The Bane launches a surprise attack on Earth, enslaving or wiping out much of the population. But an army of humans, "sensitive" to powers left to them by an ancient alien race called the Eloh, continue the fight on the alien world. Richard Garriott's Tabula Rasa shows that starting over is just the beginning. Entering into a new beta phase with about a month left before its official release, the sci-fi magnum opus that looks to rewrite the rules of massive-multiplayer online (MMO) roleplaying lays all its cards on the table.

Tabula Rasa plays like a shooter with the soul of a role playing game. Players battle in real time, and the targeting reticule sticks to targets, so pinpoint accuracy isn't necessary. While fighting, the game takes into account environmental factors ranging from what height the character is shooting down from, to whether or not he or she is behind cover, so kneeling down behind sandbag barriers, rocks or fallen trees will help minimize incoming damage. The game also encourages people to participate in as much combat as possible with chain kills that grant XP bonuses, boosting experience up to 6X. All taken together, the game can either be incredibly exciting, like jumping headlong into the middle of a battlefield, or exceptionally easy, like when taking position on a high perch and picking off targets using a long range rifle. Since enemies have a tendency to respawn quickly, players can potentially gain one or two levels by sitting in one spot, given the ammunition lasts.

Although most of the game is a solo experience, grouping up with other players has benefits that go way beyond the traditional warrior, healer and caster make-up. All classes, including ones from the Specialist support branch, have strong offensive capabilities that help significantly during tough instance-based missions. Teaming up not only makes the missions go faster, but the combined effort can keep the XP modifier going for much longer. Similar to outdoor areas, instanced zones have a steady flow of enemies that periodically fly in. However, the game doesn't provide any indication of when players complete all the missions, leaving many to wander around, wondering if there are any hidden tasks left. This also ties into a potentially bothersome weakness with these instanced zones, in that some mission objectives cannot be completed unless the entire group picks them up at once and one person performs the necessary task. If an objective is completed, anyone who forgets to radio in for an update must repeat the whole quest over again to fix that one bit.

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