Fallen Earth: F2P, First Impressions

[Starke]

Fallen Earth First Impressions

Fallen Earth is a F2P bastard lovechild of Fallout and an old school MMO. Set near the grand canyon in the aftermath of a generic apocalypse, Fallen Earth sets the player in the role of a cloned survivor, and turns them loose into a sandbox to kill ten travelers, scavenge for supplies, and craft gear.

As free to play goes, this is a somewhat unobtrusive gating mechanic. Free players take an XP hit, most timed actions in the game take longer, and they receive fewer drops. Functionally what this means is that free players need to grind more to get to the same point that other players are, but don't actually get gated off from any content, and free players can (in theory) play the entirety of the game without spending any money. I do wonder how accurate this is, when you combine the scarcity of crafting items, with the reduced crafting experience a free player will get, but none of the content itself is gated.

This isn't without flaws, there's a pop up window imploring you to upgrade to a paid subscription whenever a free player logs in, which is fine, unless you logged out in shooter mode, in which case the game prevents you from switching out of shooter mode to get a cursor, and you can't interact with the logo which blocks a chunk of your screen, alt tabbing out of the game seems to fix this, but the issue remains, regardless. Dismissing it results in a small "upgrade" button in the center of your screen, it's less obtrusive, and can be easily moved anywhere on the screen, except: clicking on it, even to drag it, will result in it redirecting the player to the game's marketplace website, and for whatever reason, it will revert to its previous position every time you log in.

Fallen Earth is a difficult game to recommend, it has been built for a very specific audience, people who want to inhabit a post apocalyptic world, scrounging and fighting to survive. In that context it works rather well. The combat needs a lot more brutality, and the game would benefit greatly from a general review of its crafting system. But otherwise, this is worth looking into if you're a fan of post apocalyptic wastelands.

 

[Rad Party God]

Good review, although I've been looking forward to play this game when it became F2P, the aspect of crafting your own gear sounds both interesting and boring at the same time, it sound more like a Facebook game than an actual game, where you need to leave queues to even do something in the game.

Also, I'm generally not a graphic whore and I've always said that gameplay tops graphics, but this game looks just plain ugly, I mean, there's a lot of desert and ruins and I dig that, but the character models, the structures themselves, everything just looks generic and just plain ugly.

I haven't played this game yet, so I may be wrong with a few things I said, but I'm certainly not interested on playing it right now.

 

[MirkoP]

I mean, there's a lot of desert and ruins and I dig that, but the character models, the structures themselves, everything just looks generic and just plain ugly.

Brown,a bit of more brown,and a touch of orange/brown.Gosh...how can you not like that!

 

[Bostur]

Good review that I largely agree on. And some fabulous screenies.

I never played after it went F2P, but when it was subscription based there was a small chance that NPCs would drop gear. Also basic gear was available from some vendors. But they might have changed that to put more focus on crafting.

I wouldn't personally classify it as sandboxy, even though it has certain elements in common with sandbox game, mainly the large world and the heavy focus on crafting. FE has quite a bit of storyline structure, but it sometimes requires the player to go search for it.

I have adored FE for it's setting, landscape and feeling of freedom. And I have cursed it for it's poor combat mechanics and clunky NPCs.

Good review, although I've been looking forward to play this game when it became F2P, the aspect of crafting your own gear sounds both interesting and boring at the same time, it sound more like a Facebook game than an actual game, where you need to leave queues to even do something in the game.

Typically people put things into the crafting queue and then go adventuring while the stuff is cooking. It requires some backpack space and planning, but there is plenty to do without waiting for crafting to finish. There are crafting stations that will speed up the process, but these are mostly used while logged off. Some advanced recipes may take days to complete, the most basic ones as little as 10 seconds. Typical leveling gear can be crafted within 10-30 minutes.

FE manages to make scrounging, planning and self sufficiency important and interesting game mechanics. The better the player is at managing ressources and inventory space, the less time is wasted.

 

[LittleMikey]

I played Fallen Earth when it first came out (Because it was advertised on The Escapist XD) And enjoyed the first few hours, but it started to get repetitive and dull, so I stopped playing. I might give it another go now it's gone F2P

 

[Starke]

Good review that I largely agree on. And some fabulous screenies.

Thanks.

I never played after it went F2P, but when it was subscription based there was a small chance that NPCs would drop gear. Also basic gear was available from some vendors. But they might have changed that to put more focus on crafting.

Yeah, the extent to which this was specifically changed is a little difficult for me to determine, given that I never played when it was subscription only. I'm told Sector 1 had all it's item vendors stripped out, but that they're still intact in Sector 2. I'd have to check, but I burned about 20 - 30 hours on this game, before I started working on collecting review info for DCUO, and still hadn't gotten into Sector 2.

Typically people put things into the crafting queue and then go adventuring while the stuff is cooking. It requires some backpack space and planning, but there is plenty to do without waiting for crafting to finish. There are crafting stations that will speed up the process, but these are mostly used while logged off. Some advanced recipes may take days to complete, the most basic ones as little as 10 seconds. Typical leveling gear can be crafted within 10-30 minutes.

The big time sink here really seems to be vehicles. Crafting the pair of SIG226s you really can't see in some of those photos took, as I recall about thirty minutes to an hour from raw components to finished. Where as vehicles get into the multiple days range pretty quickly. The Interceptor (a kind of post war sports car) chews up ten hours per component, requires four separate components (wheels, engine, frame, a control system), and another ten hours to assemble. The first motorized vehicle you build can chew up 20 hours (4 hours per piece, 4 to put them together), probably about 17 at a crafting station, and even the second tier horses cross over into over an hour to train.

I should probably point out those numbers are going to be a little off, because I did upgrade the account halfway through the review to a $15/month sub, to evaluate how much of an impact that has. The answer is not that much, really. It speeds the game up a bit, but this is kind of a, if you like it the speed isn't going to be an issue, if you don't, faster won't help kind of game.

Also, I'm generally not a graphic whore and I've always said that gameplay tops graphics, but this game looks just plain ugly, I mean, there's a lot of desert and ruins and I dig that, but the character models, the structures themselves, everything just looks generic and just plain ugly.

Yeah, it really kind of is. There are some striking visuals, but they're the exception, not the norm.