can just breeze through the tutorial (which I would suggest doing) and start fighting pretty much immediately, which is pretty cool.
I really enjoy defending/assaulting bases. As of now there is a PvP element to it, but it isn't like Planetside. I am only on the first large scale "zone" and there are 7 bases where as I think 3 are control points. Aliens (Pve Enemy) will drop in from the mother ship every now and then and try to take over the base, generally all PCs will try to defend and people are starting to work together to defend. The number/quantity/strategy? of the aliens does increase when more pcs are at the base, so it gets pretty hectic and fun. There are also token missions for defending/assaulting that you can acquire that give some decent items. I have yet to assault a alien taken over base, but defending has been quite fun and I am starting to see the community start to stratigize on a larger level which is pretty cool. I just hope the Aliens start to get harder as we all get more organized.
The class/cloning options are pretty cool. At levels 5,15, and 30 you choose a branch of a class tree. Everyone starts out as a recruit for 1-5 and 5 you can change to a pure combat class or a support class and you can also clone your character. AS a recruit you get some basic skills and ever level you attain you get 2 more point to put into those skills. The skills have levels 1 - 5 and lvl 1 takes 1 point, and to go from lvl 4 to lvl 5 takes 5 points, etc. You can choose to save your points or spend them whenever, but you need at least 1 point in a skill to be able to use it and the price of course goes up as you play. You can see my build out currently
here.
When you hit lvl 5 you can choose between the above two branches and you get new skills for that branch, same at 15 then at 30 you choose your final specialized class.
The cloning thing is pretty cool because you can earn cloning credits at 5/15/30 and clone your char before you choose your next branch, so if you go down one direction and don't like it you can just fire up a clone and start working on him in the direction you want.
Crafting is pretty simplistic but has a lot of possibilities. There currently is no market in the game (they really really need one) but any items you receive you have a chance at breaking down into ingredients, those ingredients can be added to other items for stat boosts (think adornments).
The weapons are pretty BA, there are tons of different types of weapons and ammo costs $$ so you gotta actually monitor your shots which is pretty sweet.
No Vehicles that I have seen (I would expect this in an expansion).
The Pvp is clan based, so if your two clans both agree they are both allowed to be at war with each other. I haven't no joined a clan yet so I have not had any experience at this part of the game, but it sounds interesting. I know it will piss me off though if I am fighting against an invading horde and someone is also shooting at me from behind in the same base, but that is probably why it has to be initiated by both clans and only lasts for 7 days.
The quests are fed ex, kill 10 of, pretty much. There has been some cool points to some and I have been reading the story lines and it seems pretty well done.
To Use certain abilities you have to have collected the logos required for that ability. The first "set" of logos on the initial zone are pretty easy to get to, gaining a logo is pretty cool and fits into the storyline pretty well.
It is fun to pop off a bunch of stun shots at some people then fry them with a lightning bolt from your abilities. I have seen some of the later level abilities done by higher ups (remember they pretty much fight along side you in base assaults/defenses etc) and some are pretty damn cool.
There are some instances for groups, I have only been in a few groups so far and those were mostly for base defense so I haven't done any questing groups.
Over all, so far the game is pretty cool. I will have to say though that it seems like a fun game to play in tandem with eq2, although they really are going to have to impress me in a few months when I get through the content and I am paying the $12 a month for it, I will need fast content/monthly updates like eq2 has to keep me subscribed. As of now it is a fun alternative though.
