Global Agenda Review: The Game Has Changed

Hi-Rez Studios are trying to stir something up in the MMO world with their latest release, “Global Agenda.” Instead of sticking to the fantasy-based, open world game template with little interactivity, they are trying to blend the best of team-based shooters with the character development of typical MMOs. It is a very innovative risk since this is game trying to appeal to two different types of gamers who despise each others existence, especially when the game includes a pseudo-subscription service. In a nutshell, you buy the game at the original price to gain access to the “free” modes, and then pay a subscription to get involved in the Alliance vs Alliance battles. With all this said, is it worth getting into the battlefield or are you better off ignoring it altogether?

For those looking for a plot, it doesn’t exist in “GA.” The entire game’s storyline is given a small room to breathe in the beginning of the tutorial. In 2155, the Third Great War put humanity in an unfortunate situation involved population reduction and chaos. To remedy this problem, a global government was created called the Commonwealth. But like any credible storyline there needs to be conflict, so they turned oppressive and now there is a rebellion which you are part of. To the MMO fan this would be considered lazy, while the shooter fans will enjoy the lack of “you are a great hero who must perform these quests that thousands have done before.” It is a slim game that gets straight to the point.

After the short narration of the storyline, you’ll been thrown headfirst into the tutorial. Unlike most games, the tutorial works alongside the storyline, so you are not forced to have a feeling of “lets get this over with” as you learn to play the game. As for the content itself, the tutorial does a fine job of teaching you the basics, such as how to use your jetpack (everyone gets one!), how your energy pool works with your weapons, and how to use the R.E.S.T system to get your health back when things are quiet. It certainty won’t make newbs of the shooter genre into pros, since “GA” does assume you know how to use the keyboard and mouse, but it’s nice to see a tutorial respect the player instead of treating them like they’re touching a computer for the first time. The only issue with the tutorial is it doesn’t help in the PvP aspect whatsoever, so you might have trouble on what to do when you are facing the Robotic’s Rocket Turret, or what to do against a shielded Assault.

In terms of classes, this game has four of them which act as hybrids from other games. The Assault takes on the role as the frontline tank with an obsession with rockets, miniguns, and grenade launchers. The Medic heals, just as the name implies, but can be great offensive character when the player opts to focus on their poisoning talents. The Recon is the usual stealth class with high melee damage and the ability to deploy bombs to disrupt the enemy while sniping lone vital targets. Finally, there is the Robotics class for those who don’t have the reflexes but have the tactical mind to deploy turrets and drones at key areas on the map. Like any other MMOs, they also have skill trees where players need to decide where to focus their skills. Fortunately, you can reset your skill tree at any time outside of the missions without cost, so you are free to experiment as much as you want. Despite all these mixture of abilities and talents, the game is surprisingly very well balanced, as you don’t see one class just roll over the team single-handily.

Once you are done with the tutorial, the game finally pits you in the central HUB called Dome City. More of a market place, you’ll have to get used to your area because this is where you buy all your necessary needs, gain new skills, and join mission queues. Yes, I said queues, meaning this isn’t an open world environment that you would expect from a typical MMO. The entire game is instanced so when you join a mission for PvE, it’s a completely separate area from everyone else. Much like the storyline, MMO fans will hate it while shooter fans will love it.

Joining the queue is rather simple, as all you need to do is press M and select the type of mission you want. Player vs Player missions are exactly what the name suggestions. Each of these missions is a game mode that you are probably familiar with, such as Capture the Robot (a unique take to Capture the Flag), Control Point, Breach (similar to “Unreal Tournament”’s Assault mode), Payload (identical to “Team Fortress 2″’s version), and King of the Hill. All these modes are 10 on 10 and while this number might seem small for veteran PC gamers, the maps were designed for this number in mind. The end result is games with plenty of conflict and interaction without feeling the game is overcrowded. It works out very well.

Player vs Environment missions is the second choice, and this is where things become rather questionable. You have four difficulties to choose from: Easy, Medium, Hard, and Max. You can only select the difficulty if you are at a high enough level, and each difficulty has its own maps for you to play in. Usually the harder difficulties have numerous traps to mess up your plans, while the easier ones are more straightforward. While all this sounds good, all you are doing is just going through a corridor with randomly made encounters with a limited number of enemies with the end boss being isolated from the rest of the area. It is a good diversion from the PvP game when you feel like killing ten minutes of your down time, but “GA” tries to put focus on PvE with the looting system. You can only get parts to craft modifications from PvE, and this is the only point of the game where it actually feels like you’re MMO grinding.

Unlike other MMO games, your equipment is mostly handed you to by reaching odd numbered levels (7, 9, 11, etc). Your armor doesn’t even play a role either, as it does not provide stats for your character. Instead, it is mainly just a visual perk, which isn’t a bad idea considering that you want to look like your ideal character, yet still have good stats. How you get stats is somewhat somewhat of a different story. As mentioned before, you go to PvE to get parts to craft modifications. These modification items add a very small percentage to a specific area such as AOE protection, maximum health, and your ground speed. There are many slots to fill and there is even a durability aspect to these items so once you play a certain number of games, they need to be repaired. The whole idea behind mods and crafting seem to be an after thought but, unfortunately, due to the attempt to make this into a pseudo-MMO, it is somewhat needed to keep that persistence there.

Besides the crafting, everything I described up to this point is based on the non-subscription account. If you just want to play like another typical shooter like “Team Fortress 2,” it is a great game to play. On the other hand, subscribing to the game isn’t recommended at this point due to the lack of value for what you’re paying, and the rather poorly thought out design. By subscribing, you will gain access to the Alliance vs Alliance mode. An alliance is an agreement between a group of agencies (clans, guilds, etc) under one banner. Like most organized players, they strive on being the best, and “GA” tries to suit their needs by allowing them to play a territory conquest style mode using a 2D hexagonal map. Each hex provides a resource to the Alliance in order to create new gear such as vehicles, rocket turrets, and android squads.

The problem is how the entire system is laid out.

For starters, being the attacker of a land requires an alliance to bid credits. Because there is a tax rate in this game, every active agency sets this tax to 100%, meaning that anything you gain from PvP or PvE goes straight to the agency. Furthermore, these alliance vs alliance battles are limited to a 10 vs 10 modified version of Breach. What this results in are 100+ alliance members who might not even have a chance to get involved despite their credit contribution to the alliance treasury. Add in the subscription price tag for this “privilege” and you’d find out soon enough that you rather stick to the non-subscription account.

With all this being said, how’s the game overall? This heavily depends on who you are. If you are expecting a typical MMO clone where you select a target and watch your character auto-attack, this isn’t for you. This game was designed for those of us who like “Team Fortress 2,” “Unreal Tournament,” and “Quake Live.” The “grinding” is mostly just playing the game naturally instead of going out of your way to level up. It is not the most original game out there, as it rips off from many different games, but this approach is forgivable considering how well “GA” executes everything. The interface works great, the balance between the classes are fair, matches aren’t drawn out with the length being no more then 15 minutes, and the skill tree with the limited inventory provides a surprising amount of depth to character customization. This is a game definitely worth looking into, but only if you want to play the PvP missions and avoid the lack of subscription-only content.

Rating:
 
“Global Agenda” was developed and published by Hi-Rez Studios for the PC on February 1, 2010.

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