Fan explains why you shouldn’t play Fallen Earth

Ever since I fell for Fallen Earth and have gone into some sort of blogger version of a shark feeding frenzy about it, I keep seeing the same comment come up over and over (these are actual quotes):

* “Stop it! no more talk about FE! you’re going to make me buy it and get addicted!”
* “Syp just keeps making me want to play Fallen Earth even after I tell him to stop. He’s mean like that.”
* “The more you post about it the more my will to play it increases. Gah!”
* “Stop tempting me with Mel Gibson!”
* “Gah… You have to stop blogging about Fallen Earth! Every new post makes me come that much closer to buying it, and I don’t have the time or money for a new MMO!”

And I hear ya, frustrated readers! There’s nothing worse than having too much on your plate while someone comes up to you and offers you a mouth-watering steak (or for you vegetarians, a chunk of cud) when you have no room left. So, as always, I am here to help, which is why I’m going to give you every reason I can honestly think of why you shouldn’t get this awesome, addicting, immersive, cheeky MMO:

Like Its Frontier Setting, Fallen Earth’s Stability Is Rough And Wild

As I write this, the FE servers have borked pretty hard — players in game are reporting people and nodes and chat disappearing, and I can’t log on at all. At least once a week (typically Sunday evening), the servers just become too cluttered with whatever that it goes belly-up.

It’s not smooth sailing when it comes to the hardware here. Small rollbacks (think, 20 minutes) sometimes occur. Nodes get really bugged, requiring a complete server reset to correct. Crashes, lag, framerate — these are facts of life right now for the game. Sure, it’s getting better with every patch, and sure, I haven’t had too many problems with it myself. But it’s there, and it’s a little jagged.

The Economy Is A Foggy Crystal Ball

As Chris says, nobody really knows how the economy is going to work in the game, because everyone can craft everything, and I’ve yet to see anything that binds to a character, which means items can be reused over and over again without sucking them out of the economy. It’s an issue, and it’s probably something that’s going to gather more and more complaints until Icarus Studios deals with it head-on.

End Game? Who Knows!

I get asked a lot about the end game, which is pretty silly considering that I’m just level 13 out of 45, and still dithering around in the first large sector. But as far as I can tell, there’s no definite answer on just what constitutes the “end game” of FE. It could be PvP, in part, to capture the special PvP towns for unique vendors and quest givers. It could be leveling up within your faction and getting your capstone skills. It could be an endless pursuit of wealth and gear. And Icarus could be releasing more sectors soon to keep the leveling treadmill running. But nobody can tell you for sure.

It’s Complex

Yeah, this is a big draw to the game, but let’s face it — nobody likes feeling stupid and clueless, and that’s exactly what Fallen Earth does to you in the first day or so. It’s a huge world, there’s craploads of menus, and you are basically dumped out into the open with no direction to speak of. Icarus has said that they’re working on an improved new player experience, but that’s not here right now.

You Can Gimp Yourself

The dark side of being able to customize a classless character is that, in the wrong or ignorant hands, you could be working at cross purposes and make a character that’s good at nothing. Right now, FE’s advancement points (AP) are permanently stuck in place once you use them (again, this might change in the future with limited respecs), meaning that if you think it’s a good idea to spread your points around to all three weapon skills at first, and then discover that you really should only focus on one, you’re a bit screwed. Reroll or live with it!

Greed Rules The Wild, Wild West

As with many small game communities, Fallen Earth has a tight-knit feel and a higher-than-average maturity level. Then again, the game encourages you to look out for yourself above all else — to get that resource node first, to cap those quest mobs first, and so on. The result of this means that even the nicest person might start to resort to kill and node stealing, shoving other players out of the way to advance their player more.

As With All MMOs, It Will Be Much Improved If You Wait A Year Or So

So there. Does that help?