MMOFPS - A genre on its first steps

[Raleigh]

   I have been watching through this promising genre, that sometimes also comes with RPG elements like the single player games Deus Ex and System Shock 2, and that is for me, specially once its flaws are fixed, 100000 times more interesting gameplay-wise than the repetitive and boring as hell "click on rat/slime/weak monster, wait it to die, repeat 1000 times to level up, proceed with stronger monsters and do boring quests of killing monsters" of the MMORPG genre. However, as it is something new, it does not come without flaws, but the main problem for this genre is something called lag. In a MMORPG where you *yawns* just click on something and wait passively your character to kill it, lag is not as fatal of a gameplay-killer as in  a game where you directly control your character movements and aim of the weapon being used, fortunately there are perspectives this trouble will be solved in the future. As a starting genre, there are not currently much options for it, the main ones I know about are PlanetSide, Neocron and the future Huxley. I will brief each of them on this thread. I have to confess, that besides all, I'm a huge fan of PvP when it involves fun action and player skills instead of dice rolls and stats, so I would definitively focus my time on PvP in such games, trying to keep some level of RP. Something like "Die you damn TR fascists!" in Planetside, for example

PlanetSide(PS ): One of the first games of the genre, it has FPS combat with vehicles and aircrafts as well, and its history is based on the conflict between three groups: the authoritarian Terran Republic(TR), the "freedom fighters" of the New Conglomerate(NC) and the technophiles of the Vanu Sovereignty(VS) that you can choose, each of them with their own strenghts and weaknesses. It has a somewhat tactical action instead of fast-paced fragfest on its gameplay, here are some gameplay videos of it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHOm-083tW4&mode=related&search= - Outfit Wars, an event involving conflics between the "Outfits", the "guilds" of the game. Here is an example of its PvP.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=uRsFoQIoRrY - Another PvP example, this time a Tower from the VS being taken over and the pwnage involved on it.

However, some people claim that SoE(Sony online Entertainment) messed up with the game and turned it into crap... Here are some reviews, so you can take your conclusion:

http://www.gamespot.com/pc/action/planetside/review.html

http://www.firingsquad.com/games/planetside_review/

http://actionvault.ign.com/features/reviews/planetsiderev.shtml

If you don't want to see all those links, here are IGN's Review last words about it:

All in all, Planetside is an excellent game and definitely worth a shot if you're thinking about buying it. The first month of play is included, so you'll have plenty of time to decide about continuing. The visual are quite impressive, although you'll need fairly high-end system to run with full graphical settings. It should appeal to gamers who favor the first-person shooter genre, and also to fans of RPG-style online worlds. In the latter case, it offers a change of pace from the usual level treadmill since rank alone does not determine the outcome of battles, and also because there are no NPCs to camp and farm. And for those of you concerned about the same repetitive killing getting old, keep in mind that Sony's live team is constantly updating the game with new content to help keep the experience fresh.

- No Powerlevelling crappy gameplay! Yay!

If I had a computer powerful enough(or cash to buy one) for PlanetSide, I would definitively give it a try. Now about the other one:

Neocron 2: Some people claim the devs messed all the game up on its new version and that it is dead, while others say it's a good game, so here are some reviews about it explaining in different points of view. But I believe the fact it has the "grind", with the difference you use FPS-like controls instead of point and click to kill sewer vermins really spoils it. Still might be worth a try. But sounds a bit disappointing, but perhaps it may still be interesting... It happens in a cyberpunk Settings that draws from Deus Ex and William Gibson's works, A post-apocalyptical Earth with several factions fighting and hackers making a mess on its "Matrix", the Hacknet. Before the reviews, some videos about its gameplay:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=6tdVbg5qwm4 - Promotional Video from a "guild" with some PvP on its last minutes

http://youtube.com/watch?v=DTiEm6U_eVc&mode=related&search= - The Hacknet where the hackers go for PvP and PvE, inspired on Matrix and TRON.

Now here the reviews, most of them say its not very good one:

http://www.gameogre.com/neocron2review.htm - Not everybody think it is a bad game though...

http://www.gamespot.com/pc/rpg/neocron/review.html - Review of the first version of it, might not be up to date

http://www.pcformat.co.uk/reviews/default.asp?pagetypeid=2&articleid=35057&subsectionid=680 - I think this one sounds the more balanced review of it.

http://www.computerandvideogames.com/reviews/reviews_story.php?id=118051 - The more critical view about its flaws

Now, what really sounds promissing to me is this MMOFPS:

Huxley: It happens in another post-apocalyptic scenario with mutants that are victims of racism fighting against the "pure" humans. Its action seems to be fast paced like in Unreal Tournament 2004, unlike Planetside that is somewhat more tactical. So it might be quite attractive for the "oldschool" of FPS gamers. Here is a gameplay video of it:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=nJV4I4vFb5Q

And its trailer: http://youtube.com/watch?v=nJV4I4vFb5Q

I hope this genre will go up in the next few years, because honestly, I'm not big into MMORPGs boring gameplay of grinding and treadmilling and only play Planeshift because of its Roleplay element. Huxley surely sounds promising, in my opinion. Now two games I'm really waiting for: Bioshock and Huxley 

[dying_inside]

I've heard about Planetside.  Supposedly pretty awesome.  I dont like  mmo's with pure grind, especially where the grind is  click sit watch. Thats boring as all hell.  I play a bunch of MMORPG's but  tend to stay on longest if i can find a group or somthing to do to create havoc. 
I like MMOFPS's  they are good if done right, but toi be honest I can be kinda picky with MMOFPS's.
SO I ended up trying to make my own. Theory being that I should my  proverbial money where my mouth is and actually get more experiance from the inside.  Very insightful so far.

[Nurahk]

Planetside is great once you get into a decent outfit.  It's got a very nice leveling system where, though you do get access to more items as you level up, being low level doesn't mean you're completely useless.  Another interesting part of it's leveling system is the command level.

It's squad-based and outfit-based combat at it's best.

Barneys, bugs and smurfs
Vanu, Terran, NC.

I played it for a few months but, was ultimately dragged back into Planeshift

[AendarCallenlasse]

  In a MMORPG where you *yawns* just click on something and wait passively your character to kill it, lag is not as fatal of a gameplay-killer

I think a good 50% of all mmorpg deaths I've had have been due to lag...
And where are these mmorpgs that require you to simply click on a monster to kill them?  I'd really like to play them.

[Feline Prince]

Have you played Planeshift? Well technically it is a double click.

[Raleigh]

I played it for a few months but, was ultimately dragged back into Planeshift

I think that in my case, the exact opposite would happen. Roleplaying is all nice and all, but when everything you have to do is chat, it tends to get repetitive after some point, so I rarely can play for too much time, except in very specific occasions when something big is happening. As somebody sarcastically pointed some time ago, there is another game for that named IRC. Of course I would still occasionally go in this PS, but the other PS would have more of my gaming time.

And where are these mmorpgs that require you to simply click on a monster to kill them?  I'd really like to play them.

What is the fun on such mechanical action? Just watching a character model repeating the same combat animations over and over isn't something much interesting, in such case, I would rather watch a war or action movie then play such a game(except if it has something else, like real Roleplaying, for example), because the experience in it is almost 100% passive, just like in the movies. The difference is that movies tend to be much more interesting to watch, of course. The click of the mouse is no different from pressing the play button to start a movie on your DVD(except that the combat outcome isn't actually defined beforehand, but it's basically like pressing the "play" button of the game to watch a repetitive combat scene over and over), minimum interaction of the gamer with the situation. Point and click interface can only sustain without being boring in two genres when these are well-made games: Adventure and Strategy. In the first because there is no level treadmilling during it and neither combat is its focus, in the latter because you are not just a passive watcher of a model repeating fighting animations, and have to take care of all the strategy and tactical side while the units take care of the combat with their own skills. Sometimes Single-player RPGs with strong plotlines and well developed characters also make good use of the "point and click", like Planescape Torment, but for games where everything you have to do is levelling... it just sucks and that is it.

Now, what do you think about Huxley ?

[Raleigh]

     Though not entirely FPS(It is also a third person shooter), it seems SOE is daring to push the genre of games like "No One Lives Forever" and "GoldenEye" to the MMO arena, in a espionage-based MMO game:

http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=14269

     Even though it might fail, any attempt on a MMOG that doesn't have a level treadmill with boring combat and that isn't a LOTR "clone" with all those orcs, etc and nothing more is good news. Now the question is: Could Huxley, The Agency, Tabula Rasa and Age of Conan(This one intends to make the actual "autocombat" of MMORPGs obsolete by replacing it with a "real" combat system that is somewhat similiar to Morrowind's one) be excellent indicators that the genre of MMOFPS and new forms of MMORPG are about to force the current MMO"RP"Gs to go beyond the grind? Or pehaps, the "13375" won't be impressed and will still be satisfied with the levelling and dull gameplay of to keep inside... If these games manage to surpass the technical limitation of the ping, I'm sure WoW(except for the "WoW junkies") will become obsolete in the near future, and if this happens, it also will be good news, as then, they either change the combat and game systems to make it interesting, or try to implement some real roleplay.

P.S.: Age of Conan combat system seems to be really more interesting than the usual MMORPG dull combat. Of course, Fallout 2 turn-based combat also rock due to the deep tactical elements of it that put the player intelligence on the game instead of being dull dice rolls and flashy autocombat animations(Try to hit the eye, with a much lesser chance of success? Should I retreat or go ahead? And many other choices you have to take instead of letting the stats do everything).

[Robinmagus]

I'm really looking forward to Age of Conan. Looks cool. I've been craving something with a decent PvP/PK element for a while, but haven't gotten anything yet.

[Maytuck]

I think a Starcraft MMOFPS would be awsume.

[Raleigh]

I think a Starcraft MMOFPS would be awsume.

It would be too similar to PlanetSide, there are even the PS Zergs there

The term "Zerg" is also uniquely employed in the MMOFPS game PlanetSide to describe the general mass of players in combat on a map. Commanders must "herd" a vast number of largely disorganized players to a strategic target of opportunity. Without constant and compelling guidance and direction, the "PlanetSide Zerg" will break up into small, disorganized, disparate squads and individuals. Although originally a carry-over term from other games, the Zerg in PlanetSide carries a closer similarity to its roots, in that Zerglings without a controlling presence (i.e. a Zerg Cerebrate or the Zerg Overmind) will become disorganized and easy to defeat.

     Unless it was focused on space combat than planetary combat, of course. It would be a nice counterpart to the 100% stats-based EVE then. Still I would rather see a MMOFPS of the original Warhammer 40k than of its clone Starcraft(Terran Marines = Space Marines; Protoss = Eldar; Zerg = Tyrannids. Also Warcraft is a Warhammer clone).

I'm really looking forward to Age of Conan. Looks cool. I've been craving something with a decent PvP/PK element for a while, but haven't gotten anything yet.

     From the trailers I saw, combat will have some RTS elements as well as it seems it will be possible for "guilds"(whatever name they give) to purchase catapults, trebuchets and all the other intrincacies of medieval military, having whole armies, and also it seems players will be able to own and build cities, so this is definitively a game I am looking for too. Specially as it has a truly "medieval" fantasy, without the "disney" aspect of many games but instead a darker theme, like Warhammer(the violence - not mainly graphical violence, but the sighting of a truly brutal Setting with massacres and such - on its trailer shows what I mean - don't be lazy, look for it on youtube! ).

     On Huxley, although I like the prospect of 100 X 100 PvP, I still don't like much of its "style" and Settings because, they remind me too much of Unreal Tournament and Half Life 2, and lack a "soul", that thing even games with much simpler graphics had, some uniqueness of its scenario to the point it doesn't look like "just another Multiplayer FPS" on a superficial view. Still its gameplay can rock the boat and make a WoW PvP looks like child's play, if the lag doesn't become crippling when it's released.

     I didn't check enough of The Agency and Tabula Rasa to have a consistent opinion yet, but it seems T.R. will have a quite unique Sci-fi Setting and with Richard Garriott(among  other creators of Ultima Online), it definitively has promise. Also it integrates character skills with a more action oriented combat system, something like "Tomb Raider"(Where the character skills make the aiming while you still have control of the movement, which speed and agility is also based on stats as well).

[Baldur]

Project Entropia(or Entropia Universe as it's called today) is also a MMOFPS launched gold around 2004. Also heard of Auto Assault which is also a MMOFPS.

Entropia Universe's more aimed on skill but offers a good 3D quality, although the terrain's lacking in many places. It still has many bugs too, supposedly because of a complicated base-build.

Auto Assault's aimed towards grinding more then strategy but resembles Planetisde in many ways. It hosts vehicles and 3 different factions, I've heard.

www.entropiauniverse.com (The big pictures on the frontpage has nothing to do with ingame graphics. Ask veterans and experienced players before you begin. This game is as complicated as it is gold for real enthusiasts. I repeat, be careful.)

www.autoassault.com