Forge is fun, but I feel like I'm playing an extended beta. Luckily, that beta is a great time. It's just unfortunate that most who purchase this game will probably neglect the potential and pass on it entirely. It's a shame, too, because Forge is a breath of fresh air. I just can't see the developers completing everything that needs to be added fast enough to keep the non-die-hard fanForge is fun, but I feel like I'm playing an extended beta. Luckily, that beta is a great time. It's just unfortunate that most who purchase this game will probably neglect the potential and pass on it entirely. It's a shame, too, because Forge is a breath of fresh air. I just can't see the developers completing everything that needs to be added fast enough to keep the non-die-hard fan community around. Luckily, they've converted a fan, and I feel that most who give this game a shot will end up feeling as I do -- ready to wait for the great stuff the developers hopefully have coming down the pipeline. But, unfortunately, the developers have decided to release this game as "complete", ready to purchase on Steam. My score reflects that decision, reviewing it as a "complete" game, and not necessarily about how much I'm rooting for it from the sidelines.
Here's what we're missing right off the bat. Stats aren't explained, at all, nor is the leveling system in general... and it definitely needs a bit of an explanation. You can do some exploring on the forums, but that doesn't really solve your problem when you're hopping into a game trying to just get started. The tutorial (although helpful) feels brief and rushed. It taught me how to move, how to double-jump, and gave me a few static target dummies to wail on; it's a welcome feature, since I guess it didn't exist during the beta, but it's not going to help with the learning curve anytime soon. Teams seem poorly balanced, and this is mostly because people have no clue how to play (and those that pick up on it quickly [or were there for the beta] dominate, killing new players' motivation to continue)... Some cry imbalance in the chat, when in actuality, it's just this insane learning curve kicking their ass. They have no idea how the skills are actually executed and how each class is meant to be played. A bot-map would be a more suitable tutorial for gamers than what currently exists. Some of the abilities feel either useless or have too high of a cooldown to ever matter, at least with the class I decided to play. I was going on 12+ killstreaks and surviving for well over 7 minutes without dying as a Pathfinder using my traps, blind, and M1. It felt cheap, but it worked, and I only ended up dying because the other team decided to finally swarm me with a group of Assassins. You can't pick your preferred game type at the moment, nor can you pick from servers, which also means that you can't play with friends reliably... But all this said, the game IS quite fun to play. Let's get that point across firmly.
The maps are gorgeous and the character models are very detailed. Maneuvering your character around these expansive environments feels tight, and I wish all MMO's had a combat system like this. Some people have mentioned wanting a map... but I really hope that doesn't get put in. The way it is now reminds me of the old days where learning a map was more valuable than looking in the top-right corner. The double jump seemed ridiculous when I tried it in the tutorial. It became a life-saver once I was in-game. Players can't sprint indefinitely, but the stamina usage is so low it doesn't really matter, which is nice. Pubbers, including myself, will try to Rambo it up as soon as they start playing, and everything goes to hell since we're really not sure what the heck we're supposed to be doing... BUT... When a team syncs up well (and fights another team with the same luck), the combat and team-based gameplay really starts to shine. Shamans are a life-saver, keeping your team alive in exchange for taking a backseat to doing any relevant damage at all. Assassin's are a bag of tricks -- two of these catching you alone will almost always result in death if they get the drop on you. Wardens can take a punch while dealing out some pretty nice buffs for the party. Pathfinders and Pyromancers can take you out from afar, resulting in massive frustration (or great joy, if you're the one dealing out the damage). A team of these classes working together can pin another team to their spawn point with relative ease. Which is just downright wrong -- and needs addressed. Camping that spawn point is all too easy, even with the multiple exits on the maps.
So, is it worth $10 ($20 for two copies, at the moment)? Yeah. I'd say so, especially when they start fixing all the issues. Once this little Steam deal goes away and it retails for $20? If these issues haven't been addressed, I'd give it a firm hell-no. Just wait. But I guess the real problem here isn't that Forge has "issues". It's that the game is incomplete, a shell of its aspiring future self. I'm glad I'll be there to watch it finally realize itself -- I just hope there will still be a healthy group of players that see the potential and stick it through like I am.… Collapse
Forge (2012)Your Score0 out of 10User Score
