I’ve been wanting to try Fallen Earth for a while since every time I post something there is someone saying “Keen, you should try Fallen Earth”. The opportunity presented itself yesterday with a free 15-day trial Key. I downloaded the client (500+ mb) and patched (8gb) and then I was in.
I’ve only played for a matter of… maybe 4-5 hours, but already it feels a lot like SWG. There’s a definite sense of persistent world and virtual world, rather than the ‘game world’ feel.  I’ve done a lot of gathering for crafting and a bit of killing and both seem to be prominent and important in Fallen Earth. The story is actually interesting and I’m getting a sense that there is a lot for me to learn about the game that won’t be made readily available through the game itself. There have been talks about factions and a disease that swept through the world as well as conflict surrounding the starting town I’m in called South Burb (a town focused heavily on Crafting).
I’m really not a Post Apoc fan at all. Ask anyone that knows me well and my least favorite genre is anything to do with Post Apoc, yet for some reason this is pretty tolerable. Maybe it’s the atmosphere, maybe the characters, but it’s not as bad as most.
A few observations that I’ve made:
Housing would be really, really well accomodated. There is sooooo much empty space that is begging to be filled by houses that players can build and place.
Person shops, preferably in the houses, would be a huge addition to the game’s economy.
Crafting is similar to SWG and has depth to it, but gathering is a bit “meh”. I would much rather there be automatic harvesters instead of having to run node to node.
The world is large and I’m being encouraged by the game’s design to think of the world as this massive place that I am incapable of perceiving all at once. To me the rest of the world does not exist right now. I’m playing in a tiny little corner of the world yet it feels like this is home to me. That’s a major accomplishment for a game in my book, and the devs should be proud. True Sandbox form right there.
I’m really drawn in by almost everything I do. Times flies when I’m literally doing nothing but roaming around looking for ‘Ragged Cotton’. Combine having to craft something with it, hunt an animal for another part, and then explore and that’s several hours right there before I even know it.
One question/series of questions that I have right now — How expansive and thriving is the economy? Is there a major economy for everything with people buying and selling and relying on each other or is everyone very self sufficient?
Borderlands is out on Monday.
I tried fallen earth in open beta and it did not really hook me. I seen a lot of people say the same. But post launch there are a lot of people getting back into it. Its getting good reviews on Mmorpg.com. Might give it another go.
The character models also through me off. Just really find the design ugly.
So far I am loving the trial as well and might pick it up if my love continues. From what I have read there isn’t much of an economy right now because anyone can craft anything. As more people get into the game maybe that will change somewhat but it doesn’t appear to be a big issue for people to make anything they need especially since a lot of materials can be bought from npc vendors it seems for some items.
Woot! Glad to see you in game and trying a genre that’s not your norm. I tried the game on a whim and now I have a lvl 31 and lvl 26, so yeah kinda into it.
Economy is definitely there but probably benefits the buyer more than the seller. With everyone crafting items are both self-sufficient and up for auction with the leftovers. Materials probably are the most sought after items on the auction house with so many crafters and not enough gatherers.
I know you are a big group player and you might be disappointed in the group ‘need’ as the whole game can be soloed easily without missing much. That said, this old fart is perfectly content wandering the wasteland solo.
The world is indeed huge and not having fast travel has its pros and cons. The biggest con is hopping on my motorcycle (fastest travel besides the intercepter) and want to go from S3 where I’m at now to S2, its a LONG ride, almost to the point of not wanting to take it.
http://www.globaltechatlas.info/ will be the best place for maps, guides, and info currently available for the game. I was never a big event person but you came in right when the Halloween event is going on so you might find some fun there as well. Factions don’t play a part until you hit S2 (level 15 min) but the rewards and possibilities are pretty extensive (like people who work around the faction wheel to acquire an assortment of gear/abilities only available to those factions so they can get them all).
Wow, sorry rambling again…enjoy your time! Blasphlem in-game if you have any questions I love answering them!
I also picked up a key from Massively. I downloaded it overnight on Friday, logged in at 10 on Saturday morning and that was the day gone.
I didn’t look up from the screen until 2pm when I started to feel hungry and realised I still had the cup of tea I’d started at 10am half-drunk and stone cold there on the desk.
I also don’t much like post-apocalypse as a setting, but this version just gets past that. I spent hours yesterday getting the money and mats to “make” (train, really) a decent riding horse. It was enormously satisfying and, yes, immersive. I personally love having to gather all my own mats. I’d absolutely hate to have that automated, since gathering is one of my top three favorite activities in any game.
I also love the character models. They look like people. Ugly people at that. I am so fed up of looking at square-jawed he-men, towering amazons and willowy elf-princes that it’s a great pleasure to see a bunch of ill-dressed proles with bad skin instead.
Another high-point is the quest dialog, which is exceptionally well-written for an MMO. The quests themselves are considerably less generic than the genre standard, too, although I do believe it is now virtually impossible to be truly original in MMO questing and still retain functionality.
Anyway, I am playing the trial and if it holds uplike this there is a good chance that I will subscribe and probably drag Mrs Bhagpuss in too. Looks like a sound promotional move and maybe they should go to a permanent free trial soon.
Oh Keen I am doing the trial too, infact I am also in South Burb currently haha, What is your name? :p
Look out for Bartillo Strongbrad ^^
I’m tempted by Fallen Earth because of all of the good things bloggers have been saying about it. I don’t want to spend the cash on it though but I’d be very interesting if I could get a free trial. Where did you get the 15 day key from?
I canceled Aion last week and have been looking for some new thing. As usual, after reading your blog, I was tempted to try this new game.
Unfortunalty the October 23, 2.000 beta keys giveaway is closed. “We’re sorry. All of the codes for this promotion are gone.”
Sweet looking forward to more fe love
Ahhhh that was fun. I too took the bait and snagged a trial key from massively.com. Perfect timing really, WOW’s next big content patch hasn’t hit and the current content is on the stale side for me, which always happens eventually. Modern Warfare 2 is a few weeks away still. Beat all my new console games; Uncharted 2, tekken 6, to name a few. Sooo I was happy to try Fallen Earth since I’ve been wanting to try either Aion or Fallen Earth out. I must say after playing for a good 7hrs or so I’m happy so far. Definitely a breath of fresh air so to speak.
One thing that’s nice is that the community so far is helpful, no gold spammers, gm’s seemed to be on all the time and I would see them post every so often. The WOW/Aion community did NOT come to this game that’s for sure. At least the ones that you see crying alot in channels didn’t. I got the sense of maturity from the channels that was nice. I only got to like level 4 and a half in my first sitting so far but it’s been fun.
One of the coolest things I saw was when I saw a little message in the help channel, I think his name was Burt Burke, he introduced himself by welcoming everyone to the wastelands post apocalyptic radio thing. At first I didn’t pay much attention but then I saw people asking for requests so I messaged him and he directed me here. http://www.postapocradio.com. I went there and these guys are putting on a live radio show for the wasteland! A flood of Fallout 3 thoughts flew into my mind and just the awe of how cool this was hit me. It was literally a live version of Fallout 3 radio in a sense. The DJ was taking requests and would talk between songs about the wasteland here and there. You could request by messaging him in game which was sweet. I requested a favorite of mine, Warriors by Freedom Call, and he played it. So I listened to that for about 3/4ths of the time I played and it brought me home, felt like a Fallout 3 mmo! Anyways I couldn’t pull myself away and hours went by. Eventually I crashed for the first time all night and decided I should watch the UFC I dl’d that I had planned to watch when it finished but kept playing for like 3hrs more.
Overall it’s fun so far so we’ll see over the next few weeks if I’ll sub to it.
So what do you do, is it a pvp game?
It’s a sandbox style game. The answer that I can give you which covers most everything in the game is “just live” or “survive”. There is PvP, there is PvE, crafting, etc.
I am going to try FE out when I get home, I have been downloading for a day straight, do not know why they use the patcher.
Going to be a busy week in gaming, L4D2 demo comes out Tues, CO have their event over the weekend and playing FE in between. Besides L4D I do not have to pay for CO or FE which is great news, free week/weekend trials.
I see people really love this game, but its hard for me on the outside to understand why. I’ll download the client when I upgrade my rig, but for all the love, it sounds like a solo grinding experience for exp and mats for crafting. I did solo to death, tbh. Is there any group-based content?
I too got a free trial account to try….only had enough time to play the opening beginner area but so far like what I see.
Definately different from my normal MMO type game.
Good to hear you’re trying something new. I was looking for something different, downloaded it…and admittedly after about an hour or so I almost threw it out! But I had a break, took a deep breath and came back…and have been playing for the last few weeks and loving it!
I found the controls took a lot of getting used to, it really did dump you in the deep end (not sure about the new low level intro). But now I’m loving it.
As for the economy, I am finding a small market for some items, but I think it was a mistake on their part to allow everyone to craft everything and the only limit is time to skill up. If they had limited it to certain ‘trees’ (so you couldn’t go up all at once, choices were needed) that would have been much better.
I’m looking forward to player housing, and hopefully storefronts also. Look up Michael Brennan in game 🙂
Glad you’re enjoying it, Keen. I’m having fun too and sharing much of your sentiment.
As for the economy though, I’m surprised no one has mentioned it. Check out the single biggest thread I’ve come across on their forums. 48 pages of concern over the economic state.
Linked Here
With no item wear, eventually everyone will be able to craft the vast majority of items, forcing the prices lower, and deflating any value inherent in crafting. People are also concerned about the fact that you can buy every reagent from a vendor, though I think that’s less of an issue.
At the moment, I don’t really care because I’ve decided that I’d be selling myself short not to delve into crafting for all its worth. But, if you’re interested in hearing people’s thoughts, and probably the most pressing crafting issue in the game, check out that thread. No word from the devs, as far as I know.
Is Fallen Earth strong enough to pull you away from AION?
I saw you in game this weekend in the Help channel i was wondering if that was you. I’m also getting sucked away from Aion by this trial and your 100% right this game begs for player housing and player shops!
Housing is coming…no idea what the required materials will be, though.
Until I can figure out whether or not the economy is important enough and whether or not this “housing is coming” is a real promise that’s being worked on or simply wishful thinking, FE is not strong enough to pull me away from Aion.
I really am enjoying every minute that I play though. I can’t imagine the developers not wanting to perfect the experience with changes to the economy and addition of housing/player shops/player towns.
I’m hopeful they’ll tweak things to make the experience more in line with player wants. They’ve been pretty good about it so far, so here’s a hoping.
I’m taking a little break from Aion for a bit to get into Fallen Earth. The Abyss disappointed me a little, to be honest. It was just so… empty. But, I think I expected more from it than I should have, so I’m to blame. I still want to play but if I take a break now I’ll be more fresh when I come back. It’s been something like a week, so I’m thinking I’ll be back within a few days.
There was an interview with the Devs on a Lagwar podcast where they stated they are working on housing. They will be adding a Structures crafting branch “soon(tm)” as a starting point to add the housing features. I would guess that they are still off on the horizon but they are 100% being worked on based on what the devs have said.
Thanks for the info guys, after some digging I managed to find a site that appears to still have keys. Here’s the link:
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/contests/register/fallenearthhalloween
Aion’s grind has been getting to me. So much so I find myself loading up BF2142 and COD:WorldAtWar a lot more than aion.
You took my Blog name! Actuly i started it after his post haha nice.
fallforfe.blogspot.com
Look at it
I think the biggest surprise for me is how well attentive the devs are to the game. Bugs are constantly being fixed and player concerns as well with each patch that comes out, and they come out regularly. I’ve never seen a game with so much material so quickly via patches.
I wouldn’t be surprised to see many of the player wishes implemented like player housing. They have already stated the plan is for 150 level cap in 5-6(?) more zones already in the works. They are already working on fast travel and respecs, both limited and at a high cost.
As for player shops, none that I’ve heard of but I’ll say people are creative. In New Flagstaff I saw 2 people with clan names of something Store (can’t remember the names) who were just standing there taking orders for people and doing business. They had quite a few people around them. The economy seems to work pretty well but it could be because most of the stuff I make is in the higher levels where there isn’t as much demand and so fetch a better price.
Well damn. I wish I’d known about the key giveaway — I would’ve jumped in and given FE a try for sure! I keep hearing good things about this game, but I’m not quite willing to blindly drop cash on it…
Any ideas when they’re going to do a trial period again?
automatic gatherers for a post-apoc game? come on now! =)
Game pulled me from Aion. I let my Aion sub lapse.
Housing is coming 100%, per the interview with the head designer in this podcast: http://lagwar.com/fallenearth/
They are trying to get it perfect before they implement it. I’m pretty excited for it, and the direction this game is headed in. Love the setting, love the devs, and am obsessed with the crafting/gathering.
I am checking out the FE trial. The game has a lot of depth. So far; so good.
I have two trial keys still. Email me at [email protected] if you want them.
Man time flys in this game. I swear I sit down then it’s 7-8hrs later and I’m like WTF happpened??? I’m not a big fan of crafting but I must say it’s there in a BIG way and I can’t help but want to make stuff like swords and crossbows ;D It’s probably the deepest crafting system I’ve ever seen personally. Spent most of the day just gathering materials and learning the ins and outs of the crafting system.
Still on the wall if I’ll subscribe though or not. I definitely would if I had a solid job, but recently quitting my old job changed that lol. I still might sub it though even though I kinda know the PVE won’t be there, but that’s what I still have WOW for. I really like the whole Fallout 3 feel of the game.