Posted on by steve

EarthandBeyond

So I spent the vast majority of last evening playing Earth And Beyond, EA‘s space MMORPG. And well? I don’t think I’d pay a monthly fee for this. It’s much like an old-style MUD, in that it seems clearly pointed at hack’n’slah/loot/pillage style gaming, rather than roleplaying (which is main complaint with every MMORPG I’ve encountered so far). Essentially, you are the pilot of a ship and you go out into space to kill enemies, mine asteroids for materials, loot space junk and then go back to trade the stuff you get in a space port. Over and over and over again. Sure, there are missions that require you to do some combo of these things, but little else as far as I could tell.
In terms of interacting with other playes, you can form ‘groups’, which provide you combat & exploration bonuses, allow you to get XP faster and that’s about it. You don’t even need to be anywhere near your group to get these bonuses, and they also appear to only apply whilst in space. I joined a couple of different groups while I played, and I don’t think my group had any interactions at all (besides a fellow group member stealing a particular type of loot that I wanted). So we weren’t really a group.
I guess the game was fun in the way any FPS is fund – for kicks for a short period of time, but not really enthralling. With incredibly weak dialogue options, interactions with the NPCs are almost painful, and with no real reason to interact with other PCs,there’s really no point in this being multiplayer – it would, at least in my experience of it, have been much more fun as a standalone game in the vein of Privateer, that old Wing Commander spin-off game. At least Privateer had hollywood actors in it (I think it was Malcolm McDowell).

What I will say for Earth and Beyond is that the character creation process is amazingly simple and the customizations that can be done for your character are fantastic, making the creation process very enjoyable. I was also impressed with the very straightforward character advancement method. There are 3 types of XP: combat, exploration, trade. To get a skill point (used to increase you skills), one of those three must ‘fill up’. At that point, you gain a level in that XP type and your overall character level goes up. For instance, when I quit, I was level 7, which broke down as Combat 3, Exploration 3, Trade 1.

So I’ll try out a couple of the other classes/races (you choose a profession, which determines your race), and take advantage of the beta test, but I don’t think I’ll play it on an ongoing basis. If you like the way current MMORPGs work, you may like this game also. For an old-school type like me, bred on table-top & former MUSHers, where the systems are secondary to the interactions, these current MMORPGs just don’t quite cut it yet.

20 Replies to “EarthandBeyond”

  7. Earthandbeyond is a veryfun game i mean if you enjoy killing stuff the advanced graphics plus you can interact with other players whoever the guy was that wrote this doesnt know what hes missing

    Reply

  8. im addicted no doubt…but you stay away there’s only enough loot and glory for me ..lol( laugh out loud ) hehe get in the game have fun

    Reply

  9. im addicted no doubt…but you stay away there’s only enough loot and glory for me ..lol( laugh out loud ) hehe get in the game have fun

    Reply

  16. I have been paying and playing EAB for several months now. Cool game. I even beta tested some of it. Needless to say. We see converts of Eve and other games come back to EA to play. I am level 50 going on up in XP. There are many who are higher. You get what you pay for.

    Reply

  17. I have been paying and playing EAB for several months now. Cool game. I even beta tested some of it. Needless to say. We see converts of Eve and other games come back to EA to play. I am level 50 going on up in XP. There are many who are higher. You get what you pay for.

    Reply

  18. ok i break down b&b; for you i have 3 alts a 150 progen warrior 130 jenquai explorer an a 90 jenquai defender did have a progen explorer got it to lvl 100 an erased it barf they sux.well i have played e&b; for 2 years now an bottom line this game ruled when westwood had it.this game has become a war agains the players vs the devolpers . i give you a few point. 1-nerfing the bat swings heavy in e&b; first warp speed then weapon trubo rally an now hull damage control wich is like taking the armor off a tank an puting it by a nuke lol. oh i we cant forget that skills like group cloak an inviro shield have been broke scince the game went gold. an actual dev response to this was we do not intend to fix this wooo .an picture this max combat level is 50 ya you can maybe solo a combat lvl 53 with the right gear thats only sold on ebay for 150 dollars dont beleave me do a search on ebay for a lvl 150 pw or a devastating gaze or the stuff that is actualy sold in game (ie) the market channel goes for 40 or 50 million but back to the combat thing .new sectors have opend an now you with the max combat level of 50 now have to fight beings with combat level 66 see my point.the devs have tried there best to destroy a game that could of been so much i mean crap they havent posted on offical forums in over 4 months but all i can say is man when god gonna bless us with a decent space game . an if you dont beleave its this bad go to http://www.ebportal.com an read the forums its there new offical site an for all you hardcore space mmorpg fans pray for us plz lol

    Reply

  19. ok i break down b&b for you i have 3 alts a 150 progen warrior 130 jenquai explorer an a 90 jenquai defender did have a progen explorer got it to lvl 100 an erased it barf they sux.well i have played e&b for 2 years now an bottom line this game ruled when westwood had it.this game has become a war agains the players vs the devolpers . i give you a few point. 1-nerfing the bat swings heavy in e&b first warp speed then weapon trubo rally an now hull damage control wich is like taking the armor off a tank an puting it by a nuke lol. oh i we cant forget that skills like group cloak an inviro shield have been broke scince the game went gold. an actual dev response to this was we do not intend to fix this wooo .an picture this max combat level is 50 ya you can maybe solo a combat lvl 53 with the right gear thats only sold on ebay for 150 dollars dont beleave me do a search on ebay for a lvl 150 pw or a devastating gaze or the stuff that is actualy sold in game (ie) the market channel goes for 40 or 50 million but back to the combat thing .new sectors have opend an now you with the max combat level of 50 now have to fight beings with combat level 66 see my point.the devs have tried there best to destroy a game that could of been so much i mean crap they havent posted on offical forums in over 4 months but all i can say is man when god gonna bless us with a decent space game . an if you dont beleave its this bad go to http://www.ebportal.com an read the forums its there new offical site an for all you hardcore space mmorpg fans pray for us plz lol

    Reply

  20. Earthandbeyond is a veryfun game i mean if you enjoy killing stuff the advanced graphics plus you can interact with other players whoever the guy was that wrote this doesnt know what hes missing

    Reply

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