Vendetta Online is a one-of-a-kind MMORPG, but only in the sense that there is low competition for the MMORPG space sim bracket, so the game pretty much takes the cake on that aspect. Because it's such a daring and experimental game, it's also very limited as to who might actually want to play. Space sims, or any other kind of flight sim, have a much smaller fan base than any type of strictly character oriented role playing game. One of the major problems of the game is that it has a very low yield of players. For a massively multiplayer online game, one can hardly say that Vendetta has achieved "massively multiplayer" status. The whole attraction to online games is interacting and playing either with or against other people to accomplish the tasks the game has to offer. In the time that we played, there were no more than about 90 players on at all times, despite the fact that the client is available for Windows, Mac OS, and Linux - theoretically expanding the game's potential audience. Maybe the game just hasn't picked up momentum yet, but unless they get more players, any sort of fun the game has to offer is diminished to the point that it's not even worth playing.

Another problem we had with Vendetta Online was the fact that there was so much down time involved. You spend literally 15 minutes or so trying to turbo your way through space just so you can get enough clearance to do a jump to another sector. If you are trying to get to another galaxy, you have to do all that, and then an extra amount of traveling just to get to a wormhole. If that isn't bad enough, after you get out of the wormhole you have to get that clearance again to jump to the sector you actually have to be in. We found ourselves spending about 20 minutes to a half hour just flying endlessly.

On the flip side, however, the game does look grand in its own way. You have what seems like an endless amount of sectors, galaxies, planets, and stations you can go to, and the storyline is very intriguing from the start. In fact, the storyline was practically the only thing that kept us going through the game despite a lot of its faults. Vendetta takes place approximately 4432AD, over 2000 years after the human race got separated from Earth due to a wormhole. The future civilizations are split into three factions, one peaceful, one warlike, and the last is neutral. You select which faction you wish to join and venture off into a chaotic universe that is striving to gain peace and balance. While the storyline doesn't seem to be the strongest or most original at first, there is actually quite an interesting and involved back story.

As for what you actually do in the game, it's not your standard "kill monsters, collect items, and level up" type of game. The tutorial gives you a quick start, but it doesn't nearly cover all the essential things you need to know about the game. You start out with your standard junk heap of a ship, and you go about delivering cargo from sector to sector. As you gain more money and complete more tasks, you'll get the more risky missions where you'll have to protect, fight, and so on. You'll be able to buy new ships, upgrade, and eventually destroy any foe that comes upon you. Customization is the game's strongest appeal. No one person will have the same exact ship because different ships are better equipped for certain missions. Players can specialize in different trades and concentrate all their efforts on commerce, or lean completely toward combat. However, the ship models tend to look generic and drab. While there are a slew of options to customize tools and ship loadout, one can't help getting the sense that everything looks pretty much the same. Even the gigantic space stations, while impressive at first, quickly become old. When speeding along the long, vast nothingness of space, you're left with a lot of time to think about that.

The game has a good deal of ambushes, so early in the game it's kind of hard getting used to the fighting interface. The mouse and keyboard combat is very clumsy, and we often found it difficult to aim correctly, and needed to get very close in order to hit targets. A joystick was definitely the preferred controller of choice. Luckily, penalties for dying aren't very severe. You simply spend some money to get your ship back when you re-spawn at the closest station.

Space sims within an MMO game aren't exactly new. Eve Online and the deactivated Earth and Beyond are examples of mild successes and failures in a niche market. Vendetta Online falls squarely with those titles, and we don't just mean through the strong similarities Vendetta's story shares with Eve. Star Wars: Galaxies is just starting to touch upon space travel with their Jump to Lightspeed expansion, but all have to wrestle with the same problem: wandering through the dark depths of space can get lonely and boring.

Currently, there are too many shortcomings to justify the 15 dollar a month subscription. It may sound like a catch-22, but one of the biggest drawbacks is the lack of players. This is a shame, because the game does have a good deal of potential. Vendetta Online has a well put together storyline, huge galaxy, and a slew of customization options. However, it appeals to a limited market, and doesn't solve the problem of down time that games before it faced. Therefore, it doesn't have the same hook that other MMOG'S might have. One has to really enjoy space sims and a lot of solo time to appreciate what Vendetta has to offer. Sometimes it felt like we had to work toward being immersed into the world of Vendetta Online, especially when we began to think about how the game charges a monthly fee for the benefits of staring out into space.

Our Final ScoreMediocre

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