Global Agenda is Third Person Shooter MMO that allows you to choose between four classes and embark in real-time combat. In an MMO genre that 99.9% are either 1. based in medieval periods 2. Have skill clicking combat or 3. have both this quite the shake up from the norm and for $30 is a nice change of pace.
Playing the game through with a friend I was sold deeply on the whole gameplay aspect of the game it only took me a short time to realize that I loved the gameplay and how well they made it function with an Xbox 360 controller. I didn’t feel like I was handicapped by using a controller and made the long periods of playing a lot more comfortable.
That being said though I did feel like I was playing an Alpha/Beta build of a game that could be so much more in the end. By this I don’t mean the graphics were bad or the gameplay was glitchy, I mean the amount of content offered seems very little for an MMO title. You can see the effort is there though and that if you enjoy the gameplay it can be easy to overlook it.
GAMEPLAY
So you choose between four classes Assault,Recon,Medic, and Robotics:
Assault-Heavy weaponry, tank class of the game.
Recon-Sniper class, has the ability to turn invisible and sneak attack.
Medic-The healer class, they can deal poison attacks, and aim at players to heal them.
Robotics-The crafter class, create gun,rocket,healing, turrets,etc.
You can’t go wrong with any class you choose are all pretty evenly balanced and a lot of fun. I used an Assault character though because my friend went Recon so it gave us a pretty good balance and attack. Every class is given three weapon slots, the first is for your melee weapon which is unique to each class. For example I had an axe and my friend as Recon had a sword. The second can be any gun really shotguns,assault rifles,smgs,etc. Then you have the third slot which is for your specialty my class was allowed to use rocket launchers and miniguns.
After you figure out what guns you like using because unlike a typical MMO its not all about damage its also about how much you like using the gun and how effective you are with it, you then start questing.
This is where it gets weird, we started out like a typical MMO fighting spawned foes getting to our quests, collecting quests rewards, and getting more quests. Then all of the sudden there were no more quests for us to do? There is literally only a handful of quests you can do before its over. I mean straight up no more quests. It took us some searching after figuring this fact out how we then continue to level our characters up.
The answer to this mystery let us know that there is no more exploration or going into new areas of the map. The desert area where we did our questing was it, the only other place to go was the hub city where all vendors,people, and everything happened. So after a few short hours we found out that we have explored the whole physical area of the game.
Now what we were left to do was open up a mission menu that offers PvE missions,PvP,AgencyvAgency, and raids.
PvE-You get matched up to create a team of four and are sent to a map that you have to fight enemies to get to the boss. Gaining experience points and loot the whole time and giving players a bonus for them not dying more than 3 times as you complete the mission.
PvP Mercenary-The players are given a variety of gametypes to play where they are pitted in 10v10 matches all of which have different objectives for you to complete. You are rewarded with experience, cash, and item rewards for playing.
PvP Arena- Is a more organized PvP, like ranked matchmaking in a shooting game and only allows 4v4.
AvA-A game mode that features 10-versus-10 PvP for persistent territory and score. Each team of 10 players are representatives of player-run Agencies (player formed groups). Scoring is based on the massing of goods generated by territory control. Scores are tallied over seasons and the top 10 agencies are awarded. Net-worth and persistent territory creates a meta-game making individual matches and decisions where to engage of greater importance.
The gameplay reminded me of Borderlands and Mass Effect where you hit groups of enemies and lit them up until all were dead like Borderlands and the health and guns worked very similar to Mass Effect. Their is no ammo but rather you have to wait for your power level to regenerate and the way the damage effected health is almost identical to Mass Effect where each shot starts chipping away at health in a very quick period of time except for bosses of course.
As I said before I was impressed with how well they made the functionality of the controller with the game where it typically would hurt me by using one but I felt like I was right in line with other players. I was really impressed with that and it made it more fun for me.
The fun gameplay was made even better when my friend and I started combining our abilities to take out enemies. I don’t know if it was intentional or if it was just the way we played but we were able to combine our abilities so well that it seemed like we were meant to. For example there was a boss that was severely deadly if you got within melee range so as we kept circling him to lower his health he charged me full speed and I turned on my invincibility skill causing him to do no damage yet he kept trying to hurt me. During this time my friend turned invisible ran up behind him and started slashing away with his blade until he focused his attention back on my friend. Then when the boss did so he turned invisible and made this boss start looking for him, giving me room to start pounding him with rockets. It was pretty exciting in the moment but of course it may be something you have to experience for yourself to appreciate.
PRESENTATION
Their is almost no story and I don’t understand how MMO’s keep getting away with this. All I can really say for sure is that you wake up in a facility that was going to turn you into a super soldier for the bad people in charge and the good rebels break you out and then you are on your own. So if story is a big deal to you then you will be greatly disappointed. I was neutral on it because I was more focused on how well it played.
The menu’s and HUD though was alright but for some reason my Esc Key wasn’t working on my laptop so I was unable to access the menu and settings. So I wasn’t able to fine tune my options and they didn’t offer any option on the controller to open it like Start or the Back button. All of this forced me to end the game very oddly each time and slowing my PC down because I couldn’t close it correctly.
GRAPHICS
The graphics were very good for an MMO. I was running them on medium level and it exceeded my expectations.
When I first started the game I was hesitant about how they were going to tackle customization which is a huge deal for me and this also surprised me. They offered a good variety of facial customization and appreciated having at least three types of mohawks to cater to my needs. Then when you reach the hub city you are greeted with various shops for weapons,armor,etc. This is where I was really impressed because they offered dozens of suits for each character that you could preview. With various styles and designs it was really cool to see what I would be able to make my guy look like with the right level requirement and enough cash. To top it all off though they offer a wide variety of dye to really make your character your own. With about 6 or 7 slots to dye your armor and weapons it was even cooler than I could have imagined.
I ended up dying my armor black and then spending money on more dye making the secondary color red and making the neon glow areas on my character white until I get the chance to really make him look deadly.
SOUND
The sound/audio is nothing major in this title. I rarely heard music or dialogue although the guns all have a futuristic laser type sound combined with real gunfire.
REPLAY VALUE
This is a little odd. I mean you can play up to a level 50 and get the best gear in the game and put in a lot of effort that could keep you playing for a while but for an MMO you can hit that pretty quickly.
After that though PvP is where you can spend your time but that can get old after awhile and then if you aren’t able to become part of an Agency that participates in AvA you are really left without much to do.
I mean for $30 though if you are a shooter fan this is definitely fun enough for the purchase. I mentioned it felt like an Alpha/Beta Tech Demo though because their is not a ton to offer for what is being sold as an MMO but everything that is offered is really well done the gameplay and the customization especially shows hints towards what this game can be if it gets the right backing.
I strongly feel that if Microsoft can get behind Hi-Rez studios and help them develop what would be Global Agenda 2 for Xbox Live it would be a major hit. Especially seeing as it doesn’t have a monthly fee Microsoft would be able to offer MMO gaming that won’t turn people off immediately and can help spark console MMO’s. The potential is there the right contacts just need to be made.
A copy of Global Agenda for the PC was provided to us for this review from Hi-Rez Studios.
