Interface and Sound

Control-o-rama

It is vital for MMORPGs to have a clean and intuitive interface. Players have enough to worry about without being confused by the interface. Control in Earth and Beyond is very simple. Movement is accomplished entirely by the mouse. Just hold down the right mouse button and aim your ship in a direction. There are keyboard shortcuts to all major commands, but almost everything can be done by mouse. The default keyboard controls are simple to learn and if not intuitive, their positioning is actually very convenient once you memorize the keys.


While this spills somewhat over into gameplay, the world is actually integrated very well with the interface. Space might allow for three dimensional movement, but nav points and locations are actually all set on a 2D plane within that 3D world. This keeps the navigation interface very clear and simple. Speaking of which, the navigation maps are what every MMORPG player has been dying for. Nav points denote points of interest or at least important junctions. Monsters are typically within visual range of a nav. The galactic map grows automatically as players explore, and inter-sector connections are clearly marked. We wish Earth and Beyond had better integration between the galactic and sector maps, such as the ability to sneak a peak back at the sector you just left behind. At the least, this should be an option available to exploration vessels.

Go ahead make fun of the name

First person mode

Engage

We had very few problems with the interface. The most glaring one came at the refining consoles where players turn raw materials into refined products. It is not uncommon to come in with a haul of 200 canisters of Oxygen or Neon. Gases like this are plentiful and a common mining resource. The problem is that refining automatically takes five gases and compresses them into one liquid container. Even with little lag, it becomes tiresome clicking the same button one hundred times in a row. We thought that was left behind in games designed 5 years ago…

Slimmin’ sounds

E&B has some ridiculously nice sound effects that are as professional as they come. They mesh so well with the world; they’re virtually unnoticeable. All the sound effects in the game are on the same level of quality. Nothing specific stands out in the sound department since it is just all uniformly good. Actually, there is one exception to the above rule. Somewhere in the game is a sound effect that was used for emissaries from Civilization II. We don’t know what this effect does but it feels undeniably out of place, since it is so distinctive.

Steady as she goes

Not the fastest ship in the galaxy...

Gates, gotta love them

Music is ambient instrumental, with occasional military/marching tunes. We wouldn’t call it inspired, but the execution is quite flawless. As with regular sound effects, it just blends in with the rest of the game.

Graphin’ grr… er… crap.

E&B has some very nice and modern features. It definitely pushes DirectX8 as far as it will go, with shiny surfaces, large textures, particle and lighting effects. Speaking of lighting effects, the game has possibly the most over-done colored lighting since DirectX 5. There were very few areas when the actual color of my ship was visible, rather than the ambient lighting.

All fired up

Can't interact with that station

Hmm risky but I might take them

Special effects are nice if not spectacular. Definitely in the top 4/5ths of the whole gaming industry. What sets Earth and Beyond apart is the customization of the player’s ships. There are three kinds of hull, wing and tail sections each, making for twenty-seven different possible combinations per ship. There are six ships, well over twenty decals and thousands of colors to choose from. The color combinations must be in the billions. Enjoy!