Global Agenda is a new MMOG by Hi-Rez Games, an independent, self-funded company, I was proudly told. Using on the Unreal Engine 3, Global Agenda is set in the 22nd Century in a future Earth. Both an MMO and an FPS, the game occurs in a world of intrigue, infiltration and interrogation - the developers called it a “Spy-fi” reminiscent of the action-movie genre. Think the Bourne Identity or James Bond.
It looks slick; it looks polished; it looks bad-ass. The graphics are top notch, the animations seamless. My character ran, crouched, jumped, caught ledges, heaved herself up, knifed an NPC in close combat and did a moon walk when she danced. What about the game?
There are PvE missions to be had, but this is a PvP-centric game. The conflict is player driven. The goal is to gain and hold territory. Players create agents, join agencies and form alliances, and then it’s territorial warfare. All fought in 15 to 20 minutes death matches on different maps. As described, the maps are all instanced, but all actions are connected. For example: An agency might enter a map and manage to take out an opposing alliances’ shield generators that affect their boundary shields.
I was shown a map of the zone, all laid out in hexes and each hex outlined in a different color. From a menu on the right of the screen, I could see which alliance owned each territory. Each hex is a single PvP map, except for the cores which are key points and as large as 60 hexes. The conflict runs for about 45 days, then winners are declared and players start all over again.
We walked through the character creation and tutorial. There are four classes in game, Recon (your sniper / intelligence / detect traps), Assault (tank / DPS), Medic (healer / damage) and Mechanic (turrets / “pets” / shields). Each class has three skill trees for players to specialize in. As all players will be fully armored and the game is fast paced, the armor of each class has a distinct silhouette; big bulky shoulders for the Assault, flexible pipes and packs for the Medic, a sleek slim silhouette for the Recon guy and a 3rd mechanical arm for the Mechanic (which looked a little strange to me).
The former head of developer relations for the Stratics Network, Carolyn Koh has years of experience covering the MMORPG genre. Carolyn first started playing games such as Pong & Moon Buggy on the 8086, and arcade games like Ms. PacMan, Centipede, Red Baron and Joust before graduating to text muds through University computers and Doom on the LAN in the Engineering department after office hours. She claims she didn't frag the guys. Carolyn enjoys reviewing casual games and children's games for us. She also maintains a staff blog commenting on the emails crossing her desk that touch on the gaming industry in one form or another.
