Beta Test: Global Agenda

5:00 PM on 01.16.2010   |   Jim Sterling

42 comments

Global Agenda is one of those games that have tried to make themselves hard to classify by straddling genres and trying to come up with its own unique identity. Developer Hi-Rez Studios calls its game an "action-based shooter MMO" and I suppose that's as good enough a term as any to describe it. 

At its core, however, Global Agenda is a straight third-person multiplayer shooting game. It has elements of the MMO genre, certainly, not to mention a rather significant strategy section, but the heart of the game is in some good old fashioned gunslinging. 

I've been trying out the beta for the past few days, and have been tackling the games many high points, as well as its many problems. If you're interested in promising multiplayer shooters for your PC (and who isn't) then check out these first impressions.

Global Agenda takes place in the year 2155. After the Third World War, an oppressive world government called the Commonwealth has taken over, leading to independent rebel factions rising up against them. These factions are called Agencies, and this is where players will find themselves. After a brief tutorial that sets up the game's thin plot, you'll find yourself in one of the game's "Dome Cities," surrounded by other Global Agenda players. 

These Domes serve as hub worlds where players can hang out and talk, buy equipment or assign skill points, among other things. For the beta, many of these stores are closed and the ones that are opened have limited items, but the potential to customize one's character are already quite abundant. 

There are four classes to choose from -- Robotics, Assault, Recon and Medic. They act pretty much how you'd expect them to, with Robotics being your engineer, Assault being your heavy weapon specialist, Recon being your stealth and disruption unit, and Medic being your healer and buffer. I've gone with the Medic, who can either outfit himself to be a straight-up healer, specialize in poisoning attacks, or dabble in a little of both. Having quickly found out that the Medic is no real good for fighting, I've focused on the healing aspect. 

Straight away I've noticed that the characters are fairly unbalanced. The Recon character is totally unmatched right now, and it's no surprise that the vast majority of players in any given match are playing the stealth operative. Hi-Rez is currently tweaking all the classes, but it seems that more than a few power-ups and power-downs will be needed before the game goes gold. 

There are a wealth of game options open to the player. PvE will have four players team up to take on the game's AI in order to boost levels and gain access to items which they can use to craft new weaponry and armor. Yes, there will be much grinding needed in this game if you want any of the cool items. I still need about thirty scrap items in order to craft some armor. 

PvP will pit two teams against each other in a variety of situations. So far I've gained access to a simple "Capture and Hold" objective and a mission in which one team must escort a big ball behind enemy lines. So far, out of however many games I've played, I think I've managed to be on the winning team twice. I'm not sure how the PvP is set up, because the game isn't very informative, but I always end up on the blue team, and the blue team always loses. I don't know if there is some other faction you can join where all the winners hang out, but the amount of losses I've suffered seem unusually high and feel like there might be some problem underlying the way PvP is set up. This blue team I keep joining has absolutely no chance of winning, it seems, and I really don't want to play PvP anymore until I find out what the problem is. 

The game's big main mode is Conquest, but I keep missing out on it. Conquest splits the game world up into territories, and at set times, various Agencies can band together to take over and fight for control of the map. Having joined an Agency, I will endeavor to get into a Conquest game to see what's up with it. 

As far as the actual shooting gameplay goes, there is a heck of a lot of potential. Despite the unbalanced nature, the classes are all pretty unique and have access to all sorts of cool,abilities. The controls are loose, but the action is solid, and it's fun to jet-pack around the map and get involved in some pretty intense scraps. Unfortunately, however, all this potential enjoyment is thoroughly ruined by one incredibly game-breaking issue -- melee weapons. 

Right now, Global Agenda's battles are a complete mess of people running around hammering the mouse button to hit each other with swords. Like some sort of insane Diablo, players just circle each other, randomly slashing with highly overpowered melee weapons, trusting to luck that the enemy will fall over first. It completely overshadows the shooting aspect of the game and it's absolutely fucking annoying to constantly get slashed apart by a Recon with a Ghost Sword. Again, this is something Hi-Rez is tweaking, but at this rate, melee weapons should be taken out altogether, because they wreck the experience.

With Global Agenda in beta right now and patches issued every day, my hope is that these problems are things that can and hopefully will be fixed. I hope so, because under the wealth of issues lies a potentially addictive experience with a lot going for it. I've managed to have fun with it despite the many irritations, so it clearly must be doing something right. If it can do even more right, then this could be a very excellent little game.