Since my first visit to Hi-Rez Studios, I?ve maintained intermitant contact with the staff and tried to participate in the development and, to a lesser extent, the viral marketing of Global Agenda. I attended Hi-Rez?s ?Nerd Up? as a guest speaker (on zombie culture? go figure...), had some fun at their Dragon*Con LAN party, and I aggravate David Tyler, one of the game developers that happens to be on Twitter, pretty regularly. While I am not able to drive to Hi-Rez Studios? main office in Alpharetta, Georgia to participate in weekly, in-house testing sessions (I've only done that once), I am a part of their closed beta testing program, and that?s what this article will be based on.

[-] What Testing is All About [-]

Before any gamer geeks out there start panting hard and fogging up their screens while they think (with all too much enthusiasm) on the possibility of playing a new game before many else are able, realize that it won?t be what you?ve experienced before. I?m not making reference to the various features Global Agenda offers in contrast with other games, as I will elaborate on later while attempting to not repeat statements in my previous GA article. I?m referencing to that fact that beta testing GA is just that: beta testing.

All too often, a select few, anxious gaming enthusiasts are given the opportunity to join in beta testing of a game that has not yet been released. Nine out of ten times, this experience has nothing at all whatsoever to do with actual testing, but is, instead, all about you experiencing a polished and finished game before anyone else and then telling the rest of the world all about it.

If anyone out there actually thinks that they were making major contributions to games like Aion or will make a difference in SWTOR?s beta testing, think again. Most people who played Aion beta payed for the privilege, and BioWare stated before opening beta sign-ups (in an interview that I can?t find, now) that studios don?t learn anything new from beta testing. This means to me that most studios don?t want to invite the general public to test their games, hence, they don't expect anyone in their "beta test" to actually test anything at all. If I remember the interview with BioWare correctly (MAN! I wish I could find that link), developers for SWTOR even expect beta testers to keep most bugs a secret so that players can exploit the bugs after the game goes live. Hi-Rez Studios, however, thinks much differently.

Hi-Rez makes sure to issue an email about one week before every non-in-house test, explaining what they want testers to look for and be aware of. They also make sure to include a snippet to help motivate beta participants to test, not just play. A real tester is going to find bugs, write them down, report them, and try to duplicate the bug until the studio fixes it or just tells them to move on.

[-] My Rating of Global Agenda's Most Recent Beta Version [-]

---GRAPHICS

I rank the graphics as one of the highest in quality for an MMORPG, which shows through even better when I play from my gaming rig at home compared to the computers Hi-Rez keeps for LAN parties and in-house testers. It takes a few seconds at the login screen for the graphics to really kick in, but I have absolutely no performance problems in-game.

I?m not so big on the smooth way lighting caresses textures that Hi-Rez chose to use for the characters, items and environment, but it?s not a deal breaker, either.

I'm kind of taken back to the days of Doom 3, but with less dramatic contrast in light to dark. It makes sense for me to feel this way, I suppose, seeing as how Global Agenda uses the Unreal 3 engine.

---SOUND

The music and sound quality are more than adequate, but not necessarily ground breaking. Global Agenda is definitely making use of my 5.1 surround sound force feedback headphones, though. Whenever I'm involved in PvP combat (that's combat against other players), every queue an enemy can give to let me know they?re attacking is worth watching and listening for. Precision gaming audio equipment will give a player that much more of an edge, making the difference between number one and second best.

I can hear as players fly over me, can identify the sound effects associated with specific attacks, know what a player is shooting at and what he's using to shoot it with. Most gamers don't think about the work these sort of sound effects require; it's intense. Nevertheless, it's also expected. So much so that anything short of the best sound quality is considered lacking.

The one thing audio-wise I'm missing in Global Agenda is music. There is some music, and there's also some environmental resonance, but it's not enough for me. It's small differences in quality like audio that distinguish a video game from the video game. Whether environmental, situation based (like in versus out of combat) or otherwise, music really helps me to immerse myself into the virtual world.

---USER INTERFACE AND ITEMS

As for the user interface, I have mixed feelings. I really like the helpful info stations that a player can query to find specific locations, such as the armor store, and it generates a three-dimensional path hovering above the ground for the player to follow. As for equipment and talent windows, they?re not quite there, yet.

It was very confusing for me to figure out how to set any equipment or abilities at all. Most players are used to filling up their skill trees, dragging combat ability buttons from a menu to a hot bar and then equipping weapons to a character slot from the inventory. Not in Global Agenda. If it weren't for the Hi-Rez game dev I was chatting with while playing, I would still be trying to figure out what button gets me to the skills menu and wondering how to set them. Actually, no I wouldn't... I would have just stopped playing. Also, I had no idea where to get a weapon from. Turns out, after settings skills, weapons automatically become available and are equipped from a tab in the skills window. In short, weapons aren?t items in an inventory that you need to buy or find, but are given to you.

Don?t worry, you can still upgrade your weapon, armor and more beyond what another player has through the use of special mod items. These mod items are supposed to have something to do with nanotechnology in the game lore, but they?re used the same way as gems in WoW.

The controls and interface are a bit different than any MMO you have probably played before, but it doesn?t take long to figure out. In fact, the only hindrance to playing the game at maximum intuitiveness is not moving around the map, but using the hot bar to initiate attacks and special abilities as you run around. The pace of the game is very similar to an FPS, but the differences are that it's third person and your abilities mean way more than your base weapon, in most cases.

---GAMEPLAY

The game runs smoothly. I have no complaints, there. I have not yet been able to test the orientation portions of the game, including any missions that grant experience. I?ve only been able to test PvP, so far, and while it is pretty close to finished on the PvP side (that?s the part Hi-Rez wants to focus on), I really, really want to get in on some PvE.

The PvP has a few different maps and modes. There?s a capture-the-flag type map, with three flags to capture/defend until time runs out. There?s a sort of escort mission that doesn?t use an MVP, but instead forces one team to move an object from one side of the map to the other, while the opposing forces try to stop it?s movement. Also, the object cannot be reset or reversed and moves sort of slow.

The only other PvP map I played besides those two looked to be a different version of capture the flag, but my team was getting pwn?ed so hardcore, I can?t tell you what the hell it was about. Which brings about another point...

---COMMUNITY

In any game, players and the way they experience the game are what define the project. A person will say a game is "good" or "bad" based on their experience. Sometimes (most times), players will interact with a game's content in ways the developers never intended, giving the content a completely different feel. The most influential way players can change the face of a game are through community interactions in an MMO. For most players, the community makes or breaks games.

In general, I like Global Agenda?s community. The dev?s all have characters and play the game, though it?s usually for testing, and they?re all super nice and/or helpful in game ? even while they?re stomping you into the ground in PvP. Though almost every last one of the players in beta testing, right now, are high schoolers, they?re not entirely unruly. My chat box is not constantly overfilled with cursing and derogatory comments, which is nice.

I asked a lot of newb questions when I logged in on the beta. While most of the testers who could read me didn?t respond, there were a few that actually answered my questions, were super helpful, and even offered me in-game currency to buy equipment that was, at that point, purely aesthetic.

---ISSUES

The only issues I experienced had to do with things on the game coding side. I couldn?t participate in the first beta because there was some sort of issue that prevented me and several other players from being able to run the program. That issue, however, was fixed before the second beta, during which I ran around trying to learn the classes and how to play them in the short amount of time I had. During the second test the only issues I had were: (1) the game was unstable in windowed mode and would freeze or crash regularly, and (2) after leaving an instance based mission, the game would either crash or freeze. Thankfully, the application never caused my computer to crash completely.

The reason for the score? Any issue that keep me from and discourages me from playing the game is a big issue.

Thanks to developer David Tyler, I was very well taken care of on the support side of things. Thanks, David!

[-] Overall [-]

I cannot stress enough that this game is still in development, and since every bug I?ve ever experienced or reported has been fixed, I forgive them any problems I have had. All other aspects of the game, including, to a lesser extent, graphics, and to a larger extent, things like user interface and class abilities, are constantly being updated. Hi-Rez Studios is making sure they get class balancing and intuitive in-game controls as fine-tuned as possible before releasing their baby for the whole world to play. For that, I will delay most of my opinions concerning most any aspect of the game, until the game is released.

[-] Pertinent Questions [-]

When is the launch date? No one knows, yet. This game has a long way to go before the pristine condition needed for launch is achieved. Every time I ask about something I don?t like in the game, the response is always ?Yeah, we?re working on that.? In fact, every time I talk with any developers, it looks like Hi-Rez is making and dev-testing new builds at least once a day.

How can you get into the closed beta? Create an account and request to join.

Do you like Global Agenda enough to play once it is released? As long as I?m not bogged down with SWTOR or FFXIV (because I have extreme lust issues for anything Star Wars and/or Final Fantasy), I will most likely be playing Global Agenda. Something I didn't note, earlier, is that Global Agendawill likely make a nice change of pace and sort of "stress reliever" as a secondary game to play for any hardcore MMORPG player.

Article Tags

Write a Response