When you start in Face of Mankind you choose a faction; these factions are pre-made but they are all run by players. Each faction has a leadership hierarchy and all of it is player controlled. Each faction has a leader that controls the faction and sets the faction's goals and maintains diplomatic relations with the other factions through the player-run senate. When I started the game I joined the faction known as the LED, or the Law Enforcement Department. This is one of the most interesting factions because they are the in-game police. There are long documents that detail the law and all players in the LED are expected to know it well, and to advance in rank you actually have to pass a test on your knowledge of the law. As the in-game police the LED enforce the law on the Earth colonies of New York City, Paris, and Tokyo through the use of the game's stun weapons and arresting system. When criminals are arrested they are sent to a prison colony and must do objectives within the prison to remove their PP (points that accumulate from committing crimes) until they are free. The ranks in the game are one of the more interesting aspects and can be considered the "levels" that are associated with many other MMOs. You earn your first rank just by earning experience through objectives, these objectives are randomly generated tasks taken from the goals your faction leadership has set. However after your first rank, you must earn your ranks through merit, as in you must be singled out and promoted by higher ranking players.
There are currently only two main focuses in Face of Mankind, combat, and crafting. Crafting is done generically through terminals. You choose what you want to mine/produce and how many you want, then you start the process and it mines while you're free to do other things. The crafting is very straightforward and pretty boring. The combat can at times be fun, but it is the source of my main frustrations with the game.
The combat has numerous problems that stem from a few different mechanics in the game. The guns do not do a lot of damage, but there are about four weapons that do do decent damage and as a result most players wield those and nothing else. This obsoletes a lot of the weapons currently in the game, and makes combat uninteresting. Since most weapons don't do much damage, in the majority of fights the combatants will be scurrying about like insects while trying to shoot accurately with the game's finicky recoil/cone of fire system; and also skill is negated by the fact that you may drill your enemy five times in the head, but since your opponent is using one of the higher damaging weapons he can hit you a few times in the chest and kill you. Another frustrating, skill negating aspect of combat is that consumables play too large a role. If one player is carrying foods and drugs, he will hands down beat a player who is not, this also creates problems in that law-abiding citizens do not carry drugs and are therefore always at a loss in combat. Couple these things with the fact that there are a decent amount of hackers/glitchers and combat becomes a dreadful affair.
What does make this game good is the human aspect. Since players are given almost full control of all events in the game, very interesting things happen that make it worth playing just for the experiences. The game is full of corrupt and vile players both in the low ranks and the high ranks. As an LED officer in the game, I have witnessed many things, and as an LED you really start to feel for the police in real life. Everyone hates you as an LED and everyone is always trying to stab you in the back. You're also met with many of the frustrations that real police do, in that you may pass a citizen in the hall, and when you enter the room that he was just in you find a body; it's almost a certainty that he killed that person, but without witnessing it there's nothing you can do. The game is full of interesting and bizarre interactions with players, and it is truly a redeeming quality for this game.
The game uses my preferred subscription style, in that the game is free but you can choose to become a subscriber and get access to more things. So give FoM a try, but be warned, the game is not newb friendly. You will find a generic tutorial online, but you are immediately dropped into the world with no direction so be prepared to have patience. And also look me up in-game, I go by Osidus and can help you out if you have questions.
