Tabula Rasa Previews

Three more GDC previews of NCsoft’s Tabula Rasa have been posted to the web over the past couple of days. The first is at WorthPlaying:

Garriott also intends Tabula Rasa to be a step forward in the realm of interactive storytelling, which he views as having taken a big step back in the era of the MMO. Tabula Rasa has a strong overall storyline, which is largely told through instances. Thus, while many characters will do the same quests, they won’t all be there at the same time. (Here, Garriott told a story about players queuing up to kill a monster at the bottom of a high-level Ultima Online dungeon, and how he wished to avoid similar situations developing here.) The idea is for the player to be able to pretend that he’s the main character in a developing space opera, forging through this unique storyline with his friends at his back.

The second is at Games Radar:

We watched as Garriott ran us through a mission – to infiltrate and destroy a Bane lab that’s reanimating corpses of fallen humans – highlighting some of the ways Tabula Rasa tries to distance itself from the traditionally UI-driven combat in most MMOs. (You’ll notice that there’s no cursor floating about.) said Garriott, as a space marine-like soldier took down several alien enemies with concentrated bursts of rifle fire.

And the third is at 1Up:

Combat is fast-paced, but tactical — players can use the environment to their advantage. Cover will actually reduce the chance that you’ll be hit and it’s possible to dodge some attacks. On a larger scale, the outcome of battles will have consequences in the world regardless of whether you participate. Waypoints, which make it possible to warp conveniently around the planet, can be overtaken by enemy forces, shutting down the quest givers, shops, and transportation points, and turning the defense system against players.