If you've played MMORPGs before than the basics of the game will be familiar to you. You get quests from the various NPCs that inhabit the world and are rewarded with experience, money, and equipment from completing the goals of a quest. The majority of quests in Tabula Rasa fall into the typical "kill X number of creature Y", "collect X number of items", or "go and talk to some guy" categories. However some quests are branching in that they present you with ethical dilemmas that force you to choose between two options, neither of which is obviously the "right" choice. For example, after locating a deserter do you turn him in as ordered or do you help him escape after learning that his cause is just? Unfortunately there are no discernable consequences to your decisions other than sending you down a different branch in a mission sequence, so for now at least this feature is underutilized.

Tabula Rasa adds a nice feature to its mini map in that arrows along its circumference point out the directions to go to find NPCs that can give you a new mission or those that are a part of one of your current missions. This feature is not as useful as it could be because it's not that easy to get around the game's environments. Navigation is actually pretty easy on a macro scale - there are plenty of roads with signs at each intersection and a Star Trek like transportation system can instantaneously zap you between its nodes - but it gets more difficult when trying to get to a specific spot such as an NPC to turn in a quest. It's not always quite clear as to how to get from "here" to "there" when trying to reach a spot on the mini map as impenetrable groves of trees, small cliffs, and the like often block your path. Sometimes you'll find that you need to take the long way around just to find that one path that's cut into the side of a hill. Personally I'd prefer not to spend any of my gameplay time running in small circles when I know where I'm supposed to be but not how to get there.

If I had to point to one feature that really differentiated Tabula Rasa from the other MMORPGs out there it would have to be the combat system. The battles in the game are a synthesis of third-person shooter and traditional RPG combat. The control feels a lot like that in a shooter – you use the WASD keys for movement and the mouse to control your look and weapons fire. You can make use of cover, move to try and flank your enemies, or simply pick them off at long range with a sniper rifle. On the other hand the battles are not all about quick reflexes; the computer is still rolling some dice behind the scenes. These die rolls are modified by a number of factors, though. The type of weapon used, the type of ammunition loaded, the distance to the target, cover, relative motion, weapon skills, and target resistances are among the things taken into consideration when determining if you hit your target and if so how hard. It's a marked contrast to the typical MMORPG battle experience in which you click on your target and then kick back, intervening occasional to quaff a potion or cast a spell, and as a result it makes the battles in the game more engrossing, exciting, and dynamic.

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