Lost Levels: NCSoft Collector's Editions - Part Two

My brief synopsis of NCSoft's past collector's editions ended up being more picture intensive than I planned, so I'm putting the overflow in a second post. Despite the game's lack of success, Tabula Rasa was a well-conceived action rpg with interesting weapons/magic combat mechanics. Without going into too many details, it played like an MMO of Mass Effect, which was also released during the same month. Coincidence? Probably. Still, Tabula Rasa has a much more comprehensive collector's edition pulled straight from its fiction.

Immediately after opening the box, a letter from General British (nice Ultima nod) greets gamers. It's a nice setup for a collector's edition that does its best to remain in character, so to speak.

By far my favorite piece of the edition is this AFS Security Credentials packet. Inside are the game's serial access code on a faux-security ID, metal Tabula Rasa dogtags, and a AFS challenge coin. I get the feeling I'm being debriefed, not unboxing a game.

Even the artbook stands in as a field guide, offering more background information on the fiction of the game.

Granted these are not your traditional maps, even to the point of cumbersome. There's just something about individual laminated map cards with key locations highlighted held in a slick envelope.

Lastly, a fairly awesome recruitment poster just brings the whole damn thing together. I would give anything to meet the team that imagined all of these details that kept within the game's universe. It's quite a remarkable piece of work, and a real shame the title only survived less than a year and a half.

Thanks for reading!