I have a passion for both first person shooters and mmo’s so imagine how hyped I was when I  stumbled across Fallen Earth. I wondered the same as anyone else in my situation; how can I write this article when I have Eevi singing completely off-key in the background. Luckily it is experiences like this that drive me to play FPS games; big guns, moving targets, and an irritant.

On a more serious note, the big issue that all of the FPS players eyeing Fallen Earth are pondering over is how will Icarus Studios manage to  pull off a crisp FPS experience in a massively multiplayer world? I have no freakin clue on how they pulled it off but they did! The graphics are on the lower end of the scale due to using the Unreal engine, but it is ideal for the sheer amount of data that must be swapped continuously to track the thousands of mobs and players without bogging down and lagging out your FPS experience. So yes, in short the game is ugly.. but efficient.

This isn’t an mmo for the light-hearted, it is hard core — doesn’t hold your hand and skip you through the tulips to get you to your destination. I won’t delve into the features, you can check them out on the Fallen Earth Website.. I’m going to focus on the FPS mechanics, and how it affects the player vs player content.

For those who care, there is a massive storyline behind all aspects of the game; including PvP. The player battles themselves aren’t about gaining honor, experience, or points — the battles are all about gaining resources and controlling towns and territories, and in a domino effect the quests, crafting and other possibilities those areas provide. PvE players can sigh in relief as the battles are limited to those control points, not the entire world.

Once you find yourself in a battle you’ll find the action is intense, prepare for one hell of an adrenaline rush! The game supports several styles of PvP/FPS gameplay. If you are a crazy-assed rambo type who loves charging into battle you’d better know how to swerve, dodge, and be unpredictable in your pathing. Snipers are everywhere and the environment encourages ‘camping’. Even the tufts of grass provide enough cover for a player to lay down and snipe, or army-crawl your way to your target for some hands on melee combat. Most importantly and to the relief of many, your dreams of bunny-hopping through the hot spots will be shattered but please do try, you’ll be a far easier target to pick off than the crazy-assed rambo’s. The playfields themselves are usually friendly to both the melee and ranged players, you will need to use some strategy. This isn’t your typical brainless bunny-hopping zerg. Think or die.

Death can be painful in the experience and stats loss, this applies to both PvE and PvP, however you needn’t fear for your gear or your mount. Player looting isn’t possible, and even though you leave behind your horse or vehicle when you die you don’t have to worry about someone taking it. You do have to worry about getting back to it on foot, or paying a hefty price to have it towed by an NPC.

There are enough conflict areas and towns to keep you entertained, I didn’t make it past the first batch in Sector 2 but I do know there are 5+ combat towns/areas in each sector. More than enough to keep you on your toes and enough depth and purpose to keep you going back for more. During a stress test we had a huge amount of people duking it out in one conflict town, lag was minimal for most people. Some did complain of a delay on attacks but for many of us with moderate to high-end PC’s the lag was either non-existent or tolerable.

I find Fallen Earth to be something many of us have been craving for a long time. A genuine FPS MMO with a rich storyline, huge depth to the game mechanics, and hard core enough to keep players proud of their advancements.

In the end; PvP rocks, PvE is entertaining, crafting is crazy, and the graphics can bite me.