Fallen Earth: F2P Apocalypse
By Remko Molenaar (Proxzor), OnRPG Journalist
‘I heard a strange voice telling me that I needed to escape the Hoover Dam and I had to listen to her to succeed. I didn’t have any other information so I quickly did immediately what she said. After accomplishing my first objective, I was got told that I was a clone and that’s why I couldn’t remember anything from my previous life. A bunch of mutations are attacking the facility of LifeNet and the Technician Elena Winters is leading me to safety. After briefly questioning her about what in the world was happening in the LifeNet facility I had to find myself a weapon to defend myself with. I found an axe in a corpse’s head and decided to take that to have at least some sort of protection. After helping other survivors and killing rebels I had to do the most important task that only a clone could’ve done easily. I had to take a suicide drive on an ATV with a bomb into a vault so the facility wouldn’t be completely destroyed. I successfully drove the ATV into the vault and that is the last thing that I remember.’
Fallen Earth is a free-to-play MMO developed and self published by Icarus Studios, and later bought by GamersFirst who hired the new development team now known as Reloaded Productions Cary. It’s a game that takes place in a post-apocalyptic wasteland located around the Grand Canyon. Post-Apocalyptic games, along with zombie games, have been growing in popularity recently and Fallen Earth may very well be the pinnacle of that experience in the online market. The game was released on September 22 in the year 2009 and it recently went free-to-play with several different subscription possibilities. Everyone is freely able to play all of the in game content and the different subscriptions bring some more advantages to those willing to support the game.
Gameplay
When the player is done with the tutorial they are given a choice of starting location. Different villages specialize in various crafts as well as weaponry so your starting location is important for how you want to build your character to maximize your potential. I decided to start off in Zanesville and got introduced to the big wasteland that was lying ahead of me. I got my first feel for the new world killing salvagers and salvaging what they had salvaged. While this might be frowned upon in our society, in Fallen Earth there aren’t any pesky police to bother you with laws and regulations. In fact most of the quest line is spent with you taking up the role of sheriff and bringing your own kind of justice against various factions in order to gain respect and currency from the local populace.
Every player that has played Fallen Earth before or still plays cannot deny all the possibilities your character can choose from. The game has a truly rich crafting system that makes the game a real challenge and a lot more fun. I myself am a big fan of games with a crafting system and Fallen Earth is one of the top games using a crafty crafting system. Now I’m not talking about simple MMO crafting stereotypes like weapons and armor (though that’s included too!) You can go about crafting your own tools and even your own vehicles if you’re willing to put enough of a time investment into the game. Crafting is one of the main professions that will help you survive the post-apocalyptic wasteland and it will make traveling much easier. When the player starts off they are able to acquire a horse pretty fast; unfortunately the horse isn’t that fast and requires food to regain energy. The vehicles however only run on fuel but are more efficient than a horse. You are able to get weaponry on your vehicle and you can even upgrade the vehicle’s armor when you are ready to cause some real mayhem.
Graphics
Fallen Earth is a great looking game and the wasteland gives the game a unique feeling when you travel to different places and villages. You will find every village has a different story of how it survived the other factions and mutations. To play this beauty of game you need the following system requirements:
Minimum Hardware Requirements
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo 1.8 GHz or Athlon 64X2 2.4 GHz
RAM: 2 GB for XP, 3 GB for Vista, 2 GB for Windows 7
Video Card: nVidia GeForce 6600, ATI Radeon X1300
RAM (dedicated): 256 MB
Free hard-drive space: 10 GB
DVD Drive
Broadband Connection
Recommended Hardware Requirement
CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad 2.40 GHz or equivalent
RAM: 3 GB for XP, 4 GB for Vista, 3 GB for Windows 7
Video Card: nVidia GeForce 8800GTS, ATI Radeon 3870
RAM (dedicated): 512 MB
If you have no clue whatsoever about computer specifications and all that other stuff only tech geeks would know, I think everyone with a computer that has been purchased in the last four to five years is most likely able to run this game just fine.
Conclusion
Fallen Earth is a great title and it is a shame it didn’t work as a pay-to-play game. However since it turned to a free-to-play game the community has grown massively to the point that major server maintenance was required to handle the population load. The game world really shines and makes it feel like you’re experiencing something new in an MMO. Between the storyline and the in-depth crafting system you will feel truly engrossed in your character and his or her survival. The game gives you a wide variety of items and equipment that you are able to craft and this is really an experience changing factor of the game. There are a lot of different choices that you can make to impact your character’s style. I personally liked the game since I tested it before it came out in 2009 and it is great to see the game is really well supported and will have a bright future. If you are a big fan of post-apocalyptic games or just want a virtual tour of the Grand Canyon, then you should definitely spend a few hours in the world of Fallen Earth.
