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I’ve had the good fortune of having a few spare hours this past week to sneak into the Global Agenda beta test (by preordering the game), and it’s looking very promising. I noticed that there isn’t enough news floating around about it, so I’ll break down some of my thoughts on what I saw in the beta. Nevermind the fact that the game has kind of a stupid name; just pretend it’s called “Mega Explosion Fest 2010.”

The Good
Jetpacks
For those of us who are old enough to remember one of the original badass online sci-fi FPS games, Global Agenda will be a blast from the past. Much like the old days of Starsiege Tribes, Global Agenda players are all equipped with jet packs right at the start of the game. This adds a layer of badassery to the ordinarily ground-oriented FPS genre, allowing you to quickly rocket your way out of an asskicking (or into one). The folks at Hi-Rez Studios had the foresight to make your jetpack a primary item, which means that you can’t use both the jetpack and your weapon at the same time. The good news about this is that players can’t rain down hell from above. The bad news is that you can’t rain down hell from above.

Starsiege Tribes: Yeah! Rock it, False (?)

Leveling
The leveling up system is a bit hard to understand when compared to other RPG style games, primarily because a level 5 player could fight a level 50 player and win with enough skill. This is a good thing, because there doesn’t seem to be much of a matchmaking system, which means you will most definitely see lowbies duking it out with the veterans, and hopefully you will see a veteran get his ass kicked by a lucky “n00b.” Your character alternates between obtaining “skill points” (of which there are a maximum of 15) for specialization and “abilities” which include various devices, skills, and weapons. For instance, as the Robotics class, you only have one type of gun and one type of turret at the beginning. As you level, you obtain two more types of guns and two more types of turrets.

However, there is a disclaimer. You only have a maximum of 15 “device points,” and you can rank your abilities up to rank 4. Each rank costs one more “device point” than the last rank, so you can’t, for instance, have all three turrets, your gun, and your repair beam device all at rank 4 (the most powerful). You can either specialize in a few abilities and ramp them up, or you can take weaker abilities but have a wider selection. Being a chump, I decided to take the “wide selection” route, and it seemed to work fairly well.

Combat
Global Agenda uses a somewhat dumbed-down version of first-person shooting. Or rather, third person shooting. You can only enter first-person mode if you are looking through a scope, which would ordinarily suck, but Hi-Rez Studios managed to make it work flawlessly. The combat feels fairly balanced and fast-paced, and the character classes support one another pretty well (when played properly).

Combat takes place either in instanced “missions” or out in “conquest mode.” The missions are your classic FPS-style blow-shit-up-then-die-then-blow-more-shit-up games, including capture the flag (but with robots instead of flags), payload maps, king of the hill, and some other weird and crazy crap. The robot missions are particularly fun, as one player can drive your team’s robot (the flag) into the enemy base, where it explodes or something. I never managed to follow my team’s robot all the way into the enemy base because I got the snot beaten out of me by the other team’s robot, so I can’t say for sure. Maybe the robot goes in there and throws a kegger. Whatever. The point is that it’s fun as hell.

Some dudes shooting at some other dudes.

Because of the timing in which I entered the beta test, I was unable to participate in the “conquest” PVP. From what I gathered, though, the world map is divided up into “hexes” (that’s short for “hexagons,” genius), and you can go with your agency (like a guild) and take over hexes by defeating those who control them. You can then gather resources from resource hexes and build bases, as well as siege vehicles and all kinds of crazy huge stuff. Unfortunately, I didn’t get a chance to actually try it, so I’m just writing this part on hearsay; but it sounds awesome. It’s sort of an FPS-MMO-RTS hybrid, but in order to access the conquest stuff, you have to pay a monthly fee (which is probably worth it — from what I’ve heard).

Aesthetics
This is a very good-looking game. A lot of attention was paid to making sure the armor and weapons looked totally badass, and you can also dye parts of your armor and mix and match helmets with different suits. The effects are very smooth and none are overpowering. In addition, the character creation tool gives you a pretty wide range of customization options for the character face, but you can’t control the character’s body type; that is determined by your class. Even so, it looks very good.

The Bad
Leveling
Yes, I’m mentioning leveling in both the good and the bad. It’s a good idea, but there’s a big hole in it past level 40. After level 40, you don’t gain any new skills or abilities or skill points. You just level. You earn more money per mission, and you gain access to some cosmetic changes (helms and suits), but otherwise, you don’t gain any effectiveness in combat. So it’s a lot of work for not a lot of … well, anything, really.

Animations
The animations are an awkward point in this game. While all of the animations connect together very smoothly and effortlessly and there are never any glitches, the characters move very awkwardly. I had to laugh at how the female character model looked when she jumped. The male was just as bad. The characters run with their backs pointing directly upright and almost leaning back, giving them a comical gait as they march around the battlefield. They also bend their elbows too far when they run, making their arms look a bit too short, as though they are trying to impersonate a T-rex. Luckily, when they have guns in their hands, their arms don’t do this, so it’s only an issue when running around in the cities.

The End
I don’t have much else bad to say about this game. It brings me back to my Tribes days, and it looks like this will finally be the game that makes the MMOFPS idea plausible. Even though it has a few content gaps and goofy animations, no MMO will ever launch as a finished product. Still, it’s important to have a good foundation upon which the game can be built. Global Agenda definitely has this foundation, and I’m pretty pumped to see where it goes in the future.

My recommendation: BUY