Games and Dungeons

Global Agenda hits the top notes in many areas. The crisp graphics and fast paced, high intensity team-based combat are definitely the game’s strongest points. Both PvP and PvE game play are equally fine and the AI of mobs in high difficulty PvE missions is admirable.

What constitutes an MMO these days? Some argue that an MMO truly has to be of a massive multiplayer experience, i.e. World of Warcraft or EVE Online, others, like me, simply believe that any game that is persistent — continuous character, “living” in non combat zones, buying/selling/interacting with environment — is what makes an MMO, even if they don’t necessarily support 2000 players at the same time in the same zone. Global Agenda does not and yet I’ll still argue that Global Agenda is an MMORPG just for the sake of genre comparison.

Anyways, now that that is out of the way let’s get to the nitty-gritty. First, I’ll lay out some disclaimers: Like with most MMOs, Global Agenda is a large game. I was not able to play everything the game had to offer or level every class up to its height. So please think of this as a sort of “on-going” review that I’ll add to as I play it over the next few months. Additionally, some may not see Global Agenda as an “indie game” necessarily. However, I have personally contacted the devs about this and they assured me that they are independent as laid out by our own guidelines. They are a larger indie developer, but funding, etc. was all independent from the big time game companies and VC firms.

Second, with this review being an MMO, I’m going to deviate from our traditional review standard of  “Gameplay, Story, Style, Everything Else”. Everything will still be just as easy to find and read about along with the red/blue text for negative/positive comments, however for an MMO I did not feel like the traditional model would fit inside those four categories. There’s simply too much to talk about. As such, I’m adding a few more that will make it easier to find exactly what people are looking for/interested in.

Finally, before we get to the actual review, for those that don’t yet know what Global Agenda is: Global Agenda is a spy-based MMO that takes place in the future where all of humanity (or most of it) is under control of an evil dictatorship called the “Commonwealth”. In this dystopian future wars are not fought with armies, but rather small squads of elite agents to gain valuable resources. You are one of these agents. From there you can participate in PvE missions and PVP gameplay to level your character etc. But more on that later. Needless to say, Global Agenda is a different sort of MMO than you’d expect, but the flip side is that it’s actually a breath of fresh air from all the MMOs I’ve played.

Global Agenda is by far one of the most refreshing MMOs I’ve ever played. And I’m not biased because it’s an indie effort either. It can honestly go toe-to-toe, with any mainstream MMO out there and give it a serious run for it’s money. The moment you boot up the game and play the introductory sequence you’ll understand what I mean. With GA you aren’t playing another WoW-clone, nor are you falling to the traditional MMO methods of doing things, you are playing something that’s very unique to the MMO world.

To further expand on my previous thoughts, Global Agenda is a shooter trapped in an MMO’s body. MMO-haters take heart in knowing that your character isn’t all stats and numbers, there’s real twitch-based skill required in this game to win. While some may be turned off by this, I feel like it’s absolutely a great thing amongst the swathes of generic, number-based MMOs out there today.

Additionally, to make things even more interesting, each class plays very differently (more on class specifics later). Each has their own play style, weapons, armor, etc. I’d liken the class system to the way Team Fortress 2 was laid out. Each class has a clear identity and there’s very little overlay in what classes can do. Although with Global Agenda there are only four classes not eight.

Each class comes with it’s own skill tree that allows you to specialize in exactly what you want to do. While I didn’t get to experience much of this on the other classes, the Medic, for example, got to choose between healing and poison as their specific class spec. It’s almost exactly what you’d expect if you ever played WoW or the Diablo games, the primary difference being that all classes share a similar tree called: balance which upgrades neutral items like your jetpack.

One of the best things I never would have imagined in the game is the unique way the game handles your weapon/item utilization. With your character, at all times, are eight items/weapons. Your melee, ranged, class-specific weapon/utility, jetpack, three class-specific gadgets, and a class specific “boost”. What makes this so unique is that you can only use one at a time. There’s no such thing as a jetpack-flying sniper in Global Agenda and that, dear readers, makes GA so much better than you could possibly imagine.

Finally, two words: JET PACK.