Over the weekend I was finally able to log back into Fallen Earth, thanks to my lame arm improving a bit and a change of keyboard (why it took me so long to think about changing keyboards, I do not know). It was nice to ease back into the apocalypse!

Usually when I take a break from a relatively new MMO I feel quite ‘behind’ when I return, but that wasn’t the case with Fallen Earth. Apparently the game is growing slowly (the launch itself was fairly modest) since there were still plenty of newbies running around the starter towns, and plenty of neophyte questions being asked in the Regional channels.

Additionally, and maybe this is just me, but Fallen Earth doesn’t feel all that level based anyway. Yeah, getting levels nets you a nice stash of AP that you can spend on skills, but you can also earn AP from doing quests, which is why at level 6 I’m still in a starter town. I’m wandering from village to village, getting quests, salvaging and harvesting materials and learning to craft stuff. I don’t feel any particular urgency to ‘level up’ in this world. What ultimately drives me is increasing my crafting skills, meaning I need lots of materials, which in turn means I do lots of exploring.

Honestly, I assumed FE was going to get savaged by the greater MMO community. It isn’t the most intuitive game in the world, nor is it the prettiest. There aren’t (m)any flashy loot drops and there’s no fast travel (at least that I’ve found). You have to feed your horse, put gas in your ATV, buy or make ammo for your guns. Basically it has few of the ‘modern conveniences’ we’ve come to expect in MMOs. And yet people seem to like it.

I know I sure like it, and it felt great getting back into a virtual world after a forced layoff.