Tabula Rasa Preview

CVG has dished up a preview of NCsoft's Tabula Rasa, based on what they saw of the sci-fi MMORPG during a recent visit to their Austin offices.
Character development departs from the norm as well. Your avatar changes radically as you advance. You start as a recruit, introduced to combat and support skills. At level five, you have a choice between becoming a specialist or a soldier. Later, soldiers get to weigh up the pros and cons of being a heavy hitter commando or the more stealth-centred ranger, and specialists get the sciences of the biotechnician or the more mechanically minded sapper.

These each open up into two more career options (for example, ranger into sniper or spy). The system enables you to actually experience the game before making the all-important decision of what you want to be. It's giving you an educated choice rather than one you might regret. Equally, you're able to 'clone' a character, effectively saving your progress and enabling you to try out other career options without having to return to the beginning of the game and retread old ground.