Forge - it promises much but...

[trjp]

http://www.playforgewar.com/

http://store.steampowered.com/app/223390/

The developers have set-out a very interesting brief for this - covering a lot of what people complain about with competitive multiplayer (only) titles.

On the face of it, it's 'World of Warcraft' but stripped of the - erm - game bit - AND the grind and gear bit.

So what's left?

Well quite a bit, so long as your passion is for becoming good at a game by skill/practice and unlocking OPTIONS - not more powerful things, just DIFFERENT things.

They claim that the more you unlock, the more complex your character can become to build - but not, necessarily just "more powerful". Ideally you'll develop a playstyle and your character will adapt to that (want more focus or more health or whatever - that's something you can earn).

It also seems what you 'earn' can be shared to other characters too - so you can play multiple classes without necessarily having to flog every one just to adjust it's playstyle.

I'm intrigued tbh - not QUITE enough to buy it (it's £15 on Steam/or $20 direct) - you get 2 copies either way so splitting that would half the cost - obv...

Anyone leapt in?

Anyone playing - or following this??

Early reports seem a mix of cautious positive and the odd 'it crashes a lot' (ehy, it's a PC game!!)

[Kelron]

There's been a few games to try this before - sounds similar to Dawnspire (which I quite liked but isn't well known) and Fury are the two I can name off the top of my head. None of them really took off.

That's not to say there isn't a market if they can get it right, but these games seem to occupy an uncomfortable middle ground between WoW (or maybe Guild Wars would be closer), MOBAs and FPS games.

[trjp]

I think this is clearly attempting to be 'Team Fortress with fantasy classes' - and it's hard to imagine that's a bad model to copy - the videos seem quite attractive but I'm a shallow sort who likes a reward for his time spent playing and...

[Lobotomist]

Yea I got it. Actually traded Dota 2 for it...

So right now its really buggy. Crushes a lot , gives problems to rendering on my gfx card , lot of internet latency.
On the other hand FPS are really smooth and the game runs very well - and looks very good.

Gameplay is well cross of TF2 and action oriented MMO like GW2 - On a small battle map like WAR or GW2

Classes are very cool , abilities are excellent - Only problem is a missing Fighter like melee class. You have Warden but he is more of a tank and protector. Not really hard hitting for someone that needs to come to you , opposed from every other class that is ranged PEW PEW

So yes. Much PEW PEW going on. Especially pyromancers. It could be just a learning the game stage, but it remains to be seen.

Maps are nice, but modes like TDM and capture the flag are boring IMHO for "fantasy" game. Some imagination was needed there.

The game is actually lots of fun. But its also really unstable and crushes a lot. Not to mention that no server browser or anything like that still.

Clearly this is payed beta.


Is it worth it ?

Technically it costs 10$ if you split with a friend. And note its not P2P or Freemium. Which is a great advantage.
And if you are into the genre , its going to be real fun for you.
Just hope the game doesnt die before it gets good :S

[squirrelfanatic]

Having watched the trailer I am intrigued now - the gameplay with those huge jumps look like something I might enjoy. Can anyone comment on the controls? Also, the third person perspective seems a bit hectic to me.

[soldant]

I think this is clearly attempting to be 'Team Fortress with fantasy classes' - and it's hard to imagine that's a bad model to copy

I remember there was a Half Life mod going back many years now which was basically this.

I also remember nobody ever played it.

[Moraven]

Sounds like that F2P warhammer bit EA was doing, did.

[Finicky]

A game that takes the carrot and the skinnerbox out of wow? I'm all for that.

I knew a few people who played it back in 2007 or w/e and the ones who only played for the pvp complained about the endless seasonal grind for year that they had no interest in but they had to deal with anyhow.

Gotta sell those subscriptions huh:p makes sense someobody made a retail game to avoid this pitfall.

[Stevo]

Sooo worth a buy?

[trjp]

Sooo worth a buy?

No-one is really leaping-up to say "yes yes yes" - I have a sneaking suspicion that it will stand-or-fall on

a - whether they get some more features into the multiplayer
b - whether it's cheap in the Xmas Sales and that brings in loads of 'meat' :)

[mammothbaby]

I thought I'd jump in here and give y'all a few of my thoughts. Steam is telling me I have 3 hours played in Forge, which equates to a dozen or so matches. I have a level 7 shaman (pure healer) that I've solely played.

Forge, in my experience, is not fantasy Team Fortress. Personal skill, and twitch abilities, are very important, as the game is fast paced and has decent verticality to it, HOWEVER, it truly is a team game. If you just run around the map, lookin' for d00ds to pwn, your team will lose, and you'll have been a useless slot. Even if you are successfully ganking other players, the actual game-time it takes to win 1v1 in a duel is much longer than most other shooters, as your abilities themselves don't do huge amounts of damage. Focus fire and class synergies are much more important than people think they are, and the most successful matches I've played have revolved around one or two posses of teammates accomplishing objectives together, using varied tactics. Granted, the shaman has only 1 offensive ability (that doubles as a healing ability for teammates), so I'm absolutely useless without other teammates around, and I will lose 1v1 vs. any other class in the game that knows what they're doing (which is frustrating). That being said, score-wise, I'm *always* within the top two players of the match. Healing, healing, healing.

- The game itself runs flawlessly on my very old Wolfdale/GTX460/4 gigs of RAM/Win 7. No crashes, no FPS issues, no latency issues, no matchmaking issues.
- The UI is a disaster. It's going to be impossible for you to have any idea what's going on in a given match the first time you play that scenario, because there's no UI-based goal info. Either you learn what your objectives are by watching others or asking (which some do), or you just run around and try to kill people (which many also do).
- The game is relatively featureless right now. Many facets of the alternative-progression system are simply not in place yet, which is very lame. The only way to begin a match is by random matchmaking. Stat tracking is pretty broken. etc.

All in all, despite the fact that I'd love more skilled folks to play with, I can't really recommend the game for $20 *unless* you split it with a friend, thanks to the BOGO deal. I have every faith that the devs will flesh out the game in the coming months, but the unfortunate reality is, there's not much of a game here at the moment, other than a barebones arena-based team shooter. It has great potential, but I'd say wait until more content gets dropped in, or the game goes on sale.

-Aidan

[trjp]

Cheap in the Xmas sale I said - and there you go!!

[Wheelz]

yeah I voted it for it in the community vote thing. Doubt I'll pick it up though, as its a multiplayer only game that no one really seems to be playing/talking about.

Makes me think the community won't live long, and community is the only thing going for multiplayer games.

[trjp]

yeah I voted it for it in the community vote thing. Doubt I'll pick it up though, as its a multiplayer only game that no one really seems to be playing/talking about.

Makes me think the community won't live long, and community is the only thing going for multiplayer games.

The fact it won the vote suggests there's interest - if it's ever going to be playable and fun, now is probably the time.

I noticed someone called it "Lead and Gold with fantasy bits" and that may not bode well :)

[Shooop]

It's basically taking the hilariously awful "mash hotkeys to kill stuff" "combat" of MMOs and throwing in manual targeting from what I've gathered. And they didn't even finish the game before releasing it.

This may be the best christmas gift of all. Something that can help kill off the deplorable MMO RPG genre.

[trjp]

It's basically taking the hilariously awful "mash hotkeys to kill stuff" "combat" of MMOs and throwing in manual targeting from what I've gathered. And they didn't even finish the game before releasing it.

This may be the best christmas gift of all. Something that can help kill off the deplorable MMO RPG genre.

Did they shit on your biscuits? Some people like MMOs and - amazingly - they're entirely optional, you don't have to play them - not sure how you didn't realise that!? :)