There is something about the End of the World/Apocalypse/Day of Reckoning stories that we are utterly entrenched by. Perhaps it has something to do with our own morbid fascination with how it will all end, but for whatever reason we can't get enough. We love the zombie apocalypse movies like 28 Days Later. We read word for word End of the World tales like The Dark Tower series or The Road. And we also like to play the games too, and one end of the world MMO coming out soon will be Fallen Earth. Don't you just love that bleak title? You know you do.

In Fallen Earth, to put it so eloquently (and rip-off Stephen King in the process as a homage to him) the world has moved on. You wakeup one day from a suspended animation, find yourself in an underground laboratory, and everything seems pretty hunky-dory for the most part as the lab researcher down there gives you instructions in this tutorial on how things are done. Sounds good enough, but then you have to press a button like a doofus, in comes what can only be zombies, and whoops, you and the scientist are dead. Don't worry, because you're supposed to die.

Story looks to play an important role in Fallen Earth, an area where many MMORPG games fail. Yes, they'll give you a sprinkling of the overall game world, but nothing really definitive when it comes to a complete, beginning to end narrative. In Fallen Earth, however, narrative seems to always drive you forward. You wake up in a tube, get killed by zombies, and yet you are revived just seconds later and aren't dead? You just know after experiencing that you'll want to see what comes next.

The world of Fallen Earth is really one unlike you've seen in other MMORPGs. Where most MMORPGs love for you to soak in the beauty and magical tranquility of something like an Elven city or dense jungle like forest, Fallen Earth is really about the ugly and barren wastelands, just like you'd expect from an apocalypse. If you think the end of the world will be fluffy bunnies galloping in meadows, give me whatever medicine you are on. As soon as you leave the lab you find yourself greeting the Grand Canyon, where rough terrain, steep jagged rocks, and dried grass make up the bulk of what you run across. You'll also run across shantytowns, where the denizens and factions of this new, decayed world lived.

The factions of Fallen Earth come in six flavors: the stern Enforcers, the spiritual Lightbearers, the nature-loving Vistas, the gadget-happy Techs, the merchant-minded Travelers, and the savage Children of the Apocalypse. While trying to find your place in the world, you'll want to consider everything that these factions have to offer, because gray is most certainly the color of choice. Though one faction might seem perfect, if you explore and talk with another faction, you might see that they aren't that good at all, or you might be given different opposing missions to carryout, one that might please one and piss the other off, and the fun and experience will come in juggling the factions and trying not to overly make one mad in an attempt not to wreak their wrath.

When it comes to combat, in Fallen Earth you'll be fighting a wide variety of enemies, such as giant mutated ants, mutated monstrosities, NPCs, and other players experiencing the world with you (however, don't worry about getting owned your first minutes in the game, because the opening area doesn't allow for any PvP, so you'll be able to get your bearing and accustomed to the game before you start battling other players). One of the most interesting aspects of the enemies are the NPCs, which act like regular, player controlled players, but there are no actual players behind them. So for those players out there who have always wanted to do some PvP, but not get made a fool of when you lose, this ability is for you.

The combat is Fallen Earth is very much like your typical FPS, where to actually do damage to an enemy your targeting reticule must be positioned on the enemy you are locked in combat with. Given the FPS leanings, you must also stock up on ammo or else you could find yourself in the middle of a desert with nothing to protect you. You are able to wield and dual-wield melee weapons like pipes and other homemade instruments of death, so be sure you always have something that doesn't use up bullets when you trek out.

The character creation was also a pretty nice feature, and though you can only choose to be a human character, you are able to customize things like skin color, sex, facial and other physical appearances, as well as giving you things like hats, goggles, tattoos and piercings. Since there are no different classes or races in the game, the game relies on you creating your avatar how you exactly want them, and giving you the attribute points to buff up the areas you want to focus on, and let you enhance the mutations that you want. In the end, if thoughts of giant ants, the apocalypse, and Max Max-esque ruthless villains and factions are your type of thing, you just might find a new home when Fallen Earth is finished and ships out.