LAGWAR | GAMING'S BEST IN TOP NOTCH MEDIOCRITY

Hi-Rez Studios, developer of the upcoming sci-fi MMOFPS Global Agenda attended GameX in Philadelphia, PA over the weekend and Lagwar.com was there to get a first-hand look at the game and speak with GA Associate Producer and PR Specialist, Michal Adam.

Hi-Rez had a stellar exhibition setup of the game along with buttons, t-shirts, and various other propaganda for the gamers to feed on. Approximately 15 high-end gaming computers sporting a demo version of GA were also available for would-be consumers to plop down and face-off against other attendees and test out a bit of what the game has to offer.

Built on the Unreal 3 engine, Global Agenda sports some very polished graphics with a very interesting art-style. It’s not hyper-realistic nor does everything appear “wet” like most games built on the U3 engine do. My one word to describe the game…fun. It’s hard to tell a lot about an MMO in the first month of play, much less the first 5 or 10 minutes. So rather than try to explain what details and features the game has to offer, we got it straight from source, Michal Adam, Associate Producer/PR Specialist for Global Agenda.

Currently, Global Agenda is set to launch with 4 classes. When asked if there are any current plans on developing more classes, Michal explained the diversity of the existing 4 classes and that players will be able to re-spec with little to no cost or penalty. While you cannot respec during a mission, you can re-spec while in the hub cities. “You can load your agent profile screen and re-spec your character”, said Adam. “Maybe you don’t wanna be a healer now, you want to dish out all of the damage, take all your aggression out, so you’re gonna re-spec to be more of a combat-medic.” Adam went on to say, “There’s really no cost associated (with re-specs), the number of skill points that you have to spend are correlate with the character level and the experience points that you’ve gained. A low level character may not have a full range of skill points to allocate, so you’re slightly limited there, but once you reach max level you can really re-spec freely.”

Since Global Agenda is sporting it’s own in-game voice chat, what better info to find out other than how do we combat spammers? Adam stated, “Reporting someone will definitely get an immediate action. In the next few weeks we’ll be making some more specific announcements regarding our in-game voice chat. The safest thing I can say is, report it.”

Adam could not answer whether or not you could mute individual players or not though it seems there’s a good chance that when in a group, it will be all or nothing.

Character customization will be another huge feature in Global Agenda. Adam mentioned that she enjoyed the customization level that games like City of Heroes offered and that Hi-Rez is working hard to offer a very robust customization system. We asked specifically how in depth the armor customization will be and here’s what Adam had to say:

“It goes pretty in depth. As you progress your character you’ll have access additional armor and gain agency credits as an agent you’ll gain some currency over time and you’ll use it to purchase from vendors. You can buy new suits and helmets from the vendors inside the hub cities and social spaces. In addition to different ranks of armor we also have a pretty extensive suit and helmet dye system. There’s a primary, secondary, and admissive dye and that’s for all helmet, suit, and weapon items. It’s pretty neat and in addition to that, at the very start of the game you have facial and gender customizations that are pretty extensive. It’s awesome.” said Adam.

In regards to a post that Sarc from LW had made on the official GA forums regarding PvE content, Adam said, “One thing that we’ve been working on is ongoing PvE content and new enemies. The PvE is actually getting super fun. There are loot drops and achievements.”

“It will be rewarding throughout the game, but especially at max level there will be high level PvE with some pretty serious rewards. That will make the most sense probably to subscribers who are part of the Alliance versus Alliance game play, but PvE is very rewarding and it is a great team exercise. You’re playing co-op style, 4 person in tight quarters so it makes for a really fun game. The type of enemies you can expect to encounter in PvE are mob enemies like androids, or more specialized enemies like scanner bots who will detect you then call for reinforcements or respondents. Then at the end you’ll encounter the big boss fight. You’ll really need to work together. Some of the missions have a boss that has a heal-bot that’s repairing them as you’re giving them damage, so it gets really hard and you have to really work together.”

One of the most important question I know everyone out there is dying to ask…is it the size of your jetpack or how you use it that matters?

Smiling, Adam answered, “Jetpacks are universal to all classes in Global Agenda and is the main source of movement, but besides aesthetics, they are all the same”.

LW also asked about tools Global Agenda will offer to players who want to create their own agency. Adam explained that only Conquest subscribers can create their own agency (reinforcing the pricing model announced by Hi-Rez last week) and folks who are just playing it as a multiplayer game can join agencies, but they cannot form their own agency.

She later went on to say, “You don’t want to create a situation where everyone is creating an agency cause then it’s very thin. For tools, we do have a really sophisticated agency search feature, and you can search via agency or class and you can use those for recruiting or seeking out an agency to join.”

In closing Adam told Lagwar:

“I think people will respond very well to the options that Global Agenda offers and I think it caters to many different types of players. Personally, I think that the flexibility that Hi-Rez is offering gamers is gonna be a big win and any PC that will run an Unreal 3 engine game like Unreal Tournament 3 will run Global Agenda. We’ve always said some come check us out for the immersive and compelling PvP combat and stick around for the Alliance versus Alliance.”