Das Tal (Hands-On) (PC) Preview

By Luna Eriksson 03.04.2015

Das Tal focuses on player community and a player controlled world by offering an open sandbox MMORPG where different areas are controlled by different clans in an ever-changing world. The issue at this point, however, is that for a world that focuses heavily on interaction between the player base, the tools to interact with are very limited, namely, the only way to interact with one another is to kill each other. Das Tal seems to be an MMORPG focused solely on the aspect of large-scale team-based PvP. Something not necessarily bad, but when the sole aspect seems to be clans fighting against one another for control of zones, with victims caught in the crossfire, it is hard to see it as great design. Read on for thoughts on the recent play-test…

The idea behind Das Tal is a very interesting one: to create a game where the player base creates the rules and makes the world progress. It sounds really good to have an open world where people are free to interact with one another in any way they desire, no matter if that means helping or killing their fellow player. However, there is one flaw with this, namely the nature of the people who are going to play a game like this.

The biggest issue with the fact that there are no rules besides those set by those playing, or, rather, killing others who do not do exactly what they want, results in a game that ends up being a dystopian anarchistic dictatorship based on a perverted form of mutualism, which ends up resulting in either someone being in one of the biggest clans and abiding to every single whim of its leader or not expecting to be able to farm anything at all to level up and grow stronger. With corpse campers that wait at the respawn points, this might even create a game that is completely unplayable if deciding to try it out solo. All this is just in its closed alpha right now, when it is "lucky" if there are 30 people online. Imagine what will happen when these 200 people servers are filled and the system is left unchecked!

Screenshot for Das Tal (Hands-On) on PC

While it is a big part of the game experience and the world Das Tal is built around, the fact is that this is basically unplayable unless into team-based PvP-ing bad game design. It will undeniably turn off a big part of the MMO community and, in the process, leave a game where only a handful play it and nobody new can join as they will be corpse camped forever by the biggest clan who will stand there with the contract to buy their soul for the price of access to the game.

Das Tal is a great game if into the idea of worldwide team-based PvP events and the like. It does, however, currently come at the expense of everyone else. It might be something that gets fixed in its final release as Das Tal is still just in its alpha testing right now. However, it is unplayable due to the big clans killing off everyone who does not belong with them. When playable, though - in other words when there are few players enough online to avoid getting killed on the spot when trying to farm XP - Das Tal is an interesting title that might turn into an even more interesting concept. It is impossible at the moment to judge how it will turn out in the end, though, as it seems very dependent on the community.

Screenshot for Das Tal (Hands-On) on PC

Final Thoughts

If into big open world team-based PvP games, Das Tal is definitely an MMORPG worth looking into as this is its core aspect. If looking for anything else, however, tread with caution as in its current state it is ruled by a couple of grieving clans whose sole purpose in life seems to be to ensure that nobody else besides them is able to play the game by resorting to things like corpse camping and grinding lockouts. It is impossible to tell how this will look like by the time of release, however, as nothing is finalised and there might very well be changes made to balance the game in a way that makes it so even solo players can play it without getting killed and corpse camped whenever they log on. Also, as Das Tal is heavily formed by its community, a functioning society might eventually form from the anarchistic dystopia that is its current state. As a PvP-based MMORPG, Das Tal seems to be an interesting one that is worth to keeping a close eye on.