Massively have a three page write up of a personal preview of SGW.
More information.We saw gameplay in two contexts. First, we saw canned footage of a firefight on the planet Lucia. Second, we visited the Quality Assurance department and watched testers play the game. The scenario they were playing appeared to be a prison break. From this we acquired a relatively good understanding of the basics of Stargate Worlds' combat. We didn't see any of the other modes of gameplay, but we talked about them a bit in our interview with the directors.
The non-combat gameplay is comprised of various mini-games, each representing a different kind of action such as hacking or conversation. The Archeologist and Scientist archetypes are especially adept at these games. Anyone can do them from anywhere. Let's say you're a soldier who likes shooting everything in sight, and you don't like to do puzzles. If you come across a locked door, you don't have to do the minigame yourself; you can pass it on to a Scientist or Archeologist friend who will solve the puzzle for you -- that friend should be glad to do it, because he or she will gain XP.
The combat is a marriage of traditional MMO gameplay to squad-and-cover-based ranged encounters that you might normally see in something like Gears of War. We were about to mention Tabula Rasa when Balentine -- who was no doubt used to the comparison -- beat us to the punch. He assured us that Stargate Worlds' cover system is a more pivotal part of gameplay. Judging from what we saw, he wasn't pulling our leg. When our QA friend ran out of cover in the midst of a firefight, he promptly dropped dead. Cover isn't just an extra edge; it's necessary.