Review by ikanami

"Solid game, but not without it's frustrations."

I started playing Global Agenda a day or two after it's release, and have seen quite a few changes in the last couple of months. As of now, it's version number 1.26. So this review shall be for the game as of date.

This game basically has no storyline. It has back story, but the missions and everything have nothing to do with a particular story line. All you really need to know is there are mercenaries competing for land in the world and trying to fight off an "evil" organization. It's kind of disappointing, however, it works for this game.

The game doesn't have the best graphics ever, but I really enjoy the way it looks. The character models and armor look good, and the color scheme combinations are pretty cool. Explosions, gun shots, and rockets look really good, also.

The interface is standard MMO. You have a health and energy bar for you and your teammates, a mini-map, an action bar, chat box, and mission info. You can't really do much in terms of customization for it, so it's kind of disappointing and bland looking.

The most important aspect. In Global Agenda you gain experience by completing either PvP, PvE, or AvA (agency v agency) missions. Each with different rewards, challenges, and benefits. With PvE you can receive materials used for crafting upgrades for your armor and weapons, PvP gives good money and moderate experience, and AvA allows your Agency to conquer new territory, gain new items to use in AvA, and to try to win the zone. As you level up you unlock new weapons and devices and receive a new skill point every other level, a total of 13.

There are 5 different types of PvE missions. In all PvE missions you have 15 minutes to take down the final boss. You can also receive extra credits and experience by meeting the team bonus, which you receive by not dieing a set amount of times during the mission. The first is Low Security. It is pretty easy and doesn't require much strategy. You have to fight some trash enemies until you make your way to the boss room. Once inside, you can't leave. For Low Security the enemy is only an elite, the 2nd level of enemy. They deal decent damage, but can be easy overcame. You stop receiving experience after level 9 for this mission. In Medium Security, you must battle trash and elites to make it to the final boss, which is a miniboss. Minibosses are quite a bit stronger and require a bit more strategy than elites. You stop receiving experience after level 19 for this mission type. High Security means that minibosses are found outside of the boss room. Maximum Security means enemies are even stronger than high security and some bosses are different, but it's a lot like High Security. In each mission type additional enemies are summoned during the boss fight. In each increase in difficulty there is an increase in the strength in these additional enemies. Also, with each increase in difficulty, all enemies deal increase damage.

PvP also has 6 different mission types. First, there's Control. In control, there are 3 objective points that can be captured by standing within the circle. Who ever controls 2 of the 3 points receive points quickly. The first team to 800 wins the match. Another variant is Breach. One team is set as the attackers and one team is the defenders. There are 3 objective points that the attackers must capture one after another within the time limit. In Demolition each team is given a robot that one player must control. The objective is to get your team's robot from your spawn point to the enemies objective point. Doing so scores you one point, the first team to 3 wins. However, the robots can be destroyed and you must wait for them to respawn if this happens. In payload, there is a moving objective point that moves as you stand near it or stops moving/moves farther away from the target location as you stand near it, depending on if you're on offense or defense. The attackers must move the payload to 3 target locations within the time limit. Finally, there is Scramble. In Scramble the objective is to take the current objective point by standing inside of it, capturing the point gives you 1 point, it takes 3 to win. Once an objective point is captured, it spawns in one of about 5 different locations that is randomly chosen. There is also a game variant in which you can enter a team for a 4v4 arena-like battle.

AvA I have little experience with. The point is to attack or steal from other territories that aren't in your alliance (a group of agencies). Different territories can have different things built on them. You can build structures to produce blueprints, mines, etc. You use the recourses mined to produce items you can use for AvA, as well as working towards building a forge, which allows you to "win" the zone you're in. Gameplay for AvA matches is basically PvP variants, depending on which type of AvA mission it is.

There are 4 different classes in the game, each with unique abilities and weapons. Each character has a melee weapon, which has different effects per class if you hit your enemy in the back, a primary weapon, a special weapon, a boost, a jetpack, and 3 off-hand devices.The recon class is the only one with stealth, it also uses sniper rifles, mines, and explosive devices. The robotics class uses drones and deployable (such as turrets, shields, power and health stations, and radar) to do the most of their fighting. The assault class is the tanking class for PvE. It uses miniguns, rocket launchers, and grenade launchers as special weapons and grenades and shields as off-hand devices. The 4th class is the medic, obviously the healer class. It has a sort of channeled beam for healing, or a Heal of Time (HoT) if you prefer. It also has area of effect and grenade healing abilities. For offense, it has the standard assault rifle like weapon that all classes have, a poisoning gun, and poison grenades and poison AoE abilities. Poison Medics use Damage over Times and debuffs to damage and weaken enemies.

Crafting in the game is a rather weak point. You receive materials randomly for crafting while doing PvE, and all items of the same quality require the same materials. You have 2 crafting stats, weapon upgrade crafting and armor upgrade crafting. Each go up to 300.

As for customization, you can buy different helmets and armors that vary by classes, these have no stats. You can also buy different dyes to apply to your weapons and armor to change their colors.

I find this game to be quite fun, and more upgrades are coming soon. There's plenty to do, and the different game types offer something to everyone. I would give this game an 8 out of 10. The only problems I have with it is 1:) experience isn't granted by how well you do per se, but how well the team does; 2) teams for PvP are thrown together too randomly, and 3) crafting annoys me. I would highly recommend it if you like third person shooter rpg's.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10 | Originally Posted: 04/12/10

Game Release: Global Agenda (US, 02/01/10)

Submit Recommendation

Got Your Own Opinion?
