Fallen Earth Preview

Fallen Earth is set around the Grand Canyon in the 21^st century and focuses on six factions who are roughly aligned into two opposing groups. As with most sci-fi games the setting is post-apocalyptic and in this case humankind suffered a double whammy of virus followed by nuclear war which came to be known as The Fall. The game promises a mixture of first-person combat with role playing character development. It looks to have plenty of features and while the set up may be cliched this is an exciting sci-fi prospect for MMORPG fans.

Fallen Earth was created by Fallen Earth LLC and has been developed using the Icarus engine. There is an in depth character creation option to kick things off and plenty of character development is possible. The developers favoured a non-class based approach so the direction your character develops in is entirely up to you. The process of levelling up sounds familiar and you’ll collect Advancement Points which you can use to acquire new skills and boost your attributes.

The mysterious Shiva virus coupled with the nuclear devastation has caused mutation and so the barren and ruined landscape is populated by dangerous creatures. You have to scavenge to survive and there are plenty of specific missions, an epic storyline which involves the shady corporation GlobalTech and lots of weapons, vehicles, equipment and crafting. The PvP combat looks interesting with no target locking and you can switch between first and third person. The developers have promised to cater for fans of non-PvP too.

The six player factions look interesting and they range from Mad Max style anarchists to technologically advanced scientist types. The two most intriguing are the Travelers, an amalgamation of criminals and secret societies and the Children of the Apocalypse (CHOTA for short) who are a bunch of rebels rebuilding society according to their own vision.

The game invites an inevitable comparison with the Fallout series and there is an undeniable similarity in terms of background and style. Visually it looks fairly attractive for an MMO game and the environments are suitably ruined and ripe for exploration. The creatures and characters look fairly good too although nothing jumps out as particularly groundbreaking or unique.

There is a definite atmosphere about Fallen Earth which makes it a tempting prospect and this future world looks to be a very dark place indeed. Having long bemoaned the lack of any decent horror MMO games Fallen Earth looks as though it may at least dabble in the realm of horror. The sandbox world sounds huge at 7,000 square kilometres and it is based on a real topographical map of the Grand Canyon.

It is close to release so you can find plenty of information and a couple of video trailers at the official Fallen Earth website.