THE GREAT FISSURE

Long ago the battle for control of the cosmos was lost...

When the first great civilization in the universe at last solved the problem of interstellar travel, they did this not with colossal space ships, but rather wondrous machines that could transport people across the vast distances of outer space. With great excitement, they set out to explore, fully expecting to find other races more advanced than their own.

They never found such a race and soon came to believe they were the first interstellar travelers. However, they did discover beauty and wonder throughout the cosmos. They contacted other civilizations and shared with them the mighty secrets they had discovered. Happy to act as mentors and teachers to these younger civilizations, the race that called themselves the Eloh became known as the Benefactors.

Over time, events unfolded that led to a tragic rift among the Benefactors as a malevolent rebel group festered and grew into a splinter faction known as the Thrax. The sparks of that schism erupted into a war that ultimately resulted in the disappearance of the Benefactors. With an insatiable hunger for absolute power, the Thrax now search the galaxy for races advanced enough to exploit or dangerous enough to exterminate.

SANCTUARY

Sanctuary, the last remaining evidence of the great Benefactors' sacrifice, is a protected place, deep within a massive black hole. Entry and egress is possible only with the special knowledge of the Benefactors and not possible for even the advanced intellects of the Thrax who lack the one essential element to gain passage: compassion. Thus, Sanctuary provides a safe haven in which to prepare and train for battles against these dread adversaries.

EARTH AND THE BENEFACTORS

Earth has been visited by both the Benefactors and Thrax since the dawn of civilization, both openly and covertly. Many myths, technological breakthroughs and religions have been spawned by interpretations of these encounters. Some creatures considered by modern man to be purely mythological do truly exist, but in highly different forms on other planets. The knowledge of these creatures, it seems, has been altered in the telling and retelling from generation to generation.

Believing the societies of Earth to be primitive, as evidenced through both the indifference and violence of man against man, the Thrax have largely ignored our planet while focusing on more pressing conquests. It is, however, only a matter of time before they focus their gaze - and unleash their malignity - on Earth.

THE INVITATION

Though the Benefactors have long since departed, they remain in spirit, their brilliance and hope shining through in the very architecture of this timeless Sanctuary.

Their invitation does not arrive conspicuously on luminescent parchment. Its wispy touch is delicate, subtle. It is a sense of knowing, a gentle pull toward a somewhere that is unknown, yet familiar. It is the voice you hear inside you, at this moment, bidding you to come, to learn and to join in the good fight alongside your fellow man.

Heed the call. The power to save the universe lies within you.

Game Play

Tabula Rasa plays like most 3rd person shooter games for the PC or Consul. While playing you are locked in mouse look mode where the center of the screen/mouse is your targeting reticule and you aim/move the camera by moving the mouse. Mouse look is released once you open a menu such as your inventory or character information screen. The games GUI or HUD is very striped down to look like something you would see in a shooter game. The goal behind the GUI is to allow players to focus most of their time on the battle at hand and not on micro managing menus and tool bars. With displays like the targets health showing just below or above the target there is little reason to take your eyes off the fight. With the E3 demo we where only able to play in a 3rd person view, however there is some dissection on weather or not the game should support the first person point of view.

The games controls are very simple and make it easy for anyone to jump in and start having a fun time. Like most 3rd person action games movement is handles with the 'WASD' keys with 'A & D' being strafe left and right (turning is handled with the mouse). The middle mouse wheel will zoom in and out on the camera while your left and right mouse buttons will fire attacks (left) and 'logos' (right). In order to speed up the time of switching between weapons and logos, players can store up to 6 of each in a quick launch bar that can be rotated via the Q and E keys. To make the game feel even more like a shooter, players can manually reload their weapon by using the R key (yes there is ammo). Finally the last key players need to remember is the 'V' key that activates your voice chat much like a walkie talkie.

Battlefields

Something new that came out of the TR revision was the introduction of the battlefield system. When TR was first unveiled, all combat and missions took place inside instanced zones that only you and your group had access to. This is no longer the case, now players can fight along side each other by simple heading out into one of the many different battlefields. Battlefields are not an instanced zone and open up many new possibilities for the game. While the clear advantage of battlefields is that you have areas that aren't instanced, the TR team has taken it a step further by adding in features that will allow players to play an active role over the course of the battle. Along the front lines you will find control points that will help push back the impending Bane forces by thinning there numbers. Beware however, the Bane does not take lightly to losing a control point and most of all they will not give up a point without a fight.

Another really nice feature with battlefield system is the missions system. Missions will be given out by npcs around the map (normally around HQ) and will truly affect the battle. While some missions might be just to take down X number of monsters, some missions might send your group out to take down a power generator (in an instanced zone) that will shut off Bane power on the battlefield for a temporary amount of time. The state of the battlefield will also determine what missions are available at any given time. If all control points are owned by the Bane players will get different missions than if the coalition owns them all

Player Creation and Advancement

Creation and advancement is both very different and much the same as it was before. Players will start off as a 'new recruit' with no specialization. As you play though the game you will gain XP and levels. When you level you will be able to progress through a class tree system. Over time you will become more and more specialized in X field and eventually you will become a master in that field of study. Along the way you will pass crossroads leading to different fields of study (like commando vs. officer). At any point a player can back track to X cross road or go all the way back to the beginning and try moving up another class tree. When back tracking you will not lose your trained skills/training they will just become inactive. Players can then return to past trained skills at any time (or though a trainer of some kind)..