Tabula Rasa: Overview
From the mind of legendary designer Richard Garriott, Tabula Rasa places players in a futuristic world where the Bane, an evil alien force, is attempting to eradicate humanity from the galaxies. Developed by Destination Games and published by NCSoft, Tabula Rasa blends fast FPS-style action with RPG mechanics to create one of the fastest paced MMO experiences available.
The game's signature system is its combat. Players interact with the game like a third-person shooter. A crosshair appears on screen and players shoot by clicking their mouse. While it feels like a shooter, the feeling is an illusion of sorts. Instead of targeting, the crosshairs stick to people as the mouse passes by them, and the actual mechanics of damage and hitting are determined through traditional skill checks. As an added layer, players can utilize cover to gain a further edge. And they had better do so, as the AI does.
The game takes place during an evolving war that is fought constantly, regardless of what the players do. AI forces on both the side of the invaders and defenders fight over key control points that dramatically influence the gameplay experience. It is up to the players to turn the tide of the battle and push the Bane back for the sake of their race's existence.
Tabula Rasa liberally utilizes instancing technology to further craft personal, meaningful and cinematic story for its players. For example, in many of the public battle maps, an instanced side quest successfully completed might rain down missiles upon the enemy. While they are instanced and thus, not quite massive in scope, they do provide cinematics that are just not possible in a public area, and their implications make them a very important part of that public world.
Garriott also famously created a language called Logos for the game. This symbolic language appears to have gone long beyond the challenges of art localization into a full fledged game feature. Players need to learn and collect symbols from the language throughout the world in order to read usages of it in the world and unlock higher skills and abilities. Garriott insists that while actually learning the language is hardly necessary, for the hardcore, it is a perfectly logical and easy to learn process. The idea was born of a language where intentionally recognized symbols would replace words, such as an hourglass for time.
Tabula Rasa was first announced in May 2001, and has undergone several revisions and staffing changes over the ensuing years. It's current form was first revealed at E3 2005. NCsoft launched the game on March 27th, 2008.
