Reinstating my original review with minor tweaks in preparation of the games re-launch. Previous edits to this review touched on the developers and the controversy around the dev cycle, but I've decided to just review the game itself in its current playable state. Some points on here may be considered dated and will change as the new developer's intentions and design goals become more clear in how they differ from the original, if at all. Any paragraphs that mention design philosophy where I only knew the original developers stance will be marked with an asterisk.


In its current alpha state you should be aware that the game is not finished, but it is feature-complete enough to play and that access to an alpha makes you a tester as much as a player. You cannot expect a bug or crash free experience, and you will be asked for your input throughout the game on how well features or quests are implemented. The Repopulation will be releasing as a free to play game. By purchasing the game on early access, you are recieving access to the alpha and also a player package (see below).

I want to reiterate that The Repopulation has been planned and designed as a free to play game from its inception. This means eventually there will be a cash shop, *but the developers have said over and over that it will be for cosmetic and Quality of Life items, and nothing so broken that it will make the game feel Pay2Win*. Member packages, which I mentioned before, will be one-time payments that give you perks like extra bank space and cosmetic pre-order items.

Now that I've got all of that out of the way, I'll move on to the game itself.


I've decided to add a section to the review here that gives an idea of the basics of how the game plays, since I realize my pros and cons list (below) isn't super in depth on the different aspects of gameplay.

When you start the game you will be in a tutorial zone with NPCs related to every skill available (over 75 skills in all). I won't go extremely in depth into what every area of the tutorial teaches you, but I will urge that you visit every area and at least read learn the overall skill themes (ie you don't have to read all the different weapons, but at least take the time to familiarize yourself with combat. Same with the trade skills and the idea of crafting). That said, there is no cap on how many skills you can learn, and Alpha is a good time to get a taste for what you like and what you don't. Each skill individually caps at level 6000, so while it is theoretically possible to become a grandmaster at everything, you're looking at a huge, huge dedication of time and resources. For this reason it is recommended that you specialize and outsource for the best use of your time.

"Questing" in Repopulation comes mainly in the form of missions. These can be found in multiple ways, like talking to NPCs directly, or having one mailed to you. They can also be filtered to your skillset. For example, someone who focuses on combat might choose to only recieve military-related missions, like clearing out hostile creatures in an area. A crafter might be asked to create an item and deliver it to someone, or gather a resource. There is no overarching "main quest line" in Repop, so expect to have to come up with your own goals and motivations.

Crafting is a very deep system divided across many skills, including Armor/Weapon Crafting, Cooking, Genetic Engineering, Robotics, Farming, Architecture and more. Materials have Grades, so not all refined metal will be of the same quality, and this will reflect itself in the quality of the items you produce. If you want to go into one of the advanced crafting disciplines you will need the help of the player economy as no one person can easily collect and refine all the materials needed. I would go more in depth on this but I wouldn't be able to fit everything in this review's character limit; that is how complex you can expect the crafting to be.

Combat can be done in the usual RPG 1-9 hotbar mode, or in "Action" mode using LMB+RMB and aiming with the mouse. There is a % based cover system, stances, and resource management in the form of Momentum and Weapon/Shield Energy. There is melee, short range, and long range weaponry available, as well as a stealth mechanic. Every weapon and combat skill has it's own ability set based on how practiced you are with them.

This is just a very barebones look at how the game plays to help you make a decision, and the world itself has much more depth than I have room to write. So, with that in mind, let's move on to Pros and Cons.


-A true sandbox experience. This game feels like a living world, with tons of options. You are not the themepark "savior of the world" (along with every other player that you have to pretend to ignore during the story), but rather a person living within the universe.
-"Living within the universe" meaning that your choice of skills, jobs, and things to do is huge. Crafting isn't secondary to combat, it can be its own focus. There are no set classes, you "level" by practicing skills (i.e. using a rifle makes you better with rifles, etc.) You create who you want to be.
-Player cities, factions, housing, shops... an economy and world based on players.
-NPCs have their own likes, dislikes, lives and schedules. They will talk amongst themselves and how you handle quests will have an effect on how people treat you.
-Combat, while not extremely ground breaking, is fun. Crouching, going prone, and the cover system add an immersive layer to engagements.


-Because the game is a true sandbox, it can feel very overwhelming. This is especially true if you're not used to this type of MMO. The feature-complexity of the game also translates to complexity overall, and people who aren't intuitive or experimental may have trouble with learning to navigate the menus, crafting, etc.
-The UI in its current state is cumbersome, however that is something that has been receiving tweaks and will hopefully improve.
-I'll reiterate that the game is alpha and you will encounter bugs and crashes. This is a testing environment, and this con won't apply as much later.
-Some people fear that the reliance on player-made content (as a player economy, player factions, and the social experience are a majority of the content as opposed to quest lines, etc.) will be a downfall if the population dwindles. I think it's too early to do anything but speculate on that, but it is something to keep in mind.
-Combat, while it has its positive attributes, can also be frustrating. It can be maddening to lose fights and not really know why. For example, since you don't have an overall character level it's easy to fall into the trap of thinking that because you've been playing your character for a substantial amount of time that trying a new weapon out will just take your power down a little. Because every weapon has it's own skill level, weapon swapping, for all intents and purposes, means starting over at killing level 1 creatures. (There is a little leeway here as you will retain your defensive and generic combat skills, but it really brings home that you should specialize and commit if you're not testing new things for testing's sake.)
-Combat can also feel like a means to an end sometimes. As crafting has such a deep and diverse attention paid to it, you wonder if you're just fighting for the sake of collecting materials, which can be disheartening for combat-centric characters. However I have not experienced PvP or non-starter-zone PvE content, soyour mileage may vary.


As the game stands, it will be heavily dependant on whether it can bounce back from the PR nightmare it has incurred over the last year. As far as actual gameplay goes, it's worth following if you previously enjoyed or always wanted to try games like Star Wars Galaxies or Ultima Online.

*edit : They have updated quite alot so this review might not be relavent anymore. Will update once this game get more polished*

I've never played SWG or UO before, so I was kindda curious what the game like, as I was looking for games that put more emphasis on crafting system and economy like Wurm Online and Haven and Hearth does, and I've been dissapointed time and time again with the current ecosystem of MMORPG. All the other MMO that I've played put crafting and economy as a side mini game of grinding that the only main objective is to drain your gold coffers (so you would microtranscation more gold from them). I wanted to find a game that making something is meaningful, not grinding harvesting and crafting by making worthless items just so you can make the end-game items, and any items you made before that is pointless and garbage after you level up a few times. And this game is EFFING it!!

This game will be a complicated game to review, since it does have a huge pros, and also a few deblilating cons.

- Crafting is meaningful. Each of the item you crafted is useful. Each items made is used in alot other recipes. You can make almost every single item in the game. And you can actually do, without too much of a grinding like in other MMO, you can make alot of things using the lowest quality items and its not a hassle to do it at all. But to make a really high quality items, you need to depend on other and this is where the grind is. How cool is it to be a master crafter of making single core processor motherboard :3
And I must say, when you make something, the satisfaction is astounding. <3

- Fitting system. Fitting system is great since you're not tied to a armor or weapon, and you don't need to change your armor/weapon/accessory every 5 levels. If you found a set that you love you can just stick with it and customize your armor to be what you want. Slashing defense maxed out armor? Full armor penetration defense armor? Hell yeah.

- I haven't experience the player housing, town and shops, but any game with that is a huge plus.

- Living world. Day and Night cycle. NPC have their own schedule like what Ultima 7 had. Alot of MMO keep yapping on and on about how their game is alive and how the city is bustling, yet when you're the only one in the area, its feels like you are in a town fulls of puppet, every NPC just stand there doing nothing. This game means it and NPC will close shop at night, Guard stop patrolling the town outskirts at night, Guard will change their guard post every day. Shopkeeper will go to the disco at night.

- Quest is randomly generated based on a template. Each area have their own quest type and story. Not one player will have the same quest like the other one (kindda). While the quest is not that great and buggy, but its a huge step on the right direction. Each quest is different (somewhat) unlike the old system where the same NPC keep forcing everyone to collect the same bloody 10 animal hide over and over again. This game is on the right path, imperfect but on the right path. While you have to send the cupcake to the guard, your friend might be sending some rose to a girl. <3 and another guy is sending a cupcake to the guy in the pub.

- Away from the stupid classic leveling system. Mega plus. The more you do on certain area the more it will progress, and you will get skill point bonuses also. This is what all MMO should aspire to be.

- Huge world and multiple passanger vehicle and mech!!!

- Dance routine (that give buff to everyone depending on the type of dance and the dance step) and story telling (that also give buff to everyone depending on the type of story, plot-twist and ending, oh and anyone can jump in can contiue to story tell the story started by another.). Make a camp in the wild, and start playing the guitar, dance and storytell, and then go lay teh smackdown on the bandit camp nearby.

- Early Access : God the game is buggy as hell. I know its early access, and people need to be reminded that the game is buggy and it does takes off the enjoyment sometimes (ok maybe more then sometimes). Wait till the game enter a more stable stage if this is your main concerns.

- Combat is very unpolish, laggy and not particularly fun. Well I've seen worst (aka Fallen Earth) but I hope they can polish it more down the road.

- UI is nasty. just plain nasty and unfriendly. The ingame Map is probably the worst I've seen in any game, hard to read just filled with freaking orange colored dot that can mean anything, even worst when compared to Fallen Earth in-game map (and Fallen Earth UI is first on my Top 10 list of most nasty UI in an MMO). UI is unresponsive, the map (M and Shift-M) is impossible to use. Mini-map should just be deleted for how useless it is.
Crafting UI is bearable, Quest UI is pretty bad. And omg, the talking to NPC UI and speech bubble is horrible nasty piece of buggy crap.
Please dev, fix this at the utmost priority. UI is the most important gateway for user experience in MMO. User spend more time using the UI then combat, then gameplay and all the other thing combined.

- Character Creation is pretty bad too and buggy on top of that :( which is really making me sad.

- Player economy is yet to sprout because of the lack of player. Hopefully this will change once the game goes Free2Play.

- Graphics is way behind, but if you want to play an MMO with beautiful gals with perfect bewbies and booties physics, then the Korean Dev is working hard to make those. I prefer the dev to spend their time making the game mechanics more unique and fun rather then asking them to spend most of thier time making the bewbies bounce prefectly and copy-paste the old, tired and grindy MMO recipe to offset the time wasted. Rather you should just google "♥♥♥♥" watch it then come play this game.
Back to the point I wanted to make, the graphics is not great, but it is playable. While I would love this game to have the graphic of TERA and gameplay of Repop (wet dreams) I know thats not possible, and I would choose gameplay with a playable graphics any time of the day.

- Very steep learning curve (like 90 degrees steep, also known as a brick wall), but once you get the hang of it, its like magic, everything will seems to make sense and you will love the complication of the system. Will probably turn alot of poeple off tho.

- The community is filled with smarta$$. Not quite sure to either to put it as pro or cons. The community is matured, no tarding chat because most of those type probably quit in the tutorial. Unfortunately this make the community very stiff, and asking a noobie question in chat will usually get you ignored or answered in a non-helpful way since everyone thinks everyone should already knew the obvious things already, and shouldn't be asking about it, and any points/suggestion made in chat that the game should be more easier to understand will be shot down pretty fast. So beware.
I find this refreshing though, no more global chat spam about virtual ♥♥♥ and all that crap, god, Tera chat is nasty.




I recommend this game wholeheartedly if you :
- Can handle a buggy early access.
- Can handle a huge learning curve.
- Likes making shiny things.
- Dont mind the laser from your gun shooting from your bottom at times.
- Likes to support a dev who is making what a MMO should've been all this time, not like all the garbage that is out there.

5 cats out of 5.

This being another early access game and I a fan of Star Wars galaxies pre-NGE; I will try to keep this review as unbiased as possible. I have not seen a lot of the game yet, and I have spent most of the time I currently have logged trying to fully understand all of the basic mechanics the final product will revolve around. So this is mainly a performance and theory review. Since most of this game is subject to change over time.

------------------
System Information
------------------
Time of this report: 12/25/2014, 14:59:00
Machine name: SODOGAMING
Operating System: Windows 8.1 64-bit (6.3, Build 9600) (9600.winblue_r3.140827-1500)
Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: Dell Inc.
System Model: XPS 8500
BIOS: BIOS Date: 08/28/13 10:44:30 Ver: 04.06.05
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-3450 CPU @ 3.10GHz (4 CPUs), ~3.1GHz
Memory: 8192MB RAM
Available OS Memory: 8152MB RAM
Page File: 3318MB used, 6114MB available
Windows Dir: C:\Windows
DirectX Version: DirectX 11
DX Setup Parameters: Not found
User DPI Setting: Using System DPI
System DPI Setting: 96 DPI (100 percent)
DWM DPI Scaling: Disabled
DxDiag Version: 6.03.9600.16384 64bit Unicode
---------------
Display Devices
---------------
Card name: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 Ti
Manufacturer: NVIDIA
Chip type: GeForce GTX 560 Ti
DAC type: Integrated RAMDAC
Device Type: Full Device
Device Key: Enum\PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_1200&SUBSYS_089810DE&REV_A1
Display Memory: 4043 MB
Dedicated Memory: 971 MB
Shared Memory: 3071 MB

There is currently a lot of performance issues for people near or meeting recommended system reqs. The game is playable with my system specs, and in most places I can get 40-60 fps with everything set to low. Granted the options aren't fully developed yet so there is only so much tweaking you can do to enhance game performance. The Hero Engine works in cells. So when you enter a new cell in the world map it can cause a huge drop in frame rates. Another major issue to be noted when considering purchasing this early access is the large memory ♥♥♥♥ the game has. Generally memory leaks lead to constant game crashes, but this personally isn't the case. The main problems from my experience with the memory leaks is that The Repopulation has a rapid declination of performance over an extended period of play time. Now I am not saying that this won't cause constant crashes for others, and I have ran into a few crashes myself.(The crashes I've had were mainly from tabbing to my second monitor while at the loading screen.)

Now, for the people who want to focus on testing out the crafting system. There is a bug that will frequently cause your recipes to disappear requiring you to reboot the game application in order to continue crafting. Another bug that is somewhat annoying is your inventory and items disappearing.(which will effect people who want to craft, or people looking to test combat). The last two major bugs people should be aware of before purchasing is a game crash on respawn, and your hotbar being bugged on respawn and not showing ability cooldowns.

Performance summary = EA is not for everyone, and if you at least meet recommended system reqs the game will be "playable". Keep in mind this is an early access alpha so expect everything to constantly be breaking, or not be working as intended.

The theory of the game is very community oriented. I like this concept however in the current state I feel that the direction the game is going in the developement team is relying too much on an over complicated crafting system to supplement the lack of content. The crafting system is extremely amazing and intricate, but the foundation of the crafting system requires a large and active community to keep supply up with the demand.

Starting out I felt as if I was missing the direction I should be going or as if i was not "playing" the game correctly. I feel like this thought process came from my experience of all the other mmo's inbetween the time of Star Wars Galaxies and The Repopulation. There isn't a story line that you're tied down to. You choose how you want to play, and the mission system is the perfect flavor for me. You can find missions that are static pick ups off of npcs, but most of the quests will be delivered right to your mailbox. Play the game how you want to play there is nothing linear about it. Do what you want to when you want to.

Theory and mechanics review = Intricate crafting that is heavily interdepenent on other people. The load of work required to be the master of a craft is too much for one person. I currently think the crafting should be slightly simplified but with time those sort of things will be ironed out. Being able to pick up and turn in missions on the fly without having to go back into town is just awesome, and you have the freedom to master all of the combat and crafting professions as you desire.(It would take an extremely large amount of time to do so.)

*Overall review*
Performance= Early access plenty of broken things
Combat = unpolished but the concept is definitely there
Crafting = Amazing in depth system that lets you tailor items to the stats you want and need! (currently over complicated and doesn't have the population to support it)
Community = If there is a game to bring back the concept of an actual community The Repopulation is the one.
Content = currently not there but this is to be expected being Early access. (Only future patches will be able to tell us what is to come. However, it currently feels like crafting is taking place of content.)


Should you buy The Repopulation alpha early access? I'm definitely not going to say no, but you should consider some of these things. The Repopulation will most likely not run well, and you will have to deal with unexpected downtimes. However, most of the concepts are very ambitious and interesting. The game has plenty of potential we just have to see in which direction the dev team takes it. Like most other reviews I will also say if you loved SWG pre-nge (That includes pre-combat upgrade AND combat upgrade) you will most like feel comfortable in The Repopulation. For people who have not played SWG if you do buy The Repopulation EA don't get confused. The game feels like too much to take in at first, but it's set up to give you the freedom to be whoever the hell you want to while in game.

Thumbs up to The Repopulation it currently has a lot of problems and questionable content. But this is a game that I know has potential to be the next amazing thing, and I wish The Repopulation the best of luck. I will be extensively testing this title!

March 2017

The servers are back online and they have just opened up the game for sales again. I've been playing the last week and the devs are very responsive both in game and on the forums. They seem to be working hard to get the project back on track. I'm more hopeful that the game will see full development under the new company.

The game itself is great. It has probably the most complex crafting system I've ever seen, and I love it. There are no classes or levels, you get skill in what you do. You can be whatever you like. Classic fighter that kills stuff and sells the spoils...of course. Gatherer who hoards mats and sells them to the highest bidder, check. Trader who squeezes out the competition with better quality goods, yep. Animal trader who tames and sells awesome pets, sure. Greese monkey who builds the best rides around, can do. Mad scientist who bio engineers creatures to fight for them, why not! The sci-fi style is great, we need a good sci-fi mmorpg with a fresh style.



January 2017

Idea Fabrik PLC has aquired The Repopulation. They are looking to bring it back online in the first quarter of this year! While I won't hold my breath that this game will make a full recovery, I look forward to being able to at least play again.

Here is the article for those interested: https://www.therepopulation.com/index.php/news/299-above-and-beyond-technologies-sells-the-repopulation-to-idea-fabrik


--This game was smashed by the fact that the engine it was being built on being pulled out from under the project. They are now converting the entire game over to the Unreal engine. The game had been down for about 6 months. But instead of giving up or leaving the players to suffer the loss they have released a free spinnoff survival game that all who bough the game can play for free.

The game is not dead, it is on hold. There are still full plans to rerelease it once the conversion is complete. Keep an eye out for it's return!--

The company that currently owns this game put pressure on the original creators by overcharging for servers to the point that they had to switch to unreal engine 4 and start over. They had signed a deal forcing them to only use Hero Engine servers with Hero Engine. A while after the community turned on the original developers just for trying as hard as could to complete the game, the original repopulation was bought by the company who owns Hero Engine. They have since faithfully run it into the ground and made no improvements.

I never had the pleasure of playing Ultima Online. But I was fortunate enough to play SWG (both pre and post Combat Update and NGE). Much of The Repopulation is very reminicant of my days as a TKM (Teras Kasi Master) trying to get to blue glowy (Jedi), with some notable exceptions. Therefore, the comparrison that the company makes is a very fair one as far as SWG is concerned.

The game is highly skill based. There are your main skills (of which there's around 75) and then there are skills within the skills. I will use the character I have played with the most (I've tinkered with three) to try to illustrate the point.

My main character is primarily a hunter type with some gathering side abilities. There are several but the ones he specializes in are, mining (minerals and ore extraction from nodes), wood cutting (cutting down trees), and survival (skinning animals and scavenging for water). There's others but those are the ones I use. For every mob type there is a set skill pertaining to them. A common early mob is a Setlang, they are reptilian dog-like creatures. As you hunt/skin more and more of these creatures you begin to become more and more familiar with them. So there's your overall skill (say survival) and specific species skill (in this case setlang) the higher they both are the better you do, obviously. This holds true across the board. Are you a miner? What kind of miner are you? There's a skill for each ore too. Woods man? What trees/plants are you good with?

On the flipside. Lets say you go into crafting. The same thing applies you have your base crafting schools, lets say chemistry, and then you have all of your chemistry recipes. They have separate skills associated with each one of them (i'm quite the badass water distiller but i can't do acid extraction for crap).

Harvesting is interesting in that you have several options. There's auto harvesting (you can put down extractors over some nodes) and there's manual extraction. Many nodes under manual extraction come with 2 other options enhancement of the node you're on, and enrichment of the area. As an area is harvested it looses quality and it shows in the nodes. The immediate and personal fix is by enhancing the node you're working on but it only works for you. Enriching the area restores the area's quality not just for you but everyone.

The game is in alpha so please expect crashes, bugs and issues. They aren't abundant but they exist, most can be fixed with a soft log.

Pros
Massive skill system
Great in game community
Very ambitious
Rewarding if you're willing to work for it (those who seek immediate gratification go elsewhere)
Decent early teaching methods (nooby training instance)

Cons
Steep price tag for alpha *redacted con, see edit*
Alpha lots of bugs, they're being worked on but it's alpha
Future possibility of microtransactions
Steep learning curve, with many skills "hidden" for you to discover on your own, and little direction given beyond the original training instance

All in all, if they add a twitch based flight aspect I will be at their door screaming "Shut up and take my money". As it sits, for me, it is worth the early investment. These guys are clearly serious and want the game to work. That being said I enjoy alphas and betas, and realize many don't. So if you're one who wants a clean and polished game don't buy in yet. The game is clean and has some polish, but isn't finished yet. They are making progress (think an update comes out today or tomorrow actually) but they've still got work to do. The price tag of 40 bucks for an alpha is a bit steep in my opinion but being that it harkens back to my days in SWG as much as it did I took the plunge, and am glad I did.

There's many things that you can do in game that I've not mentioned this is strictly the path of one of my characters, the character is truly yours when you get in.

Enjoy

-Rk

Edit: Thanks to WubZero for bringing this to my attention. There's been a price reduction removing that con. Game is now 20 bucks as opposed to 40 now makes it a very viable competetor in the current market.

They do plan on having twitch based flight once they've smoothed out the majority of the ground game. So we are at "Shut up and take my money" status.

Did you enjoy playing Galaxies between launch and the CU? Do you like complex crafting systems (the good kind)? Do you like the freedom to level 1 or 2 things or Everything if you want on one character?

The Repopulation might be for you, then.

Use any weapon, or heal.
Tame wild animals, or make your own to fight with and / or for you.
Completely customize the way your character looks on creation, and afterward in-game if you didn't pick the right things. Think about the Saints Row Series - make a normal-looking or goofy character if you want.
Entertain and buff yourself and other characters in rest zones like pubs in and outside. Not near a town? You can pop open a tent and do the same with your group.

Not interested in being a good guy? Stealth your way around and pick pocket / steal from people and shops. Become an assassin with rogue-like abilities - backstab with one or two knives for massive damage. (From my experience, starting out along this path is a little tricky in the current state 7/29/15). There are several skill lines that are beneficial - Stealth, Assassination, Bladed Weapons, Thievery, etc.

Want to build your own robots, vehicles, and other advanced items? You may want to consider joining a nation (guild). Crafting is complex for most advanced items and you may want friendly teams of people gathering to accelerate the process.


The game is early access, which means many things haven't been refined to perfection, and there are still some features on the "To Do / To Add" list. In its current state, I can still recommend this game to all those interested in it. Be warned; there is a guaranteed wipe slated for the launch of the game. There are only rumours of other wipes between now and then, but no ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ word on any.

There are GMs that occasionally do testing with players ingame to hunt down bugs and troubleshoot various things. Watch General chat for opportunities like these.

On live streams (Twitch) you'll be able to get info on new features, ask about development, etc. As of the one that was done a few days ago, I had the opportunity to ask about Space Exploration ("Will we be Repopulating other planets at some point?"). It was confirmed that this is something they want in the game; Space Exploration and Space Combat.

10/10 "Shut up and take my money", even in its current state.

Great game, when people relate it to SWG, they aren't kidding, it is very similar, all the way down to the HUD.

If you love opening up a game and having no idea what to do and where to go, and the challenge of figuring out the systems in the game and learning how they work and how to get better, this is a great throwback to pre-2004 MMOs.

If you are looking for crisp graphics, tight controls, questing hubs, and a main story with quests, this isn't your kind of MMO, but if you are looking for deep interweaving systems of combat and crafting and skills and armor and weapon, and the ability to make your own choices of how you will progress and what YOU want to do next, this is the perfect MMO for you.

It gets back to letting players make their own stories and define who they are, instead of being told from level 1 what their story is, and following the same path as every other person who has done it before.

The game is still very clunky, and very buggy, you will be confused, you will get lost, quests won't work, NPCs will bug out, they will shoot you through rocks, you will die to poor pathing and agro and bugs, but if you can deal with that, the challenge of figuring out and progressing your character the way you want to is well worth the time IMO.

I would say if you enjoyed SWG the first few years it was out, and you can get over the buggy / clunky feeling, then this game is definitely a must-play for you.

If you don't like the feeling of being lost and not knowing what to do and figuring it out and coming up with your own goals and objectives without being told what they are, and looking for a polished, smooth gameplay experience, then this won't be your kind of game.

After years of playing Star War Galaxies and experiencing the empty hole that could never be filled since its demise, I finally feel like I'm at home again. Open world sandbox, Sci-fi theme, player housing, robust crafting, foraging, mining, etc. All of these qualities are what I have been searching for in a game for YEARS. The Repopulation played at my heart strings. After 2 days of playing it, I can already tell I will be playing this game for many years. My friends and I extend a great thanks to The Repopulation team. You have filled that empty hole in our gaming experience and payed attention to Sci-fi/Sandbox players. We have been ignored for so long. Following the development of this game for 2 years was worth it.

10/10 even though the Alpha play is quite broken. This is expected.

Rest in peace Sunrunner server of Star Wars Galaxies.

2/25/2015 - In the current iteration I feel the game is still in the core gameplay stage of testing. If you don't know what that means, probably best to avoid the game until it progresses into a beta stage. The developers always seem active and open to feedback. GM staff is usually always available in game if you hit a snag with most issues. /newbie chat is most times filled with helpful people (so long as you actually paid attention during the tutorial :P).

I would caution you to bring your engineering degree along if you plan on delving too deeply into crafting because it is quite literally rocket science. Most crafts also have strong interdependencies relying on the other crafting fields, so it's not a recommended solo experience. And why have we gotten the notion that MMOs should be solo experiences in all things? You can eventually grand master every skill line on one character, but don't put the cart before the horse. Soft cap is currently 6k per skill line (when you stop gaining abilities) with hard cap being 60k per skill line (with small gain improvement depending on the skill line after 6k).

This game is trying to recapture many of the sandbox aspects that have been ignored lately in MMOs. One of the more important being the social aspects that I feel should exist in all MMOs. You'll need people for far more in this game then hitting the queue button and waiting for a pve dungeon or pvp map with perfect strangers and then never see them again. Personally I was excited to see sort of a re-imaging of the Entertainer from SWG providing buffs to people who stop into the pub/cantina (the /tip function is also in this game!).

I've also missed my Creature Handler and there's a few different pet style branches here as well. Animal Handling - tame baby animals in the wild to fight for you/become mounts for you and maintain them with Vet Medicine (or let another vet maintain them for you), Robotics - build your own robot and outfit them with fittings to suit your needs, and Genetic Engineering - take tissue samples and dna samples from various creatures and make your own mad scientst one-shot consumable-on-use clone pets.

There are 75 total skill lines at the moment to discuss (as well as hidden skill lines), so I won't talk in depth about all those, but I encourage to check out the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ site and wiki to learn more.

All in all, this game has a solid foundation to be a decent sandbox which the industry is severly lacking at the moment. If that is a niche you miss or want to delve deeper into; consider backing. If you'd like to play a more optimized game... continue to wait until this game moves into beta phase (still a few months out from time of posting).