DESCRIPTION

Earth and Beyond offers online gamers an entire galaxy to explore, conquer, and mold to their wishes. Set a few hundred years in the future, gameplay revolves around craft that travel to the farthest reaches of known space, exploring new territory, establishing trade, and subduing enemies. Each individual ship is designed and customized by its player and serves as the gamer's main presence in the persistent online galaxy.

Players choose allegiance to one of three factions — the diplomatic Terrans, the scientific Jenquai, and the warlike Progen. Each character has a host of individual characteristics to choose from, making characters with a unique appearance the norm. Customization options are also available for each ship, with a great assortment of colors and decals available. The choice of faction has great influence on the player character's skills and abilities and three subclasses in each faction further distinguish the player's online personality. As the player character gains experience, his ship will develop in both strength and appearance

The developers of Earth and Beyond have worked on creating an experience system that rewards different types of play. Combat based characters will get great experience from fighting, for example, but merchants will get the best experience from trade and commerce. The experience system is also split between the three major areas: Combat, Trade, and Exploration. In addition to the experienced based leveling system, a skill system (with over 40 in-game skills) is included.

In the spring of 2004, Electronic Arts announced that it would stop supporting Earth & Beyond on September 22, 2004, effectively ending the game. ~ T.J. Deci, All Game Guide