Forge Review

Just imagine TeamFortress 2, with swords…Oh wait

League of Legends is arguably one of the biggest names in PC gaming right now, with tournaments being held with teams gaining fans across the world, matches streamed live via twichTV and other such sites, to a growing base Gorgeof gamers per day, DoTa2 released recently is slowly gaining a foothold as a similar power house, many other hopefuls have tried and either fallen into obscurity, or settled with a small loyal fan base, all of these games share the same basic idea, same genre, MoBA, since the original DoTa back in the 90’s this genre has not changed, and has not been much different.

So it confuses me very much when a game like Forge is compared to games in the MoBA genre, It has no towers, no mobs nothing that makes a MoBA a MoBA, what Forge is, is a fast paced PVP game more akin to Guild Wars2/World of Warcraft than any MoBA.

Forge is a class based multiplayer area game, you have your choice of 6 classes, each with their own skill set, and play style, you have your standard game types, Team Death match, Capture the Relic (Flag) and Arena, with King of The hill and relic assault coming in a patch in the future. Now my first problem is that this game is clearly not finished, it is in a state of Open Beta at best, a polished beta in some areas, but it fails in others, one such area is that right now, were missing two game modes, now that isn’t so bad, but there is no Server browser at all, only a quick play option right now, a server browser shouldn’t of even needed Closed beta to be designed, with your only options being USA Europe and Oceania as choices for servers, it’s a pretty wide search area at best, sure it gets you in a game that’s playable, but for those of you who love online games for  the sense of a community, returning to the same server to see the same names and make friends with, this will turn you away, it is being added soon as the developers have said, but as of writing it is an unknown ETA.

The currently four game modes are played across a meagre four Maps, though they are quite large, they are also very tight, meaning when more than 3-4 players fight it becomes a very messy affair, though as with most twitch games it gets picked up quickly, and even the largest group battles start to feel more at home with your move set.  Though large, the maps never feel as though they are empty, with choke points and most corridors allowing multiple entries to try and save team mates, healers can effectively turn the tide of battle, with when going against someone being healed, its going to be a very one sided battle.

The classes available to play as of now are Assassin, PathFinder, Pyromancer, Shaman, Warden, but as with any game of this nature, new names do not hide the real classes we’ve seen for years before, Assasin is your average thief , PathFinder is your ranger/hunter, Pyromancer is your mage, Shaman your priest and the warden is our average warrior, with a very Dragonborn look about her.  These classes play very, well, expected, You have your healer, tank ranged DPS and close DPS and your glass cannon, there really is nothing else to say about it, if you were looking for something new on these classes like In league you are going to be a little disappointed, but what you should know is that these classes all play solidly, and all have a role to play in the game.

This is where all these little problems such as lack of content fade a little, if you’ve ever liked PVP in any MMO or other RPG styled games, you will want to take a look at forge, each class feels balanced with enough skills to attack and successfully defend, such as the pyromancers ability to blast the ground, simultaneously jumping backwards and sending any enemies in the vicinity flying backwards, wall jumping is a skill that has been absent from many games for a long time now, helping the pathfinder find high vantage points to pick off health from enemies and the assassin to get around the pack to strike from behind, the shaman’s only role is to heal all players, and when in a group fight, or even a single fight as mentioned before the addition of a component healer is needed.  The only class as of now that feels very, out of placed is the warden, it has a skill that allows the character to withstand a high amount of damage for a certain amount of time, but stops movement of them, why is this a skill? It does not allow the character to run away to safety, or perform the roll of take, they will just sit there in a pyramid of chains, with all opponent’s standing waiting for him to come back out, on top of that the skill where she will spin around like a top, usually doesn’t work on a decline as the character will just take off like a chopper and spin around the map for a while, funny, but makes it useless.

One of the main problems plaguing this game right now isn’t the classes or the amount of content available, its server lag, the quick match function is a terrible way to get a match, it might work in games like Call Of Duty where the player pool is massive, but for such a recent game like Forge, it makes it very difficult to get into a match where I can just sit back and enjoy the game without excessive rubber banding all over the place, it’s a solid title with a already growing community, when the rest of the content starts rolling out, this game might just take off in a big way, but it is too soon to tell right now, hopefully I will be able to play this game in a year and see the improvements made to this game.

Disclaimer:All scores given within our reviews are based on the artist’s personal opinion; this should in no way impede your decision to purchase the game.