Review: Global Agenda - not your grandpa's MMO

The term 'class-based shooter' has been getting thrown around a lot lately, and combining that trend with the rise of the MMO is a logical connection to make. Global Agenda, from Atlanta-based industry newcomer Hi-Rez Studios, aims to find its place in that extremely competitive world of multiplayer-focused shooters. While Global Agenda has been marketing itself chiefly as an MMO, it takes the unusual approach of creating, in essence, a separate subscription package – not unlike a concurrently-released MMO-expansion. But Global Agenda is a full game even without its subscription content, and I will be addressing that content in this particular review. So what does this upstart pseudo-MMO shooter bring to the table? Find out after the jump.

GA is set in a light cybernetic future ("light" because it has no focus on networks or the implications of AI, defining traits of the more intense cyberpunk genre) and its plot is quick and simple - you escape from a government facility and are thrust into an ongoing war with thousands of other technologically-enhanced humans. The producers have expressed plans to expand on the game's lore, but for now it has clearly been placed well below game play on the studio's list of priorities; a decision I can hardly blame them for making, although I remain a touch disappointed.

Choose wisely.

When you first start Global Agenda, you create a male or female version of one of the game's four classes, customize their face and hair, and, after a brief tutorial, jump into an instanced 'city.' From within this hub, you can buy (entirely cosmetic) equipment, reset and assign skill points, or join a variety of PvE or PvP missions. PvE missions pit you against a short dungeon packed with robot opponents and a boss at the end. There are four different difficulties to select, from the extremely easy to the grueling and murderous maximum security, and provide you with an assortment of crafting components for each enemy you kill. PvP missions are fairly standard – control points, move a cart from A to B, capture points in succession, or 'crazy king' king-of-the-hill. Global Agenda's capture the flag mode adds an interesting element (reminiscent of Unreal Tournament 2003's bombing run), wherein the 'flag' is a player-driven robot punching machine. For better or worse, it makes for a fast-paced game mode without much of the turtling that often plagues capture the flag games.

Core gameplay in Global Agenda revolves around its selection of four distinct classes - the quick and stealthy Recon, a combat-ready Medic, the beefy Assault, and the turret-building Robo. Successful players gain experience and level up to earn new items and skill points that can go towards any of three skill trees, allowing a fair amount of specialization within each class. For example, a Recon can focus either on short-range bombs and melee skills or enhanced sniping power. The classes share a basic item structure; each class has a melee weapon, a primary ranged weapon and a jetpack, along with a more distinct class-specific item. One of the three skill trees, the balance tree, is the same for every class, allowing a player to choose between specialization and a well-rounded approach. Finally, each class has three 'offhand' slots that act as activated abilities that range in effect from grenades and bombs to shields and speed-boosts, which provide a good sense of variance in play style even within a given specialization.

Talents? No, friend, these are skills. SKILLS.

All together, these various options create a fairly diverse game play dynamic. The action is quick and skill-oriented, and skilled play calls for coordination and careful use of your offhand abilities. It is clear that Hi-Rez built the game to focus much more on player skill than time commitment. A well-played level 10 character will undoubtedly beat out a mediocre level 30 player. In doing this, they sacrificed much of the potential sense of progression - don't expect to keep playing because you need to run one more dungeon to get a new sword upgrade. Upgraded items that do exist are minor tweaks at best, small bonuses that will give you a leg up in a fair fight but certainly won't do much to turn the tide if you are outmatched. I appreciate this decision, but time will tell if it will be the right one for Hi-Rez's bank accounts.

Late in the beta, in an effort to give its less-used modes more play time, Global Agenda's PvP mission selection move to a sort of grab-bag 'mercenary' mode with mixed results. While it gave players the opportunity to experience the under-played Scramble mode, it also forces players into the seldom-enjoyed Payload. Hi-Rez chose to stick with this 'mercenary select' method even when the game went live, which I feel is an odd decision - why not give the players the ability to choose longer wait times to guarantee they get the mode they feel like playing? All things considered, I would probably still select the random option most of the time, but I can't help feeling that I'm having my choices artificially limited.

Choose your game mode... sort of.

Clearly, most of the Global Agenda's development time went into building its core third-person shooting engine. Unlike many third-person games, targeting feels precise and responsive. Movement speeds are fast but not necessarily frantic, and building stages around jet packs creates a wide variety of approaches to any position. One of my personal favorite features is the game's method of dealing with ammunition. All main-hand items (your primary gun, your specialty item, and your jetpack) use one energy gauge that refills rapidly when not in use - creating an interesting dynamic between offense, skills, and tactical movement.

Unfortunately, focusing so much on the game's engine leaves something to be desired in raw content. Putting the basic Global Agenda game up against its closest PC corollary, Team Fortress 2, is almost unfair considering TF2's massive head start in the content department. Map diversity is fairly limited, and map selection is essentially non-existent right now. Each class has a fairly large selection of available items, but that often makes the lack of variety stand out. The recon has a choice of three primary weapons - an SMG and two sniper rifles that deal the same damage - which almost feels like a cop-out when viewed next to the wide variety of off-hand bombs from which they can choose.

Sure, you could just log straight into servers. But then where would you show off your Phazon suit look?

Global Agenda has a very strong foundation that could enable huge growth in the future. The essential question, however, is whether or not newcomer Hi-Rez Studios is going to pull in enough players and revenue to keep Global Agenda alive into its maturity. In the long run, the game's success will hinge on how well the community receives their unorthodox subscription package and how well they stand out among the myriad of other class-based shooters available in the market today. Global Agenda has raw potential, and I eagerly await seeing what this underdog might bring us in the future.

Note that you can buy a Global Agenda 4-pack on Steam for $150.00, if you can convince a few friends to join you (or check out this forum post for others who might be interested). You can not only save 25%, but you can enjoy the game more by playing it with friends.

MSRP - $50.00

CASRP - $42.50

CouchAthletics.com doesn't rate games with stars or percentage; we tell you what the game is worth to us. We paid for the game just like you will, or won't. We're telling you what we paid, and how much we feel the game is worth.