Fallen Earth falls short of Fallout MMO
Seems like a no-brainer: a Fallout 3-like MMORPG. Turns out, this game is not ready for public consumption. Think Age of Conan when it was released. Give it about 6 months and it may be worthy of your attention, but right now there are too many things wrong.
Case in point: the first time I played, the quest system lagged by 5 minutes, meaning that my run through the tutorial felt a lot like I was playing Dungeon Lords (before their “Collector’s Edition”).
Many people in the game complain about performance (both due to low-end graphics and due to lag). My gaming rig (which my x64 Vista machine scores a 5.9 on the Performance Index) plays this game just fine at 1680×1050, so if you have a high end machine, you probably won’t find the performance the reason you don’t play.
Instead, the problem is with just about everything else: there’s no manual, so the newbie channel is full of very simple questions like “how do I see what skills I have?” They don’t give new players anyway to get a feel for how to build a successful character. They don’t lead characters through early development and world exploration in the same way that LOTRO (Lord Of The Rings Online) does. (In my mind LOTRO was a great MMORPG launch – yes there were some issues at first, but it didn’t stop players from having fun). Unfortunately, Fallen Earth is no LOTRO. They have a long way to go.
Is it fun? It is to some (I do see some people having fun in the game), but most people I’ve seen or talk to in the game feel overwhelmed and frustrated by bugs and inconsistencies. Seeing what a successful MMORPG can be like (I’ve played WoW, UO, Eve, LOTRO, and DaoC), I can tell you that if you are an MMORPG fan, you will be frustrated at all the things that those other games have that this one does not (another example: the in-game overview map is so small that it’s basically useless – not the overhead map, but the regional map. LOTRO gives you a nice interactive full-screen world map with which you can see your relative position, but the in-game map in FE is basically useless).
My recommendation: give this game some time (as in, a few months). If it can weather the early problems, retain players, and fix the issues, it could be a lot of fun. But for now, stick with WoW, Eve, LOTRO, or whatever MMORPG you’re playing.