I've played this game for a while now and what can i say... not too shabby, infact good fun if i do say so myself. The workmanship is quality and with more or less daily updates you can't go wrong. The community is quite friendly, they are willing to help if you get stuck (which will happen) there are many worlds (colonies) that can be taken over by factions at war, corporate takeovers etc. You have a choice of 8 factions (GD forces which are the police and military, the clans and corporations) they are all very different and so it is up to the one that suits you best.

The game has a intresting economy system, every faction has their own cycle and members of these factions create missions to earn money from the faction. The faction earns money from taxes and money transfers (tax levels can be set). Each faction has 7 ranks but this is NOT a leveling system, ranks 1 to 3 are earnt from Experience Points (from missions) after this it is up to your superiors to promote you as required, you EARN the rank you don't gain it from killing monsters and elves like in most MMO's.

All the equipment ingame is produced by players although i do NOT recommend you choose to trade at first, it can be quite complex and you will be better off learning about the game first... it has quite a steep learning curve but don't let that put you off. Many factions have training and/or help at hand to answer any questions you may have, when you first start you may die a lot and as i said don't be put off from it, you will learn from it. I cannot stress enough that as soon as you leave your apartment you should by clone insurance from a medical terminal, this will let you have unlimited clones for when you die (you start with 3 clones but insurance is paid monthly ingame and gives you unlimited clones) note that the ingame time is 4 times faster than real life.

Overall this game is very good, very player based... you make it what it is. If you are a true roleplayer and sick of all the other (same) MMO's, try this one :)

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Originally posted by Tryon

I’ve done beta testing before in the past.  I’ve beta’s games like The Matrix: Online, Axis and Allies RTS, Horizons Online and Planetside.  I’ve done beta testing for Atari and currently have 66 testing points (the highest to date is 132 points).  I’ve studied programming in college, designed my own board and role-playing games and I consider myself an avid gamer.  I’m willing to try any game once, give it more credit than it’s due and look for ways to improve any gaming experience.

 

My only suggestion to the developers of Face of Mankind is to stop now before you release this atrocity onto the world.  The open beta is bad enough, don’t pull the same stunt that the developers of Horizons did and push a steaming pile of crap out on the public.

 

What makes this game so bad?  Let me count the ways:

 

Graphics

There’s no reason for the graphics in FoM to look this bad.  Half-Life 1 had better character models and graphics than FoM.  It’s as if the developers grabbed an alien from another planet that doesn’t understand the human body, gave him a computer and tried to describe how to render and animate the characters.  Movement is unrealistic and jerky with characters twitching at the slightest movement.

 

There are TONS of mods out for various FPS games with graphics, models and in game animations that make FoM look like a sad joke.  The mods I’m talking about were made by developers that weren’t getting paid for their time and work, that weren’t expecting to even get a “Thank you” from the folks that played their games.  They did some outstanding graphics just for the love of the game.  If the developers have come up with what they’ve got while actually being paid for their work, then someone is getting ripped off.

 

Game play

Generally, when someone sits down to play a game, they expect to have some fun.  They expect to be introduced to a new world where the rules and laws of everyday life don’t apply.  Basically, they expect to be entertained.  After five hours of continuous playing, you know what I achieved?  I was able to do some mining.  Wait, that’s misleading.  I was able to tell a terminal to do some mining for me.  During five hours of game play, not a damn thing happened.  There were no missions for me to run, there were no intuitive aspects of the game for new players to work with.

 

Other players run everything in the game.  Missions are set up by other players, all purchasable items are made by other players, the economy is run by other players.  What this means to starting gamers is that, unless there’s someone online to custom tailor a mission for that player, there’s very little for a first time gamer to do.  With nothing to do comes a sense of boredom and the game turns into nothing other than a “running simulator” as players go from one place to another with no point or purpose.

 

Economy

I’ve played other games where the players solely ran the economy.  In one game with a player run economy, there were no inherent money-sinks to pull excess cash out of the game.  Because of this, money built up in the accounts of players.  Soon, everyone had a million credits, then ten million, and then fifty million.  Inflation was rampant to where new players had to rely on older players just to be able to afford basic equipment.

 

Another game that had the economy based on the actions of the players didn’t fare much better.  Instead of everyone having all the money, a small select group of players had 90% of the money in the game.  Those players ran around the game with impunity because they controlled the economy.  They could buy what they wanted, when they wanted, and no one could stop them.  Until the developers put in a better economic system, those players controlled the game and thus, the enjoyment of other players.

 

FoM is destined for one of these outcomes because there is no inherent control of the economy.  Slowly but surely, the economy will break down and either everyone will be rich or only a small part of the population will have the funs in game to enjoy themselves.

 

Crafting

What’s there to say about crafting?  Everything (yes, I mean everything) is completely controlled by terminals.  If you want to mine, you run up to a terminal, tell it what to mine from the available resources listed and wait.  If you want to refine raw materials, you run up to a terminal, tell it what to make from available raw materials and wait.  If you want to produce specific items, well, I don’t know.  I never got that far.  But I bet it involves running up to a terminal and telling it what to make from processed materials and then waiting.

 

Basically, crafting isn’t crafting.  It’s telling the game system to make something from nothing.  There’s no skill, ingenuity, or even effort involved in crafting.  It’s all handed to you in a nice, futuristic wrapped terminal.  Whee!  Now that’s entertainment!

 

Basically, this game offers nothing new.  A MMOFPS?  Yep, that’s been done before.  Crafting?  Nothing new there (or even interesting).  Combat?  Dunno, never got to see any, but based on the way my character moved and the paltry list of missions available, it’s probably not much better than stubbing your toe on the dresser in the dark.  Overall, this game isn’t new, it isn’t impressive and by the time the average gamer has played for a little while, they’re bored and wanting to do something fun.

 

Now, there are a few people here that will say this game is great!  It’s fantastic!  It’s the best thing since sliced bread!  To those people, I have to say, “Get real.”  With sub-par graphics, a clumsy interface, boring game play and practically non-existent crafting, how can you say this game is great?  Those people that do honestly believe that FoM is the best MMORPG/FSP in the world need to go out, buy a top rated MMORPG and try playing that.  I’m sure that once the fanboys see even a mediocre game in action, they’ll realize just how inferior FoM really is.

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This is the worest serving of MMORPG i've played. Sorry I dont like paying money to walk around. Btw I did ask people to create missions but I dunno, maybe they were ignoring me are noone was on. After the third fraction with no missions yea I quit.

Shit. 

Dude your talking about the old FoM, now the grahipcs are better everyone has around 200 000uc not 50mil uc.

The Game has changed so i can just say to you try the game, and You have tryed the wrong games to write something about FoM, FoM is all about roleplaying and it's fun, i was a BoS (brotherhood of the shadows) and they rp so much!

To bad some noobs can't udnerstand that (LED).

Lord Malak

((go BoS we are c00l))

When you attack DMC when your bored you ain't RPing.

That is why I turreted Kami and KoSed BoS for a day.

Your the guy I killed in Manhattan for messing with LED.

Anyway yes this isn't FPS shoot shoot shoot I am 1337zor ganker. You need a mind to play this, although many try to get by without thinking and kill people.

If there ain't a mission o well sometimes`people are busy. game isn't about some r1 noob that wants to be leet. Wait till we have time and are not in the middle of fighting a raid. Btw I am willing to help as I am in charge of training for LED.

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Originally posted by stamgren

Dude your talking about the old FoM, now the grahipcs are better everyone has around 200 000uc not 50mil uc.

The Game has changed so i can just say to you try the game, and You have tryed the wrong games to write something about FoM, FoM is all about roleplaying and it's fun, i was a BoS (brotherhood of the shadows) and they rp so much!

To bad some noobs can't udnerstand that (LED).

Lord Malak

((go BoS we are c00l))

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I have to disagree... all factions have nice people, but each faction has its own RP.. the Brotherhood has sperated itself from teh Global dominion and the global dominion declaired war on it because they practicly stole GD teritory, the colonies.

Howerver every faction has thier not so nice people. People who insult you because you have a squeeky voice or becasue your inexprienced... the latest insult flying around is 06er which is compleatly bias... some of the best people in the game i know are 06ers, but the arrigant 05 beta testers((im one of