Tabula Rasa sure has come a long way from its early days, and while the current version might lack the beautiful see-through unicorns, but it is shaping up to be in incredibly compelling space RPG that takes several RPG conventions and tosses them out the window.
I got a chance this morning to watch the game being played while Richard "Lord British" Garriott explained what we were seeing, and since I was only distracted briefly by his long, majestic rat tail, I deliver my impressions of the game until you.
(First -time GDC press aside: Lord British! *squeals like a girl* - moving on...)

Tabula Rasa is an action-oriented game that sees the human race launched into the stars and struggling along with other races in a struggle against the evil Bane. The mission we were show involved the characters going infiltrating an alien factory that the Banes had been using to turn the local populace's corpses into weapons of war.
Garriott explained that he wanted to make sure that players could play together without worrying too much about maintaining a level grind, so any particular mission contains content suitable for a wide range of levels. If you are a high level character you can just blast your way through, but if you are low level there are side quests you can do to lessen the strength of the enemy, opens new paths, etc. Monsters within 10 levels of your character either way still provide rewards for killing, so you don't have to stay neck and neck all the time with your friends.

The interface is extremely simple compared to other MMO offerings on the market. Just your name, health, power, and experience, as well as the weapon and powers you have mapped to your right and left mouse buttons. Combat is an interesting mix of action and RPG, with cover coming into play heavily in determining how much and how often you are hit, again allowing lower level players a bit of strategy to take on higher level creatures.

Some of the creatures themselves require a level of strategy often reserved for boss mobs in other games. Some packs of creatures spawn with a shield generator, forcing one player to jump in, taking damage from the mobs inside while he disables the shield, allowing other players or NPCs to attack. Other monsters defy the tank character role, meaning no one can stand toe to toe with them and live, causing tactics to shift quickly on the fly.

The world itself is made up of instance zones in which missions of earth-shattering import take place. Garriott assures us that these won't be simple kill the boss, get the item missions, but quests with epic storylines and ramifications. There are world zones as well, though these are split up into control points which contain quest givers, spawn points, etc. Basically if you wish to do the quests, you have to make sure the enemy doesn't take over the land. NPCs fight a constant battle, and you can join in and possibly turn the tide. This system allows for a very dynamic world that changes from login to login.

The game also takes tier based advancement to a whole new level. Instead of having to start a character over from scratch in order to experience a different fork in the advancement ladder, at key points you actually create a clone, allowing you to go back and make a different choice without having to struggle with starting over again. Anyone who has played Dark Age of Camelot knows what a pain in the ass that can be.

While I can't say I love the graphical style of the game more than the original concept, the game is very pleasing to look at. Plenty of special effects, laser blasts, and explosions combined with exotic locales and unique creatures to make the world of Tabula Rasa quite unique.

I've been looking for a new futuristic MMO since I left Anarchy Online behind a few years back, and Tabula Rasa is looking to fit the bill quite nicely. Check back in a bit for the GDC trailer and a new gallery of screens for the game. Michael Fahey

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