Despite what might have sounded like a somewhat critical set of first impressions on Bruce Forsyth's Tabula Rasa yesterday, I am actually enjoying it, managing to get to level 31 in the service of the Allied Free Sentinels; so far conducting a great many missions (quests), and several Operations (Instances) along the way. I've also gunned down a quite staggering number of Bane, a fair quantity of local native wildlife, and a not insignificant number of apparently traitorous humans. Well, I was told they were traitors anyway, which being something of a burgeoning Space-Fascist, as my character is turning out to be, is good enough for me!
One of the many things about the game I forgot to mention in the little podcast bit there, is the occasional novel choice that the player is faced with in some missions. A typical and very early example of this kind of moral and ethical sprinkling to the otherwise very formulaic quest structure, happens in the starting settlement of Alia Das.
Upon arrival, the AFS outpost commander sends you to do a bit of diplomatic odd-jobbing. The Foreans, the sentient native civilisation of Planet Foreas, have only recently come on-board as allies to the AFS in the fight against the Bane. So to help smooth things along in fine diplomatic tradition, they send Pvt 464593 Van Hemlock, newly out of bootcamp ("MOAR DAKKA!") to act as some kind of liaison, which can only end well.
There then ensues a number of odd-jobs for the vaguely familiar-looking Foreans. The first few are staple faire; go there, talk to that guy, kill twelve Bane, and so on. Then comes one that caught me off guard a bit. The Forean Warrior type you're working for requires you to go and track down a contentious objector, and bring him back for some kind of court marshal. Less than an hour in the Force, and already, I'm an MP! Promotion comes quickly in That Man's Army!
The coward is not hard to find, but upon finding him and listening to a shaman chap next to him, a new option becomes available; let him go. Turns out he is an apprentice shaman and wants to use the Logos Power for peaceful purposes. When you next talk to the deserter, two dialogue responses are available, and you either take him to the zone exit or the angry warrior chief, depending on which.
Being an extremely harsh refugee from an alien ravaged Earth, I went with the "Get your ass back on the front lines, soldier!" option, and was slightly miffed that it wouldn't let me set up my own firing squad there and then, to be honest. I successfully delivered the coward back to his native warrior commander chap, who was pleased, and wrote me a report to take back to my own commander.
I delivered this, he read it and I received a massive dressing-down for my hamfisted interference with native culture! I had no idea that we, Remnant Mankind, had the time or luxury of indulging in a 'Prime Directive' frankly, but I'm just a grunt, and the AFS is Mother, the AFS is Father. In game terms I'd successfully completed the mission chain, got the full rewards, credits, XP and onward referrals, but still couldn't help think I'd failed somehow.
A subsequent second go at it with a different (and considerably more liberal) character showed that picking the other option got me a bollocking from the Forean Warrior Chief, glowing praise from my own CO, for not interfereing, and exactly the same quest rewards.
It's a nice touch, and one that makes me read the mission descriptions all a bit more carefully than I usually do in this games. Mind you, the character sheet has no 'Good-O-Meter' anywhere, and the above CO just breezed on to the next mission having shown no signs of remembering my actions in the slightest, so it seems that these 'Choices' are mostly a RP thing, and have little or no bearing on your own longer term story as a solider. There are no Right or Wrong Min-Maxing 'Optimal' answers to these posers, and they seem to exist for RP colour only, despite them being pimped a fair bit during the pre-launch hype phase.
More relevant choices exist, of course, in the choice of career branches. Everyone starts as a 'Recruit' class, but at 5, 15 and 30, you specialise. I'm sure a great deal more consideration ought to be put into these than I did. Here is a rough approximation of my own thought processes at each stage:
Level 5: "Ah, time to pick a class! Soldier or Specialist? Tricky - each has their merits. I should sleep on this descisio- zOMG! CHAINGUN!" <click>
I became a Soldier. The alternative was something called a Leech Gun, which didn't sound that potent, or indeed, appetising. I have yet to regret this one, as the MCG is a terrifyingly potent bit of kit, and makes most solo content trivial, and much of the group 'Elite' mob stuff, soloable.
Level 15: "Right; Commando or Ranger? Hmm, tricky - both sound quite cool. Plus I know what's going on this time, so need to plan ahead for my final L30 specialisa- zOMG! ROKIT LAUNCHER!" <click>
I became a Commando. The Rangers get a 'Net Gun', which sounded all a bit too gladiatorial for me. Turns out that with the 1.4 patch Regen buff, most enemies will have completely regenerated the damage from the first rocket, by the time the second rocket has reloaded, targeted, launched and hit, making it mostly useless, apart from CP fights, where the wide AOE effect of the hit is still moderately useful. Doesn't matter though, because Commandos get Graviton Armour too, which is very useful, and seems to be the 'Platemail' of the piece.
Level 30: "Okay, last one: Grenadier or Guardian? Hmm, well, this will define my role for the remaing levels to 50. An important decision, so I need to make this one cou- zOMG! FLAMERTHROWER!" <click>
So I'm now a fledgling Grenadier. The 'Propellant Gun' class of weapon, which does indeed include actual flamethrowers, seems to be a kind of hold-down-the-button streaming shotgun kind of cone weapon. Not sure what to make of it so far, as most of the decent guns here aren't actually available until L32. I don't care though, because the alternative, Guardians, get...staves! I refuse to use melee weapons in a sci-fi game that has guns, so Guardian and Spy (Who get...swords!?) can take a running jump. This is not the middle ages, and just 'making the swords glow a bit' does not a sci-fi game make!
(Saying all that, mashing 'F' when toe-to-toe with melee monsters makes you do a quite potent 'rifle-butt in the FACE!' move which entertains on occasion! On the whole though, guns are for shooting with!)
The good thing about it all though, is that you don't lose access to the equipment you had in previous branches, so a Grenadier can not only use Propellant Guns, but still keeps access to Launchers, Machine Guns and the Recruit's 'everyone' weapons, Rifle, Shotgun and Pistol. Quite the arsenal, and so far, it seems that there are useful and potent upgrades for all these weapons at most levels.
Mostly though, I just make do with my trusty, if hungry, Laser Chaingun, which I've started calling "Susan". Ludicrous RoF for the win, as they say. Better yet, and against contrary reports, I'm still making a profit on the whole thing. Possibly a recent patch made MCG ammo a tad cheaper. Susan is an expensive date, but does indeed, 'put out', so to speak.
The Grenadier is my main now, I suppose, but thanks to the clever cloning system, the business of going back in time and making the 'other' choice at each stage above, is a far quicker and less painful process than starting an army of alts in other games, so I'm sure I'll get to have a fling with the others in due course...