Earth and Beyond naturally starts off with character creation, but handles everything a bit differently in a streamlined and immediately appealing fashion. The stats at first are based solely off the type of character with no alteration, but instead a focus on the look and design of the chosen character and ship. It all looks quite nice during these stages, with big, detailed models that won’t win any awards, but put other MMOGs to shame. The character animation leaves quite a bit to be desired in-game, although the vessels always look marvelous. However, not much time will be spent on foot, so that shiny personalized ship will be there to gaze at a lot of the time, much of which will probably be spent heading through uneventful warps.

Thankfully, the game does a very nice job of starting off players, as each is presented with a class-specific training tutorial done with some great voices. It is a bit marred by the game-boundary breaking hostess, but she disappears fairly quickly. Right from the start, it is easy to get into and easy to play, with a slow learning curve and enemies spread out in different regions according to skill. This allows people to dig right in and begin taking missions, some of which sport some wonderfully implemented ideas, although there are still plenty of the more typical missions present throughout many games of this ilk. Sneaking around floating aliens to steal items and ripping through clusters of enemy forces are fun as hell, and almost always yield good items.

Experience is awarded in three categories, which allows specialization through practice instead of the usual single pool to distribute among everything. All of the skills are divided up under those three headers to be increased as you explore, get into fights, and perform trades. Having things split up like that makes it seem like you are always improving, even if you have only spent a little while flying around and checking things out. One can simply head onto a planet and see the sights, buy a few items and then check out and perhaps have gained a skill point right there.

The battles themselves are very well done, involving games of chase as multiple parties pick away at each other and utilize class-specific skills, although I would have preferred a dog-fighting angle more like Freespace. Each class has different abilities available to them, and almost are all of them are extremely inventive and very cool. Some can randomly warp a set distance away to get them out of the thick of battle, others can hack enemy ships to shut them down, and some can utilize shield power to form a powerful beam cannon. All of these are not only insanely useful, but also absolutely gorgeous. It can be a beautiful thing to watch battles rage on from afar, as in-fight you won’t have much time to marvel at the look, only the usage. The battling can seem a bit stilted at times, as there is almost no quick movement, but the focus on skills helps overshadow that.

Sometimes, it is just more relaxing to not have to worry about battles and instead become talented in other, more peaceful areas. Trading does wonders here, as one can scavenge parts off larger equipment and build one’s own items to power ships or exchange for cash and experience. These can be herded off minor battles or obtained from helping other groups through various skills. Finding and making items can get quite involving and time-consuming, especially when trying to find just the right part to equip on the ship.

All of the classes come equipped with some skill that is beneficial to the others, so diversity is the word of the day when teaming up. There are all sorts of benefits that apply when with others, and bonuses change as well based on who the members are.

Teaming up can be a bit of a pain at first, and how fast you find others will completely depend on how you choose to go about doing so. The chat window is a bit odd to navigate but gets the job done, though it can be tough telling who can read what and how far the range is at first. Once things begin to fall in place it becomes a lot nicer and if there are others to talk to it makes any journey nicer. This is especially true here due to warping from place to place, which takes quite a bit of time due to the ships initial engines. It gets faster as time goes on and the ships improve, but to roughly quote one player, “If everyone playing E&B worked on the cure for AIDS while warping, we’d have it done in a week.” It is mainly so obviously time-consuming because it is hands-off, you click on a way point and hit warp. But it is something that will be done a lot, especially when trying to level up exploration, so having some buddies along does wonders.

The items are a fairly well-balanced lot, as you can always improve ship parts but no matter how far they get, there will always be a weakness in another way. None of the classes truly dominates the others, and a skilled pilot can get his way out of (or into) any situation. This helps round out Earth and Beyond to become a great place for both those who have spent quite a bit of time there as well as the fresh meat. The warping and searching for specific items can get a bit more tedious then they should be, but as long as there is someone to talk to it never gets boring. And really, that’s why MMOGs do well in the first place, although finally having a major game present something so very different is a refreshing change.

· · · MechDeus