Discless: Global Agenda

Discless: Global Agenda



Strap on your jetpack and grab a gun, because this week, Discless is reviewing Global Agenda. GA, as it is called for short, is a sci-fi MMORPG available for download on PC through Steam. If you don�t know what that is, then you either don�t play PC games, or you�re WAY out of the loop. GA is set in a future in which the human race is struggling to survive. The world has decayed into a state of utter annihilation. The world�s surface is entirely made up of deserts, and the humans who are left live in what are called Dome Cities. The cities are, obviously, covered in massive domes. This is where the player begins.

Let�s begin with character creation. You begin by selecting your class. There are several classes to choose from. I�ll run down the list after the break.
# Assault: This is the �heavy weapons guy� of GA. They specialize in weapons such as miniguns, rocket launchers, and anti-personnel grenade launchers. The two skill options are guns and bomber.
# Medic: This class speaks for itself� Or does it? With the medic you have two options � Be the classic healer medic, or go on the offensive as a poison medic. When selecting skills, there will be two options � healer and poison.
# Recon: This is the ninja class (my favorite class, too). They specialize in sniper rifles and stealth sabotage. The skill sets are Sniper and Melee for this class, though melee specializes more in sabotage bombs and mines. This class also has the ability to turn invisible for a set time.
# The last is Robotics. This is the engineer of GA. They have a myriad of constructables to choose from, ranging from stationary turrets to mobile drone weapon platforms. The two skill sets are stationary and drone.

After you�ve selected your class, you customize the face, hair style, and hair color. Then you begin the story.



When the player creates his/her character, they begin in the Dome City. They talk to a cybernetic army officer and learn that they are now agents for an organization formed to keep the hostile denizens of the desert wasteland at bay, as well as to combat an evil organization bent on taking control of every human settlement left on the planet.

The story consists of PvE missions, largely fetch quests. Kill this number of this type of enemy, collect this number of this item from this enemy, locate this NPC, the works. The PvE is nicely done, and the desert is actually a quite vast place to explore. Too vast, perhaps. Though it is a large place for the player to roam in, there is no fast travel system. The player can be on one end of the world talking to an NPC about a quest, and the NPC will tell them to go to the OTHER end of the world. It can get rather tiresome. There are two dungeons the player must complete as well. They can choose to complete them alone, or in a party of four. I chose to complete them alone. It took a VERY long time. I would advise anybody who decides to play GA after reading this that they GET. A. PARTY. The dungeons will be MUCH easier on you if you get a party. Get it? Got it? Good. Moving on.

Aside from PvE, GA boasts an excellent PvP system, which is good, since it was PvP only during the beta and the early stages of the game�s life. They�ve had time to perfect it. Anyway, the player brings up a PvP map in which there are several game modes to choose from, one being standard PvP, another being PvE short missions, and the last being guild (or �agencies� as they�re called in this game) conquest. I�ve played PvP and PvE missions. I�ve never played the guild conquests because I never really bother much with guilds in MMOs. Anyway, the PvP is split into several game modes: Standard team battles, Payload, Conquest, CTF, and others. One notable feature about the PvP is that it is by far the FASTEST way to level up your character and earn loads of cash. Which is great, because the upgrades cost a ton. They can range from 10,000 credits all the way up to 100,000 credits and more. I�m talking REALLY expensive. And no, there are no short cuts. GA makes you work for your new weapons and armor.

Let�s move on to gameplay. GA is set up like a 3rd person shooter/MMO hybrid. You control movement with the keyboard and mouse, fire your weapon or use your equipped item with left mouse button, and use the weapon/items secondary ability with the right mouse button. Weapons and items are hot-keyed to the number bar above the WASD keys, and are hot-keyed from 1 � 9. You can also cycle through your weapons using the mouse wheel. However, that ONLY cycles weapons. To use items and abilities, you must press the hot-key to activate it. Combat should speak for itself. It�s a shooter.

So, if you�re looking for a new MMO to play because you got tired of WoW (sorry, I�m majorly anti-WoW), grab Steam for free, Google Global Agenda, and pick it up for� FREE. Well, the Free Agent package anyway. Or you can dish out $20 to get the Elite Agent package, which provides many benefits, such as end of mission XP, credits, and loot. Or, if shooters aren�t your thing, you may want to look into another MMO. But if you like shiny, Tron-y sci-fi and shooting action, you can�t go wrong with Global Agenda.