Face of Mankind (MMORPG/MMOFPS)

I recommend keeping an eye on the development of Face of Mankind (free massively multiplayer RPG/first person shooter game). The game will offer some very unique experiences and it will be a nice change from mainstream MMOs which have fallen too much into the same old patterns. It is in closed beta test at the moment, will be launched this year.

Some Unique Experiences:
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1) Playing as a cop.

You are a cop if you join the Law Enforcement Department when you create your character. You grab a pistol with some 9mm ammo clips, strap on a bullet proof vest with a shoulder lamp and a drug scanning device and go out of your small apartment to the streets of New York, Tokyo or an off-world colony on some police business never seen in other MMO games. You can patrol streets, watch over civilians, scan people for drugs, stun and arrest criminals, sending them to the prison planet. In many places (like the mall in Brooklyn in New York) people around you usually go on their business and as a cop you need to learn how to be delicate with them or police force will get a bad reputation (and detectives of the Internal Affairs division can do something with street cops who harass people too much). You can work alone or group up with some other cops who share the same objectives. If you want, you can leave the streets and join cops who are guarding the prison complex. There you need to help the Law Enforcement Department keep prisoners inside and hostile forces outside, monitor who visits the prison planet etc. You get your in-game salary and experience points for your cop activities. Experience points are needed only to help you get a higher rank. Cops can also do other stuff like organise or participate in special missions, join Internal Affairs division, and so on. If you're good, you'll get promoted from street cop to enforcer, then to sergeant, detective and so on (6-7 ranks).


2) Becoming a convict.

If you conduct criminal activities, sooner or later cops will find, overwhelm and arrest you. They will ship you to a large prison complex on a planet outside our solar system. If you are some rich and influential corporate or mafia boss, perhaps your servants will arrange a dramatic prison break. However, between you and freedom there is an outer perimeter swarming with police patrols (who can ask for reinforcements from the army), automatic gun turrets and locked high security doors which require a hacking device (and time to play a mini game to hack a door).

However, most likely you are an average Joe and you will need to do your prison sentence the usual way. You can just loiter around and wait for your prison sentence to run out, or you can do something to hasten the date of your release out of the prison. You can reduce your "criminal points" by doing exercise (objective: jump X times), endurance training (objective: run for X minutes), "searching for soap" (objective: croach for X minutes) or mining for minerals or turning minerals into raw materials. The prison complex is quite immersive, with a prison yard, cantine, visiting area, mining area, outer guard perimeter and so on.


3) Joining the army.

This screenshot shows a very typical activity of players who join the army.
Apart from doing that (drilling how to stand in lines properly), soldiers sometimes arrive to different places to help cops. They do that because police and army are allied; they serve under mandate of the official government, the Global Dominion. The army is also sent if some clan or corporation becomes too ambitious and decides to take control of a wrong planet or plan and execute something nasty which threatens the well-being of civilians on a larger scale.


4) Diplomatic relations and faction agendas.

High-ranking faction members (players) can influence the goals of their faction and diplomatic relations with other factions. Sometimes there are large confrontations in the game. For example, in the past there have been situations when a corporation had allied itself with the mercenaries (or a mafia clan) and were in conflict with the army, which was assisted by another corporation. There are total eight different factions in the game which can be neutral, allied or hostile with each other either economically or militarily (or both).


5) Objectives

Some in-game objectives are quite unique. There are objectives for guarding, attacking, reconnaissance, gathering intelligence, spending time at prison, army or police activities (martial law, special operations, keeping the peace, watching over civilians, arresting most-wanted), commercial/corporate activities (manufacturing, selling, dominating market), illegal activities (drug house, drug dealer, black market, cutter, assassin). Right now developers are concentrating on developing these objectives and adding more.



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There are also a few other reasons why Face of Mankind should be worth trying.



1) No utterly silly or crazy stuff.

It's a scifi game set in 22nd or 23rd century but there are no silly or crazy devices, outfits, weapons or punk stuff. There are no monsters or NPCs. The background story and the game world (even the schemes for producing many items) are quite believable in many ways. It's easier to immerse into the game.

2) FPS/RPG

You can play it as an intense first person shooter game, always searching for gunfights, or you can try to stay away from hot zones and concentrate more on role-playing, manufacturing, trading, chatting or non-fighting objectives (there are some objectives which reward controlling the economy, exploration or stealth game-play like spying). Higher-ranking members of factions need to concentrate more on RPG than FPS stuff.

3) No skills or levels!

There are no skills or levels in the game because it plays like a first person shooter game! When you walk or run (or use heavy weapon), the cone of fire becomes larger, making shots less accurate. If you stand or crouch (or use a pistol), the cone of fire becomes narrow. You can boost some attribute of your character (loosing less stamina when jumping or running, taking less damage from a hit etc.) with a certain type of drug or implant.