Global Agenda first impressions

A week before the launch of EverQuest II Sentinel’s Fate, one of my guild mates started talking about Global Agenda. It is no secret that I do not like PvP in my MMOs but in general I don’t mind MMOFPSs because they don’t pretend to be a great PvE experience. I had met one of the developers of this game at Dragon*Con ’09 and he had a pretty impressive list of features so I thought I’d look at the website and see if the game held any interest for me. Much to my surprise it actually did! I thought it would be a fun game to play when I wasn’t elbows deep in EQ2 and I’ll tell you why!

The first thing that really struck me as awesome with Global Agenda was that it is on the “free to play for virtually everything you’d expect” model. You can purchase the game box and be done. As a non-subscriber you have access to all the levels, all of the abilities and basically everything necessary to play. If you want to participate at a higher level then you have the option to subscribe. The subscription content is basically just the ability to run your own guild and make a big splash in the persistent PvP experience. In short, you’re not gimped if you’re not paying the monthly. It is also nice to note that the monthly took a step back to yesteryear and is only $12.99 a month or as low as $9.99 if you buy a package. Great job there Hi Rez! You can be sure you’ll always have people in your game at all levels! It will never feel dead because for as long as that game lives I can log in and play!

Graphically, Global Agenda gets pretty high marks. It isn’t amazingly realistic like EverQuest II but it most certainly isn’t the “stylized” art from World of Warcraft. It is a very glowie, very industrial looking game and fits the theme incredibly well. The various armor suits are awesome to behold if you’re into Iron Man, anime, or any sort of heavy armor genre. Each suit is cosmetic only and has no statistics! Look how you want to look without it affecting game play. You may also customize your character’s appearance with a lot of sliders. I went general but you can go incredibly specific. All told the graphics options are exceptional.

Hi-Rez has also dealt with some of the issues Warhammer Online suffered by scheduling the global conflict. Each day the “Agency vs Agency” or “Alliance vs Alliance” (AvA) areas will open at a set time and close at a set time. The areas are offset so that depending on your location in the world you can find an area to operate in at your normal time. This ensures there is no waiting for the other team to go to bed so you can take their goodies. The windows of opportunity are long enough to enjoy but not so long that you have to sell your soul to the game to compete. This, added to the fact that there is only one server, really gives the game a lively feel.

The skill argument is also addressed in Global Agenda by keeping everything relatively flat. Higher level characters do have a “system based advantage” since they’ll have more skill points and the access to a variety of weapons but never so much so that a brand new character cannot defeat them. Each level does not bring you more hit points and power. Those are skill unlocks and follow a fairly flat system. As such this MMOFPS does allow you to rely more on skill than the system to help you win.

Characters are treated in a unique way that I actually like. When you sign up you register a forum name. That forum name becomes your character name for all of your characters! Whether I’m on my medic or assault, I’m Ferrel. I really like that. There is no hunting for me if I’m not on my name and generally I always want to be Ferrel. I’m certain some folks might not like that, though.

I do have a few negatives for the game, of course. For now it is pretty repetitive (as any FPS will be) when it comes to missions and PvP. I can’t really complain about that, though. There is no mandatory subscription fee so it isn’t like I’m paying now waiting for them to put content in later. I’m sure a greater variety of mission times will show up later down the road for both PvE and PvP. My other complaint is that the game doesn’t seem to match up levels very well. PvP really is free once you queue up! If you’re level five and I’m 20 that is ok! Again, this isn’t a big deal because a level five can very much kill a level 20. It just seems like a bad idea to throw new players to the wolves so quickly. That is a good way to learn, though.

I would also like to see an option for an anti-friends list. When you run missions it quickly becomes clear who the absolute idiots are. These are people who run ahead of the assaults and medics and into on coming fire. They die constantly and cause the rest of the group to lose their pay. I would like the ability to have them not show up in my mission queue! It would also be nice to try and have it balance by class. Right now I rarely get an assualt in my group because everyone is playing recon and for the record, recon folks can’t tank! Beyond those things, however, I think the game does a steller job and I will continue to use it as an excellent supplement game to EverQuest II.

Content: Gritty and Industrial with plenty for an MMOFPS. Repetitive for MMORPG.
Appearance: High quality, tons of options for face. Lots for armor.
Fun factor: Extremely fun and well balanced.
Grind Potential: Very low. Ranges are very flat and increase slowly.
Over all: If you like shooters this is a must buy, likely the next TF2.