Earth and Beyond Online (Preview)
	Developer Westwood Studios Publisher Electronic Arts Version Stress Test Batch 4 Author Kevin L. Kitchens [Feedback] [Author Bio] Date May 29, 2002

Key Points Three races, three professions Skills-based advancement Allows for flexible playing styles No "death" for players Restricted PvP areas Brings space-exploration & combat theme to MMORPG

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The best MMORPG concept to date.

Those that leaned toward the fantasy genre are represented today by games like Asheron’s Call, EverQuest, and others. However, the sci-fi M*s (predominantly featured Star Trek-based themes) have yet to transfer to the graphical, MMORPG realms. That is until the upcoming Earth and Beyond from Westwood Studios. The game is the brain child of Brett Sperry, co-founder of Westwood Studios. (correction 05/30/2002 -- eds.) Also included are ships designed by Doug Chiang, best known for stepping into Ralph McQuarrie's shoes to serve as Design Director for Star Wars - Episode I: The Phantom Menace. Regardless of what you thought of the movie -- or Jar Jar Binks -- you had to admit the designs and feel of the movie was gorgeous.

Playing on these M*s was a blast. Much was left to the imagination and many nights were spent aboard a ship cruising virtual space. You could make mining and cargo runs, explore, or engage in combat as needed. With Earth and Beyond all these things are possible and more. I’ve been playing the stress beta for the past week or so and for me, this is the best MMORPG concept to date.

The game begins, appropriately, in and around Sol and it’s planets. You build your character from one of three human people groups – Terran (Earth-based), Jenquai (Jupiter-based), and Progen (Mars-based) -- and three skillsets (warrior, explorer, or tradesman). From there you design your ship – that’s right you get your own vessel in this game -- and then you’re off. A basic tutorial gets you through the basics of navigation, waypoints, and combat and then directs you to your first duty station.

The game also promises about 20% player vs. player combat.

From here, you will be given assignments based on the race and profession you’ve selected. Complete these missions and gain experience in the three different experience areas: Combat, Exploration, and Trading. At a certain point (not revealed numerically in the game, but as a progress bar), each area will advance a level and you will gain a skill point that can be spent to increase your level in a skill you already know. You can accumulate skill points from level to level to spend later on if you prefer. In fact, some advancement requires that the related experience area be of a certain level before you can advance. For example, to advance to “Beam Weapon 2”, I was required to have a Combat level of 5. Additionally some advances will cost a single skill point, whereas others will cost two or more, depending on the level.

This gives the player a great deal of flexibility on how they proceed in the game. You can, if you like, spend your time flying from waypoint to waypoint, exploring new areas and getting exploration points for finding new locations. You can become a master at combat dispatching the various drones, bot, and planetary inhabitants that threaten free space. The game’s economy even allows for players to earn money trading goods between systems. Fan-made guilds have already sprouted which will make good use of pilots of all three professions.

You venture through space in either first or third person mode using the keyboard and mouse to steer. Steering is pretty simple with the mouse (right-click,drag), however it’s not as responsive as a joystick would be. Sadly, no joystick is supported in the game (and is not planned). Dealing with a single opponent isn’t a problem, but dueling with multiple bad guys at once is a sure fire way to die as it is very hard to evade and aim at the same time. Future weapons may make this task easier.

I ... look forward to playing the final version upon being released.

At some locations, like starbases and planets, you can dock your ship and mingle with other players, get mission assignments, research and build new weapons, and conduct other business. In this mode, you walk around the station/base in third person mode. Your ship has docked and you’ve “beamed” out to the landing bay. When you’re ready to return to space, click on your ship and you’re beamed back aboard prior to launch.

Know this up front, there is no combat aboard bases as there are no personal combat skills in this game. While this may seem like a weakness, I think this actually improves the game itself by keeping combat in a proper forum. Also, there is no death in the game -- not for players anyway. You can kill all the Drones and Bots you want (in space), but when your ship gets to the critical point, it simply breaks down and the enemy breaks off the attack. At this point, you can summon for an immediate rescue (at the expense of an experience point debt) or set a rescue beacon and hope another player can come by and fix things for you.

The game also promises about 20% player vs. player combat, restricted to certain regions of space. This is an excellent compromise, giving players the choice to venture into PvP areas at their own risk. Fortunately, your race’s home turf is protected by restricted-access jump gates as well as patrol ships that are nearly invincible. Just make sure your ship is well-equipped with improved weapons, engines, and shields before you leave the nest.

The graphics in Earth and Beyond are nothing to write home about – they aren’t bad, but they aren’t the greatest in the world. And this is fine. Developers SHOULD be focused more on gameplay than hiding a crappy game behind a mask of hardware-generated rectangles.

To this point, E&B is far from being a crappy game (like many MMORPGs to date). It’s one that I’ve enjoyed nightly and look forward to playing the final version upon being released.