Global Agenda

I want to start off and say that I've been dreading doing this review for quite sometime now. It isn't that I don't like the game, I just kept wishing that there was more to this game that was going to be able to draw me in and make me say "holy crap everyone needs to get this game". It also helps/hurts that I actually know some of the people that made that magic happen. Global Agenda is a 3rd Person shooter in which you will be taking on 1 of 4 classes. You'll go through a tutorial with a cookie-cutter, yet slightly interesting, story. Then you'll be dropped off in the main hub and the story, I'm guessing, is written by you through a mode called Agency vs. Agency. You'll also be able to participate in Player vs. Environment missions, as well as Player vs. Player.

Graphically this game is going to do anything but blow you away. It makes sense to not make this game a graphics hog because this game is coming out of a company that is just trying to break in. Unfortunately with the graphics that they do show you're going to see texture pop out the ass. The levels looks interesting and evoke the want to explore, but after being recycled for the 20th time straight and knowing that you're just going to go from point A to point B, the magic is gone.

I'm going to skip the sounds because to be honest most of the time they are overshadowed by some moron with a microphone. 

The controls take a bit of time to get used to. The mouse is going to control the camera, there will be no point and clicking. You'll utilize WASD to move, and you'll have your trusty numbers to switch weapons and skills. 

So here's the deal, the main draw to this game is Agency vs. Agency, and to be honest I would have loved to play in some of that to see what it is all about, but trying to get 8 strangers to group together so that people can try out the one thing that will cost you a subscription fee makes no sense to me. Then there's the matter of the bare bone-ness of the rest of the game. There's different levels of difficulty for PvE, and as you go up your not going to be able to just go in guns a blazing. The problem is that I feel like I was playing the same map over and over again. Unfortunately for Hi-Rez Studios, the company that developed the game, that allows the player to analyze the crap out of the level and as a result the flaws start to sparkle brighter than the rest of the level. There's also the enemy factor. I understand that you want to make the enemies tough but when a player has a limited amount of energy to spend before they take cover the same should go for the enemy. The enemy should act like a player. Another thing is that if you're going through a PvE mission and a couple of players drop out you're screwed. There's no way to recover that and as a result you have to quit the mission because of someone else, taking you out of the game mindset. Why not be able to have replacements pop in? Finally the grueling task of grinding through the same level over and over again so you can collect ingredients drives me nuts. Wait there's one more thing that I just remembered, I know that the sense of urgency is a great weapon in this game but the timer for the later levels is ridiculous if you can't get the teleport point closer to the boss battle.

Now on to the PvP. There are some inventive game play modes, but in the end there's only a handful that are actually entertaining, and also its pretty easy to see early on in a match who the winning side is going to be. I'm sure its more about the players than the actual game, but this seems to screaming balancing issues.

Now onto the supposed crowning achievement, the piece to the puzzle that everyone must sample, AvA (Agency vs Agency). It is unique that you can only do things for 2 hours per day, and it makes logical sense that its done that way so no one gets nailed when they aren't online. The problem is I can't see a good reason to be paying a subscription for something that I am limited in playing. Another huge issue with me is that there is no way to just enter a queue of freelancers and dive into an "open" section and create chaos in an area. Sure that means that the territory can't be taken over because you're not part of an agency (aka Guild), but that would allow those who don't know anyone to taste that mode. 

I know that this game is still early on in its release, but its going to be one hell of an up-hill battle, and sadly this game, which I was really excited about playing has truly become just another game in which I'll see it once in a blue moon on my computer and pop on for half a second and then log back off after a PvE or PvP mission. 

If this game is around in a year and is still going strong pick it up because chances are the growing pains of this title will have subsided enough to make a solid game. Yes I know that there's been patches and there are scheduled improvements, but from where I stand now its going to take a good chunk more to make it the game that it needs to become in order to survive in this brutal online world. This game gets a 5.8 out of 10.